September 21, 2025 • 24 mins
The demons of this world cannot overcome the ultimate power of God and His purposes. There is still hope in the midst of tragedy.
This audio excerpt was taken from Frank Turek's YT channel "Cross Examined." If you would like to view the full CE episode go to this link https://youtu.be/rVaxvKtw5NQ?feature=shared.
In this poignant episode of the Radio Coffee House, host Clint Armitage confronts the tragic assassination of evangelist Charlie Kirk, exploring the profound questions surrounding God's sovereignty and the potential for good to emerge from such a horrific act. As Clint reflects on the emotional impact of Charlie's death, he shares his own feelings of grief and connection to the late evangelist, emphasizing the shared bond of faith that transcends personal acquaintance.
Listeners will be drawn into a deep conversation about the nature of evil and the demonic forces at play in this tragedy. Clint highlights the importance of processing grief and understanding the possible reasons behind such events, encouraging listeners to find comfort in the belief that God can bring good from evil. Through the lens of biblical wisdom, he examines the stories of Joseph and David, drawing parallels to Charlie's legacy and the lives that may be transformed in the wake of his martyrdom.
Featuring insights from apologist Frank Turek, this episode delves into the supportive community surrounding Charlie and the ways they are responding to this tragedy. Clint emphasizes the rise in church attendance and the renewed interest in faith sparked by Charlie's passing, reminding us that even in the darkest moments, God is at work, drawing people closer to Him.
Join Clint for this heartfelt discussion that seeks to navigate the complexities of grief, faith, and the hope that can arise from tragedy. This episode serves as a powerful reminder that God's purposes can prevail, even in the face of evil, and challenges us to remain steadfast in our faith during difficult times.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Clint Armitage (00:01):
Welcome to another edition of the Radio Coffeeh House
show, where Jesus meets coffee meets talk
radio. And the next one starts right
now.
How's it going, everybody? Armitage Radio
coffeeouse Thanks for coming back. Thanks for listening.
In this episode is called why Charlie? And
(00:23):
we're going to talk about Charlie Kirk. His assassination,
the purpose of it, if there is a purpose to it,
God's sovereignty, is there any good that comes
out of that? Such a horrific
event, an evil demonic
situation, an act, took the life
of an up and coming evangelist. Even though he was
(00:44):
a political force in the United
States, there was another side to him that you
would see and a driving force behind
what he did. And it was Jesus. You don't have to
watch too many video clips to find that
out. So after all this happened,
I didn't realize, I guess like many of
(01:04):
you probably, and all these
people that were affected by the
event, maybe because we
saw it instantaneously, it felt
instantaneously right after it happened and that
major viral video came out, which was pretty
gruesome, right? I think there's times we
see things that we're not supposed to
(01:26):
see. You know, these are the things that our
soldiers experience in war.
I have a buddy of mine
who's older than me and he's a veteran
from the Vietnam War. And he
experienced horrible, horrible things over there.
And he would tell me. Cause he doesn't talk about it much, but he
(01:47):
does talk about it sometimes. And you can see it is
still part of him. And it's not necessarily a
positive thing for him because when he speaks about it, he speaks
about it as if it was demonic. And he
feels he was even acting demonic over
there. And how he turned into a person that
was no longer a person, was. He became a monster
(02:08):
is kind of how he described it. And then he craved it.
And you hear this from other veterans that participated
in war. He craved that a lot of people
only see in movies. But this time we
actually witnessed it online because that's
how it is now, right? We can witness things
almost instantaneously or live. So
(02:28):
either you are watching live or you were getting
that information online right after. Either
way, it was an event that affected a lot of people. I kind of
was thrown back a little bit by the way I was feeling about
it. And I don't know if it was because that video or some
other reason, but I used to watch all. I used to watch
clips, multiple video clips all the time, actually. I
(02:49):
used to catch it. It'd be in my feed and I used to
watch Charlie at the campasses, you know,
debating people and all that stuff. So I wasn't unfamiliar.
Uh, I didn't follow any of his channels, but I
did see it in the feed pretty often. So maybe that's why
I had this connection. Like I said, I didn't realize it would
be like that for me, but I actually felt something like I was grieving.
(03:09):
And it was weird because I wasn't ready for it, didn't realize it, but I
thought, wow, why do I have this connection? Then I was
thinking, huh, I wonder if that connection
was there because what I saw on the video, or
was the connection there because he was a fellow brother in
Christ? Maybe a little bit of both. But I figure most of it
was because it was clear he was a Christian and it was
(03:29):
clear he was trying to spread the gospel. And so I think
that's more of the major connection that I had. And maybe that's
the same type of connection you did if you were in the same position
as me not knowing him, but just watching his
videos, but then feeling like you had to grieve, like a little bit
of mourning had to happen. And so anyways, it threw me off a little bit
because I thought, wow, I normally don't feel that
(03:49):
type of connection, but this time I did. And so that's
what I attribute it to, is maybe that's the
reason.
