Praying for Leaders
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Intro:
Intro:
AG: Parents- because I said so.
TS: Many times, we are taught by God without the benefit of knowing why. However, in our text this morning (1 Tim 2), God tells us why. Here, Paul tells us what to do and why it is important.
Paul wrote the letters to Timothy, a younger pastor, who was pastor of the church at Ephesus.
Paul tells the church and Timothy how to live and pray so that so that the gospel will go out to the lost around them.
That is the main point of the teaching and really of our lives. Furthering the gospel us to be our top priority.
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”
1 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
How are we to pray?
How are we to pray?
Supplication
Gk word root means “to lack”
This kind of prayer is a cry out of a need, a lack of something
We are to ask God to supply our needs.
The lost have the greatest need of all, to be saved.
There is no doubt we should pray for people to be saved.
I have a list of names I regularly mention to God for their salvation
Some are young family members, praying that they respond to God’s call in due time and repent.
Some are friends and coworkers who need the Lord
Pray for them to be saved.
Prayers
petition, A request.
To implore God to grant a request.
The act of speaking with the Father.
It implies a fervency to our petitions
To really be moved by the need.
Intercession
A word meaning to draw near, or speak intimately
MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary
The verb from which this word derives is used of Christ’s and the Spirit’s intercession for believers (Ro 8:26; Heb 7:25). Paul’s desire is for the Ephesian Christians to have compassion for the lost, to understand the depths of their pain and misery, and to come intimately to God pleading for their salvation
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
It is taking on their need and assuming the burden as our own.
Praying as if we were them.
Moses set a great example of this numerous times during the Exodus from Egypt. He begged God to forgive their rebellion and sin. It was personal for Him
In our interceding for others, we need to empathize with them. Bear their burden and lift them up to the Lord
Thanksgiving
As always, we are to worship with grateful hearts when we pray.
We should be grateful God has provided salvation for us.
We should be grateful God hears us
We should be grateful God answers us.
For Whom do we Pray?
For Whom do we Pray?
Our prayers are to be expansive.
All people
Everyone needs prayer
In the context: the lost in general are referenced here.
All people need the Lord, and we should pray for all.
King’s and those in high positions
They are powerful and influential.
Many, then and now, are hostile to God and people of faith.
Often they make things difficult for us and humanly speaking, there is an urge to respond with bitterness and animosity.
Paul urges us to reject bitterness, and pray for them
like everyone else, they need to be saved, even if they don’t know it.
IN the context of this letter, Paul said that Timothy was to teach the church at Ephesus to pray or Emperor Nero’s salvation.
We aren’t to be agitators, but rather, prayer warriors.
I we face persecution, let it be for living righteously.
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,
to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
and
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
Why include rulers? Why did God have Paul go there? He answers that in v. 2
for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
For what do we Pray?
For what do we Pray?
Those in authority have a large impact on our lives.
They enact and enforce laws that directly influence how easy it is to obey and worship God.
Christians: Here vs. There
God has blessed us with a country which has placed a high value on religious liberty.
It is one of the factors which drove people here.
While we have been blessed to be free,
A recent report estimated that About 80 percent of world lives in areas where religious freedom is ‘highly restricted,’
From state to state, and even city to city, we aren’t all equally free today.
Our governor:
Declared houses of worship as “essential services” and has included many exemptions to restrictions.
Others:
Not so much. In CA, their Gov. has severely restricted worship and even this week declared it illegal to sing during worship for 3 weeks.
Specifically, Paul mentions two things to ask of God that together, open more doors for the gospel.
Peaceful and quiet lives
Peaceful and quiet lives
Quiet- refers to the absence of outside disturbances
Peaceful- refers to the absence of internal ones.
We must obey GOD, not men when there is a conflict.
When we are free, it allows us much more leeway to live in peace.
We aren’t at odds with laws.
We don’t have to meet in secret
We face less “do or die” moments
What began as an act of gratitude to the Roman Emperor grew into a cult of Emperor worship.
Early in church history, Christians were faced with a decision to burn incense and declare “Caesar is Lord"
Both Jews and Christians were conscientiously unable to burn incense to any human being: Jews, after some initial persecution, got exemption from Claudius; but Christians suffered when the Church's numbers expanded sufficiently to attract the State's hostile attention (1 Pet. 4: 16). Failure to give divine honours to the emperor or ‘to swear by the genius of Caesar’ was not the only ground for persecution; but the anti‐Christian writer Celsus (about 178 CE) warned Christians of the perils of their lack of civic sense and of their disloyalty to an empire from which they derived many material benefits
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
We are pray to have quiet and peaceful lives.
Pray for freedom to worship without having the government interfere with what we teach and how we live out our faith.
Pray for the freedom to witness to those around us.
As we continue to blessed with God granting that request, we have peace inside. We won’t have to weigh obeying God vs obeying lawmakers.
Dignified and Godly Lives
Dignified and Godly Lives
Our lives are to be marked by holy living and dignity, a moral earnestness.
We are to live out our faith in the public arena.
Just as Jesus did, our lives should be a model and a beacon to point people to Him.
How we live
our choices, our behaviors, our priorities
How we love
God above all
Our neighbors as ourselves
Placing others’ needs ahead of our own.
All of this is to enhance the proclamation of the gospel.
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,
who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Conclusion:
Conclusion: