Pastor Dave Burrows Responds to Charlie Kirk Assassination: A Kingdom Perspective on Politics and Faith

[00:00] Before we get into the word today, I

[00:02] just wanted to mention something. I got

[00:04] quite a few calls and and uh saw a lot

[00:08] of stuff going back and forth

[00:11] on the internet about the recent

[00:14] assassination of the uh popular

[00:18] podcaster

[00:19] and activist

[00:22] Charlie Kirk. And so I want to share how

[00:25] we should respond from a kingdom

[00:28] perspective. A lot of people responding

[00:30] out of emotion. A lot of different a lot

[00:33] of different perspectives have been

[00:34] shared. But I just want to give you some

[00:37] guidance in terms of what I believe is

[00:39] the kingdom perspective.

[00:42] A number of people have been rejoicing

[00:45] and um even believers

[00:49] and we know that in the kingdom we never

[00:52] rejoice over evil

[00:55] because if people are whether the

[00:57] whether the guy is right or wrong

[00:59] whatever the situation is if we start

[01:02] killing people for ideas then you could

[01:05] be next.

[01:06] And one of the principles of the kingdom

[01:10] is that God is not willing that anybody

[01:12] should perish.

[01:14] So we have to make sure that we don't

[01:17] rejoice and get involved in people's um

[01:21] celebration or or wrong perspective on

[01:24] that. The second thing is

[01:26] whatever we

[01:29] look at in life in terms of politics and

[01:33] all of these kinds of things, we have to

[01:35] weigh it through the lens of the

[01:37] kingdom, not race or party.

[01:41] A lot of people are forming their

[01:44] opinions of what is right and wrong

[01:46] based upon political affiliation

[01:50] or race.

[01:52] You can never be right because you are

[01:54] black or white and you can never be

[01:56] right or wrong because you belong to a

[01:59] political party. We have to look at it

[02:01] through the kingdom. What is the kingdom

[02:03] perspective? That is the most important

[02:05] thing. If God says something is wrong,

[02:08] it's wrong. It doesn't matter which

[02:09] party, which race, whoever it is, you

[02:12] follow the word of God in making

[02:15] judgments. Amen.

[02:18] And in that same vein, we also have to

[02:22] realize that

[02:24] people are complicated.

[02:27] And sometimes you can have one person

[02:31] make a good statement and a bad

[02:33] statement. The proper attitude is that

[02:37] if they say something wrong, you call

[02:39] out the bad. If they say something good,

[02:41] you acknowledge the good.

[02:43] And we what we don't want to be is we

[02:47] don't want to be personality driven.

[02:50] And when I say personality driven,

[02:53] sometimes we get caught up in

[02:54] personality. Sometimes we get caught up

[02:56] to the point where we are feeling like a

[02:59] political figure or an activist or

[03:01] somebody that we support a person.

[03:06] Um, unless you know that person

[03:08] intimately,

[03:10] the kingdom perspective is you

[03:13] acknowledge when they line up with the

[03:15] kingdom.

[03:17] If they don't line up with the kingdom,

[03:18] it doesn't matter who they are.

[03:21] And we can't be looking for good people

[03:24] because most of the people who are on

[03:27] all sides of the political spectrum

[03:30] are not necessarily good. Some are good,

[03:33] some are bad, but from what I see, most

[03:37] of them I can't really call good if I

[03:39] line it up with the word of God. Are you

[03:41] with me?

[03:43] You know, if I if if I said if I if I

[03:46] pull the scripture and the scripture

[03:47] said a man should be faithful to his

[03:49] wife and so on and I look at the

[03:51] political figures and 99 or 90% or 80%

[03:54] don't line up with the word, I can't get

[03:57] caught up in the personality. I have to

[03:58] go by the word. And if the words say

[04:00] this person is not good, I say well okay

[04:03] they did some good things and I

[04:05] acknowledge the good. I call out the bad

[04:07] but I'm not going to attach myself to

[04:10] them. Another thing is don't become a

[04:12] donkey

[04:14] for agendas.

[04:18] A lot of people want to ride the church.

[04:22] So they want to they they want the

[04:23] church to get involved in their

[04:26] political opinion or their ideology. And

[04:30] sometimes what happens is that church

[04:32] people end up following a party, a group

[04:37] above the kingdom of God. Remember this,

[04:40] our primary citizenship

[04:43] is actually not the Bahamas.

[04:46] Our primary citizenship and allegiance

[04:49] is to the kingdom of God. So we view

[04:52] everything from a kingdom perspective.

[04:55] [Applause]

[04:58] Personally, I mean, I don't have any

[04:59] problem with people having a political

[05:02] affiliation. That's fine. But what

[05:05] becomes a problem is when your political

[05:08] affiliation overrides the kingdom and

[05:11] you become a donkey for for for

[05:13] political parties. And we know political

[05:16] parties and politics is very fickle.

[05:20] And you got all kinds of schemes and

[05:22] strategies. Don't don't allow people to

[05:24] make you a donkey.

[05:27] Personally, I have for all of my life,

[05:30] I've always been independent.

[05:32] My party is the KOG.

[05:36] Amen. That's my party.

[05:39] Now, if somebody has a policy that lines

[05:41] up with the KOG, I say, "Great." If

[05:45] somebody doesn't have a policy that

[05:46] lines up with the KOG, I can't go with

[05:48] you. I don't care who you are. I don't

[05:49] care if you're my neighbor. I don't care

[05:51] if you're my friend. My party, my vote

[05:54] always goes to KOG first. Amen.

[06:00] The other thing is we have to demand

[06:04] accountability from the people in the

[06:06] public space and not righteousness.

[06:10] That means you don't pay attention to

[06:12] personalities, you pay attention to

[06:14] policies.

[06:16] You know, I'm not going to look at an

[06:18] individual and look at their name and

[06:20] say, "Well, you know, I support this

[06:22] individual." I only support people who

[06:24] have the same policies that I

[06:27] acknowledge are kingdom policies. And

[06:29] so, I make sure and keep that clear. And

[06:33] then the the the last thing is you have

[06:36] to look at people's fruit. If they do

[06:40] good, then they're good. If they do bad,

[06:44] then they're bad. and you you judge them

[06:45] according to their fruit. But the main

[06:48] thing and the most important thing is

[06:50] our job is to focus on advancing the

[06:54] kingdom

[06:56] in the earth over every earthly agenda.

[07:01] Kingdom first. That's what Jesus said.

[07:03] Amen. So I just wanted to share that and

[07:07] uh to help those who may be struggling

[07:09] in one way or the