Anyway, I wanted to address it. I think it should
be something that we talk about, and
obviously it's been a huge topic ever since.
Many vigils happening, many events
surrounding his death, his murder,
(04:10):
his assassination. I don't want to minimize
his passing because it was an evil
act. It was an act of the devil. It
was demonic. So I don't want to minimize that. No
matter how you feel about how
he delivered, and if
you're offended by that, by the words
or not, or you supported it, it was clearly
(04:32):
a demonic event. Satan and
the principalities and powers that
Ephesians talks about was definitely
involved in his assassination. That cannot
be denied. You can explain it away, you can sc.
Sweep it under the rug, but you can't deny that. So
I wanted to talk about it because, too, I think
it's still in people's minds, in their
(04:55):
hearts and their thoughts, and we need to
process. Like I said, since I got thrown
aback by it, I think there are
plenty of people. I mean, we see them coming out of the woodworks,
talking about their anger,
their grief, their disbelief, and so people are
still processing it.
So, anyways, I wanted to talk about it, but I wanted to talk
(05:16):
about a specific aspect of it and that's why
this episode is called why Charlie. Is there a
reason? And obviously we don't. We
can't know all the reasons, but
maybe there's one or two we can start
to understand or comprehend and that may
help the grieving process, the mourning, the
(05:36):
understanding of it all so that we can be comforted at least a
little bit to know was there
some type of purpose in it? Is there some type of
good that comes out of that, out of something so evil
can something good come out of it? So we're going to listen to
this clip of an apologist or
author named Frank Turk. Frank was a
(05:57):
close friend of Charlie and a mentor, kind of like
he calls himself, you know, his father, second
father, I guess, because he mentored Charlie and
he prepped him for these events
on college campuses. So Charlie leaned on
this guy for, you know, to train for
these type of events. So anyway, let's listen to
(06:17):
what Frank has to say. And he's
talking about the people around,
uh, Charlie, the kind of immediate circle
in Turning Point. And he's talking about how they did such
a great job during
this tragedy and how they were putting stuff
together and making sure people were taken care of
(06:38):
and playing their part, having a role
in how to move forward with
this. And so he's
specifically talking, in this part, he's
specifically talking about an employee
friend of Charlie and his wife Erica, and
how maybe this could be one of the reasons. And
he references a few Bible verses that we're going to talk
(07:01):
about as well. So let's listen to this audio clip by
Frank Turret.
>> Frank Turk (07:11):
Erica is amazing. Charlie, as you
know, was amazing and still is
with our Lord right now. Let me tell you about one
other person you probably haven't heard of who's
behind some of this for
good. Her name is Staceacy
Sheraton. I met Stacy a month ago when we
were at an event California.
(07:33):
And I learned that within the past
year Sty, who has a 10 year old
daughter, lost her husband to
cancer. Then her house burned down
in the California fires. And
so Charlie, since she was working for
tpusa, asked her to move near
him and Erica in
(07:56):
Phoenix. And so she did,
very close to Charlie and Erica.
But recently her
daughter was lamenting,
of course, that her father was gone and their
house was burned and why are we here, mom?
(08:16):
And so I sent Stacy some
books I sent her Stealing from God. And there's a
section in there on if there is a good God, why
is there evil? And why would God allow my
husband to die? That kind of thing?
Well, Stacy
came with Erica, uh, that
(08:37):
day. And it has been an
absolute rock of support for
Erica. In fact, the day after
we got back, let's see, this happened on Wednesday.
We got back to Phoenix after Air Force
Two. I wasn't on Air Force Two, but I was with. We
were right there and watched the whole thing. I took another plane home. Some took
(08:57):
Air Force to home. There were only so many that could go on it.
But we all got back to Phoenix late
afternoon on Thursday. That
next morning, I get a text from Stacy,
please come to church. Erica
and Inna create some normalcy for
the kids. Was
(09:17):
like, wow,
talk about wisdom.
How do you do that? How
do you, how do you. 36 hours after,
after Charlie is murdered, you want to take your kids
to church to give them some normalcy?
(09:38):
That is amazing. Now,
uh, we were already heading out of town,
but I just marvel
at people like Stacy and Erica.
In fact, I texted her at one point and I said,
why does God allow evil? He allows evil because he allows
(09:59):
free choice. And that's the only way we could have love.
But he also, when he allows such evil,
he also provides a source of comfort.
