Title: The Praying Church
Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-4
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, last week I began my sermon by saying that the Christian life is a warfare. I mentioned that there are times when the warfare is literal, where Christians are persecuted and even killed. I said that for most of us the warfare is spiritual, and yet this past week the warfare was literal and mortal for Charlie Kirk.
For those who might not know, I'd be surprised if you didn't know by this point, in Utah on a college campus in broad daylight, 31-year-old Charlie Kirk was murdered by a deranged and wicked shooter. And while many would claim that this was a politically motivated assassination, I believe it was actually a Christian martyrdom. Why do I say that? Well, because even though Charlie Kirk was bold and unashamed with his political views, and I would even argue that the political realm has not become more political, the politics has now become more spiritual and moral.
They've waded into our territory, into biblical morality. So even though he was political, he was an evangelist for the Christian faith, and argued for a political worldview that was born out of that faith. And while he frequently debated over issues such as gender and sexuality, marriage, race, family, education, using logical and philosophical arguments, he almost always and invariably defended his beliefs from Scripture and never apologized for them.
And while the conservative movement has certainly lost a rising star, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has lost a brother, lost to us on earth but welcomed in heaven because and only because of his saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But so many right now are wrestling with what to do. What do we do? And we've heard a lot of answers from the blogosphere and the mediasphere this week.
There may be some who have a desire to retaliate or to act out some sort of vengeance, whatever that may be, but Scripture is abundantly clear in 2 Corinthians 10 that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. Our warfare is spiritual. It is theological.
Christians are never called to resort to certainly any kind of physical violence. That's Satan's playbook, not ours. Furthermore, Romans 12 specifically commands us in Romans 12, 17, never pay back evil for evil to anyone.
Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God.
For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Verse 21, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. We are not to attempt any sort of retaliation or retribution that belongs to the Lord.
And part of the Lord's justice includes the governing authorities, which are established by God, Romans 13, 1. And the government bears the sword as an avenger who brings the wrath on the one who practices evil. That's what Scripture says. God is more than able to vindicate the righteous and to punish evildoers.
And so, what do we do? What is to be our response? Are we simply to be culture's doormats, offering up thoughts and prayers as the pundits so readily mock? Well, in a word, yes, except that thoughts and prayers are different than what they're claimed to be. Our thoughts are to be biblical, godly thoughts. And our prayers are to the Most High God, and those prayers are earnest and sincere.
We must become all the more committed to seek the face of the Lord despite opposition and persecution. We must be a praying church. We must learn to do all things that please God rather than satisfy the anger of the flesh.
And so, I would invite you to turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 2, 1 Timothy chapter 2. We've been here for a few months now. The Apostle Paul is writing this letter to his young disciple Timothy who has remained on at the church in Ephesus in order to guard the church against all kinds of doctrinal error. In fact, he's essentially focused the discussion all throughout chapter 1 of 1 Timothy on that very thing.
And yet, we also have to remember in light of Paul's exhortation to Timothy to guard the church from error and watch out for false teachers and those who abuse the use of the law and so on and so forth, there is a secondary purpose inside 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy is not all just for pastors and church leaders. 2 Timothy 3.15 says from Paul to the church, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
And so, this letter contains exhortations for us. Exhortations regarding Christian conduct within the gathered assembly. And a large portion of 1 Timothy pertains directly to us.
How we carry ourselves in the church gathered, the public assembly of worship, but also how we live our lives as believers. But if you had to begin the discussion on Christian conduct in the church, where would you start? What would be the first thing you talk about? Well, I can tell you where Paul begins as he shifts the focus away from these ministerial things to the gathered assembly. Where does Paul begin? He begins with prayer.
1 Timothy chapter 2. Paul says, first of all then, I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I am telling the truth, I am not lying. As a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth, therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension. Now admittedly, this is a very dense passage.
I wrestle with how much to cover in any given message, and so I intend to cover the bulk of this passage in progressive weeks here. We're going to be in this section for a few weeks, but for our purposes today, I really want to focus on verses 1 through 4 with an emphasis on the first two verses. So we're going to dip our toe into this passage, but we will cover everything.
But here, Paul is beginning a new section in the letter. This is a brand new section, and he begins with these words, first of all then. The word first here, proton in the Greek, can refer to that which is first numerically, but also it can refer to that which is first of importance.
