09/14/2025
Charlie Kirk was an unashamed Christian. When asked about what he wanted to be remembered for, he said that he wanted to be known for being courageous for his faith in Jesus Christ. When many people think of the word encourage, they think of being made happy or something along those lines. In reality, to be encouraged is to be inspired to courageous action.
Christian, the life and death of Charlie Kirk should encourage you in this way.
It should cause you to have courage placed into your soul so that you may stand boldly for Jesus Christ.
When Stephen was martyred in Acts 7, he was killed by the Jewish leaders after proclaiming the gospel. The historian, Luke, records that after preaching the gospel “they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.” Stephen didn’t cower, or run away, he looked to the heavens as if to say “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Paul asks the church in Rome this “If God is for us, who can be against us?” There is one adversary, that ancient serpent, the devil and he is powerless against the believer because the believer has been united with Christ and God is now for us.
Christians have not been given “a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.” And that’s how we move forward, with a powerful self-control that is motivated primarily out of love of God and neighbor.
The reality of the situation that we find ourselves in as Christians is the precise reality that Jesus promised.
John 15:18-21
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.