And that source of comfort is
spelled S T A C Y
to Erica. And now
(10:20):
Stacy's 10 year old daughter
knows why they're there because
she often
looks after Gigi and
Mac. So
Stacey and her daughter are
ministering to Erica, uh, and the kids.
(10:40):
Because of tragedy after tragedy, she's there.
This is right out of 2 Corinthians 1, ladies and
gentlemen, that when God comforts
us, it enables us to comfort other
people. Stacy had been comforted by the Holy Spirit
and others through her tragedies, multiple tragedies.
And now she's able to pass that
(11:01):
comfort on to Eria, uh, and her kids.
So why did God allow this to happen?
Well, that's for another show, ladies and gentlemen. We'll get to
that some other time. But if you have
eyes, I think you can see one big reason
he probably allowed this to happen.
If Charlie was asked, would
(11:21):
you give your life if thousands or
probably millions were to come
to Christ because of your martyrdom?
I can tell you that he would say yes.
Of course. He wouldn't wanna
cause pain to Eria and his kids, but he would
realize that God can
(11:41):
bring good from evil. In fact, he
promises that in Romans 8:28, he says,
and we know that all things work
together for good. To those that love God and are Called according
to his purpose doesn't say all things are good.
It says that all things work together for good, that
God brings good from m evil.
(12:02):
And by the way, if you continue to read that passage in Romans, it then
talks about to be conformed to the image of his
son. You get conformed to
the image of Jesus by going through difficulty. Jesus
himself learned obedience through suffering and he didn't have
a sin nature. There's
many other reasons, but we don't have time to get into. I'm not talking about
(12:22):
a theodicy here,
but this passage and of course the passage in the Old
Testament with Joseph after he sold
into slavery and then rises to save his
family from the famine. When he rises in government
in Egypt, he says what you meant for
evil. God meant for good the saving of many
lives. There
(12:45):
are, there's people who are
now looking to Jesus because of what happened to Charlie.
People that would never darken the door of a church. People that would never crack open a
Bible. People that would never consider the
gospel of the Lord.
Now I'm gonna miss Charlie so much and
I know millions of other people are.
(13:08):
But he's going to be remembered as he wanted to
be remembered. When he was asked how he wanted to
be remembered, here's what he said.
>> Speaker D (13:17):
If everything completely goes
away, how do you want to be remembered? I mean, if I like die,
everything just goes away. How would you, if you could be associated with
one thing, how would you want to be remembered?
I want to be remembered for courage, for my
faith. That would be the most important thing. Most
important thing is my faith in my life.
>> Clint Armitage (13:36):
Okay, so after listening to that,
what s your thoughts? I think he explains it
pretty well that there is at least one
or two purposes of God allowing
this. And then he references a few
passages that support, hey, God can
use something evil for good. God
can still take something
(13:59):
that is so horrific and so heart wrenching
and then you can look at it and see what
happens from it and go,
wow, God's purposes can still
be good. God's purposes can still affect
things in a positive way and save
lives. Because he's right when he
referenced, uh, Joseph in the Bible. We're going
(14:21):
to read that passage. He's right when he references
Romans 8:28. And then 1 passage
he didn't mention was something I'm going
to bring up about a missionary journey with Paul
and Barnabas and they're an Antioch, Poseidon,
Antioch and how he references King
David. So I'm going to read a verse there in Acts
13 and then finally, can
(14:43):
God use it to save lives? Can God use
this event to save lives? Where you've already seen
it has affected millions
of people? Sometimes it takes an event like
this to motivate people to
do something. And I've seen so
many social media posts that people have been
(15:04):
moved by these events. Multiple. I've
read about how people said, hey, this is the first
time, um, I'm attending church. This is the first time I'm putting on
a suit and I'm going into church.
They'll say, like, I've never been to church. I don't even
know God at all. But yet, out of respect
for Charlie, maybe I need to go to church.
(15:24):
Maybe church will help me to be a better man,
a better father. I felt something too, but it
did motivate people. Millions of
people have now been activated,
activated for the Gospel. And he mentioned it. It
is an awesome thing to see. And
where did it come from? A demonic event, an
assassination. That's what it took. So
(15:47):
God's purposes can be a part
of something that was evil. All right, let's read these
verses. Let's talk about a little bit
and process and be comforted by
the Lord and his purposes in this whole
situation. Okay, so he already
mentions Romans 828. We
know that. We know that God's
(16:09):
purposes can work
into a situation and make it a good
thing. How is it good when it's so bad? And
Romans 8:28, like Frank talked about,
really brings it together.
