Winning The War for Our Children With Lucas Miles

Music. Hello, this is Dr. Kevin Cruz with the Truth, Faith, and Action Alliance, and we want to thank you for taking the time to hear the truth about the plight of our children.

Although, with God on our side, we can still win the war for the mind and hearts of our children. But before we get started, please remember to like and share our videos with your family and friends and subscribe to our channel. This is one of the best ways you can help others learn about our thoughts and how we can work together for a solution. Today, we must address what we all need to hear, and that is the solution about how the church can win the war for our children.

Thankfully, we have Pastor Lucas Miles as our speaker today to help us get closer to the truth. Pastor Lucas Miles is the senior pastor of Influence Church in Granger, Indiana, and the author of The Christian Left and Woke Jesus. Lucas is also the host of the TV show Church and State that's syndicated on Newsmax, The Blaze, Fox News, The Washington Times, CBN, and The Christian Post. Pastor Lucas is also the Senior Director of TPUSA Faith and the founder of AmericasPastorsProject.org.

Without further ado, here's Pastor Lucas Miles. Thank you so much. Wow, what a day. You guys enjoying yourselves? Everybody stand up for a minute.

Let's shake it off here for just a second. Man, I'm excited to play cleanup today. I was supposed to lead off and Rob McCoy was saying something about how to catch a flight and all this sort of stuff. So I said, no problem, Rob. I'll play cleanup. No, that's not really how it happened, but I'm excited to be here with you. I am very, man, I've been just back here all day thinking about what I'm going to bring to you today.

So let's go ahead and have a seat, buckle up, bring that safety bar down in front of you, and we'll see what the Lord has for us here. All right. How many people have heard me speak before? Okay. All right. I've actually been down here quite a bit in the greater Tampa area. And I think a lot of our crew that have brought me down in the past during the pastor's brunch this morning, I'm not going to repeat all that because I want to give you as much as I can during my time here.

And I'm excited just to finish strong and really be able to bring this together a little bit. I want to start here and I want to read a passage. It's the second Corinthians 11, two through four says this, for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy because I've promised you in marriage to one husband to present a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear that as a serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a complete and pure devotion to Christ.

For if a person comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you had not received, or a different gospel, which you had not accepted, you put up with it splendidly. And this is really the state of, I believe, the church today, that there has been another gospel that has been presented, and the church has put up with it splendidly. They've accepted it. They've embraced it. And in many cases, they've started regurgitating it, sharing it.

In some cases, they've taken it even further. And we have seen the evolution of this thing called progressive Christianity or the Christian left or woke Christianity, whatever you want to call it. It is a heresy. It is a Frankensteining of the gospel, and it is a hijacking of the cross of Christ. You know, Paul already introduced me and I appreciate that. My name is Lucas Miles. I'm a pastor. This is actually my 20th year being a senior pastor. I don't know how that happened either.

I'm only 27. So, I mean, I don't know how I got here, but here I am. This is actually my 20th year. We're having a big celebration in October. I'm from South Bend, Indiana. And you might know us from Notre Dame, you know, that school that's Catholic in name only that throws the football every now and then. And look, I didn't intend to be in this fight like a lot of you. This wasn't something I really grew up. I was a philosophy and religious studies

major. I did start preaching young. I was preaching by the age of 17, had a full-time call in ministry by about the age of 14 or 15. And that's a whole other story and a whole other day. But I got into this young. I planted my first church as a senior pastor at 24, and I'm still pastoring that same church 20 years later, if you want to do the math on how old I am. My wife, Chrissy, and I, I mean, she's my partner. She's my right hand. We do ministry together. And I didn't intend to be here.

In fact, up until probably 2014, 2015, what I was most known for was my first book that was called Good God, which still I believe is a foundation for everything that I do today is that message of the goodness of God. And there's a lot of, I'll tell you this, I'm getting ahead of myself, but there are allies with us politically that claim to be allies with us spiritually that don't actually know the character and the nature of God. And some of these people are actually pastors.

