0:00 Well, many of you are well aware that we are not gonna be doing bible study tonight. And this is not a a sermon either, nor is this a political speech. And I can tell you that upfront because what we experience as a nation has no political solution. This is not about left and right. This is not about policies.
0:26 This is not about narratives. This is not about anything other than righteousness versus evil, lightness and dark. And I'm speaking from my heart tonight. I'm speaking from my heart, and hopefully it will touch your heart because my concern with everything else that is going on is the condition of the people of God. Because there are a lot of voices out there.
1:00 There's a lot of emotion. There's a lot of theories. There are a lot of clips. Things are developing even as we are having this time together. And the thing that really struck me, apart from the shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk two days ago, was how many people across the board, really, have vocalized the same sentiment that they can't really make sense of how they are grieving so deeply for someone that they never knew.
1:41 Now, there is an entire other side to this issue that would point the finger at anybody who publicly grieves over this man, to say that you're being hypocritical, there are other tragedies taking place in the world. Why would you bring so much attention and vocalize so much concern for an individual? You can't explain everything in life. And there are many tragedies in this world, and every life is precious. And sometimes when an event like what transpired two days ago happens, you can't always put language to why you feel the way you feel.
2:24 But I have been thinking about potential reasons why. The first is that this man, Charlie Kirk, he was a household name. Whether you loved him or hated him, agreed with him or disagreed with him, most people knew him, especially millennials and Gen Z. I don't have social media. I haven't had personal accounts on social media for years, and I still know who this man is, because people send his clips.
2:56 Inevitably, you see him on some kind of headline. And so, people are aware of who this man was. Second to that, he was gruesomely murdered for the world to see. We're not just heartbroken by the fact that a man in the prime of his life was killed, leaving behind a wife and two kids. The world witnessed in an uncensored way the bullet of a sniper rifle ripping through the throat of a man mid sentence on a college campus.
3:41 That's traumatic. That is horror. And that is something that most people have never seen in their lives. So there's that element. Here's the third one, and this is especially relevant to us.
3:58 This man, Charlie Kirk, was a follower of Jesus Christ, a bold, unashamed, passionate proclaimer of the truth. I will be honest in saying that I did not follow this man closely. I obviously knew of his name. I've seen a couple of things. But because of what had happened, I decided to just kind of catch up and see his most known discussions, debate moments, I guess, his presentation of the truth.
4:31 And refreshingly, unlike many other pundits and people who have big platforms, who kinda just wear the Christian badge because they're moral or because they wanna just cling to some kind of worldview. I'm convinced that this young man was a genuine follower of Christ. There's no denying it. And so we're we're heavy hearted because a brother in the Lord, first and foremost, beyond anything, I view this man as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and he lost his life. And we know there's a hope attached to our faith even in death, but we can still feel this weight, and we can still be sad, and we can still come before God and ask questions.
5:29 Here's the last thing I'll say before I open up some scriptures. What happened to this man was not only a physical attack. I am totally persuaded that it was an assault on everything that he stood for. And what he stood for includes the gospel that you and I believe in, and a ferocious, loving commitment to righteousness. So that's that's potentially why we feel the way we feel.
6:09 And it's only been what, two days? And knowing that we weren't gonna do Bible study tonight, I wanna just share with you three main thoughts that have been rewinding in my mind. And hopefully, these thoughts based on scripture will provide some kind of clarity and courage for you as it did for me. So the first thing that I can't seem to stop playing in my mind is how what had happened very much revealed the depths of wickedness in our society. The murder was brutal.
6:59 I found out about it while I was at the gym on Wednesday afternoon. And shortly after I received the clip, the raw clip of him being killed. And shortly after that, because I'm not on social media, I received screenshots of comments of people who celebrated the assassination. And some of the things that stood out to me were how people were even, and I'm saying this for a reason. You'll see it in a moment.
7:34 People were even putting gift emojis beside their comments, rejoicing of this man's public slaughter. Do you know where my mind immediately went when I saw those comments? The book of Revelation chapter 11. I want you to see this with me. It's amazing how this book, Revelation, is so timely for us as a church and how relevant it is even for tragedies like what we're experiencing today.