So now we'ren toa actually read the passage that he mentions
in Joseph, or actually in Genesis. Genesis,
chapter 50. He talks about Joseph. If you remember,
(16:30):
Joseph, uh, had his brothers. They were jealous of
him. They sold him into slavery. Then he was
gone for years, away from his father. Father
thought he was dead. But yet God is using
circumstances in Joseph's life to bring him
up to a place where he goes from a
slave all the way till now. He's
the second in charge in Egypt,
(16:53):
the power empire at the time. And
now he's second in charge. And then it goes
through the whole thing where his brothers come
down because there's a famine, right? Gives
them grain, they come back again,
and then they find out
he's their brother. And they says, hey, go get my
dad. And then so everybody's
(17:15):
brought back to Egypt, the whole family,
including Jacob, his father.
And then so everybody's living in Egypt, but then his
father passes away. Now his brothers are like,
oh, shoot, Dad's gone. And we
think that's the only reason why Joseph hasn't killed
us is because dad was still here. Now he's not here.
(17:35):
So Joseph reassures his brothers. And let's
start in verse 15,
chapter 50, Genesis 50, verse
15. Let's read from there. When Joseph's brothers saw that
their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph
holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all
the wrongs we did to him? So they sent word to Joseph
saying, your father left us these instructions before he
(17:57):
died. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask
you to forgive your brothers the sins and the
wrongs they committed in treating you so
badly. Now please forgive the sins of the
servants of the God of your father. When their
messages came m to him, Joseph wept. His
brothers then came and threw themselves down before
him. We are your slaves, they said.
(18:19):
But Joseph said to them, don't
be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
You intended to harm me,
but God intended it for good to
accomplish what is now being done,
the saving of many lives.
So then don't be afraid. I will provide for you and
(18:40):
your children. And he reassured them and spoke
kindly to them. Well, there it is. You intended
to harm me, but God intended it for good
to accomplish what is now being done, the
saving of many lives. Do you think that
that's happening? I definitely think so. Like I said,
I saw these social media posts about how people are
(19:00):
going to church now. Church attendance rose. And
I read an article that they did, uh,
a quick kind of study, and they estimate
there was a 15% rise in
church attendance. And so there are
millions of people being positively
affected. Lives are being
(19:20):
saved because of this
assassination. Could that be one of the reasons
why God allowed it?
Now, let's go to another verse in
Acts 13 talking about.
It's Paul on that missionary journey
with Barnabis. And, uh, they have John Mark with him, and
they're in Antioch. And Paul's laying it all out.
(19:43):
He's talking about the Israelites. He's laying it all out
to the Jews and the Gentiles there in Antioch.
And he's talking about the Israelites in the wilderness. He's
connecting the history and he's going through history. Starts
off with the Israelites in the wilderness, then continues to go
on and connects it to Samuel,
the Judges, they need a king. And then Saul
(20:03):
gets appointed, then Saul's removed. Then he talks
about David, and then he talks about John the
Baptist, and then he brings in
Jesus. Paul talks about Jesus now
and he says that Jesus came.
And so as he's laying out this history
in the middle of it there when he mentions King
David, this is what he said.
(20:24):
And so I want to bring this up because I kind
of believe this is
also another thing
that relates to Charlie's death. So let's
read Acts, chapter 13, verse
36. For David, after
he had served his own generation
by the will of God, fell on
(20:47):
sleep and was laid onto his
father'did. Uh, you hear that?
For David after he had served his
own generation by the will of God,
fell on sleep and was laid onto his
father'so he served his
generation and then passed away
by God's will. I think that applies here
(21:10):
too. God didn't choose the evil that was
chose by Satan, his
demons. And they were able to influence
the person that committed the assassination. But
again, God can use that for
his purposes, like in Joseph's case.
And now we read David served his
generation by the will of God and then passed. You
(21:33):
can insert Charlie's name there. So let's connect that
to other things that God can
use it for. We talked about how all the millions
of people are now affected. People are going to
church, people are trying
to be more connected to God. There
are like, what did I hear, like
52,000 chapters of, um,
(21:55):
Turning Point in USA now, something like that. I think that
was the thing that happened. And there was a ton of
people that are signing up for action.
And I hope there you know a lot of it. And I know
people, obviously the Bible is clear how people are.
We're finicky, we're emotional. And
so, uh, some of these people are just
acting on emotion. I get it. But then some
(22:18):
are gonna stick to it. Some are gonna live out their purpose
in God too because of this. And that's
something to behold, right? Because there's always a
catalyst when we look back in our lives and
our trajectory has changed and it has
totally went upward. And you can always connect
it to a catalyst now. Uh, it may be something
(22:38):
over time or it may be a, uh, one time event
that changed everything. People always have
something like that. And this could be that
one thing for people where it changed the trajectory
of their lives. And then they're doing
their will, their purposes in God. Their
calling is now answered because of this one
event. So yeah, I think even
(23:01):
through tragedy we can serve the
purposes and will of God and we can see
it and we can use that
to help comfort us during a
time of mourning and grief and
processing and anger and all these
emotions, all these feelings, all these
(23:21):
things that we're facing.