And we have a lot of angry pastors and angry preachers that are fired up right now because they get to be angrier at the way the world is, but they're offering no solution because they don't actually understand the dynamic relationship between grace and truth. And unless you have both grace and truth in full operation, you will never see a full revelation of Jesus Christ. Because he is the embodiment of grace and truth. If you elevate a concept of grace over truth, you'll become a progressive.

We're seeing that with a lot of our big megachurches. A lot of our national megachurches are doing that. We're seeing that with a lot of our, you know, the real strong ecumenical, you know, Unitarian type of churches, the liturgical progressive churches that are out there. You know, the ones that are flying the Marxist BLM flag above the cross and color in the cross rainbow colors. This is because they think they understand grace, but they only have a concept of grace.

They've excluded truth completely, and it's given themselves to this unbalanced gospel that is lopsided and that is simply a gospel of permissivism. That's not the truth. On the other side, we have people who, in a reaction to that, many times are elevating a concept of truth without any sort of understanding of grace and love. And what it's producing is it's producing rage and anger and wrath.

Instead of relying on the jealousy and the wrath of God, they're actually putting themselves in the position of God, and they are declaring judgment on the earth. And they might actually help us win politically, but ultimately they are just as far away in many cases as those on the other side from the true gospel. And I don't know everybody in this room, and I'm just going to say this.

The chances are that more of those people could potentially be in this room than the other one I mentioned first. I'm going last and I'm leaving after this, so you don't have to like me when I'm done.

I'm here to help you. And so let's talk about this thing, progressive Christianity, how I got here. I got here because I started seeing in South Bend, I started seeing what I call sort of a microcosm of America. And I saw the impact and the influence of the university there that was extremely woke, but yet claiming Christ.

I saw the impact of a mayor, maybe you've heard of him, his last name, Ryan Smith, Buttigieg, who, you know, was just exhibiting and exuding these Marxist policies and ideologies at a local level. I started warning about him in 2012. People thought I was crazy, said he's going to run for president. I watched Zuckerberg fly into South Bend to meet with him. They went to Harvard together. And here we are. I started seeing this. And then I started seeing even in

my own people that they weren't able to discern it. And so I did a series. And this is how I preach on Sunday mornings. I'm not a fire and brimstone guy. This is my demeanor. I'm not one of these pastors that like my voice changes when I say God. You know the ones I'm talking? God! It's like, where was that? What just happened there? Pastors, I'm looking at some of you. All I got is my frailty and his almighty. That's all I got. And I started seeing this drift and the shift and the confusion.

And so I started studying more, started learning more, started doing deep dives. I'm a reader. And so, you know, I kind of tell people a lot of times I read all the books that nobody else wants to read so that I can help them understand those things as much as possible. You know, so I grabbed Hegel's phenomenology of spirit that nobody gets through and read it, right?

I grabbed Marx. I grabbed, James Cone, Liberation Theology. I grab all those things, and I took the time to read those because most pastors won't. And I wanted to help people. They might have had a mention of them in Theology 101 in Bible College that was probably taught by a critical theology professor who was already woke himself. They just weren't calling it woke yet because this has been here a while.

And so I spent time, and then I did a series of my church called, What Does the Bible Say About? And then for eight weeks, we did different topics. Race, gender, sexuality, marriage, national sovereignty, sanctity of life, all these things. And in eight weeks, I preached my congregation down 50%. We weren't a massive church, but I'll tell you, 50% of my revenue also went out the door.

And I won't make you raise your hand right now, pastors, but you know that that's your greatest fear, is saying something from the stage that's going to create that. It wasn't a church split. It was a church exodus. And we were to the point to where we didn't know how we were going to keep it going. We skipped multiple paychecks trying to keep things afloat. And I had the choice of, was I going to go back to what I was doing before and just focus on, we just teach the Bible.

Now, the fact of the matter is, in that series, you know what the only thing I did was? I taught the Bible, but people just called it political. In fact, I always say this, I don't own a red hat to this day, although I did vote for Trump twice. And I didn't have a banner on the stage. I didn't endorse a candidate. I didn't do any of that stuff. I mean, some of you guys are more political like in a tweet than I was in that eight-week series.