8:07 Revelation 11 is primarily about these two mysterious figures known as the two witnesses. I'm not gonna get into an interpretation or an explanation of who these figures are. I just want you to see what they will do, and how the world will respond to their ministry. Let's begin in verse four, Revelation 11. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
8:35 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying. And they have the power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire. Now pause.
8:58 These are unusual messengers of God who will be endowed with a certain level of authority and ability unlike any other time unless you really go back to the old testament. And and we're dealing with a tribulation period in this chapter, so this makes sense. This is a unique moment in history where God will empower these unique servants to accomplish something before the end of all things. Look at verse seven. And when they had finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them.
9:34 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is symbolically that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days, some of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb. Pause again. I wonder how that's gonna happen. How is every peoples of all tribes, languages, and nations gonna be able to gaze at two bodies in one location at the same time.
10:06 I think you know the answer. First 10. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. That's immediately where my mind went when I saw those heinous, despicable comments about the assassination of a father, a husband, and an innocent man. In the tribulation period when these two witnesses will be killed and will not even receive the honor of having their bodies respected, laying there on the streets for a few days.
10:53 People will actually be celebrating to the point of buying presents and giving it to others. Aren't you happy we got rid of these guys? Notice here that it says, these two prophets at the end of verse 10 had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. Ain't that remarkable? The preaching and the prophesying of these two witnesses will be torture to the inhabitants of the earth during the tribulation period.
11:19 It will literally torment them. For those who love darkness, truth is torturous. It is unbearable. It deserves the relief expressed through killing someone in order to silence them. What we witnessed two days ago, in my opinion, is a very strong reminder of where we're headed as a people in this world, as a nation.
12:01 So that's what stood out to me. As shocking as it is on your social media platforms, the things that you're seeing on people's stories and what they're posting, the Bible already prepared us in telling us very descriptively how people will respond to truth speakers as we approach the end of time. So don't be too surprised. And this also tells me that what we saw two days ago isn't the last of it. I know it it it can be defined and deemed as a historical thing, but it's not the last of it.
12:41 Because Revelation tells us that it's gonna at least happen to two other more witnesses. The second thing that has been swirling in my thoughts, and I know it's very easy to become sensational after something like what we saw two days ago. It's very easy to speak from your emotions, to be clouded in your judgment. And I don't want to do that. But I will say this because I believe it's true.
13:17 This is a wake up call to Christians that we live in a different America now. We are a people who believe in truth, and we are people who've been commissioned by God to speak the truth. The means by which somebody is saved is through the word, Roman high Romans highlights through the preaching of the word. We are not like some religions that wanna just remain to ourselves and are not interested in other people coming to know what we believe in. No.
13:54 We are the opposite. God has kept us on this earth to go out and to win other people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And we're living in a day where there is a growing movement that says, if you don't agree with what we believe, you deserve to be killed. And you're thinking to yourself, well, it was one gunman, and I'm here to remind you of the people who celebrated it. There is an entire culture.
14:35 There is an entire movement that is gaining momentum, that is becoming more bold, that is unafraid, that are willing to even die to silence those who speak the truth. So here's what I want to remind you of, not to instill more fear in you, but to be honest with you. We are living in an America that is advancing and moving towards a reality in which you will pay a price for what you believe in. Are you willing to pay that price? Cultural Christianity in the West is rapidly evaporating.
15:27 It's disappearing before our eyes. What you and I saw, again, two days ago wasn't the assassination of a young evangelist in a Middle Eastern country or under a communist regime. It was on a college campus through an organization that fostered discourse and dialogue for ideas to be exchanged freely, passionately, yes, but freely. And the leader of that organization was killed because, again, we're seeing the rise of an ideology that says, unless you remain silent or agree with us, you don't deserve to speak, you don't deserve to live. You've heard it many times from this pulpit that America is not exempt from persecution, that America is changing.
16:40 And personally, I'm concerned that even Christians that we may know of are still asleep. They're not getting it. They're not seeing it. They're they're still caught up in this life. Let me remind you of two verses that you know very well.