And I think based on the context here, that Paul is placing Christian prayer at the forefront of the conduct of believers. After all, chapter 2 is about corporate worship. And we're going to see here, this is prayer in the assembly, and then we're going to see exhortations at the end of chapter 2, exhortations for Christian men, and then many exhortations for Christian women.
But again, this is the gathered assembly, but prayer comes first. Prayer comes first. Incidentally, this is why our church service, and virtually every other church service in the country or in the world here, opens with Scripture and prayer.
We have announcements, and I've always kind of had it in my head that the announcements are simply that. They're just announcements. There's nothing special about the announcement time, but as soon as we transition to getting up and reading God's Word, opening the Word of God, it's the first thing we do, reading the passage clearly, articulately, pensively, and then praying to God.
That's how we begin our time of worship. So we begin with prayer just the same way the Apostle Paul does here. It is a matter of first priority.
First priority. In fact, Paul urges the church to do it. Perikolo is the Greek word.
It means asking or beseeching or pleading. Why does Paul speak so strongly about this? I think because all too often Christians tend to forget prayer in favor of doing other things in our own strength. However, prayer expresses the humble reliance and dependence on the power of God.
It is not prayer itself that has power. It is the one to whom we pray. He's the one who's powerful.
So when we entreat Him, we are pleading for God to unleash His power. That is what's powerful. But the prayer of a righteous person, James says, accomplishes much.
One of the most poignant teachings in Scripture comes in Matthew 6 as the nature and model of prayer are laid out. Jesus talks about the importance and certainly the way that we are to pray. We are not to pray like pagans and hypocrites, proudly and ostentatiously and meaninglessly.
But rather we are to pray earnestly and humbly and faithfully. Scripture has a lot to say about prayer. We are taught to pray against temptation, Mark 14, 38.
We are taught to pray for those who persecute us, Luke 6, 28. We're taught to pray for wisdom and understanding, Ephesians 1, 18. First Thessalonians 5, 17 says we are to pray without ceasing.
But above all, we are to pray that God's will be done. Above anything we could desire for ourselves, anything we could desire for somebody else, the preeminent posture of our prayer, the focus of our prayer is, Lord, please do what You will. Glorify Yourself regardless of anything else.
We are to be a people of earnest, humble, godly prayer. In the New Testament, there are seven different words that are used to express the notion of prayer, and out of those seven, four are used in this verse here. And so Paul begins here when he's talking about prayer, we're going to see four words that are all connected to this concept of prayer.
But he begins with, I urge that entreaties, entreaties be made. Some translations render this supplications. The sense of the word portrays a deep need or desire, an earnestness of need or want, something that I can't live without.
That's the sense of it. It's when you go to God with a petition or a request and trust Him that He's able to meet your need. Our prayer should be as such.
We ought to be people of needful prayers. Don't think too highly of yourself that, oh, I can do it. I don't need God's help on this one.
Go to God with everything, everything, beloved, needful prayer. Entreaties be made. And then he says that we are to engage in prosuche is the Greek word.
It's the most common general word for prayer, prayer. In fact, many scholars believe that all four words here in this verse are simply just various dimensions of prayer. It's all really just the same thing.
And that's certainly true. I mean, all of these are just versions of prayer, but there are in these four terms a little bit of nuance in each of them. What is prayer, prosuche? William Hendrickson, a New Testament scholar, says this term covers every form of reverent address directed to the deity, to God.
See, prayer isn't just talking to God. Now, there's nothing wrong with just sharing your heart and talking to the Lord and as you go about your day, just having conversation with him. That's certainly right.
We are to talk to God as our friend. We are to entreat him as our father. But we are not to be cavalier in the way that we pray.
We're never to lower, make him lower in our minds and bring him down to our level. He is the most high God. He is exalted.
And so it's more than just talking to him and just kind of hanging out with him. It is a humble, reverent address to the King of creation. But we see these first two words, entreaties or supplications and prayers, even expressed together in places like Philippians 4, 6, where the Bible says, be anxious for nothing, but by everything in prayer or by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.
That encompasses the sense of this. Again, everything, when your heart is anxious, and all of our hearts, even people who don't claim to be anxious people, there are times when anxieties overtake us. There are times when we're worried about things.