I just taught what does Scripture have to say about these topics. Pastor, why are you being political? I'm not comfortable here anymore because it's getting a lot about politics. Because I mentioned the word abortion because I did this and to this, and I shared this this morning. I'm going to say it for all of you again. I say to pastors or anybody in the pews that thinks that, who told you this is political?

Who told you these things are political? In the same way that, you know, as the Lord is talking to Adam and Eve and he says, who told you that you were naked? You know, who's putting these things into your head? Why is national sovereignty a political issue? Why are open borders a political issue when the Bible is actually the text that teaches national sovereignty, that God establishes nations, that he establishes rulership? Sanctity of life, same thing. This is a theological viewpoint first.

It only plays out in politics like two or three things down the line. It is our faith. It is our understanding of who we are in Christ and who he is that should shape everything else that we do. In fact, I would say it this way. Nothing is actually political. Everything is theological. Everything is spiritual, first and foremost.

So I did this series. I lose the people, and I got a choice. Am I going to double down, or am I going to go back to the way things were? And I'll tell you, you're looking at a guy who almost, almost was this close to being a Christian socialist at about 20 or 21 years old. And I write the stuff that I write, not out of anger. I actually write it out of love because I know what it's like to be in that camp.

I was infatuated and mesmerized by a lot of those teachings, a lot of the names, some of the Christian music artists that were kind of moving in that direction, some of the early deconstruction stuff. I loved it all. And thankfully, some people got a hold of me and helped me. And ultimately, getting into the word, the Lord corrected me. I share what I share because I love people. I'm not angry.

In fact, my greatest fear about conferences like this, about the books that I write, and I actually say this in my books, is that these things are going to weaponize people. That they're going to weaponize people to go on witch hunts. That anytime they see a doctrine that they don't like, that they're going to go, look, he's a progressive. He wears skinny jeans. No. No. No, that has nothing to do with it. It may, he may or may not be. We don't know.

I'm interested in what's going on in somebody's heart. I'm interested in the things that they're teaching and speaking. I don't care about the style of music that they have. I don't care about how they dress. Now, you can have your preference, but the moment that you elevate secondary ideas, oh, you guys thought you were going to get a PowerPoint in this session, didn't you? The moment you elevate secondary ideas over primary doctrine, you will always divide the church.

You will always divide the church. We have to, especially when the church is under attack, we have to elevate primary doctrines first. Now, faculty at Summit Ministries, one of the most prestigious youth training groups in the country. They've been around for 60-plus years.

I think, and whenever I show up, they always give me cards that say Dr. Miles, and I don't have a doctorate degree or anything like that, and I think that I slipped through the crack that I'm actually teaching there, and so don't tell them. I do this with my students when I teach at Summit, and that is this. I will go to them and I'll say, what's primary doctrine? And I'll just say, hey, let's raise our hands and let's shout out primary doctrine.

And here you have students with no theological background or training, and they can get primary doctrine in about 90 seconds to 120 seconds. They will name the majority of primary doctrines in the Christian faith. I'm not going to do that to you guys because I don't want to make the students, if you don't do as well as they do, I don't want to make you feel bad. But what is primary doctrine? We could talk about the virgin birth. We could talk about the humanity and divinity of Christ.

We could talk about the doctrine of heaven and hell. We could talk about baptism into Christ. I'm not talking about water baptism. I'm talking about being immersed into the body of Christ by grace through faith, through the confession of faith. We could talk about the return of Jesus. We could talk about the Trinity. We could talk about God as the creator. And with that, I would say a primary doctrine is God is a God of order.

And with that, we extrapolate and see very clearly how does order play out. It plays out in the ordering of the species. It plays out in the ordering of the sexes. It plays out in the ordering of the government. It plays out in the ordering of people groups, that there is an order to God because he is not a God of chaos. That's a primary Christian belief. And so we go through and we see these things.