17:03 In John 15, Jesus told us something that relates to this thought. Verse 18, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. To us, it seems inconceivable, unthinkable that we could be hated, that we have evolved. Surely, we have evolved With all the massacres and all the civil wars and all the craziness, we we surely learned our lesson, and we can accommodate, and we can respectfully disagree. No.
17:51 Jesus prepares his people for all time to be hated. And one of the ways in which you can console yourself according to this verse is that if you are hated, remember that they hated Jesus. The perfect one, the sinless one, the most loving and gracious one, they hated Him. And if you live for him, what makes you think they're not gonna hate you and me? Now, another thing that really irked me with a little information that I received, because again, I'm not on these platforms, are the comments of supposed Christians, professing Christians who are biblically illiterate and have no idea how to interpret life, and events, and tragedies the way the Bible calls us to, who don't even have the basic grasp of what it means to be a follower of Christ.
19:06 What I mean by that? There are so many people who have verses in their profiles and claim to be followers of Christ who think that Christians should never call out sin, who think that Christians should never go out to the public square and confront unbelievers in their rebellion, in their darkness, who think that the most loving thing to do is to keep your faith to yourself and just preach the gospel. Don't don't discuss issues. Don't don't don't highlight any kind of movement or ideology. Just keep your mouth shut, sing your songs, listen to your sermons, live in sin, and just do your thing.
19:56 Can I ask you a question? Why did they hate Jesus? Why? Come on. Why did they hate him?
20:03 Can I tell you why? John seven seven. That's why. The Lord Jesus tells us why the world hated him. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.
20:25 I don't know what your version of Jesus is, but the one in the Bible shows me that the Lord Jesus testified to the world that its works were evil. He confronted sin. He pointed out iniquity. He charged people to repent. Even the woman who was caught in adultery which nominal Christians love to quote in defense of their unbiblical understanding of what it means to preach the gospel.
21:02 Yes, Jesus did say, he was without sin, let him cast the first stone. Yes, if there was anybody who was worthy to cast a stone, it was Christ himself because he was without sin. But the same Jesus who said that also looked at this woman and says, now go and sin no more. So many Christians out there are preaching half a gospel, not the true gospel. And believers, I want to look at you in the eye, from my heart, and remind you that we are advancing in a nation, in a culture that will try to do what it can to keep you from speaking the truth even if it means to lose your life.
22:01 Think about it. I never thought in my short life, the church at large would be having discussions of having armed security for their services. We're in America. What is this? Where are we?
22:20 People fled their nations to come to this country so that they can enjoy the right of being able to speak out. Oh, how that is quickly changing. So we have just been reminded that you can even be somebody who encourages dialogue and there are people who don't even want that. Be prepared Christians. Here's the last thing that I wanna say.
23:09 Tomorrow is not promised for any of us. And I was sharing with pastor Bennett before the service how I I briefly looked at the final clip of Charlie Kirk on his channel before he was murdered. It it was so interesting to hear him to to speak about the event in Utah as you and I would any ordinary weekend. So we're gonna be going to Utah, and this is the the start of our tour and just talking about it. I'm sure thinking that he was going to have a successful event, go home to his children, to his wife, maybe talk to him on the phone if he was away, go to sleep, and wake up to see another day.
23:56 And instead, mid sentence, he was shot in the throat. Tomorrow is not promised. This was a man who, again, in the prime of his life had so much to live, had so much ahead of him, was promised such a bright future, was commended and celebrated by so many, and the Lord Jesus took him home. The sovereignty of God is a strange thing. Really is.
24:27 It was only some months ago where somebody tried to assassinate the president and it grazed his ear. And then you have this young 31 year old man who was shot in a place that humanly speaking is impossible to recover from. Why did God allow one another the other? I don't have answers. I can speculate.
24:56 But if there's anything that I do know, it's this. Tomorrow is not promised. So should that cause us to live anxiously and obsessively in a negative way where you do all that you can to try to protect your life? Yeah. There there are natural means and there are common sense methods to enjoy life and to protect ourselves from danger and harm.
