Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Matthew Maher: Discerning the Spirit Behind Candace Owens and ‘Rage Bait’

Transcript

Matthew Maher: Discerning the Spirit Behind Candace Owens and ‘Rage Bait’ · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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Goodness gracious, Candace Owens needs to take that very advice and apply it to
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yourself. So I want to take a moment and address a very specific audience and I
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want to speak plainly to the people of God. Anyone that is claiming the name of
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Christ, dearest Christian, who has bewitched you, all the comments and the
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responses that I'm seeing online from believers. If you cannot discern what is
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unfolding before your very eyes, then I am urging you to check your spiritual
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sight and your spiritual pulse. After Charlie Kirk was murdered, a wave of
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repent and swept across this land. We watched it. We witnessed it. People
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returned to church. People returned to the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no
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manipulation. There was no emotional hype. It was just conviction, brokenness, and
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a very real desire for truth. Seeking truth. Christ was lifted up. The church
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was awakened. And just for a moment, it felt like a nation was remembering
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righteousness. Remember the Bible says, righteousness exalts a nation. And I
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hate to even have to address this. But too many believers, people who claim the
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name of Christ are now buying into this demonic hype. And yes, I said it. It is
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demonic.
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Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues,
1:22
discerning current events, defending biblical Christianity. No topic off
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limits. And now here's your host, David Fiorazo. Happy New Year, friends, family
1:39
and Christ. Brothers and sisters, thank you so much for tuning in. We made it.
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Some of you didn't think we're going to get to 2026. Well, Jesus is still
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returning. We just don't know when, but praise God. I just want to thank you
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guys. We had a very successful fundraiser to end 2025. Again,
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all glory to Jesus. And I've read the names as donations came in and where
2:01
you're from. But I just find it interesting to see where people are watching
2:06
or listening from and they're invested in the podcast, meaning they're sending
2:09
donations. And we're thankful for that. I want to mention just the states
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right now, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Mexico, Michigan, Ohio,
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Wyoming, California, South Dakota, Minnesota, Virginia, Texas, Nevada,
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Washington, Illinois, Great Britain, and Florida. So we had New Mexico,
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or excuse me, we had Mexico City in Mexico last year. But and then we had a
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UK or Australia. But so the four states that we're getting the most
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support from interestingly enough, Wisconsin, not surprising because we're
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based here near Green Bay, California, North Carolina, and Michigan. I just
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find that to be very interesting. So thank you guys so very much. And we're
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good to go for another year. Praise God. So I'm excited to bring in our
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guests today. As you know, from the clip we just played, we're going to talk
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about church discernment. And we're going to talk about the spirit behind
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people like Candace Owens and what, why we need to be on guard about this as
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a church. I'm bringing in our friend Matthew Mayer and the website truthovertrend.com,
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his website, truthovertrend.com. And he's got some great videos up on their
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YouTube channel at landmark church. You can also connect with Matthew on
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Facebook. Just look up Matthew, mayor, ma, he are brother. Thank you for your
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time today. Happy New Year.
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David, it's my honor to be back with you. Happy New Year to you and your
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audience. You and your team are doing such outstanding work. Praise God. As
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I'm watching you from a distance, you're platforming such amazing voices of
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truth in these days of deception. So we need to come back to biblical
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thinking. We need to have a biblical worldview to be able to filter all of
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the lies and all of the deception that is being hurled at the believer.
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Yeah. Yep. And it's, you can't get away from some of this because it's all
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over, not just social media, but you've got the media itself. You've got
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government. You've got corporations. You've got the government run schools.
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So it's hard to get away from some of this. But before we get into, we'll
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continue the conversation about Candace Owens. That's how we open the show.
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Your response to some of what she said. Now, her and Erica Kirk met.
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I'm not sure if they met, I think they met in person at the end of 2025.
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And I don't know what's going to happen with that relationship there. But I
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want to mention what's another interesting thing from 2025 Oxford dictionaries
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word of the year. This plays into what we're talking about today, I think.
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The word of the year for 2025 is a two word word of the year.
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It's rage bait.
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Rage bait is the word of the year, the Oxford dictionary word.
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Now the phrase is shorthand for online content that is intentionally meant to
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elicit anger. The official definition, I'll get, let's you respond, Matthew.
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Online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being
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frustrating, provocative or offensive typically posted in order to increase
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traffic or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.
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And quote, the times we're living in my goodness.
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So does this apply to people like Candace Owens and others?