And we could add a few more to this But then we have these secondary doctrines You know, all the things that are going to make us mad at each other. Your view on gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a primary doctrine. If you don't believe that the Holy Spirit comes and indwells in you, that's outside of orthodoxy. The orthodox position is that there is an indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now, how you believe that that affects you and moves in you, we can get into secondary ideas in that. Now, every now and then you've got a couple of people that say there's no such thing as primary doctrine. They're all primary. Yeah, but that implies that you understand them clearly, and we got 2,000 years on some of these issues of the church rightly debating, trying to get to clarity on what I would call secondary issues.

And if you understand church history, there is rich debate on some of these things. Women in ministry, the types of baptism that exist, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, how we do church, how we do worship, how we do these different things. Those are secondary issues, and it's okay to have a strong opinion. Once saved, always saved versus lose your salvation. I could biblically make a case for either one. Do I have a strong opinion about one of them? Yes, I do.

Am I going to tell you today? No, I'm not. Why? Because I'm not here to teach secondary doctrine to you today. I'm here to unify you and to help you actually be prepared with all this information that you've received today from these brilliant experts that have come before me. I want to help you be able to take that and actually be able to do something with it because you are armed now with both grace and truth.

Because if you just walk out here like a machine gun and see every single person and go, you're vaxxed, God hates you. Oh, you send your kids to public school, you must hate them. I mean, look, I could go down the list. And again, we can produce a lot of angry people. And we can really militarize people with these messages.

And I would say that this right here is what prevents this. It's what prevents all of this from being the thing that we are accused of being. And that is Christian nationalists in all the bad sense of the term. See, I actually made the case, and I'm pleased that this argument is spreading a little, bit, and I hope it spreads more, because I really think that the conservative movement has gotten wrong how to approach the accusations of Christian nationalism.

There are some of you in the room that might have said, they're going to call me Christian nationalist. That's right. I am a Christian nationalist. I'll take that. I don't have judgment for you. I just don't think it's the right answer. There are some that have tried to argue why they're not Christian nationalists, and it doesn't go anywhere from there.

And there are some, in fact, I had somebody come to me, one of you came to me here recently that said, hey, why aren't there as many Christian groups that are supporting Donald Trump as it seemed like there were previously? Well, because of the accusation of Christian nationalism is one of them. They don't want to be seen as that. And so a lot of people have pulled their support back privately again. See, as much as the left talks about the separation of church and state, they don't want it.

You heard me right. The left does not want the separation of church and state. They want a church that is 100% dependent and subservient to the state. They actually found that church in the form of woke, progressive Christianity. And in fact, they found a savior, if you will, at least a savior of sorts. And that is this figure that I call woke Jesus.

And I'd love to give you all the history of this. I don't have time, and it's been a long day and you guys have been so amazing staying here as long as you have. And I'm honored that you would even stay for this last session. But this woke Jesus, he's the perfect candidate for what the left needs. He's double vaxxed. He's triple masked. He'll bow the knee to BLM and he will fall on his face to do whatever the state needs him to do.

See, I made the case in my book, Woke Jesus, that the true Christian nationalists are actually the Christian left because they have completely abandoned the Christian faith.

In order to pick up the agenda of the state. They have let go of the true doctrines of Christianity in the same way as my friend Eric Metaxas talks about the Nazified German church that let go of the tenets of Christianity in Nazi Germany in order to embrace the tenets of the Third Reich to trade the Bible for Mein Kampf and the cross for the swastika. That was the nationalist church in Germany. It was not the church Bonhoeffer was part of.

That was the church that rebelled against what the state was doing and said, we will not bow down to Caesar as God. Only Jesus is our Lord and Savior. And see, what we are seeing in the left right now, and specifically in the Christian left, is we are seeing a church that has 100% embraced the agenda of the state.

There is no difference between the current administration's policies on the border, sexuality, marriage, socialism, on China, on immigration, on gender, on pronouns, on any of these things.

There is no difference between the progressive church's view on those things and the Biden administration's view on these things, which brings me to National Visibility Day. Oh, I'm sorry. National Transgender Visibility Day. But I'm not going to go where you think I'm going to go. I've already said everything I needed to say about that on Easter. And yes, I talked about it on Easter Sunday in my church. I want to flip the script because here's the reality.