25:25 But but I don't think that's what we're supposed to take from this. If anything, we should be reminded that though death is very much possible at any point, we have no reason to fear it. Not one. Let me remind you of a verse that I brought up, I believe last Sunday or the Sunday before from Revelation yet again in chapter 14. In verse 13, and I heard a voice from heaven saying, write this, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.
26:14 Blessed indeed says the spirit that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. There's a lot of fear. And I decided to venture out and listen to other high profile names trying to make sense of what happened, trying to give some kind of hope or answers for how this nation can move forward to no avail, no success. No no tangible, helpful, concrete solutions.
26:59 But let me say this. The safest place for you in this crazy world is to be in Jesus. That's the safest. To be in the Lord. To be close to the Lord.
27:15 Death is coming for all of us. And for some of us, it it might be earlier than what's commonly experienced. So be it. Here's my charge to you. Live a meaningful life.
27:32 Live for the gospel cause. Live for the glory of God. Don't waste your life. Don't go out. Don't exit with no deeds following you, with no testimony, with no ministry, with no witness.
28:01 What a shame that would be. I'm not saying that means you have to have this big organization or you have to be in full time ministry. What I am saying though is one of my prayers, and it was our prayer many ways on Wednesday night when we came together as a church, which was so moving, is that one of the redeemable elements of what happened in this horrible tragedy is that it would wake up lukewarm Christians. Because we have too many of them. Distracted, vacillating, carnal, worldly Christians.
28:47 Let me tell you something. If we keep going in this direction as a nation, you won't survive what's coming. Your little faith, whatever it is, will shrivel up. But it doesn't have to. It can thrive.
29:10 It can be strong. It can be bold. It can be filled with the fragrance of Christ. If what happened doesn't bring you to your knees and make you think about your mortality and make you think about how am I really invested in this gospel? Am I really invested in serving Christ?
29:33 Or is he some peripheral thing? Is he just something that I attached to my weekend? I really hope that this tragedy will not produce what many tragedies do. A burst of concern, a sobriety only for it to dissipate and for people to just go back to their mundane ineffective Christianity. There's much more I can say.
30:13 There's much more that can be explained, at least attempted to be explained. But let me say two things before we pray. One, if you're here today and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm here to tell you without shame that he is the truth, that he alone alone has the answers for all the confusion and the chaos around us, that you don't know life unless you know him, that you won't have eternal life unless you believe on him. To reject him is to be rebellious, to know of his gospel truth, and to be indifferent towards it is damning. I hope that you have been awakened to the reality that no one in this world has an answer to how to change the human heart.
31:09 God does and it's in this word. You may have not been convinced of the reality of God, but hopefully, you are aware and you can't deny the pervasive evil, the demonic work that is manifesting right before our eyes. You know, it's amazing. You have unbelievers who are willing to call out and say what is really going on while so many others are spineless in the church. You have people who don't even believe in this gospel saying that this is a spiritual war.
31:56 You have unbelievers out there saying that this is demonic. You have people who are standing on a foundation that is weak, that is like sand, that offers no true hope, and they are grabbing megaphones, and they are projecting their ideas and their solutions. And yet, we have Christians who are still scared to give the only message that can save this generation. I hope you're more bold than ever. I hope you're more bold on your social media.
32:34 I hope you use what is taking place in our nation as an opportunity to approach people who are hurting, who are desperate for answers, though they may not admit it, and to step into their lives to give them the hope of Jesus Christ. If you don't give them a solution, Satan will give them a false one. And it'll just bring him into deeper deception. If I am not willing to do that, then what are we really here for? And so if you're a non believer here, I adjure you to truly repent, to bend your knee, to surrender to the one who is sovereign over all these things.
33:14 And believer, I exhort you from a place of love to really take your faith seriously. And to ask God to use you everyday and to stay close to the Lord everyday to live with an eternal perspective because tomorrow is not promised. Father, we ask Oh, Lord. How we need you in these times. It's very difficult for us to just turn off our cell phones, to not hear what's happening, to not look for updates.
