Charlie Kirk, Honored and Remembered by His Friends

In this world,

in this world,

with my soul,

with

my soul,

in this world,

ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Pastor Rob McCoy.

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you for coming out to honor Charlie Kirk.

God bless all of you and all of you tuning in online around the world.

I know you're all wondering who is he and why is he here?

And I'm asking myself the same question.

Charlie Kirk called me his pastor.

I called him my friend.

I was with Charlie about

a little over two weeks ago in Korea

as he was supporting the persecuted Christians over there as they're raiding churches and imprisoning pastors.

And he spoke to the youth there that now are chanting on the streets, I am Charlie Kirk standing for freedom across that country.

In a conversation with Charlie in the green room in Korea, he said something to me that he'd said a number of times.

He said,

He kept calling me his pastor, and I stopped him.

I said, Charlie, since the president's gotten elected, your stock has risen through the stratosphere,

and I don't see much of you.

I mean, he wasn't a very good congregant, he was on the road 320 days a year.

But he said, Rob, not only are you my pastor,

but you're America's pastor.

And I said, Charlie, if we were at a tabling event on a campus where you had the table and said, prove me wrong, I'd win.

And he looked at me with that sheepish grin that he always has.

Doggone it if he wasn't right.

I mean, I wasn't America's pastor two minutes ago, and I won't be after this, but for right now,

he proved me wrong.

In a moment, you're going to hear

from the most powerful political

people in the free world.

You're going to hear from the who's who.

And they're going to assemble in this place to talk about what Charlie Kirk did in 31 years on this earth.

He had more lifetimes in 31 years than all of us have in the entirety of our own.

And as I was thinking about that,

to recount all that he's accomplished in 31 years is quite a feat.

I mean I was just telling the turning point staff as I walked in here

Everyone is worried that the turning point isn't going to be successful.

And I looked at each and every one of them.

And for those of you who are

negative,

without Charlie Kirk's presence, they pulled off the largest event in turning point history.

Let's thank them.

Turning point is alive and well.

All right.

I appreciate that, but you're taking my time here.

Sit down.

I want to do two things, and then I want to do what I've been called to do.

First of all,

I was thinking of Abraham Lincoln when I was reflecting on Erica

and their two children, and for Charlie's parents and his sister,

Abraham Lincoln said to Mrs.

Bixby when she had lost sons in the Civil War, he wrote these words,

I feel how

weak and fruitless must be any word of mine

to beguile you

from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.

We can't bring him back, but we thank you for raising him.

We thank you for loving him.

Erica, for being the strength in his life.

And we pray for this family.

We ask God's comfort and peace upon you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Now my responsibility, entrusted to me by my friend and his wife,

You're going to hear of what Charlie did, but I'm here today to tell you the why in what he did.

The why brought him the courage.

The why brought him the wisdom and the strength.

The why

is the one that Charlie wanted to welcome as the guest of honor.

The guest of honor, his resume is long.

He's the king of glory.

He's the prince of peace.

He's the savior of the world.

He's the living God.

He's the God of all mercy and grace.

The total embodiment of love.

The total embodiment of truth.

And he's here today to call his children back to him.

From the thin veil of heaven, Charlie declares to all earthly powers and principalities who will gather here.

They have come into the presence of the God of all creation.

Charlie wanted his Savior to be the guest of honor.

He wanted all of you to receive this gift from him, the why and what he did.

Charlie was never afraid because he knew his life was secure in the hand of God.

Jesus left the glory of heaven's throne for the humiliation of an earthly cross.

He was fully tempted, yet was without sin.

For those of you who struggle with the word sin, it's real simple.

It's an archer's term.

Where the bullseye is and where the arrow lands, that's called the sin distance, how far you've fallen from perfection.

And there are none righteous, no, not one.

We've all missed the mark, the bullseye.

And we try to get to God by our efforts, but there is no effort that will bring us back into the presence of a righteous God.

You see, the wages of sin is death.

Charlie knew this, and at an early age, he entrusted his life to the Savior of the world.

Jesus came to this earth, was tempted in all ways, yet was without sin, was crucified upon a cross.

His blood was poured out because blood must be shed for the remission of sins.

And his death upon that cross was sufficient for all the world's sins, but only efficient for those who, like Charlie, would receive him as their Savior.

Jesus has come to seek and save that which is lost.

And I would say this to all of you.

The Lord loves you.

He wants to save you.

He wants to give you

a new life.

He wants to cover the multitude of your sins by the blood he shed upon the cross.

The Bible says, If you believe in your heart and you confess with your tongue Jesus is Lord, you will be saved to the glory of the Father.

You see, Charlie looked at politics as an on-ramp to Jesus.

He knew if he could get all of you rowing in the streams of liberty, you'd come to its source, and that's the Lord.

In the time time I have remaining,

I'm going to ask all who profess Christ as their Savior to remain seated.

The Bible says, if you profess me before man, I'll profess you before my Father in heaven.

It requires an act of faith.

You stand.

That's what Charlie did every day on campus with death threats.

He stood because he knew in whom he had trusted.

And he wants to give you the gift of the why and what he did, and that is his Savior Jesus.

While believers are seated, if there's any in this room and across the globe

that would desire to receive Jesus as their Savior, as Charlie did as a young man,

and now is in the presence of His Savior,

I'm going to ask you to put action to your faith.

And I'd ask you to stand right now to receive the Lord.

Don't be ashamed.

Stand.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

The Bible says

the Bible says that when one sinner gives their heart to the Lord, the angels in heaven rejoice.

And I got to tell you, there's one up there right now, Charlie Kirk, he's stoked and he's excited about your commitment to a Savior.