Every day is National Transgender Visibility Day. Every day is National Sinner visibility day. Every day is national walk away and rebel from God visibility day because God sees every single person on this planet. He sees us. He sees what we think. He hears our inner thoughts. He is aware of every single thing that's going on in our lives.

And there is a brokenness. There is a trauma There is an anger There is a rage There is a rebellion that exists in humanity A depravity And the Lord does see it In fact, he saw it so much He actually went to a cross and he gave his life So that people could be free And all this talk of intersectionality He is actually the true intersectionality, Where the sinfulness of man Intersected with the righteousness of God In order to bring salvation to whosoever would believe.

And so what am I leaving you with today? I'm leaving you with this. Don't lose your fervor. Don't lose your passion. Continue to add knowledge. Continue to equip yourself in every single way. But don't lose your love. Don't stop letting your heart break, even for the people that seem to be the furthest away that you're in. Don't cheer the death of the sinner. Make sure that your zeal is 100% rooted in love. And if you do in the same way that Christianity won over pagan Rome,

I believe it can once again win over this neo-pagan lost America. Thank you. We want to thank Pastor Lucas Miles for coming to the Save Our Children conference, and you can see why we love and appreciate him for his passion and the hard truths that he is willing to share. We agree that the church here in America is at what Pastor Lucas calls its Gideon moment.

But to be clear, we were warned that there would be a great falling away of the church right before the return of the Lord in 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 1 through 3. We were also warned that people would even begin to scoff about the return of Jesus in 2 Peter 3, verses 3-13. Unfortunately, we've come to a place in America where true believers must be willing to stand and say so.

While I do believe that pastors standing for Christ and our children could truly change this country, I know I'm not a pastor, and so I wonder, what am I supposed to do? But the good news is I can share what God has shown me thus far. While the pastors in this country in the form of the Black Robe Regiment were instrumental in founding our country and establishing a godly heritage, since then our country has fallen into moral decay on more than one occasion.

It was the first and second great awakenings that revived us, but they did not originate from inside the church. Instead, those movements were started by people like you and me. While church buildings may be the largest in almost every community, we are still losing the war for our children. That's why I recommend you watch our previous video in which Pastor Rob McCoy from Turning Point USA explains exactly how the church lost the war for our children.

Not only are we unwilling to go where the decisions are being made, but we won't even talk about what's happening or any possible solutions. But Jesus said something different. Suffer the little children to come unto me in Matthew 19, 14. Jesus made children a priority, and we must do the same. Jesus said, whoever hurts one of these little ones, it's better for a millstone to be hung around his neck and thrown into the sea.

If Jesus was willing to stand up for children, and we aren't, then how can we say we are following Jesus? We can't. We are just following a religion of our own design. We must also remember that when Jesus returns, he'll no longer be the suffering servant. The age of grace will be over, and he will be the reigning and ruling King of kings and Lord of lords. Yet when Jesus tried to get people to understand his father's plan initially, he wasn't very successful.

That's why he stood outside Jerusalem and wept. O Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you were unwilling. The heart of Jesus is to gather us together and not let denominations and racism divide us. Our ability to gather together is our Gideon moment.

Furthermore, when Jesus prayed for us, he prayed that we would all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. Even Jesus is telling us his grandest intentions for us is to be one with each other in him. He also tells us that we won't be able to affect our society or be believable until we can work together in unity. But we do need to change the kind of person we're looking for.

When Jesus sent out the 12 and the 70 in Luke 9 and 10, he told them to look for the man of peace who would hear them. And we must do the same today. But before we go out, we must resolve something within ourselves. Isaiah 50 verse 7 says, because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.

We must know what God has said about what is happening and be willing to set our face like a flint against this evil. If we do, the sparks of the Holy Spirit may fly, and our nation may once again burn for Him.

But what exactly are we supposed to do? I believe the story of Mordecai and Esther can give us hope, because it was Mordecai who became aware of the plot to destroy God's people, the same way that we have made you aware of Satan's plot to destroy our children. Mordecai wasn't rich or influential. It just so happens that the cousin he raised as a child had become the queen of Persia. We don't know how long it took, but eventually Mordecai convinced Esther of the plot.