Is now just a little bit easier to deal
with. God is in it.
God is there. God is with you.
Thanks for listening, and I hope there's a little bit of comfort there
for you, knowing that even in tragedy,
God's will be done. In Jesus name,
(23:41):
amen. My name is Clint Armitage. This
is the Radio Coffee House. Thanks for coming
back. Thanks for listening. Until
next time, stay safe. God
bless.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Radio Coffee
(24:04):
House show, where we're all about Jesus, coffee
and radio. We'll see you next time.
Welcome to another edition of the Radio Coffeeh House
show, where Jesus meets coffee meets talk
radio. And the next one starts right
now.
How's it going, everybody? Armitage Radio
coffeeouse Thanks for coming back. Thanks for listening.
In this episode is called why Charlie? And
(00:23):
we're going to talk about Charlie Kirk. His assassination,
the purpose of it, if there is a purpose to it,
God's sovereignty, is there any good that comes
out of that? Such a horrific
event, an evil demonic
situation, an act, took the life
of an up and coming evangelist. Even though he was
(00:44):
a political force in the United
States, there was another side to him that you
would see and a driving force behind
what he did. And it was Jesus. You don't have to
watch too many video clips to find that
out. So after all this happened,
I didn't realize, I guess like many of
(01:04):
you probably, and all these
people that were affected by the
event, maybe because we
saw it instantaneously, it felt
instantaneously right after it happened and that
major viral video came out, which was pretty
gruesome, right? I think there's times we
see things that we're not supposed to
(01:26):
see. You know, these are the things that our
soldiers experience in war.
I have a buddy of mine
who's older than me and he's a veteran
from the Vietnam War. And he
experienced horrible, horrible things over there.
And he would tell me. Cause he doesn't talk about it much, but he
(01:47):
does talk about it sometimes. And you can see it is
still part of him. And it's not necessarily a
positive thing for him because when he speaks about it, he speaks
about it as if it was demonic. And he
feels he was even acting demonic over
there. And how he turned into a person that
was no longer a person, was. He became a monster
(02:08):
is kind of how he described it. And then he craved it.
And you hear this from other veterans that participated
in war. He craved that a lot of people
only see in movies. But this time we
actually witnessed it online because that's
how it is now, right? We can witness things
almost instantaneously or live. So
(02:28):
either you are watching live or you were getting
that information online right after. Either
way, it was an event that affected a lot of people. I kind of
was thrown back a little bit by the way I was feeling about
it. And I don't know if it was because that video or some
other reason, but I used to watch all. I used to watch
clips, multiple video clips all the time, actually. I
(02:49):
used to catch it. It'd be in my feed and I used to
watch Charlie at the campasses, you know,
debating people and all that stuff. So I wasn't unfamiliar.
Uh, I didn't follow any of his channels, but I
did see it in the feed pretty often. So maybe that's why
I had this connection. Like I said, I didn't realize it would
be like that for me, but I actually felt something like I was grieving.
(03:09):
And it was weird because I wasn't ready for it, didn't realize it, but I
thought, wow, why do I have this connection? Then I was
thinking, huh, I wonder if that connection
was there because what I saw on the video, or
was the connection there because he was a fellow brother in
Christ? Maybe a little bit of both. But I figure most of it
was because it was clear he was a Christian and it was
(03:29):
clear he was trying to spread the gospel. And so I think
that's more of the major connection that I had. And maybe that's
the same type of connection you did if you were in the same position
as me not knowing him, but just watching his
videos, but then feeling like you had to grieve, like a little bit
of mourning had to happen. And so anyways, it threw me off a little bit
because I thought, wow, I normally don't feel that
(03:49):
type of connection, but this time I did. And so that's
what I attribute it to, is maybe that's the
reason.
Anyway, I wanted to address it. I think it should
be something that we talk about, and
obviously it's been a huge topic ever since.
Many vigils happening, many events
surrounding his death, his murder,
(04:10):
his assassination. I don't want to minimize
his passing because it was an evil
act. It was an act of the devil. It
was demonic. So I don't want to minimize that. No
matter how you feel about how
he delivered, and if
you're offended by that, by the words
or not, or you supported it, it was clearly
(04:32):
a demonic event. Satan and
the principalities and powers that
Ephesians talks about was definitely
involved in his assassination. That cannot
be denied. You can explain it away, you can sc.