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I'll let people make that connection.
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But your thoughts on that just the stuff that we're having to deal with today.
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Go ahead, Matthew. What's on your heart?
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Yeah, the key, the key words bait, right?
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So whether it's rage baiting, whether it's race baiting, that's one of the tactics
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of the enemy. He's baiting people in.
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So of course, online, the algorithms are bent against us every single side.
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Of course, you're trying to get clicks.
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You're trying to get followers.
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You're trying to get traffic to your said article to your said web page.
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And of course, it's attractive to click on.
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But this is where I'm cautioning Christians from going down these rabbit trails.
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So you have the enemy that's pitting people against each other by way of division.
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But then you have another D word that he's using and it's deception.
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So rage baiting, getting you so angry.
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And sometimes the fringe of society is amplified.
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Some radical on one side or the other is amplified.
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And it's he's placed front and center.
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And I see it and I got to be very careful to stay grounded in the word of God.
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And I should always hold the piece of God and not allow anything that I am
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viewing online or any scenario that I am interfacing with to cause me to lose the piece
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of God. So I'm just cautioning Christians, those that claim the name of Christ to come
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back to biblical, sensible, reasonable, rational thinking in these days that we are living in.
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That's my play.
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I'm dealing with congregations of people that are reaching out trying to say,
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how are we to process this?
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What are we to think?
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And my responsibility is to say, come back from that rabbit hole, come back from the darkness
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of that rabbit hole and return to the light of God's word.
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And that's where we need to live.
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Amen.
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Because the grass withers, the flowers fall, but the word of God abides forever,
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stands forever.
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And that is our final authority.
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And that's we that biblical world.
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That's how we see everything that's going on out there through the lens of scripture.
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But if we're not looking through the lens of scripture, it's easy to be distracted.
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I want to share before we get to the nuts and bolts of what I wanted to talk to Matthew
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about and get his pastor's perspective.
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There is a piece over at truth over,
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a trend a couple of weeks ago he put out.
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It's called a diagnostic moment for the church when just asking questions,
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stops being discernment.
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So I want to direct you to that.
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And a lot of what he writes and the video he puts out, I'm thankful for his voice.
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Matthew, before we jump in, I do want to mention a couple scriptures.
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As we kick off a new year, I just want to share Isaiah 43,
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18 because it's hard sometimes to forget the past and press on to what lies ahead.
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And this says, do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past.
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Verse 19, behold, I will do something new.
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Now it will spring forth.
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Will you not be aware of it?
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I will even make a roadway in the wilderness rivers in the desert.
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That's Isaiah 43, 18 and 19, 18, of course, forget the past.
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Do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past.
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God's doing a new thing and we're in a new year.
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Go ahead, share whatever you'd like right now.
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I would say he is doing a new thing and I want to see him do a new thing
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through his people, through his church specifically,
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but I will also add a new year's verse that might not make your devotional
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or it might not make a list of verses that would define a new year or a resolution,
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but here it is.
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And this is where I'm passionate about bringing clarity.
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Jesus said in Matthew 24, one of the signs of the times would be deception.
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So it's a very short verse, but this is for 2026.
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Take heed that no one deceives you.
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Matthew 24 verse four, that's the verse of the year.
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Take heed Christian that no one deceives you.
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All of this talk about discernment is being thrown around.
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What is discernment?
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What is biblical discernment?
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First of all, the gift of discernment, as we call it, it's not a gift.
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God gives clarity to every Christian that spends time in his word.
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So every Christian is called to have discernment.
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I often say discernment is when my eyesight, what I see,
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is brought into alignment with my insight, what I know.
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And my insight needs to be grounded in God's sight, his word.
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So if I'm in God's word, seeing how God would have me see, he gives me spiritual insight.
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And then that insight is the visual by which I translate,
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because every Christian, according to the first Corinthians chapter,
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two is called to discern all things or estimate all things or make appraisals
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based on all things.
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And where does that come from?
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Not the carnal mine, according to the first Corinthians two, but from the spiritual mind.
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So I cannot plea enough with Christians who are listening.
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We need to spend more time in God's word.
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That's the new year resolution.
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Get in the book and the days of deception so that you're not led astray.
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Amen.
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Amen, friends.
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We've got to, if you haven't been on a schedule of feeding yourself the word of God,
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what's hard for me out of pastor that used to be a police officer and then he became a pastor.
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And I mean, I was out in California.
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I was going to his church and he was so disciplined.