Maybe you're worried about your finances. Maybe you're worried about your health. Maybe you're worried about a beloved friend or a family member, a parent or a child or a spouse or something going on in the world.
There's always times when we're anxious, but Scripture says, be anxious for nothing. Why? Well, because we are able to go to God with prayer, with petition, with supplication, and to do this with thanksgiving and bring our requests and lay them at his feet and say, God, I'm going to cast my cares. We were praying about this earlier.
I'm going to cast my cares on you. Not because I don't care about them or that I'm worried that you don't either. I'm casting my cares on you because I know that you do care and you are actually able to do something about it.
I can't do anything for myself in terms of my anxieties. I can't change the world. I can't change anything.
Ultimately, we're casting our prayers, our supplications at the feet of God. This is when you bow down before the Lord in reverence and you pour out your anxious heart to him. Oh, Lord, I need help.
Oh, Lord, I need peace. Oh, Lord, I need healing. Lord, I need provision.
I need forgiveness. Oh, Lord, be merciful to me. Needful prayers of entreaties and supplications, reverent prayer that is humble before God.
And then Paul adds to this petitions, petitions. The word in the Greek here, it's a unique word, is entuxis. It's a rare word, actually, in the New Testament.
There's only other one place it's used. It's in actually 1 Timothy 4-5. And scholars have sort of scratched their heads about what this word means.
Literally, the Greek word entuxis is to fall in with someone. And that's led many linguists to conclude that this has to do with confidence or boldness of appealing to God. It's when you're in alignment with him, you're falling in into a relationship with him, and you have access to him through in a confidence and in a boldness.
So let me just give you an example. If the king doesn't know you, you're a little bit hesitant to go up and ask him for something. But when the king is your father, you can approach with confidence.
That's the same idea. In fact, early church father, Origen, noted that this is the fundamental idea of boldness of access to God's presence. We're not bold because we're something special.
We're bold because he has told us, come to me. Come into my throne room. Come and lay your burdens at my feet.
That's the sense of Hebrews 4-16. Since we have a great high priest, a sympathetic high priest, the priest is not a human person. The priest is God eternal, Jesus Christ, who is our priest before the Father.
Because we have him, the Bible says, let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace for what purpose? So that we may receive mercy and find grace in helps in time of need. We are to go to God confidently. Not pridefully.
Not boastfully. Not with a braggadocious spirit. Nothing like that.
But I can be confident. I know I can come. I don't have to tremble and be afraid.
He might turn me away. He might not listen to me. He might yell at me.
It isn't like that with God. We come to him. We fear him as a reverence, a father figure.
We certainly see him that way. But even in the reverence and the fear of the Lord, we come to him boldly and say, Lord, I belong to you. Please, here's my petition.
Here's my request. And he answers according to his will. And so there's a confidence to our prayer.
A confidence here. But some scholars have also seen this word connected to another Greek word that is similar in construction. And that word is used to refer to intercession.
And that word is really the root of what we see in Romans 8, 26, whereby the Spirit intercedes for us before the Father with groanings too deep for words. In fact, some translations actually render this word intercessions, intercessions, or as Andreas Kastenberger, the New Testament scholar, says, bold appeals for divine action on behalf of others. He blends the two together, which is, I think, okay.
Either way, our prayers ought to be confident, but we also know that we are called to pray for others, to intercede for the good of others, to have a heart for other people and to pray for them. That's certainly welcome. And then lastly, Paul notes thanksgivings, thanksgivings.
Eucharistia in the Greek is gratitude or the giving of thanks to God. In many places in Scripture, we are commanded to be thankful to the Lord, to be thankful. First Timothy 4, for everything by God is created to be good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with Eucharistia, with gratitude.
And so, without pressing the distinctions too much, we certainly need to be people of needful prayer, reverent prayer, confident prayer, intercessory prayer, and thankful prayer. That ought to characterize the quality of how we bring our prayers to God. Of course, this naturally leads us to a logical question, what, or excuse me, who should we pray for? We're to have all these aspects of our prayer, but who are we praying for? Verse 1 again, first of all, then I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men.
The New American Standard, which is the translation I'm using today, it's in your pew Bible, it renders this all men. It's the Greek word anthropos, which refers to people. It's not literally males, it's all people.