For this remaining moment, if you've given your heart to the Lord and someone is seated next to you, I want that person who's a believer to stand and pray with you.

And please, up on the screen, I want you to take a picture of this QR code.

We are going to give you everything you need to walk this walk with Christ.

Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God.

And it's time to get into a Bible-believing church.

And pastors, if you didn't want to give Charlie Kirk the time of day, these folks are going to be showing up at your church and they're there because of his life.

God bless you and may the Lord keep you.

Amen.

Please welcome to the stage Rebecca Dunn.

Charlie Kirk was scheduled to speak at my husband's upcoming memorial.

Instead,

I am here speaking at Charlie's memorial.

It means a lot to share my story.

Almost 12 years ago,

I met this bright young man filled with optimism about his plan to reach young people.

I was so impressed that I invited him to come to our home and tell my husband and me more about his organization.

That young man, of course, was Charlie Kirk, and his organization was Turning Point USA.

Charlie told us how he wanted to start two chapters in North Florida.

When asked how much money it would take, he told us he thought it would take about $50,000.

Not knowing anything about this young man except that he sounded impressive,

we told him that if he could raise the first half, we would give him the remaining $25,000.

Two days later,

Charlie called to say that he had raised the money.

He was not in his hometown.

He was not even in his home state.

He was 20 years old,

and yet yet he met our challenge.

I laughed and I told him, I said, well, Charlie, I guess we owe you a check.

That was Charlie Kirk's first challenge grant.

After that initial grant, we followed suit.

with multiple challenge grants,

each one larger than the previous, eventually growing into the millions.

In the early days, Charlie felt like a son to me.

More recently,

I was the one looking up to him.

Charlie never disappointed.

He met every challenge with optimism and grit.

Today,

I feel like Charlie is challenging us.

Will we meet his challenge to fight for freedom,

for family, for faith?

More importantly,

will we do this the way that Charlie did

with a heart that loves God?

Before you answer that question,

I would like to share something else with you.

Shortly before I met Charlie, I had become very discouraged about the atmosphere in our country.

I even suggested to my husband that maybe we should stop trying.

It seemed that the money and time we were giving to freedom causes did not seem to be making a difference.

Bill asked me to read an article by Larry Reed.

The essence of the article said this:

If we truly believed in freedom,

we must never stop trying to preserve it.

We had a moral obligation to fight for freedom,

and as long as there is a breath in our bodies,

we must fight.

By encountering Charlie,

we met a true freedom fighter.

Today, there is no doubt that Charlie Kirk fought for freedom with the last breath in his body.

Thank you, Charlie Kirk.

And thank you to everyone who will not stop fighting.

To all who will meet the challenge Charlie gave us.

Thank you.

Please welcome to the stage Larry Arne.

Good morning.

We had the pastor.

I'm the school teacher.

I have one short story to tell you about Charlie Kirk, my friend.

He became a friend of mine because I interrogated him one time.

19-year-olds are my specialty.

I asked him some questions he couldn't answer.

And he was already becoming famous.

And I noticed his reaction.

He said, what should I do?

And I said, well, you have to suffer.

If you want to grow, you have to suffer.

Hard to learn.

Into the night.

Crackle dawn in the morning.

Start with the Bible.

Read the classics.

Study the founding of America.

In those places, you will find

that there's a ladder that reaches up toward God.

And at the bottom of it is the ordinary good things that are around us everywhere.

If we can call them by their names, they have being.

And the beings of the good things are figments of God.

You will find that article in Aristotle.

You will find it in the Bible.

You will find it in Madison and Jefferson.

How do I learn that?

He said.

I said, you have to suffer.

You have to study.

You have to think.

I thought I'd never hear from him again.

Within a month, he got hold of my cell phone number and he texted me a copy of a certificate of completion of a Hillsdale College online course.

He would go on to do that 31 times.

I keep a list in my head.

of the six or eight young people and I'm very privileged I get to know many inspiring young people

who are the best I ever saw.

Charlie is the only one who was never a full-time student at Hillsdale College who was on that list.

We will miss him dearly.

He can't be replaced.

You know, a good thing is a thing that has being.

An assassin is not a thing that has being.

The assassin must give up his humanity to destroy something that has being.

Charlie lives on.

The assassin will die.

My wife, who's here with me today,

and I have set up a scholarship in the hope that Charlie's children will go to a good college.

I have one in mind.

And this May the 9th,

Erica doesn't know this yet, we are going to give Charlie and Erica the greatest respect a college can give,

an honorary degree.

Charlie, you see,

has suffered enough.

He's gone to the Lord.

He deserves his reward.

Thank you.

Please welcome Mikey McCoy, Stacey Sheridan, Tyler Boyer, and Justin Strife.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Mikey McCoy.

I had the unique honor, blessing, and privilege of a lifetime to not only call Charlie a precious friend, mentor, but to travel with him literally everywhere.

The first time I met Charlie was when I was driving him and his then-girlfriend Erica to the airport after he had spoken at my father's church.

The entire car ride, he was grilling me on Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, American history.

At the end, he said, don't go to college, come work for me instead.

At 18, I canceled my college plans, moved to Arizona.

My life was forever changed by Charlie.

All of us in this room have that in common.

My first day working at Turning Point, I met an incredible girl who Charlie was interviewing on his podcast, sharing the story of her family who had survived a totalitarian regime, whose grandfather was imprisoned in the gulags for 10 years for preaching the gospel.

Elizabeth and I were married a year later.

Thank you, Charlie.

When Charlie would speak on college campuses, he'd often wear t-shirts with inspiring taglines like, here I am,

never surrender,

freedom.

But as I've watched back so many clips these past 11 days, My favorite and so often worn by him was live free.