34:12 But Lord, we understand that that can also be a trap where we can get sucked into an endless cycle of commentary and conspiracy theories and criticism and a culture war that can take us away from our true purpose. So we pray that you would use this brief service to reorient us and to put weight on our ankles so that we can stay firm where we're supposed to be. So Lord, give us divine wisdom, divine courage. Help us not operate out of feelings or in a reactionary way, but Lord to be harnessed by the truth, to be filled with the Spirit, to be encouraging to one another. Lord, we pray for an avalanche of courage to crash into your church.
35:17 We pray that there wouldn't be a drop of fear but fearlessness. That there would be a unity in the church, that there would be a passion for evangelism, that there would be, Lord, a prophetic power behind every pulpit. Lord, help us to preach the word in season and out of season. Even in these times as tempting as it may be to not exegete the culture. But Lord, we're also aware that there are headlines and there are events that intersect with the church and are impossible to ignore and this is one of those times.
35:59 And so we pray that you help us navigate through these troubling waters successfully in a way that honors you and blesses you. So Lord hear our prayers. Hear our prayers, oh God, this evening as your church. And we pray that you would answer us in a way that would produce fruit and testimonies. We pray for Charlie Kirk's family.
36:18 We pray for his wife, his babies, his parents, his loved ones, that you would flood them with peace. Oh, Lord, that they would understand that his death was not in vain. That they would know that to die in the Lord is a blessing indeed. And that they will be reunited with him again. And that he is indeed in your presence.
36:41 And that Lord in your great wisdom, you did not want him to do anything else beyond that day. He has fulfilled his purpose. Help us fulfill ours. We pray for this nation so polarized, so divided. Lord, at a boiling point anything can happen.
36:59 But we pray oh God that your spirit would hover over this place and that what would come about is a genuine spiritual revival. Somehow, someway, Lord, though this nation deserves great judgment, we pray that you would extend mercy. We ask Lord instead that there would be churches filled with people who want to be saved. That you would speak boldly as we heard about John the Baptist at the opening of the service. A nation at that time that was in great turmoil and great corruption politically and even religiously.
37:28 We ask, oh God, that you would raise up prophetic voices that would just preach thus says the Lord, the word of God. Lord, finally we ask that though we are surrounded by a divided nation, the church would not be divided at this time. Make it air tight in its unity. Make it air tight in its love. May our eyes be set on the true purpose of our presence and our existence here.
37:55 To proclaim the truth. To herald righteousness even though we are persecuted for it. So Lord, my prayer with my brothers and sisters is that there would be an innumerable amount of divine appointments in each of our worlds where we will have conversations and opportunities to proclaim the truth, that we would be unafraid to even ask people how they're doing with the tragedy and the chaos around us, and then to bring the truth to them. Because if we don't, who else will? We love you, Lord.
38:26 Hear our cries tonight for the many things that need your touch. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Here's how we proceed in this service. We have to do war on our knees.
38:44 This is a turning point. Really, it is. And I know that's the name of this man's organization, but I can't think of a better phrase. It really is a turning point. And it could head into a direction that is better or worse.
39:04 And so, just come before God. I wanna make it very open. We're not praying out loud like we do on Wednesday. You can pray with a pocket of people, whoever you came with. You can get on your knees on the carpet if you'd like, as long as you don't distract anyone.
39:17 If you want to remain solo, you can pray solo. But let's just pray. Let's pray for for Charlie Kirk's family, for the church at large, for this nation, for the world really, who has been seized by this assassination. And and let's ask God to use us, really, to make an impact for his namesake. I know much more could be said from the pulpit.
39:43 I know much more can can be touched on. My purpose here tonight is to simply exhort us. And my prayer is that you would leave here lighter, clearer, and with more courage. So let's just do that. Let's take the next few moments to pray here.
40:04 We'll con we're gonna continue to sing in a moment and close, but now let's just really pray. So find someone to pray with. If you wanna pray in a group, you can do that. If you wanna pray on your own again, you are permitted to do so as well. Music will be playing softly, and let's just seek the Lord together.
