This is the transcript of the prayer by Pastor Tim Stephens on September 14, 2025.
I want to pray for events this week that I’m sure you’re aware of—Charlie Kirk’s shooting and how he was assassinated. I think it was more than an assassination. I believe he was martyred for his faith. Many of you might not know Charlie Kirk. The reason why this was so significant to me and to many others is not only because he was a young man—31 years old with wife with kids and adored by his family and by all those who work with him. That hurts to realize that. But then to realize the reason why he was hated, why he was shot and killed, and why (incredibly!) many people are celebrating that—which is awful, it’s atrocious—it was because of his worldview, because of his ideology. It wasn’t just because he was a MAGA Republican. It was because he was an unapologetic Christian who understood that the Bible and that the truth of the Christian worldview had political implications. And so, he was not afraid to be vocal about gender ideology, about abortion, about anything under the sun.
The things that he was saying are the things that I believe many of us, if not most of us here would ascribe to and affirm wholeheartedly. And so, when he is hated and maligned and then publicly shot and killed and then his death celebrated, we recognize that this is not just a war against Charlie Kirk. This is a war against all those who profess Christ, which is ultimately a war against Christ himself.
As such, his death hits very close to home. So, I want to take some time and to pray for Charlie Kirk’s family, for all those who knew him and loved him, and that God would use this as a opportunity for the gospel—that God would encourage us to be bold.
I know a few years ago many of us were emboldened when we saw other people go to jail for the sake of Christ and his church, and now to see someone martyred for the sake of Christ has a similar effect. This ought not to move us to fear or to cowardice, it ought to move us to hope, to boldness, to be more vocal, more bold, more clear when it comes to these issues, and not be dissuaded by the enemy, understanding that we’re not in a political battle. We’re in a truth battle. We’re in a spiritual battle. And it is a matter of the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ over all things.
If our country, if our Western society is going to flourish and get back on the right track, Christ must be exalted, or it’ll be the end of us and the undoing of us. But regardless of what the future might bring for the United States of America or for Canada, or for our province, it’s my hope, it’s my prayer that we would be a people vocal about the pre-eminence of our Lord Jesus Christ and that we believe everything that he says is true and that we ought to bring that into the public sphere.
And so, let’s come before our Lord now in a word of prayer.
Oh, heavenly Father, as we come before you this morning, our hearts are heavy. God. Just a few weeks ago, John MacArthur died and went home to be with you. And his death, while lamentable, was one that we knew was coming. We knew that he had in so many ways finished his course with joy and he was received into your arms.
And heavenly Father, this week as Charlie Kirk was publicly killed and martyred, heavenly Father, we know and we’re comforted by the fact that he knew you. He knew the gospel. He was bold and lived for you. We know that the authenticity of his faith was testified by those who knew him well, by his wife and those who loved him so very dearly. And so, we know that he has received a martyr’s crown, and his voice is now added to those saints that we read about in Revelation chapter 6 as they cry, “How long, O Lord?”
And heavenly Father, this is our cry as well. How long will you tolerate such wickedness, perversion, the celebration of a death of a father, a husband, one who spoke about peace, one who decrieded any form of violence? Oh, heavenly Father, you know that as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we would condemn any kind of murderous, violent, abusive acts. Oh, heavenly Father, in your name, people go to the world to give their lives, not take life. Oh, heavenly Father, and as the media tries to frame this as hate and animosity either in Charlie or on those who are like him, oh, heavenly Father, I pray that you would expose their lies as labels like Fascist, Nazi, racist are continuing to be used against those who proclaim the gospel of saving faith to every creature. Oh, heavenly Father, you see, and you know, but we pray that the world would know.
We pray that many would come to saving faith and repentance, seeing a wife emboldened even over the tragic loss of her husband and seeing a community respond with resiliency, with hope, not with retaliation, not with burning down cities, not with lynching and mobs, but with prayers, with seeking to take up the microphone, fallen to the ground, and continue to proclaim Christ.
Oh, heavenly Father, I pray that would be our response. I pray that the ministry that Charlie started, Turning Point, would continue to grow and succeed and impact the United States, impact Canada, and around this world. And whether it’s that ministry or another, oh, heavenly Father, we just desire for your church to prevail, your gospel to go forward, and to see people live honoring and adoring the Lord Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, I thank you that as Charlie Kirk grew in his faith, he grew more sound in his doctrine, grew more aware of what is most important, understanding the bedrock of the family, of fatherhood, of parenting to a good society, understanding the need for Christ to be at the center of all things. Oh, heavenly Father, for these things, may we continue to take up that same torch.
Heavenly Father, I pray for those who continue to foment hate and even joy over this. Oh God, I pray that you grant them repentance, that you would be so kind and merciful to them. I pray that they might see the truth for what it truly is, that they might be delivered from lies. Oh God, I think of those who are ensnared, especially those who spend so much of their time in the online world. It’s almost like an alternate reality and there’s no ability to function and to dialogue and to live in the real world and understand there’s different people that have different ideas.
Heavenly Father, help us here as a church community to not be virtual, not be retreating back to some social media universe that’s constructed with friends that we pick and choose, but that we would live incarnationally like our Lord Jesus Christ, in the flesh. I pray that we would value physical and personal relationships and that these things would be for our betterment and for mutual joy.
Heavenly Father, the events of this week have exposed the great divide in our country and in the United States and the spiritual conflict that is a true war. Oh, heavenly Father, we ask and pray that the gospel would prevail. We ask that you’d have mercy upon our countries. We’d ask that you bring great revival. We’d ask that you revive our churches and our families to make the gospel preeminent. We ask that Jesus Christ be recognized as Lord.
And so, Lord Jesus, we’re hanging on to your promise that you will build your church. We pray that you would do this, that you do it here, do it now, for the good of your people and for your honor and glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.