NEWNow you can take heed to Fox Information articles!
Turning Level USA founder Charlie Kirk was exhausted and in bodily ache when Pastor David Engelhardt persuaded him to pause his work week for someday and honor the Sabbath by turning off his cellphone and disconnecting from politics.
Years later, Kirk authored a guide championing how honoring the Sabbath reworked his life and opened doorways to construct higher foundations for his relationships — whether or not it’s along with his spouse, Erika, and their youngsters, household and mates, and his relationship with God.
“He would flip his cellphone off so he would not be distracted by his work. . . . He would spend his time along with his spouse and youngsters, and they might relaxation, and they might go on walks and . . . spend a while in scripture. He practiced it from Friday to Saturday. That is what labored finest for his schedule,” Englhardt, a TPUSA board member who has been a pal and pastor to the Kirks stretching again years, advised Fox Information Digital.
Engelhardt, who’s the pastor of Kings’ Church in New York Metropolis, spoke to Fox Information Digital following the discharge of Kirk’s best-selling posthumous guide, “Cease, within the Identify of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Remodel Your Life,” which celebrates that honoring the Sabbath is the reply to an exhausted, anxious, always-online America.
TURNING POINT USA HOLDS AMERICAFEST CONFERENCE FOLLOWING CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk is pictured along with his spouse, Erika, on stage at an occasion earlier this yr in Phoenix. (Samuel Corum/Getty Photographs)
Engelhardt met Charlie Kirk by Erika Kirk when she lived in New York Metropolis, the pastor defined. He took Fox Digital by a dialog he shared with Charlie Kirk in 2021, when Englhardt took discover that the TPUSA chief was bodily and mentally drained and on a trajectory to burnout.
“He was bodily in ache,” Engelhard advised Fox Information Digital. “He was having again points, and knee points and the burden of the group was actually heavy on his shoulders. And I mentioned, ‘Charlie, I do not suppose you may proceed to do that until you’re taking the Sabbath. Except you’re taking this biblical command.'”
The TPUSA chief initially resisted shutting off for someday to recalibrate for the following week.
VANCE SAYS ‘AMERICA FIRST’ MOVEMENT REJECTS ‘PURITY TESTS,’ WELCOMES CRITICAL THINKERS
“I believe one of many issues Charlie mentioned was, like, ‘What if the president calls me? Like, what am I alleged to do?’ We dwell in a day and age the place anybody can name you at any time . . . and he is coping with large essential issues of state. And you realize the pushback, the response is such as you truly need to take care of your self greater than you care about your look within the eyes of the world. And also you truly need to know that should you obey this and also you truly flip off for twenty-four hours, it can deliver blessing into your life,” he mentioned.
Engelhardt recounted that the pair “form of argued about it for a minute” earlier than Kirk warmed to the thought and adopted it with nice success.
A tribute to Charlie Kirk is proven on the Jumbotron earlier than a NASCAR Cup Sequence auto race, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, in Bristol, Tennessee. (Wade Payne/AP)
“I simply mentioned, ‘Belief me, should you relaxation, you may have extra power and extra capability and extra skill.’ And since he is insanely disciplined, or was insanely disciplined, he began, I believe, the following week after I challenged him, and he advised me it saved his life, he advised it modified his life. And I believe that is there’s so many individuals that burn out and crash and burn their lives, as a result of they simply do not take care of themselves They do not handle the physique. They do not acknowledge that we’re not machines, that we want seasonal relaxation.”
DAVID MARCUS: ERIKA KIRK IS THE MOTHER SQUABBLING CONSERVATIVES NEED
Honoring the Sabbath is without doubt one of the 10 Commandments, with Engelhardt pointing to each the Previous and New Testaments outlining that God, Himself, didn’t have to relaxation on the seventh day as described within the E-book of Genesis, as He’s all highly effective, however confirmed those that they want a sample of weekly cycles of ends and new beginnings.
“The commandment is that you simply’re not alleged to work on the Sabbath,” Engelhardt mentioned. “And the thought is, the scripture says, in six days you shall labor, and on the seventh day you shall relaxation, as a result of it’s holy. And so it follows a sample, the identical sample that we see in Genesis, the place God works. He creates the entire world, after which He rests on that seventh day.”
“The scripture says, His mercies are new each morning. And so, it is a actually essential scripture or precept within the scripture that enables us to start out once more, to start out afresh, to include issues like repentance,” the pastor mentioned.
Charlie Kirk’s closing guide is a “manifesto towards the machine of recent life,” encouraging his followers to “cease within the identify of God” and honor the Sabbath. (Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs)
Kirk’s posthumous guide was launched Dec. 9 and rapidly turned a finest vendor on Amazon lists, strolling readers by how “observing the Sabbath is not a rejection of recent life however a insurrection towards busyness and a pathway to real connection, peace, and presence,” the guide description outlines, particularly, “the way to unplug, recharge, and reconnect with God, household, and your self in a manner that nurtures your soul.”
ERIKA KIRK WELCOMES ATTENDEES TO FIRST AMERICAFEST SINCE HUSBAND’S DEATH, ENDORSES JD VANCE FOR PRESIDENT
The guide’s launch was adopted by TPUSA holding its AmericaFest occasion in Arizona from Dec. 18 to Dec. 21, the place conservatives, supporters of President Donald Trump and others took the stage, continuously celebrating Trump’s accomplishments following his return to workplace, in addition to remembering Kirk following his assassination in September.
Engelhardt advised Fox Digital that Kirk’s guide on the Sabbath was one among about 4 guide initiatives Kirk was serious about and dealing on forward of his loss of life, remarking that “Charlie was actually enthusiastic about it … he simply stored saying, ‘I’ve to get this Sabbath guide out.’”
Throughout AmFest, outdated footage of Kirk celebrating his embrace of the Sabbath was projected out to the crowds.
“I truly do not work someday out of the week, so I take a Sabbath each Saturday, flip my cellphone off,” Kirk was heard saying in footage performed on the primary day of AmFest. “No work, simply children, simply household. It is a tremendous blessing. If you’re feeling overrun by society, you is perhaps feeling depressed or anxious. Flip your cellphone off for someday.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“That may be a day for worship. That may be a day for the Lord,” Kirk continued. “That may be a day to go be with God and be out of the busyness and the hurriedness and the noise of this world.”
