Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Forgive me for being distracted this morning. I did not even welcome the newcomers, and we have a few I’d like to welcome again.
Eddie and his family. Good to see brother Eddie. And we have a new person just spending a little bit of time at the ranch… Jose. Welcome, Jose.
And we have Andre we haven’t seen in a while… Andre, and Andre’s friend Patrick that we met a few months ago, and he’s visiting again. Patrick.
And I did not miss anybody. Am I missing anybody? Oh, no. Yeah. Everyone else? Yeah. Okay.
All right, let me, let me read the Psalm that came the day after the assassination, Psalm 56:1.
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; 2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. 3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. 4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? 5 All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. 6They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. 7 For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! 8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? 9 Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. 10 In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, 11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12 I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. 13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. (Psalms 56:1-13, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
Lord, we are still processing what happened this week. And it was a big deal that happened. And I’m not sure if we all realize it in the body of Christ, but it was a very big deal.
And so, Lord, we want to process this with you, with your word, in the body of Christ as we share with one another and pray for this country. Help us, Lord. Help us, Jesus, we need you now more than ever. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
I was not a Charlie Kirk fan in terms of watching a lot of his clips. I was familiar with his work at a high level, but not on the top of my list of people that I watched often. But his assassination, his death, moved me in ways that surprised me. And like Ron, I think anger was one emotion I felt. The other emotion I felt was fear and just going back and forth, fear and anger because I don’t think of him as a political figure, although he was in the political space. He is a preacher of the gospel. He is bringing Christian values into the college culture, and he’s fighting back. And if this can happen to a conservative speaker on a campus, I’m next.
Any preacher of the gospel, anybody who preaches truth that is unpopular to a world that is growing in their hatred for Christ and the values of Christianity, we are all targets. And so there is a fear that can cause somebody to be quiet and to be silent and to avoid all potential issues that would cause somebody to be angry and to respond in this type of violence.
The other side—and you heard a little bit, as I pray for the widow, Erika—you hear a little bit of this when she shares… this almost of a, this vengeance or like, “wait till you see what’s coming next”—that kind of a heart, which I understand. She’s just—it’s just raw emotion, anger. It’s like, this is so unjust.
And when you, when you watch Charlie Kirk, and I watched a good number of clips this week, and I got more familiar with his, his style, the fact that he is heckled and people are throwing things at him and people are running him out of restaurants and he smiles. And one of his co-workers who knows him well described him as a happy warrior. I thought that’s such a good description of a Christian. Happy warriors. We’re happy warriors. We’re in this fight, and we don’t get triggered. We don’t get angry. We don’t fight back the way we’re getting attacked.
And so those are some of the thoughts I had. I read Psalm 56 with Ed, and some gathered in the morning as we were just going through chapter by chapter through the book of Psalms. And it says,
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? (Psalms 56:4, ESV)
And flesh that is hateful toward God can do quite a bit to us, even silence us on this side of eternity, because they so hate the truth and the message that is coming forth. Man can do, flesh can do a lot. They can cancel us. They can, we can make us lose jobs and we can be taken out even. So, flesh can do a lot. But here, the Psalmist King David is proclaiming his trust in the Lord. He prays, praises God. He sings his way through the attacks.
Not just Psalm 56, but the first verse after this Psalm that I read that the Lord put on my heart is 2 Chronicles 7:14.
14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14, ESV)
And that is, when things like this happen in our country, the body of Christ has to look in the mirror. Have we been doing what God says in His Word, which is to humble ourselves and to get on our face, pray, seek God’s face? Not asking for a lot of things, just seeking His presence, just wanting to connect, not having an agenda, not trying to use God to get what we want, but just seeking His face, really interested in a relationship and then turning from our wicked ways.
And then God promises, “If you do these four things, I will do these three things. First, I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive your sins, and I will heal your land.”
And you might be wondering, “How come God doesn’t hear my prayers?” Are we doing the four things that He requires in His word? You might say, “Well, I can’t stop doing wicked things.” Well, if you keep doing wicked things, there is no guarantee that God will hear you. But if your heart is, you’re seeking His face, you genuinely want to connect with Him. And this wicked way, this thing, you cannot keep doing it and you actually turn from and say, “I really repent, I don’t want to live this way anymore,” and you’re genuine in your repentance… Then God sees all of the heart behind it, and then He says, “I’m hearing you finally. My ears are open to your prayers, and I’m now ready to forgive.”
And then the promise at the end, which we need for America, is healing for our land.
We just celebrated the 24th anniversary of 9/11. That was a dark day in this country. And for whatever you believe about what happened and who’s behind it, it was just a dark day. And we’ve been marching ever so steadily in the direction of darkness ever since.