Also warned her that she would not escape what was coming. And you won't either. Then Esther had to make a monumental decision to leverage her relationship with the king to the point of risking her life. However, the greatest lesson we can learn from Esther is that we were born for a time like this. God wants us to see that each of us is a crucial part of his plan to save our children. Today, the kings and queens of our society are the pastors, politicians, and people of influence.

And we need to target them with love, prayers, and support so that when we tell them about this plot against our children, they will believe us. But before we do that, we must fundamentally change our attitude about the people we will meet along the way. We must remember what Jesus said when he sent his disciples into the world. He that is not against us is for us. Now, believe it or not, when I've shared some of these ideas with Christians, they've scolded me.

They just believe I need to trust God in situations like this. But I'm going to ask you the same question I asked them. Who is it that has more faith? The one who trusts God to fix everything and does nothing? Or the one who believes that God is so powerful that he can use us to accomplish his will here on earth? Of course, I agree with the priority of prayer because it establishes a relationship with God. Indeed, we will only win the war when we are connected to the commander-in-chief.

Other times, Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Because we all have something we are supposed to carry as we play our part in this drama. However, there is a reality that God says determines the destiny of every country. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. Proverbs 19, verse 2. Yet many people don't understand that we are called to reign and rule with Christ. See 2 Timothy 2 verse 12.

In Matthew 5 verse 13, Jesus also called us the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. We are supposed to season or flavor our society with our faith. Salt was also used as a preservative in light of the decay.

So the bottom line is if we can't stop this decay and we can't flavor our society, then the same people who are destroying our children will also come and trample us under their feet. Now I realize what a hard thing I'm asking you to do, and it can be overwhelming for the best of us. But if you are healthy and mature, please pick one topic or issue and make it your own.

Anyone can become a voice for our children and gather people together with the same goal. In summary, to win, we must be willing to leverage our relationships to share the truth about what is happening. Of course, we want to be strategic by targeting those in authority or influence, but nowhere do you have more influence than in your church. That is, if you give tithes and are willing to love, support,

and pray for your pastor. And lastly, we must look into our communities to find and join those ministries willing to carry the cross for our children. Some of the ways our Alliance can help would be to connect you with some great speakers. We can help create presentations and form action committees right in your own community. We can help with legal issues to defend churches and stop parades,

storybook hours, and child indoctrination. We can also help start and facilitate Christian, church, and home schools. Lastly, we can help pastors connect and build circles of trust where they can unload and recharge. I hope you'll stay tuned for some of our breakout sessions where we will hear live discussions from our panel of experts about the best action plans for sex trafficking, LGBTQ indoctrination, medical assault, as well as a pastors-only breakout session.

I pray that this series had shed light on the darkness that now overshadows every child in America. Only the light of Christ can dispel this kind of darkness. I pray that you will abide in that light of the Holy Spirit, and may God gird up your loins for the fight ahead. May God bless you. I'm Alex, and I'm super. I'm Dr. Thomas Dozier, and I am also super. Hi, I'm Dr. Dennis, and I am the natural. Hey, I'm Dr. Kevin. That makes me the junkie. Oh, yeah. And we are the supernatural junkies.

And we talk about all the things that you can't talk about in the church today. And I'd like to talk about strengthening your faith, conspiracies, and how everything on TV is programming you. I'd like to talk about how our Bible is relevant, whether you're talking about artificial intelligence, so-called aliens, or secret societies. By the way, I know what Dr. Cruz likes to talk about as well. Spoiler alert, I like to talk about how current events are prophetic and exactly

what our Bibles warned us would happen. Alex, what's your jam? I like to talk about ghosts, aliens, demon babies, supernatural healing, you name it. Be sure to check out our hundred plus episodes on places like Audible, iPodcast, iHeartRadio, and Spotify. Just search for the Supernatural Junkies wherever you podcast. Also, don't forget to like us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.