Sweep it under the rug, but you can't deny that. So
I wanted to talk about it because, too, I think
it's still in people's minds, in their
(04:55):
hearts and their thoughts, and we need to
process. Like I said, since I got thrown
aback by it, I think there are
plenty of people. I mean, we see them coming out of the woodworks,
talking about their anger,
their grief, their disbelief, and so people are
still processing it.
So, anyways, I wanted to talk about it, but I wanted to talk
(05:16):
about a specific aspect of it and that's why
this episode is called why Charlie. Is there a
reason? And obviously we don't. We
can't know all the reasons, but
maybe there's one or two we can start
to understand or comprehend and that may
help the grieving process, the mourning, the
(05:36):
understanding of it all so that we can be comforted at least a
little bit to know was there
some type of purpose in it? Is there some type of
good that comes out of that, out of something so evil
can something good come out of it? So we're going to listen to
this clip of an apologist or
author named Frank Turk. Frank was a
(05:57):
close friend of Charlie and a mentor, kind of like
he calls himself, you know, his father, second
father, I guess, because he mentored Charlie and
he prepped him for these events
on college campuses. So Charlie leaned on
this guy for, you know, to train for
these type of events. So anyway, let's listen to
(06:17):
what Frank has to say. And he's
talking about the people around,
uh, Charlie, the kind of immediate circle
in Turning Point. And he's talking about how they did such
a great job during
this tragedy and how they were putting stuff
together and making sure people were taken care of
(06:38):
and playing their part, having a role
in how to move forward with
this. And so he's
specifically talking, in this part, he's
specifically talking about an employee
friend of Charlie and his wife Erica, and
how maybe this could be one of the reasons. And
he references a few Bible verses that we're going to talk
(07:01):
about as well. So let's listen to this audio clip by
Frank Turret.
>> Frank Turk (07:11):
Erica is amazing. Charlie, as you
know, was amazing and still is
with our Lord right now. Let me tell you about one
other person you probably haven't heard of who's
behind some of this for
good. Her name is Staceacy
Sheraton. I met Stacy a month ago when we
were at an event California.
(07:33):
And I learned that within the past
year Sty, who has a 10 year old
daughter, lost her husband to
cancer. Then her house burned down
in the California fires. And
so Charlie, since she was working for
tpusa, asked her to move near
him and Erica in
(07:56):
Phoenix. And so she did,
very close to Charlie and Erica.
But recently her
daughter was lamenting,
of course, that her father was gone and their
house was burned and why are we here, mom?
(08:16):
And so I sent Stacy some
books I sent her Stealing from God. And there's a
section in there on if there is a good God, why
is there evil? And why would God allow my
husband to die? That kind of thing?
Well, Stacy
came with Erica, uh, that
(08:37):
day. And it has been an
absolute rock of support for
Erica. In fact, the day after
we got back, let's see, this happened on Wednesday.
We got back to Phoenix after Air Force
Two. I wasn't on Air Force Two, but I was with. We
were right there and watched the whole thing. I took another plane home. Some took
(08:57):
Air Force to home. There were only so many that could go on it.
But we all got back to Phoenix late
afternoon on Thursday. That
next morning, I get a text from Stacy,
please come to church. Erica
and Inna create some normalcy for
the kids. Was
(09:17):
like, wow,
talk about wisdom.
How do you do that? How
do you, how do you. 36 hours after,
after Charlie is murdered, you want to take your kids
to church to give them some normalcy?
(09:38):
That is amazing. Now,
uh, we were already heading out of town,
but I just marvel
at people like Stacy and Erica.
In fact, I texted her at one point and I said,
why does God allow evil? He allows evil because he allows
(09:59):
free choice. And that's the only way we could have love.
But he also, when he allows such evil,
he also provides a source of comfort.
And that source of comfort is
spelled S T A C Y
to Erica. And now
(10:20):
Stacy's 10 year old daughter
knows why they're there because
she often
looks after Gigi and
Mac. So
Stacey and her daughter are
ministering to Erica, uh, and the kids.
(10:40):
Because of tragedy after tragedy, she's there.
This is right out of 2 Corinthians 1, ladies and
gentlemen, that when God comforts
us, it enables us to comfort other
people. Stacy had been comforted by the Holy Spirit
and others through her tragedies, multiple tragedies.
And now she's able to pass that
(11:01):
comfort on to Eria, uh, and her kids.
So why did God allow this to happen?
Well, that's for another show, ladies and gentlemen. We'll get to
that some other time. But if you have
eyes, I think you can see one big reason
he probably allowed this to happen.
If Charlie was asked, would
(11:21):
you give your life if thousands or
probably millions were to come
to Christ because of your martyrdom?
I can tell you that he would say yes.
Of course. He wouldn't wanna
cause pain to Eria and his kids, but he would
realize that God can
(11:41):
bring good from evil. In fact, he
promises that in Romans 8:28, he says,
and we know that all things work
together for good. To those that love God and are Called according
to his purpose doesn't say all things are good.
It says that all things work together for good, that
God brings good from m evil.
(12:02):
And by the way, if you continue to read that passage in Romans, it then
talks about to be conformed to the image of his
son. You get conformed to
the image of Jesus by going through difficulty. Jesus
himself learned obedience through suffering and he didn't have
a sin nature. There's
many other reasons, but we don't have time to get into. I'm not talking about
(12:22):
a theodicy here,
but this passage and of course the passage in the Old
Testament with Joseph after he sold
into slavery and then rises to save his
family from the famine. When he rises in government
in Egypt, he says what you meant for
evil. God meant for good the saving of many
lives. There
(12:45):
are, there's people who are
now looking to Jesus because of what happened to Charlie.
People that would never darken the door of a church. People that would never crack open a
Bible. People that would never consider the
gospel of the Lord.
Now I'm gonna miss Charlie so much and
I know millions of other people are.
(13:08):
But he's going to be remembered as he wanted to
be remembered. When he was asked how he wanted to
be remembered, here's what he said.
>> Speaker D (13:17):
If everything completely goes
away, how do you want to be remembered? I mean, if I like die,
everything just goes away. How would you, if you could be associated with
one thing, how would you want to be remembered?
I want to be remembered for courage, for my
faith. That would be the most important thing. Most
important thing is my faith in my life.
>> Clint Armitage (13:36):
Okay, so after listening to that,
what s your thoughts? I think he explains it
pretty well that there is at least one
or two purposes of God allowing
this. And then he references a few
passages that support, hey, God can
use something evil for good. God
can still take something
(13:59):
that is so horrific and so heart wrenching
and then you can look at it and see what
happens from it and go,
wow, God's purposes can still
be good. God's purposes can still affect
things in a positive way and save
lives. Because he's right when he
referenced, uh, Joseph in the Bible. We're going
(14:21):
to read that passage. He's right when he references
Romans 8:28. And then 1 passage
he didn't mention was something I'm going
to bring up about a missionary journey with Paul
and Barnabas and they're an Antioch, Poseidon,
Antioch and how he references King
David. So I'm going to read a verse there in Acts
13 and then finally, can
(14:43):
God use it to save lives? Can God use
this event to save lives? Where you've already seen
it has affected millions
of people? Sometimes it takes an event like
this to motivate people to
do something. And I've seen so
many social media posts that people have been
(15:04):
moved by these events. Multiple. I've
read about how people said, hey, this is the first
time, um, I'm attending church. This is the first time I'm putting on
a suit and I'm going into church.
They'll say, like, I've never been to church. I don't even
know God at all. But yet, out of respect
for Charlie, maybe I need to go to church.
(15:24):
Maybe church will help me to be a better man,
a better father. I felt something too, but it
did motivate people. Millions of
people have now been activated,
activated for the Gospel. And he mentioned it. It
is an awesome thing to see. And
where did it come from? A demonic event, an
assassination. That's what it took. So
(15:47):
God's purposes can be a part
of something that was evil. All right, let's read these
verses. Let's talk about a little bit
and process and be comforted by
the Lord and his purposes in this whole
situation. Okay, so he already
mentions Romans 828. We
know that. We know that God's
(16:09):
purposes can work
into a situation and make it a good
thing. How is it good when it's so bad? And
Romans 8:28, like Frank talked about,
really brings it together.
So now we'ren toa actually read the passage that he mentions
in Joseph, or actually in Genesis. Genesis,
chapter 50. He talks about Joseph. If you remember,
(16:30):
Joseph, uh, had his brothers. They were jealous of
him. They sold him into slavery. Then he was
gone for years, away from his father. Father
thought he was dead. But yet God is using
circumstances in Joseph's life to bring him
up to a place where he goes from a
slave all the way till now. He's
the second in charge in Egypt,
(16:53):
the power empire at the time. And
now he's second in charge. And then it goes
through the whole thing where his brothers come
down because there's a famine, right? Gives
them grain, they come back again,
and then they find out
he's their brother. And they says, hey, go get my
dad. And then so everybody's
(17:15):
brought back to Egypt, the whole family,
including Jacob, his father.
And then so everybody's living in Egypt, but then his
father passes away. Now his brothers are like,
oh, shoot, Dad's gone. And we
think that's the only reason why Joseph hasn't killed
us is because dad was still here. Now he's not here.
(17:35):
So Joseph reassures his brothers. And let's
start in verse 15,
chapter 50, Genesis 50, verse
15. Let's read from there. When Joseph's brothers saw that
their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph
holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all
the wrongs we did to him? So they sent word to Joseph
saying, your father left us these instructions before he
(17:57):
died. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask
you to forgive your brothers the sins and the
wrongs they committed in treating you so
badly. Now please forgive the sins of the
servants of the God of your father. When their
messages came m to him, Joseph wept. His
brothers then came and threw themselves down before
him. We are your slaves, they said.
(18:19):
But Joseph said to them, don't
be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
You intended to harm me,
but God intended it for good to
accomplish what is now being done,
the saving of many lives.
So then don't be afraid. I will provide for you and
(18:40):
your children. And he reassured them and spoke
kindly to them. Well, there it is. You intended
to harm me, but God intended it for good
to accomplish what is now being done, the
saving of many lives. Do you think that
that's happening? I definitely think so. Like I said,
I saw these social media posts about how people are
(19:00):
going to church now. Church attendance rose. And
I read an article that they did, uh,
a quick kind of study, and they estimate
there was a 15% rise in
church attendance. And so there are
millions of people being positively
affected. Lives are being
(19:20):
saved because of this
assassination. Could that be one of the reasons
why God allowed it?
Now, let's go to another verse in
Acts 13 talking about.
It's Paul on that missionary journey
with Barnabis. And, uh, they have John Mark with him, and
they're in Antioch. And Paul's laying it all out.
(19:43):
He's talking about the Israelites. He's laying it all out
to the Jews and the Gentiles there in Antioch.
And he's talking about the Israelites in the wilderness. He's
connecting the history and he's going through history. Starts
off with the Israelites in the wilderness, then continues to go
on and connects it to Samuel,
the Judges, they need a king. And then Saul
(20:03):
gets appointed, then Saul's removed. Then he talks
about David, and then he talks about John the
Baptist, and then he brings in
Jesus. Paul talks about Jesus now
and he says that Jesus came.
And so as he's laying out this history
in the middle of it there when he mentions King
David, this is what he said.
(20:24):
And so I want to bring this up because I kind
of believe this is
also another thing
that relates to Charlie's death. So let's
read Acts, chapter 13, verse
36. For David, after
he had served his own generation
by the will of God, fell on
(20:47):
sleep and was laid onto his
father'did. Uh, you hear that?
For David after he had served his
own generation by the will of God,
fell on sleep and was laid onto his
father'so he served his
generation and then passed away
by God's will. I think that applies here
(21:10):
too. God didn't choose the evil that was
chose by Satan, his
demons. And they were able to influence
the person that committed the assassination. But
again, God can use that for
his purposes, like in Joseph's case.
And now we read David served his
generation by the will of God and then passed. You
(21:33):
can insert Charlie's name there. So let's connect that
to other things that God can
use it for. We talked about how all the millions
of people are now affected. People are going to
church, people are trying
to be more connected to God. There
are like, what did I hear, like
52,000 chapters of, um,
(21:55):
Turning Point in USA now, something like that. I think that
was the thing that happened. And there was a ton of
people that are signing up for action.
And I hope there you know a lot of it. And I know
people, obviously the Bible is clear how people are.
We're finicky, we're emotional. And
so, uh, some of these people are just
acting on emotion. I get it. But then some
(22:18):
are gonna stick to it. Some are gonna live out their purpose
in God too because of this. And that's
something to behold, right? Because there's always a
catalyst when we look back in our lives and
our trajectory has changed and it has
totally went upward. And you can always connect
it to a catalyst now. Uh, it may be something
(22:38):
over time or it may be a, uh, one time event
that changed everything. People always have
something like that. And this could be that
one thing for people where it changed the trajectory
of their lives. And then they're doing
their will, their purposes in God. Their
calling is now answered because of this one
event. So yeah, I think even
(23:01):
through tragedy we can serve the
purposes and will of God and we can see
it and we can use that
to help comfort us during a
time of mourning and grief and
processing and anger and all these
emotions, all these feelings, all these
(23:21):
things that we're facing.
Is now just a little bit easier to deal
with. God is in it.
God is there. God is with you.
Thanks for listening, and I hope there's a little bit of comfort there
for you, knowing that even in tragedy,
God's will be done. In Jesus name,
(23:41):
amen. My name is Clint Armitage. This
is the Radio Coffee House. Thanks for coming
back. Thanks for listening. Until
next time, stay safe. God
bless.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Radio Coffee
(24:04):
House show, where we're all about Jesus, coffee
and radio. We'll see you next time.
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