11 days ago, my friend was martyred for using his voice to engage in peaceful dialogue.

Charlie's assassin thought that he could steal and silence his voice by putting a bullet in his neck.

In the words of Soren Kiergaard,

the tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule has just begun.

Charlie was not silenced.

His movement is only beginning.

The voices of millions globally have been awakened, furthering his cause and mission far beyond anyone's comprehension.

We won't cower in fear.

We will never surrender.

We are resolved to live free from lies and seek out what is true.

We will respectfully, boldly, challenge what is accepted by culture in order to seek out what is true and acceptable to God Almighty alone.

To everyone here today,

live free.

True freedom is not found in doing whatever we want, but pursuing Christ in doing what is right.

In Charlie's words, get married, have more children than you can afford, build a legacy, pass down your values, pursue the eternal, seek true joy.

Charlie led by example.

It's not only seen in the incredible wife Erica Kirk, his two beautiful children, the legacy he built, his values, his love of God, and true joy he found in his Savior, Jesus Christ, but in countless people, especially young people like Elizabeth and I, whose very lives are the fruit of Charlie's example of faithfulness.

Charlie,

it was the honor of my life to serve you as you serve Jesus.

And now we will all continue to serve you as we continue to serve Jesus.

Thank you so much.

I love you, Charlie.

I can't wait to see you again.

God bless Erica Kirk, CEO and chair of Turning Point USA, the Kirk family, and God bless America.

Oh my goodness.

Charlie's having some serious heavenly FOMO right now.

Look at this.

You have no idea how much Charlie Kirk wants a bullhorn down here right now.

He always said to me, if we could just figure out how to bring the Holy Spirit into a Trump rally,

I think you've done it.

My name is Tyler Boyer.

I was the CEO of Charing Point USA and now the CEO of Turning Point Action.

You may know me from the Charlie Kirk Show or our weekly podcast Thought Crime with Charlie, Jack, Blake, and Andrew, but I'm also the longest tenured employee at Turning Point.

I met my friend Charlie in 2014.

We connected when Turning Point USA was just in its infancy, sharing a vision for what the conservative movement should be.

Charlie was just a kid then.

I was a little older.

We had a lot in common.

I didn't like rhinos.

He didn't like rhinos.

I was the youngest guy at Tea Party meetings.

He was the youngest guy at Tea Party meetings.

Charlie didn't go to college.

I went to ASU, so I basically didn't go to college.

You're welcome, Dr.

Crow.

We went to work every day on a 24-hour clock.

When Charlie turned 21, he didn't have a home.

Turning Point USA was in his first year of raising real money.

He was just a kid to me.

But donors would ask him where he lived, and he took personal offense to the suggestion he still lived in his parents' basement.

Although his parents probably wanted him to be there all the time.

He was a grown 21-year-old man, after all.

He was rarely home in Chicago.

He lived on a plane and zipped back and forth as Turning Point USA became his life.

All his personal mail came to a little detached garage at 217.5 Illinois Street, whereas Charlie would constantly remind you, like every good startup, Turning Point USA was founded.

So anyways, we worked 24-7.

He would tell every supporter of ours between me and him, we were a team that was never off the clock.

Full coverage.

I would usually stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning working on the next big turning point USA project and text Charlie reports of what our team that day had accomplished.

It was like this every day.

Work, report, and wait to see my text messages to Charlie flip from delivered to red as soon as he woke up on the East Coast so we can be firing away feedback, thoughts, and a flurry of brilliant Charlie Kirk ideas as soon as he opened his eyes.

I'm not kidding you, this was every single day.

And it takes is, all it takes is two dudes to dream up big stuff and talk each other into really insane ideas, which Charlie and I did often to one another.

We would go back and forth with those ideas, perfecting them, turning into bigger, more insane and impactful things, and of course expensive concepts.

The ideas literally never stopped.

It was a round-the-clock problem solution chat that worked to dream big for the conservative movement.

Come up with new ideas, plan new things, fix all problems.

My job was to turn it into proposals and presentations, and voila, we would work to execute.

Charlie would take red-eyes from coast to coast, going all over the country like a crazy man on any and every possible donor, meeting with every possible donor who would take a meeting so our ideas and fixes for the conservative movement could help young people once and for all.

I oftentimes would go with him and marvel at the deranged 22-year-old lifestyle of bathing in airport bathrooms.

eating full plates of vegetables and meat at 10 p.m.

at night after a long day's work.

He was the best at doing all of it.

Our success gave me the job of a lifetime, and I'm grateful for it for the rest of my life.

I got really good at recruiting the best young talent in the country to come work for us, and it was non-stop.

We were a hell of a team.

And that's how it worked.

Turning Point USA was built, and the Charlie Kirk vision was delivered.

I had the special honor at Charlie and Erica's wedding to give a toast speech for Charlie the groom.

It was significantly less pressure than this room.

An incredibly beautiful wedding, but small and important room of people.

I can admittedly say I didn't think that I would have to give another Charlie Kirk speech this soon.

At his wedding, I told the story of talking Charlie into moving to Arizona.

He was an adamant Chicago boy.

I needed to break that.

Selfishly, I wanted him to love Arizona because I had recently convinced him to move Turning Point USA to Arizona.

It was a hard sell at first, and that was until I hosted the first Trump rally

in Trump rally history right here in Arizona in 2015.

I got a call.

I got a call from Miss Erica Kirk.

Miss Arizona, 2012.

I just want to help, she said.

So naturally, I put her right behind the president at that first rally.

After that, we talked.

It was obvious she was the perfect person for the job that Charlie and I had devised in one of our 24-hour planning sessions.

sessions, I wanted to hire her.