And this, I think, is another potential turning point because he, Charlie Kirk, that’s his ministry, and I think it’s prophetic. We’re at a precipice. We can go one way or the other. We can either continue to descend into depravity, into darkness, or if the body of Christ humbles themselves and prays and seeks God’s face and turns from our wicked ways, then maybe we can turn back to God. And this country can return back to God and be healed of all of its sicknesses.
And so I’ve been asking the Lord what sickness has descended upon America. One passage that came to mind is Isaiah 6. When God is calling a prophet, before a prophet speaks, his lips have to be cleansed. And so he confesses his own sins, which actually mirror the sins of the people. He says, “I have unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.”
5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5, ESV)
If you’ve been tracking what’s been happening in our country ever since social media, and especially heightened in the last 5-10 years, I believe we are seeing a disease of the lips. Just uncleanness coming forth all the time. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, it’s just uncleanness. It could be politics. Before you could have a reasonable conversation about politics; even if you differ, you can talk about it with civility. Now you can’t do it because of unclean lips and anger underneath those lips. And family members who voted differently, they can’t even gather for Thanksgiving. Isn’t that what the enemy wants? Doesn’t he want us to keep staining our body through our lips and dividing people because of politics, because of theology, because of whatever current events?
Just because you don’t align with that person, now suddenly there’s a firestorm in the house and people you used to love, now you can’t stand them. You murmur under your breath, “I can’t believe they’re so blind.” Guess what? They’re saying the same about you. It doesn’t matter what the issue is, what side you’re on. Both sides think the other side is blind. It’s unclean lips and it’s anger mixed in there, which causes division.
When I think of Charlie Kirk, and I’ve seen some clips, the fact that people can treat him this way and he smiles, and he doesn’t fight back and he is polite and he’s respectful to me, that is impressive fruit for a 20-year-old, a 30-year-old. Like if I put myself in that, in the same shoes and the cameras are running, I don’t know, would I be like, take a, like lunge forth and say, “What are you going to do?” And then, then for God’s name is disgraced and the ministry shut down. I just wonder, like in that situation, how would I act? Impressive fruit for a young man. Impressive.
He is going in the lion’s den. He’s picking a fight in some sense. He’s trying to awaken people through just discourse. He’s just talking and somebody who’s talking and expressing an opinion, and I thought, we’re a country of free speech. That person can be taken out? That means any preacher of the gospel, we’re next in line. The battle is at our doorstep. These are the things I’m feeling. And so we need to pray for America.
And how do we pray? We first turn from our wicked ways. Let’s examine our speech. How do we talk about the family member who’s on the other side of what you believe? A conviction that you have that is even covered in Romans 15? Convictions are not supposed to be shared to every believer because there’s weaker brothers and sisters. So even in the body of Christ, we’re supposed to bear with one another. We’re supposed to be careful with our convictions.
Paul had greater revelation, and yet he doesn’t make people feel bad. He doesn’t start a fight in the church over these convictions. He’s so careful with his words. And so what we’re saying about people on the other side, behind closed doors or maybe even to their face… examine your speech and examine the emotions behind the speech. Is there anger, and is there uncleanness that leads to division? That leads to now you just lost this person because trust has been broken. Now, whatever you say about God, they don’t want to hear you.
Is that what God wants? For you to be so passionate about this topic that you lose that person possibly for eternity? “This conviction is so strong, I have to share it to my brother and sister, who doesn’t see it.” You just lost your brother and sister. You just stumbled a weaker brother. They might not come to church. They might say, “Well, this is what church is. I get beaten over the head because I don’t believe what the pastor believes?” You just lost that person.
It says in James 1:19,
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:19-21, ESV)
We have two ears and one mouth. We should listen twice as much as we speak. Slow to speak that word that just is just rising up and bubbling up because that person is so off. That person is so wrong. You can’t help yourself. It’s bubbling forth. Be slow to speak on any number of topics from the Bible to current events to politics to health care. That thing is just rising up. You want to say it. They’re so blind. You need to wake them up. And God says, “Be slow. Pray about it. Wait upon the Lord. That thing that you’re about to say, it’s gonna, it’s gonna cause a flame.”
We read that in chapter 3. The words that we don’t tame, this tongue. It leads to the whole body being on fire. It’s a fire of hell that just burns relationships and severs trust and seals fates of people going away from God because they don’t want to hear you anymore.
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. (James 3:6, ESV)
Preacher, teacher, Christian. The body of Christ. We need to be quick to hear. Listen to the person, listen to where they’re coming from. Discern. Do they have ears to hear? Are you going to share something? And it’s like giving a pearl to a swine. They’re going to turn and trample on you if you discern it wrong, and you just, you just feel, “Well, I just have to say it. It’s true. They’re just blind. I have to say it.”