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His, his thing was Bible before breakfast and they did it every day.
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And so I find that to be a challenge, but we've got to make the word of God our priority.
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Matthew, you put out a video called the spirit behind Candace Owens claims.
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And you responded to that.
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You know, John tells us to test the spirits.
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You just said, you know, Jesus and others and the warned about being deceived.
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Watch that no one deceived you.
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There's so much we need to be careful of.
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Candace Owens changed her religion.
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Apparently she was once maybe an evangelical Christian.
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God knows her heart.
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Then she became Catholic because her husband, I guess, is a Catholic.
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So she converted to Roman Catholicism.
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And then recently she's been saying some very, how would you describe some of the things?
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So someone called it doctrines of demons.
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What she's saying about is anti-Semitism, things about Erica Kirk, turning point USA, conspiracy theory.
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She's often to the weeds.
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So we need to pray for her.
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But your response and why you decided to the need to put out a video like this for people in this cultural moment.
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Yeah.
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So I guess the observation is mine.
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I want to make sure our audience understands the framework that I'm going to make some of these comments.
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Observation number one.
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There are so many influencers out there right now who have shifted in their perspective and it become more violent in their outlook on Israel specifically.
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And we would call that anti-Semitism.
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Now I'm not talking about giving Israel, whether you want to call them the political state of Israel, the government of Israel, the nation state of Israel, the people of Israel.
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But it doesn't make a difference.
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I'm okay with scrutinizing and being critical of anyone or anything.
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However, there's a line that is crossed where it becomes hostile and Israel or the government of Israel is blamed for every world problem.
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And when you watch that happen, I believe with all of my heart from knowing the word of God, when you see individuals go that route.
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I'm believing God is giving them over to the spirit of anti-Semitism and there's an unraveling that occurs.
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And I believe that's what we're watching in Candace Owens.
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She's been given over to that spirit, hostile towards God's plan for Israel, whether she realizes it or not.
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And now her discernment, which is the word of our show, has been skewed.
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So anything she's saying is from a polluted source, and then the unraveling.
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And the only guy can compare it to is what the Bible says about King Saul.
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The moment the Lord took his hand off of King Saul, there was a spirit of delusion at ultimately or the brave spirit.
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And you know what was produced in him?
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Hostility towards David, suspicion towards everyone around him and a complete unraveling.
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I'm going, wow, look at that.
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The other thing that we must not miss after Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
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September 10th, true revival broke out, David.
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We watched it.
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There was brokenness.
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There was repentance.
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There was confession of sin.
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There were people coming back to the church that have never, you know, they've never been there.
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They're walking through the church's doors.
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I witnessed it and I'm going, if you're the enemy, how do you stop a movement like that?
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What do you do?
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No better time than to sow deception than when truth is advancing.
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Yeah.
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So we couldn't do it from what we call the left.
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That would only amplify the movement because that's ultimately what led to the revival of lunatic, radicalized, lost leftist,
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wanting to silence the voice of truth, taking a shot and we'll talk about all the evidence pointing in that direction later.
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But the revival breaks and it's like now people are talking about Candace Owens' theories amongst others who are throwing so much shade
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and so much doubt and so much suspicion and what I'm calling it, slander, ultimately, it's slanderous.
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You were looking for a word earlier to define it, it's slander.
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Yes.
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And where there is slander, there is a slippery serpent.
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And I'm saying Christians, if you're looking for sources to follow,
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Candace Owens is not one of them that should be shaping your spiritual development.
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There are so many other solid Christian men and women out there that David and myself can point you to.
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And if it sounds like angry, I am.
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There's a righteous indignation that I'm speaking from because I'm seeing so many sincere believers being deceived.
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And that's interesting.
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And you also said something in that piece over at truthovertrend.com
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on this being a distraction.
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The enemy can use it as a distraction.
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Let's put it that way because this really could be anybody,
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but this happens to be someone who a lot of Christians and conservatives had been following or supporting.
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And I hope they have moved away from that.
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I hope she comes back to Jesus.
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I hope she comes back to the truth.
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I hope she comes back to the true biblical worldview.
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There's still hope.
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There's hope for anybody and it's our job to continue to speak, share the gospel, speak the truth.
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But yeah, the enemy will use this and you're right.
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There's been a movement.
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I can't say it's a big full-blown revival, but there have been pockets of revival.
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And there have been things happening on college campuses, Gen Z.
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But here's the thing, Matthew.