I only had one problem: Charlie Kirk wanted to date her.

Long story short, I was very worried he was going to scare her off and screw it up.

And I was going to lose this incredible prospect.

Like all things he put his mind to, Charlie accomplished everything he put his mind to.

They immediately fell in love, and I lost an employee.

But now she's my boss.

I'm sure you've heard.

We love Erica Kirk.

Over the years, we built a lot of things.

The largest field operation of the Conservative movement between high school, college, faith, and action.

The first ever ballot chase operation that won the election for President Trump.

The largest events of the Conservative movement, most of which have been huge, but in convention centers.

In 2021, in the aftermath of COVID, we weren't sure if society was ever going to bounce back and ever get back to normal.

So we began planning what was one of the crazy ideas known as America Fest.

I hope you'll all be there this year.

We decided to move it to Swing State, Arizona, and hope and pray that this would work after the world shut down for so long.

Charlie, like all our 24-7 ideas sessions, texted me and our VP of events, Lawrence Honsich, late at night, and he showed us and said, this is my vision.

It was an image of a full stadium.

A few seconds later, he sent these images of full stadiums of people, hoping for that to be a future turning point event.

Well, Charlie, my friend, I'm happy to report we're standing in your vision.

You did it, buddy.

We love you.

You are sitting in the vision for Charlie Kirk.

God bless.

My name is Justin Streif, and I'm the Chief Operating Officer for Turning Point USA.

Since September 10th, my thoughts keep returning to one thing, and that's time.

Charlie lived only 31 years.

Yet when I reflect on those years, I see more impact and more courage and more achievement than most men accomplish in a lifetime.

I've known Charlie for a decade, and I'd like to share a little of what I learned from him.

Charlie often said that having courage is one of the easiest things in the world because all it requires is you to say yes.

Courage does not require talent, it does not require natural ability.

Courage requires a personal decision.

It's interesting that people often describe Charlie as completely fearless, but the truth is simpler and much more profound.

Charlie simply refused to let fear stop him from carrying out God's will for him and his life.

His courage, his courage was a daily choice, a yes, no matter the cost, and it cost him his life.

This truth forced me to reflect on what we can't control, time.

It's fleeting, it's fragile, and it's sacred.

Charlie knew this better than anyone else.

He didn't waste time.

He lived every moment with conviction.

He lived as a man of character and truth and courage.

And he taught us not just through words, but through actions.

Charlie was the same same person in private as he was in public.

And that's why we trusted him.

That's why we loved him.

That's why we all feel this loss so deeply.

His honesty, his compassion, and his insistence on truth drew people in, even those who disagreed with him.

Charlie stirred patriotism in us, but more deeply he stirred our hunger to live united under God.

He told us to stop and think, to use common sense, to grow up and pitch in.

He asked us to hear the words that God wrote on our hearts.

I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other gods before me.

This is not a message of comfort or safety or peace.

It's a message of love, a love of God's will.

Charlie's life was anchored by that love.

Every day he left his home, the comfort of it, his wife, his children, to face criticism and threats and angry mobs and ultimately death.

He loved God more than he loved safety or applause or even his own life.

That's because the last 31 years weren't his career, they were his calling.

Charlie's legacy is this: he showed us how to be better people, he gave voice to truth, and he followed God's will.

He started with nothing more than

an idea and a folding table.

And over 13 years, with time and courage and faith, he built a movement that changed the world.

Now that Charlie's gone,

what happens next?

It's up to us.

Time is fleeting, but the decisions we make here, right now, are eternal.

So let us honor Charlie by doing what he did.

Stand for truth, confront evil, live courageously,

and we do it the way that Charlie did.

With compassion, but never compromising on truth.

Demanding the best from ourselves, from each other, and from our country.

Charlie reminded us that courage requires only a yes, and he said yes every single day.

And now it's our turn.

It's our turn to say yes, to speak boldly,

speak honestly, to fight for our families, to love our country, to honor God,

and to wisely use the time that we've been given.

And it's to

do for the next generation what Charlie did for us.

Because this, all of this, right here and right now, is our turning point.

We love you, Charlie, and we won't let you down.

My name is Stacey Sheridan.

Eight years ago, I met Charlie in a crowded ballroom in West Palm Beach at a David Horowitz Freedom Center event.

We spoke briefly, we exchanged cards, and I thought nothing of it.

What ultimately

made me want to join Charlie's cause and Charlie's team, because he began a quest to hire me after meeting me.

I was reluctant at first,

but it was his naive audaciousness

to change the world that ultimately sold me.

It was the best decision I've ever made, and I've never looked back.

Yes, technically, Charlie was my boss, but it really never felt that way.

Far more than my boss, I felt like he was my little brother.

So the guys that went before me

spoke about him as a boss and a leader.

I'm going to speak about him from my heart as a family member.

In 2022, my husband Mike became sick with cancer.

Two years later, that cancer took his life.

Throughout those two years, Charlie called me consistently to ask how he could help us.

At one point, he had critical medication and an oxygen machine sent to my doorstep without my knowledge.

I still to this day have no idea how he made that happen.

But that was Charlie.

He did the right thing.

There was no limit to how far he'd go to help a friend.

He wasn't looking for publicity or credit.

He did it because that's what a leader does.

That's what a friend does.

And that's what a Christian is supposed to do.

Sometimes I would express guilt to Charlie that I couldn't do my job at 100%.

Charlie's response every single time

was, family first.

When Mike ultimately passed away, Charlie and the entire team were there for us yet again.

They helped my daughter Grace through the unbearable tragedy of losing her father on her ninth birthday.

But Charlie's help didn't stop there.

This January, I lost my home in the Pacific Palisades fire.

