Thoughts on Charlie Kirk

I'm just going to dive right in. You guys can have a seat. Relax. Um, second Timothy 2 verses 23- 26 says this, "A servant of the Lord should not argue, but be kind, patient, and a good teacher.

They should gently teach those who disagree with them and hope that God will change their hearts." And that's what I'm going to endeavor to do today um with all my heart. I can't change a heart. Only God can.

Okay? But I can preach the word and hope that God moves. Okay? And so I just ask that you um pray with me now and and uh ask the Lord to just use me.

Um heavenly father, I just ask that you use me. You use the words that you want to hear that your words are my words. And uh let me let me preach your word right today, Lord. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Amen. >> It was a bad week for me. Um it really was.

uh you know, Charlie Kirk got um assassinated. The the uh I I knew him actually. So, his story links into this church actually. So, I was um at the start of the year not planning on opening a church.

I just finished writing a book and or was working on getting that published which hopefully comes out in the next week or two. But um I wasn't planning on and then I get an email uh that uh inviting me to a pastor's conference out of nowhere and I just saw it as God kind of leading me that way. So I said yes, I went to it. It was free for anyone who went to that church and at the time I was going to that church.

Well, I didn't even know who Charlie Kirk was. Well, it was a pastor's conference that his thing, Turning Point USA, was on. And so I I went there and I spent a couple days with them and and uh this young 31-year-old kid is up there talking to 40, 50, 60 year old pastors and challenging them to um rise up and be bold and they were listening to him because he had made so much impact with the youth which they had been unable to reach. Okay.

So by your fruit you'll know them. Um, so it was at that conference that I got the vision to start this church and and to preach it the way I preach it and to to do it the way I do it. So, so there is still fruit going on even in this church that can go back to to Charlene. So, you don't know where your words and your deeds are going to end up and how God can use them in people's lives.

You just have to keep sewing the seeds, right? Um, but but what disappointed me more was the reaction of many Christians to to to it and the and the bashing that I saw and the the the stuff and Christian cancelled culture is alive and well. Okay, that's all I've got to say. I've seen him bashed Brandon Lake bash Billy Graham.

I saw him get bashed the other day. Um, and and when you're doing that, you're doing the devil's work. There's there's just no way around it. You're separating the flock and you're you're doing the devil's work.

I've got a simple rule. I'm I'm now following it and I I challenge everyone in this church to follow and it's this. If you're going to post something online, okay, if you don't know the person, just back off. If you don't personally know Charlie Kirk, uh Mark Driscoll, Brandon Lake, don't say anything.

Okay? um you're not helping the flock because you don't know what's real and what's not. Right? We've discussed this.

They take little slivers of what that person said and then twist it out of context to push a dynamic, whatever that dynamic is. Right? You don't this is the only thing that's truth is this book right here. And so, you know, if if so, you don't even know what it is that you might be bashing them over.

If you don't know them, don't say anything. If you do know him and you disagree with something, pull them aside, have a conversation. That's fine. But, but don't sit there out on the worldwide web smashing.

What does Jesus say about that? Matthew 7 uh verse 1 through 5, and I'm going to read, "Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye." Hypocrite. It's a pretty bold word.

First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Okay, that's a that's a that's a firm word, right? Sermon on the mount. You may have heard that before.

Well, Paul talks about a time when believers will actually have to uh be in judgment. Okay? It's called the judgment seat of Christ. He talks about it in uh 2 Corinthians 5:es uh 9 and 10.

And I'm going to read, "Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terrible Lord, we persuade men. So this is not the great white throne judgment.

There's a judgment that happens. It it this be a seat judgment, this is also often called the beacy judgment. It doesn't appear anywhere in Revelation. So, it must be after all the stuff in Revelation when we're up in heaven, all believers are going to be brought in front of God and God's going to actually pull up the stuff that we've done.

The stuff that's good, we get rewarded stuff with the stuff that's bad gets burned with hay stubble. Okay? That's the judgment seat of Christ. So, before you throw that first stone, understand something.

you know, God's watching and he will see that and you will be judged someday based on how you're you're judging those other people, right? Um remember the in John 8, the the story of the adulteress, uh where she was brought to Jesus and they wanted to stone her because she'd been caught in adultery and he said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." Right? And then slowly, one by one, they all left because they didn't have it.

And then and then he asked, "Where are all those that are condemning you?" And she said, "There's none here." And he said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."

The standards still no sin, but he's got grace. That was one of the perfect areas where grace and standard still held. Right? So before you do anything, ask this, "Do I know that person?"

>> And then ask further, "Are you perfect?" Because unless you're perfect, you shouldn't be throwing that stuff out there, right? Because and none of us are, myself included. So worry about yourself, okay?

And if and if you're heartbroken over what happened this week, you know, and and a part of you wants to go and and you know, fix it or whatever, I want to I want to challenge you to start where you are. Okay? Um, before you can be a mighty warrior out there, you have to be a mighty warrior where God's already placed you. Okay?

If if you're out there bashing, say, a denomination um on the worldwide web, but you've got a friend who's in that denomination, you're scared to talk to them about it, you're you're a hypocrite, okay? According to Jesus Christ, not Brian Pier. So, and I know you may be tempted to run out there and do something about it, but you've got to be careful not to outrun God. Okay?

God knows what he's doing. He really does. Okay? And there's a purpose for everything.

He knows where he wants to place you and what he wants to do with you in his plan and his perspective. Okay? He knows exactly where where to do. So, and he says, "Apart from me, you can do nothing.

So if you run ahead of him, you're doing nothing of value because you're probably on the wrong path anyway because he wanted you over here. And I think we talked about that last week. So So be faithful where God has you right now. Your mission field is your friends, your family, your workplace.

God's got you there right now. Okay? You've got an opportunity right now. Focus there first.

Be faithful there first. And then God is going to expand your territory.