No, you don’t have to say it. You don’t have to post on social media this foolishness that’s going to get your tribe happy and emboldened, but it’s going to get the other side enraged. Is it wise to post on social media your opinion about what’s happening in our country? You have pastors who are really passionate about what happened. But, but they’re, but they’re saying what they’re saying with, with so much anger. And is that a good witness for Christ?
Someone who doesn’t know Jesus and just listens to that clip and says, “Oh, all Christians are like this? All Christians are so political, are so angry?” Because they have no idea. They don’t have the Holy Spirit. They don’t, they don’t, they don’t understand anything that the pastor is saying. They just get the vibe of the pastor, and they don’t smile and they seem so upset. And is that a good witness for Christ?
Should we just be praying to the Lord to heal this land? Because only Jesus can fix this.
And I don’t know which way it’s going to turn. I don’t know if the body of Christ is going to do what it says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 and turn back to God in a way that He hears from heaven and forgives and heals the land. I don’t know if that’s the direction we’re going to go. And we’re going to see God withholding judgment and the scheme of the enemy being put on a pause.
And I don’t know if there’s going to be just more time for people to repent or if Satan has his way and the love of many grows cold and the body of Christ. Instead of repenting, we just get angry and agitated, and we just fight, but in the wrong way. Not a spiritual battle, but going to the farmers market with a megaphone and just turning people off with the anger and that “You’re going to burn in hell.”
And I don’t know which way this country’s gonna go. I just know our country is very sick, very sick. Disease of the lips and a disease of the heart. A lot of anger. Doesn’t matter which side you’re on. A lot of anger. I feel it in me rising as the years go by. It wasn’t there in my teens. I mean, okay, it was there. It went away after I got saved in my 20s and 30s. But as I live life and I see everything unfolding and the plans of the enemy in my 40s and now into my 50s, this anger is coming back and it’s not good. It’s a disease of the heart.
And if you speak out of anger, the anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. If we’re angry and everything we’re saying is true, we’ve just discredited ourselves and the message. We are pleading with people with a heart of forgiveness as Jesus demonstrated as He was dying on a cross. We’re pleading with people and forgiving them and calling them to repentance with a lot of compassion and softness and trying to win that person over, listening to them, knowing where they’re coming from, not shouting past them, not trying to win an argument, but really listening. Asking the Lord, “Okay, this person, if you were here, Jesus, how would you reach them?”
Because He reaches Nicodemus a certain way. He reaches the woman at the well a certain way—very tailor made. He understands because He listens. He understands what’s in the heart.
We can’t always perceive the heart. So we just have to be better listeners. Okay, this person doesn’t have ears to hear. I’m going to avoid this topic. I’m just going to listen. I’m just going to pray for this person. I don’t need to say a word. I’m just going to pray for this person. I don’t want to lose them because maybe a year from now, 10 years from now, maybe on their deathbed, because I was so gracious to them and I withheld my… I tamed my tongue, maybe I will have an audience with them as they’re dying because they don’t see me as somebody who is always trying to fight them in verbal, and having verbal altercations, trying to show that they’re right. Somehow we keep that bridge open, and we try to win them over. We don’t know when God will give us a chance, but we’re very winsome and we’re very attractive in how we share the gospel.
So let’s pray for America, and let’s pray for our own hearts. Pray for unclean lips, and let’s pray for anger, unclean emotions in our hearts. As we do what God says in His word, let’s believe that God will do what He says in His word. Let’s pray for the healing of America. Okay, let’s pray.
Father, what happened this week, it was not a political issue. It is a spiritual issue. We’re seeing the disease of our country that comes out through our lips and through our emotions.
Like Isaiah, we confess that we have unclean lips and we live among a people of unclean lips. We take the wisdom that you give in your word in the book of James. Help us to be slow, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, especially in these volatile times.
This is not a time to go on social media. It’s a time to get in our prayer closets and to do what you say in your word. To humble ourselves, to pray, to seek your face, and to turn from our wicked ways, our speech and our anger. We repent, Lord. And as the body of Christ in America does it, we know that when we do our part, you will do your part. You will begin to hear our prayers from heaven. You will begin to forgive our sins finally from heaven and possibly even heal our land.
America is sick. America is spiritually dying. We’re seeing the cancer come forth. The tumor is visible. It’s on the lips, it’s on the heart. We see it through the speech and through the anger. We pray, Lord, that you would intervene and give us more time. We’re not ready for the return of Christ. Many in our family are not ready to have a face to face judgment. We need more time for ourselves and our loved ones and for everyone who does not believe in Jesus. We need more time, Lord.
So please grant us more time as the body of Christ around this world repents. Heal this world. Heal America. Thank you for Your Body that was broken for us and Your Blood shed. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
And as you pray, if the Lord allows you, the Body and the Blood are here, and if God gives you a green light and you’d like to participate, partake with us the Lord’s Supper.