Charlie's response was very clear and very direct.

This is a sign you and Grace belong in Arizona now.

Within a few months, we moved here, and Charlie and Erica welcomed us into their family.

While While enduring our various tragedies, my daughter Grace would ask me at least once a day,

why would God do this to us, Mom?

My honest and only answer was, someday we will look at each other and instantly know why all of this had to happen.

And it will be for something far greater than we can ever imagine.

In my first conversation with Grace after Charlie's death, Grace said to me me through tears over the phone, Mom,

this is the answer to my question.

This is our wife.

Now we can be there for Erica and Gigi and Mac the way they were there for us.

Looking back today, it's so so clear to me that Grace was right.

I know for certain that my late husband Mike, Charlie, and God were guiding us here for this very moment in time.

It was always written.

Erica,

Grace and I will support you and your babies the way you and Charlie were there for us in our darkest days.

Charlie,

we will miss your words of wisdom,

your high-pitched laugh, which is kind of awkward,

and the way your voice would always soften when you spoke to Erica and your children.

And I promise

we're going to make

TPUSA so big that it reaches you in heaven.

Everything Charlie prayed for in his life, a restoration of faith, a rebirth of patriotism, is coming to fruition in his death.

And right now, he is beaming at us from heaven.

The fact that we pulled this off in seven days is a miracle that only Charlie Kirk can deliver, by the way.

So, in Charlie's words, let's get to work, everybody.

We have a country to save.

Thank you.

Well, you're about to embark on something that is much bigger than yourself.

So check your ego at the door.

This is not about you, okay?

I don't care about your feelings.

If you're having a bad day, you know, go figure that out yourself.

This is about us.

This is about the country.

And the eyes of the whole nation are again on Turning Point.

We do the best events in the movement.

In fact, we do the only event.

Are there any other events in the movement?

No.

We've kind of put everyone else out of business, right?

So we are the only standard of excellence.

And so we hold ourselves to a higher standard.

We don't do mediocre around here.

We try to raise the level of excellence because we are constantly trying to push the conservative movement and the country to a place it's never been before.

You guys know this.

Turning point USA is the most important organization in the country, period.

Find me another organization that's been able to move millions of people the way that we have, that does the events, that does training.

Nobody does what we do at Turning Point USA, but it starts with all of you.

We're building something bigger than you, bigger than me.

We're building experience to help save the country.

And if this type of intensity bothers you, well, then don't go work for Turning Point USA.

You can go work for the Department of Labor or something, okay?

Because here we do excellent things.

We do big things.

We make history here at Turning Point USA.

It's going to be early mornings.

It's going to be late nights, but you all get to know that you're doing something rewarding that is not just, oh, a career, and you check the box, but lives will be changed.

And how blessed are we that we get to be here celebrating the country and this is our job?

It's pretty awesome.

There's the one thing that I hear from speakers throughout all the years.

Your team is so impressive and they're so young.

Why is it, everybody?

Because for us, we hold ourselves to a higher standard.

This is not just another DC dig.

This is about saving Western civilization.

We are the most important organization in the country.

You are part of it.

It's something bigger than all of us.

And it will have ramifications across the country.

I'm so thankful for you guys.

You guys have really defied gravity and let's continue to make history here.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Andrew Colvet.

Just give us a moment.

Hello.

My name is Andrew Colvet.

I am spokesman for Turning Point USA.

I'm a business partner of Charlie's.

I was the executive producer, I am the executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show.

But most of all, I'm a longtime friend of Charlie's.

Charlie and I

built the show over eight years,

brick by brick,

and I'm so proud of what we accomplished together.

And these wonderful people standing behind me are the geniuses, the camera ops, the board ops, the producers, the editors, and the social media team who made the show happen every single day.

You preempted my applause line, so let's we're gonna do it again.

They deserve it.

They have performed their duties heroically

this last week.

So please join with me in a big round of applause for them.

It's been

excruciating

to do this show the last week.

But we knew it's exactly what Charlie would have wanted.

And I want to thank you, the audience.

You've helped us work through our grief and our broken hearts, live on camera, streaming everywhere.

And I hope that we've been able to help you do the same in some small way.

But I will tell you something.

It's remarkable that in the midst of everything else Charlie had going on in his life, fundraising, traveling, speaking, running two organizations, that he even had time to fit in a daily radio show and podcast.

But I'll tell you something.

That show became the favorite part of Charlie's daily routine.

It was his one constant amid never-ending change.

Even when he was on the road, even when he was overseas, even during Amfest or our conferences, we did the show.

But mostly, it worked because Charlie loved you,

the audience.

He read every single email you all sent to him.

That's why he said every single day, send us an email at freedom at charliekirk.com.

Send us your thoughts.

If you agree, you disagree, and we want you to keep sending us those emails.

I have no idea how he did it, but he really read every single one of them.

And this is a true story.

At the end of every show, I had a little ritual of my own.

I would go into the sent folder of freedom at charliekirk.com,

and sure enough, every single show, I would find debates that he was having with his audience that disagreed on some minor point.

There would be email chains six or seven emails long, all while Charlie Kirk was hosting his own show.

It's truly remarkable.

And you, his audience, the grassroots, the muscular class,

you all were his firewall for freedom.

You were his North Star.

When he met fancy elites who tried to take him off course and try and tell him what regular people really cared about, he knew better because he knew all of you.

Yes.

He knew he had a secret weapon, and it was you, and he never forgot about you because he loved you and he respected your wisdom.

You see, it's only now that I'm beginning to realize what was going on all these years that I spent with Charlie.

We called them campus tours.

Now I know they were really tent revivals complete with a tent.

Amen.