So all people. Now, this begins sort of a pattern in this passage of all statements. We're going to see this from Paul.
We're praying for all men. God desires all men to be saved. He's giving Himself as a ransom for all.
I want all the men in every place, so there's an all, all, all, all. There's an inclusiveness to the passage here that Paul is camping out on. And so, what's the purpose of praying for all men, all people, everywhere? What is the purpose? Well, Paul is setting this over and against the elitism of early Gnosticism.
And that sort of attitude of this higher ups, we have this elitist class of people in the ancient world that would exclude commoners. We see this in every form of society. We see it in our society.
There are the upper crust here, the elitist class, who only ever do things for themselves and neglect the common person. That is not the way of Christ. Read James 2. That's not the way of Christ.
Rather, we are not to be people who are only focused on that privileged class. And even over and against Judaism at the time that was excluding pagan Gentiles. We only pray for our people.
Paul is blowing that up. He says you're not just to only pray for your friends, people who are like you, the enlightened or privileged class, and Jews. You don't just pray for Jews.
He says that prayers should be made on behalf of all people. In other words, all kinds of people. All kinds of people.
Now does he mean when he says all people, does he mean every single person? That's physically impossible. You could not pray for every single person. Even if you knew their names, you would not have enough lifetime to go through every single name in the world.
So he doesn't mean to say every single person, but rather he is talking about all kinds of people, anybody, anywhere. You bump into someone, you want to pray for them, you pray for them. You don't have to qualify your prayers.
It's clear that Paul is saying there are no kinds or categories of people that you don't pray for. We pray for everyone. Everyone.
We pray for each other. We pray for our families. We pray for the lost.
We pray for those who are in authority. We pray for our enemies. We pray for those who persecute us.
And yet Paul, he does intend to zoom in and emphasize on the kinds of people that we tend to neglect. It's easy to pray for those you love. Of course you want to pray for your family and your friends.
Of course you want to pray for this church. But what about praying for people that kind of rub you the wrong way? Do you pray for them? And what is the class of people that rub us the wrong way most often? I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men, verse 2, for kings and all who are in authority. He zeroes in.
He says, yes, pray for everybody, but I want to talk about something very specific here. Without diminishing the need to pray for everybody, he's not diminishing anything, but he specifically exhorts the church to pray for kings. Now let me ask, who was the king in Paul's day? Quiz question, who was the king? At the time from 37 to 68 AD, Rome was ruled by an emperor by the name of Nero.
If you've read any kind of Roman history, you know who Nero is. According to the historian Tacitus, Nero was one of the most compulsive and corrupt Roman emperors. He was awful.
In fact, he was so corrupt that according to Suetonius, another scholar, a historian, there was something known as the Great Fire of Rome. And many believe that it was Nero himself who started the fire that wiped out a lot of the city. And he did this because he wanted a clear land to build a new palace.
He had developmental ideas. He wanted to build a new house for himself, and so he burned the city down to build it. Well, naturally people were going to be upset about this, and they were.
So who did he blame as a scapegoat? Who started the fire? Well, you know what? It was the Christians. Nero blamed the church for starting the fire that led to the destruction of most of the city, and then in turn persecuted the Christians and even burned them to death. That's the kind of man who ruled as king when Paul was writing this letter.
And yet, Paul instructs the church, I want you to make entreaty and prayer and petition and thanksgiving on behalf of him. I want you to pray for Nero, and not only for him, but for all who are in authority. The many Christians, both then and now, we tend to bristle against the idea of praying for our leaders.
We don't want to do that. Furthermore, Romans 13 says every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. I mean, we're Americans.
We have an American spirit. I mean, our motto here in New Hampshire is live free or die. We have this sort of militant, free-seeking spirit, and yet Titus 3 says remind them, because we tend to forget, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.
And you might say, well, yeah, but I didn't vote for him. But guess what? God did. God is the one, according to Romans 13, he says there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
Daniel 2.21 says God removes kings and he sets up kings. Whether they're good or bad, it doesn't make a difference. God is sovereign even over who is ruling over us in every situation.
Like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, Proverbs 21 says, he turns the king's heart wherever he wishes. And so God establishes kings and establishes authorities. He directs them according to his will, and he uses them for his purposes.