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Maybe you can speak to this and then we'll get back to Candace Owens.
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Young people are buying Bibles.
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I mean, not even older people are buying Bibles.
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They're saying, oh, you know, my days are numbered just like Charlie Kirk's.
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You know, so who knows when it could happen to me?
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So people are going, okay, Bible going back to church, young people saying, okay,
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there's got to be mortal life in this.
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So there may be going back to church, but we've got a problem in America
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that barn up you and every other poll points to that the church is falling away from
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the biblical worldview.
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So it's a, we've got these people open to the truth and spiritual things and
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they're going to some churches who aren't speaking the truth.
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So isn't this frustrating to you as a pastor?
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It's absolutely frustrating and I could see it up close and personally,
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even in my own community and the Bible says Peter would write that the time
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has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.
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And that judgment in the house of God is not punishment, it's refinement.
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So we are in the days where the Lord Jesus Christ is purging and
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purifying his church, his bride.
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He is positioning her and posturing her for his soon return.
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So there should be a sense of urgency for every believer as we live in
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expectation of Jesus coming again.
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But until then, we are in the midst of a very real spiritual war.
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And if Christians aren't putting on their spiritual armor day by day,
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which I believe gives us the ability to hone in on truth and discern the
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difference between error, truth, lies and light, then we're going to get
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caught up in all of the conspiracy theories, all of the hype online,
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all of the rage baiting and the enemy.
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He's able to sideline the witness that the church is supposed to be.
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So I just want to see Christians return to the source of truth, the word of God.
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And I'm not saying I have all the facts.
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That's not what I'm, that's not my platform.
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My platform isn't, I have all knowledge.
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I have all the facts.
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My platform is at least be patient with all of the things spun online.
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Be patient.
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Give it time, especially when it comes to the trial.
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They have a suspect in custody.
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All of the facts, what we call hard evidence points directly to him.
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Don't question the evidence just yet.
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That's what the trial process will do.
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But here's why it's a loose, loose situation.
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The moment you listen to somebody like Candace, she's been able to condition
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her listeners, her followers who are like wasps.
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If you hit that, that wasp, that you hit the, the bees nest,
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it's like they attack you.
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They don't want to hear what you're saying.
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But I'm saying slow down.
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They've been conditioned, David, that if you say, hey,
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Tyler Robinson's own parents turned them in.
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Their condition to say, well, somebody probably paid them off.
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They're in on it too.
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So all of this were just asking questions.
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How about let's start answering all of those questions that have been asked.
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Has there been any answers to all those questions?
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And every Christian should say, you know what?
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I'll withhold my judgment until the trial plays out
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and then I'll make an educated decision.
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But until then, the enemy is using this as a distraction.
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And I'm dealing with my own congregants who are asking me,
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you know, if someone were getting like a little bit annoyed
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because I'm saying, if you believe this nonsense, you need a repent.
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And I'm standing on that.
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You need to turn away from believing lies.
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And even if it's right, we are called not to bear witness
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in a false way until we have all the evidence.
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One of the things we didn't play from that video clip
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at the very beginning of this podcast,
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you said some words very similar to, we shouldn't jump in right away.
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We should give something time.
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We should get more information.
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Here's what's this new day and age that we're in, Matthew.
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And you know better than me because you're a lot younger.
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Okay, you're a little younger.
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You know, we want to be one of the first to talk about something.
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We want the clicks, right?
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I don't care about numbers.
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I'm glad our podcast is growing.
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But we're not here to break news.
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We're not here to jump on something,
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be one of the first to report on a scandal or whatever.
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That's not what our purpose is.
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And as Christians, we need to take a deep breath back away
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from that temptation to go on social media
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and say, hey, I want to mention this.
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Do you guys know about this or people will send me on Twitter
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or on X I mean or my message.
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They'll try to send me something and here,
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did you hear about this story?
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You know, we can drive ourselves nuts with all the information.
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It's because it doesn't stop.
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There's so many topics, so many issues,
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so many things going on where the church is concerned
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where Christians are around the world, globalism, Islam,
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the education, you got the media, you got government.
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Oh my goodness.
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You've got to take a breath and say, right,
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we are not meant to take all this on our shoulders
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and then spew something out there
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without having all the information
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because that's not wisdom, that's not discernment.
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Go ahead and share your thoughts on that Matthew.
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We're not called to have all the answers.
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We're not called to be the first ones to respond.
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I mean, the Proverbs say the first one to plead his call seems right.
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That sounds right.
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But his neighbor comes along after him and then examines him.
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I mean, that's exactly what we're watching in the public square.
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The first person that breaks the news,
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and here's the tragedy.
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The first person that breaks the news might go viral,
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but if it's misinformation or disinformation or deception,
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you can't unring that bell.
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Let's just talk about the vaccination.
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David, like all that information that went out
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and affected so many people,
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and now they're trying to change the narrative
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because they realize they erred greatly in its efficacy.
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It's effectiveness, and I'm going,
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you can't unring that bell.
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You can't bring it back in.
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So I think Christians need to reorient their hearts and minds
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around the Great Commission,
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and we need to understand what's at stake.
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What is at stake?
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Souls are at stake.
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A nation collapsing is at stake.
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Families being attacked and dismantled at stake.
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That's the cause that we should be full throttle focusing on.
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And of course, what you guys do is reorienting people around truth.
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We're all doing our part, however we can.
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So I don't remember we've got under four minutes left.
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I already goes by so fast, Matthew.
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I don't remember if we talked about this since the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
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I know we have talked since then,
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but did I ask you about this?
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So a lot of people are, you know,
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they want to understand the political movement of turning point USA
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and what happened at that memorial,
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which was God glorifying,
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and the gospel was going out and exalting Jesus,
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even people who were non-Christian were mentioning Jesus of the gospel
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at that memorial.
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But Charlie Kirk was not a pastor,
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and turning point USA is not a church,
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and there are a lot of well-meaning perhaps Christians
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that are really critical, highly critical,
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maybe slandering, turning point USA,
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Erica Kirk or the others,
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because maybe they're not doing everything by the evangelical Christian book, playbook,
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but they're doing a movement among the youth.
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They're really gaining people getting in the conservative movement
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to be active in voting and politics.
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Could you give us your quick thoughts on that, Matthew?
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Yeah, they're not a church number one.
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They're not even a Christian ministry number two.
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They have Christian and conservative values and principles
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that govern their mission statement,
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ultimately espousing freedom
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and everything that Charlie was passionate about,
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meeting especially the next generation right where they were.
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He saw that there was such propaganda
25:40
and such deception that was happening
25:43
that he wanted to go on those secular college campuses
25:47
like an evangelist would in the public square
25:51
and in the court of public thought he wanted to engage.
25:56
That's what he was passionate about.
25:58
So I just think we shoot each other,
26:02
what do we call friendly fire,
26:04
instead of just seeing what God is doing
26:06
through all of these various movements and organizations
26:10
and trying to partner with them as we're moving forward,
26:13
we decide to dissect it to death.
26:16
And it's like we call so much division as opposed to just,
26:19
God is sovereign, he doesn't need us,
26:21
but I'm thankful when a pioneer organization
26:24
like TPUSA comes along
26:26
and makes it easier to have these conversations
26:29
about the gospel and about what we believe
26:32
as Christians and conservatives.
26:34
Yeah.
26:35
I mean, they did a lot of work in the last election.
26:38
Would you rather have someone like Kamal Harris as president
26:42
knowing her Marxist background?
26:43
She's anti-Christian, anti-Israel, pro-abortion,
26:47
going down the list, friends, gender ideology.
26:50
Come on.
26:51
So Christians again, I think Matthew indirectly
26:53
you just said again, we need to be discerning.
26:55
And that's the theme of this episode of World View Matters,
26:59
friends discernment.
27:00
It's so important.
27:01
And this year, we talked a little bit before the podcast
27:04
with AI and other things going on.
27:06
Man, we need to be in the word of God and be discerning,
27:10
but don't stop speaking the truth,
27:13
closing in just 30 seconds, Matthew, your thoughts.
27:17
Too much is at stake, Christian.
27:19
We need to be bolder than ever before,
27:21
unashamed of the gospel.
27:22
We need to talk about Jesus with our family members,
27:24
our friends, our coworkers.
27:25
We need to leave the consequences to God.
27:27
We cannot worry about offending or hurting feelings.
27:30
We need to be about our father's business.
27:33
Amen.
27:34
Thank you, brother.
27:35
It's so good to have you on.
27:36
And for kicking off 2026 with us,
27:38
Matthew, mayor, truthovertrend.com,
27:40
we appreciate you.
27:41
Dude, we'll do it again.
27:43
God bless you, David. Happy New Year.
27:45
Thank you, YouTube.
27:46
Friends, God bless you.
27:47
And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.