We call it the Charlie Kirk show,

but it was really just Charlie confronting the lies in the culture and pointing to the truth day in and day out and millions of you tuned in.

You see, I see it now clearly that Charlie Kirk was a prophet.

Not the fortune-telling kind that could predict the future, but the biblical kind.

He confronted evil and proclaimed the truth and called us to repent and be saved.

Amen.

And he wasn't mean about it.

He was kind and he was loving.

And you could hear in his voice that he desperately wanted the best for you and for all of us.

So, friends,

look around you.

We've been worshiping, we've been singing, we've been joyful.

Our hearts are grieving, but we do not grieve as the world grieves.

Because it says in Scripture, O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?

Christ has overcome death.

And Charlie,

we are so grateful for the harvest that your life and legacy is producing all around us.

And you can see it.

The workers.

There's a whole lot more workers than there were before.

And so let me leave you with this.

For all the fans of the Charlie Kirk Show out there, you'll know the line.

We will see you Monday.

Until then, buckle up.

Here we go.

Thank you.

God bless you.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Benny Johnson.

Fight for Charlie Kirk.

Who feels the Holy Spirit in the house tonight?

Who can feel that revival happening right now?

How does it always work?

What man intends for evil, God intends for good.

Evil thought that there would be a funeral today.

God has created a revival right here, in this house, right now.

Charlie always had that revival energy, didn't he?

When Charlie first met me, I was a degenerate loser.

I'm still a loser, but I was addicted to alcohol.

I had no wife.

I had no kids.

I had nothing going for me.

After 10 years of work with Charlie Kirk, after his witnessing to my life,

I have become a Christ-centered man.

I am happily married to the woman of my dreams sitting right there with our youngest son who just turned eight today,

eight months.

And he's wearing ducks for Charlie's beloved Oregon ducks today.

That's baby Whitaker in honor of Charlie.

All of you had a Charlie moment in your life, didn't you?

Raise your hand if Charlie Kirk centered you a little closer to Christ.

Did Charlie help you achieve your American dream a little bit more?

Did Charlie have that effect?

Look at every single hand.

Stand up.

Say amen if Charlie Kirk had that effect on your life.

Look at this.

100,000 Americans, millions watching online, standing up and saying that is the revival spirit of Charlie Kirk's life.

And that is the power of martyrdom.

Because Charlie Kirk is a martyr in the true Christian tradition.

If you take out a tyrant,

his power goes away.

You cut down a martyr, his power grows.

And that's what we see time and time again.

We're seeing it across this country.

Who's seen the full churches, the full parking lots?

Who knows somebody now who's a Satanist or an agnostic?

who's now looking at Charlie's life in this revival moment in our country and going,

maybe I got it all wrong.

Maybe I do need to Christ-center my life.

This is what Charlie always wanted.

This is how he wanted to be remembered

in the mold of Stephen, the first martyr.

Stephen was killed for speaking the truth about Christ, much like Charlie Kirk.

The martyr Stephen was the same age as Charlie Kirk when he was martyred.

At that time, Christianity was just a few very scared Christians in Jerusalem.

And after Stephen's martyrdom, Christianity

spread throughout the known world.

The power of martyrdom.

This is how God and Christ always advances his kingdom, and he's doing it right now with Charlie Kirk.

It is a wonderful thing to see.

We were all witness

to a miracle.

Charlie's life was a miracle.

We could all see it.

Those who worked up close and those who watched from far away

We got to witness a miracle in Charlie's life

someone who was there

That day when Stephen was martyred was Saul Saul was the one who was taking the garments so that Stephen could be killed and through Stephen's martyrdom the Apostle Paul was reached by Christ to go out and write the majority of the New Testament.

There is no one who is irredeemable.

And that is what Charlie would have wanted us to know about his faith in Jesus Christ.

The power of Christ's blood and the power of martyrdom speaks through Charlie.

The Apostle Paul would go on to write the book of Romans.

And I'd just like to close with this.

In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul talks about a godly government instituted by our Lord and Savior.

And what does he describe?

The Apostle Paul describes how God establishes the rulers of the nations.

In the audience right now, there are rulers of our land.

Represented right here is the State Department, the Department of War, the Department of Justice, the chief executive.

God has instituted them.

God has given them

power over our nation and our our land.

God

saved our president, President Trump, from an assassin's bullet for this moment.

And what

does the Apostle Paul in Romans say about a godly leadership?

He says that rulers wield the sword

for the protection of good men

and for the terror of evil men.

May we pray that our rulers here, rightfully instituted and given power by our God, wield the sword for the terror of evil men in our nation in Charlie's memory.

I want to live in a country where the evil are terrified and where the good and the faithful and the moral people of our nation can live in peace, debate in peace, disagree in peace, and start families in peace.

And so we want to thank the administration for being here and carrying out that godly mission of wielding the sword against evil.

In conclusion,

I'd be remiss if I didn't say this to all of the young men in the audience, and I can see so many young men out there.

Charlie really reached young men and women, but this is the advice that Charlie gave me:

center your life on Christ, fall in love,

Get married.

Have a million kids.

And live out your American dream.

And by doing that, we can create millions and millions and millions of Charlie Kirks.

And we can save our land.

That will be our turning point.

God bless you.

And God bless Charlie Kirk.

He's looking down on us, smiling from heaven.

God bless you.

Thank you.

Please welcome to the stage Dr.

Ben Carson.

Thank you.

It's wonderful to see so many people out here for such a sad but also a wonderful purpose.

You know, we at the American Cornerstone Institute grieve with everyone as we think about the loss of our friend and partner, Charlie Kirk.

But did you hear a political figure last week saying that Charlie Kirk was ignorant because he didn't have a college degree.

I've seen him run circles around people with college degrees.

You know, I wonder,

I wonder if that political figure realizes that most of learning in life comes outside of the classroom.

And I am delighted to see the young people of our land

merging with the older people like me and moving in the same direction and understanding that our nation was founded upon the kind of principles that allowed us to rise from nothing to the pinnacle of the world in record time.

That was no accident, that was because of what we believed, including our Judeo-Christian beliefs, that our rights come from our Creator and not from government.

Now,

for many decades there have been people who are trying to fundamentally change who we are.

And there was a man by the name of Cleon Skousen who wrote a book called The Naked Communists in the 50s.

And he exposed the things that were being done by the Marxists to gain control of our country.

Such things as gaining control of the public education system and the teacher unions so that you could infiltrate and indoctrinate our young people.

It was

a radical leftist

who said, give me your children to teach for four years.

and the seed that I sow will never be uprooted.

That's why that's what's going on.

They also had a goal of gaining control of the media and Hollywood so they could change the culture in America, making sexual perversion normal, natural, and healthy.

And speaking of that,

pushing God out of our society and changing the gospel to the social gospel.

Have you noticed that a lot of preachers don't want to talk about what's in the Bible?

if it's counter to the social gospel.

Well,

I challenge the ministers out there to talk about what the Bible says and not what the leftists say.

And

get on board,

get on board of the revival that is coming.

We are not going to be able to stop it.

You see evidence of it right here in the stadium.

We're all going to be a part of it.

I love the fact that Erica is going to take over and we're going to grow the turning point to a very significant level.

And I want us all to remember: you cannot be the land of the free if you're not the home of the brave.

You got to stand up for what you believe in.

And in

closing,

I want to read a passage

from John 12, 24.

Remembering that Charlie was shot at 12.24 p.m.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is Christ speaking, except a corn of wheat fall onto the ground and die, it abideth alone.

But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

And I want to thank Charlie for his sacrifice because much fruit is going to be realized.

Thank you.

Please give a warm welcome to Congresswoman Anna Polina Luna.

I just want to start out by saying there would be no Congresswoman Luna without Charlie Kirk.

I still remember the phone call that changed my life.

Hey Anna, it's Charlie.

I'd like to offer you a job as TPUSA's National Hispanic Outreach Director.

Charlie believed with every fiber of his being that the youth of this nation would save it.

His fierce patriotism, his unyielding boldness, his prophetic foresight, these were the sparks that lit the path for me on the eve of my departure to medical school to decide to change course and join TPUSA, where I could help Charlie battle the socialist indoctrination on college campuses.

The year I spent at TPUSA traveling with Charlie is where I honed my voice in the crucible of politics and ultimately forged the path that led me to Congress.

I saw Charlie grow from a young man with conferences of a few hundred people to one of the most powerful men in the world, walking alongside presidents and titans.

I saw him grow a beautiful family, all the while remaining a humble leader who quietly raised up others to forward the movement.

Today, we honor a patriot whose love of this nation burns as brightly as the founding fathers during the birth of our republic.

Like George Washington, who sacrificed his peaceful life at Mount Vernon to lead a militia and a small army army against the mightiest empire on earth, risking everything, his fortune, his family, his very life, to secure liberty for generations unborn.

Charlie poured out his youth, his energy, and his unshakable resolve to awaken America's youth from the slumber of complacency and to mobilize millions this past election cycle to reclaim the principles of truth and self-governance that define our exceptional nation.

His name will stand etched in the history besides the likes of JFK, who boldly challenged a generation to ask what they could do for their country amid the shadows of the Cold War, and Dr.

King, who marched into the jaws of hatred, sacrificing his safety and ultimately his life to bend the arc of history towards justice.

These giants, Washington forging a new nation from revolution, JFK inspiring the innovation and resolve, and MLK redeeming it through moral courage, changed the outcome of eras just as Charlie altered the trajectory of our modern fight against cultural decay and ideological tyranny.

He didn't just speak of patriotism.

He lived it.

giving everything to ignite a movement that turned the tide for conservatism, empowering young voices to challenge a status quo and to secure a brighter future for America.

And as I stand here today, looking at thousands of young people in this crowd, I realize that Charlie's vision is ablaze in every single one of you.

The generation that he entrusted to restore the soul of this nation.

So I ask you,

will you live boldly as Charlie did?

Will you rise to the challenge as Charlie did?

Will you speak truth without fear as Charlie did?

And will you pray with unwavering faith, as Charlie did?

If one man can awaken a generation and save a nation, imagine what 10,000 can do.

And we are all Charlie Kirk now, and his legacy has just begun.

God bless all of you and these great United States of America.

Thank you.

With this bread,

with this bird,

Please welcome to the stage Jack Pasovic.

Charlie Kirk was my friend.

Charlie was my brother.

And Charlie was my commanding officer.

And we will never, ever let the left, the media, or the Democrats forget the name of Charlie Kirk.

The Bible, we'll get there, hold on, we'll get there.

The Bible tells us

that on his last day,

Moses climbed to the top of the mountain and he looked across the River Jordan

and he saw the promised land.

He led the people there,

but he did not cross himself.

For he was taken and he died on that mountain.

And he was brought to God's kingdom.

On his last day, Charlie Kirk was on the top of a mountain.

And Charlie Kirk led us there.

And Charlie Kirk has brought us to the promised land.

Charlie's death was not just a murder.

The true word for what Charlie did

is sacrifice.

You see the difference between murder and sacrifice is that sacrifice is a gift.

Sacrifice is that last full measure of devotion for God, for country, and for his people,

and for his family.

Charlie Kirk died for all of you.

And

Charlie Kirk's gift of his sacrifice means

that Charlie Kirk will live forever.

Not just for all of us, not just for his family and Erica and for his children, but for all future generations of Americans.

And the question of our time.

Will Western civilization endure?

Or will it fracture in two like so many predict?

Will I say to you

that a century from now, when they write of the two or three pivotal moments that led

to the saving of Western civilization,

they will write that the sacrifice of Charles James Kirk was the turning point.

And the ugliness

that has been revealed by Charlie's murder

will be and is already being overcome by the beauty of the outpouring of love and prayer around the world.

Seas of a thousand candles that have been litten from coast to coast

for Charlie's sacrifice for all of us.

We will overcome their evil

and Charlie's

and Charlie's sacrifice

has given us all and I see it in your eyes I see it in the eyes of every man woman and child who has come to me since this unspeakable evil happened

we have it now

Charlie gave it to us.

He gave us that last bit of courage, that last bit of fight, that last bit of grit and resolve to say no more.

We are done.

We are done with all of it and we will now stand and fight because if you took Charlie Kirk off that line, then every single one of us will rise up and we will replace that line and we will be there and we will remind them what they did for Charlie, what they did to Charlie, and we will never, ever let them forget the name, Charlie Kirk.

Our civilization will endure.

The United States of America will endure.

For Charlie, we will continue the mission.

For Charlie, we will end the evil disease that split us and took Charlie from us.

And for Charlie, turning point USA will last forever.

And we will come to find,

we will come to find that in the final moment

that Western civilization was saved through Charlie's sacrifice in the only way possible

by returning the people to Almighty God.

For greater love hath no man than this

than he who laid down his life for his friends.

Are you ready to continue the mission?

Are you ready to fight back?

And are you ready to put on the full armor of God and face the evil in high places and the spiritual warfare warfare before us.

Then put on the full armor of God.

Do it now.

Now is the time.

This is the place.

This is the turning point for Charlie.

God bless to all of you.

God bless to everyone, to Charlie's family, to all the families

and Charlie

until we meet again, brother.

Please welcome to the stage Frank Turek.

Erica wanted me to share with you what happened after that shot rang out on September 10th.

I was standing 25 feet from my beloved friend just off his right.

Why was I there?

About five years ago, Charlie asked me if I would mentor him in the Evidence for Christianity

because that's one of the things I do.

Now

It's going to be difficult to mentor someone smarter than you.

However,

the only thing that surpassed Charlie's intellect was his humility.

And so the few things I knew that he didn't, he wanted me to share with him.

When that shot rang out, I took a step toward him, but his security team was on him immediately.

And so,

Charlie,

being like a son to me,

I ran toward the security team and we ran to the SUV together.

No father would stand back and go, no, you just take my son.

Take him.

I'll meet you at the hospital.

I got into the back of the SUV and let me tell you something.

His team was amazing.

When this full investigation is done, I think you're going to see that his team did everything they were supposed to do.

In the car, Justin was driving.

driving.

Dan was in the front with the GPS.

Rick was to my left.

He had Charlie's head.

And Brian was at Charlie's feet.

And Charlie's so big, we couldn't even shut the door.

He's so tall.

And

I'm perched over the back seat.

And while they're administering all sorts of first aid, apparently my skill, my job was to yell.

I was doing a lot of yelling.

And I want you to know that we did everything we could to save Charlie.

But Charlie was already gone.

His face was looking at mine, but he wasn't looking at me.

He was looking past me right into eternity.

And if it's any comfort at all, I learned later that Charlie felt no pain.

He died instantly.

But we had to try and bring him back.

We couldn't.

We couldn't save him.

Now I want you to know that Charlie right now is in heaven not because

he was a great husband and father, not because he saved millions of kids out of darkness on college campuses, not because

He changed minds and chased votes to save the country.

Not because he sacrificed himself for his Savior.

Charlie Kirk is in heaven because his Savior sacrificed himself for Charlie Kirk.

Now look,

there's only two things you can get in the afterlife.

You can get justice or you can get grace.

Ladies and gentlemen, does anyone in here, does anybody out there watching around the world want justice from an infinitely just being?

I don't want justice, I want grace.

Well, the only way to get grace for an infinitely just being

is for him to punish an innocent substitute in our place.

Where can he find an innocent substitute among us?

He can't.

We're all fallen.

So what does this infinitely just and infinitely loving God do?

He adds humanity to his deity.

He comes to earth.

He allows the creatures that rebelled against him to torture and kill him

so he could place their punishment upon himself and then by trusting in him every one of us can be forgiven and then given his righteousness.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the greatest story ever told and it happens to be true.

There's evidence for this and Charlie knew it.

Watch his videos.

Charlie knew that life wasn't just about money, it wasn't just about sex, it wasn't just about power, it wasn't just about prestige.

He knew that the purpose of life is to know Jesus and to make him known, to make heaven crowded.

Charlie's eyes were fixed on eternity.

Where have your eyes been fixed?

What have you been doing with your lives?

What have you been doing?

What are you going to do now?

You know, in every evil, God brings forth some ripples of good.

In this case, He's bringing a tsunami of good.

Look around.

You're seeing it.

And if you think a martyrdom is going to stop this movement,

well, we all know Charlie was inspirational.

But Erica Kirk is a force of nature.

You're going to see her later today.

In fact,

I know what's going on in the spiritual realm right now.

Every morning, Erica gets up, the devil shrieks, Oh no, she's awake again.

And ladies and gentlemen, let's honor Jesus.

Let's honor Charlie.

Let's honor Erica

so that when we wake up every morning, the devil shrieks, Oh no, they're awake again, they're born again.