Even when they sin, God will find a way in his economy to use even the wicked deeds of sinful men to accomplish his sovereign purposes. Ultimately, the Bible teaches that the governing authorities exist as a minister of God for good behavior. Romans 13.4, government is designed to restrain evil and promote goodness.
That's its function. They add in other things, social programs, initiatives, wellness, everything else, and whatever their prerogative is, that's their prerogative. But ultimately, God has a purpose for governing authority.
Therefore, 1 Peter 2.13 says that we are to submit ourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as one in authority or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. And the most fundamental way that we can submit to our leaders is to pray for them. To pray for them.
To what end? Is it simply just flat obedience? Well, governor, I'm going to pray for you because God says I have to. That's the only reason, though. Is it that end? That's the purpose of it? No, there's a lot more.
It's not simply obedience. There's a goal. Paul continues.
Look at your verse here. Verse 2. He says, the reason we do this, the reason we pray for kings and those who are in authority over us is so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Christians are never called to be political dissidents, social radicals, or not to be the kind of people that challenge every issue.
Now, there are some things that I think we need to speak to, but you know the kind of attitude I'm talking about. Those who, it doesn't matter what the situation is, they're always complaining. They're always pushing.
They're always refuting. Challenging on every issue, pushing every kind of social revolution they can find. We're going to get those leaders.
We're going to flip them. We're going to turn them. We're going to do this.
We're going to do that. Push, push, push, push, push. Now, again, where the gospel and godliness offend, let it offend.
We are bound by God to obey Him if we're forced to choose between God and men. That was the issue even with the shutdown during COVID. At the beginning, everybody was concerned about the possibility of an outbreak, but at a certain point it became very clear that the restrictions were about control.
And there was, and this is documented, there was an attempt to keep churches closed. We disobey. Some churches didn't open for a year.
In my opinion, that's wrong. We are called to gather, and so in certain cases, in certain cases, if there's no other way to honor the governing authorities and obey the Lord at the same time, if you have to choose, you honor God. But that is not every single decision.
That's not every single circumstance. We have to know this. We are not to be, as believers, a troublesome people.
We are not to be the kind of people who are odious in the sight of our leaders and odious in the sight of other people around us. We're not to be a thorn in the community's side. Always protesting something, always fighting, always shouting people down.
Rather, it is the Lord's desire that we lead a tranquil and quiet life. Tranquil and quiet are almost always synonymous here, but scholars have actually noted there's a little bit of nuance here in these words. The Greek word that's translated tranquil refers to not being troubled from without.
In other words, we are praying that the Lord protects us from outside troubles, like wars and terrorism. We don't want terrorism on our soil. We don't want wars to come in.
We've been very protected as a nation for the most part. We've never had, in more than 200 years, we have not had an occupying army on our soil killing us. We're very, very blessed.
We have had acts of terror. We have had unrest, but for the most part, God has been so good to this nation to protect us from threats from the outside. A freedom from war produces domestic tranquility.
We are to pray for that. Lord, keep us from war. The word quiet, the next word, is translated from a word that refers to peacefulness or calm, and this has been seen to be referring to not freedom from outside terror and war, but actually from inside, from civil disturbances, freedom from riots in the streets, destruction of your home or business, personal attacks, or even from being murdered on a college campus when you're talking about biblical morality.
We're praying to God for freedom, protection from that kind of strife. We want to lead a quiet life where we can have discussion, we can talk to each other, we can share our faith openly without the fear of reprisal. That's what we want.
And so we pray to God on behalf of those who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life. Now why are we praying for that? Is it so that we can just be left alone to ourselves to hide out in the woods and live off the grid and hide from people? Is that why we pray for this? Just to hide? No, we are called to lead a life here, he says, in all godliness and dignity. All godliness and dignity.
The word godliness is Eusebia. Eusebia, it refers to piety or religious devotion or even reverence for God. If you look at the context of where we are here, which is public worship and submission to authority, this is referring to the ability and responsibility of worshiping God freely, openly, righteously, and devoutly.
We're never called to squirrel away our faith. Isn't that what Jesus says? Don't put your candle under a basket. Don't hide.
Let your light shine before men that they might see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Our faith is meant to be lived publicly in all godliness. It's the exercising of our faith unhindered and unmolested.
It's where we're able to worship God openly and freely, preach freely, evangelize freely, serve one another freely, pray freely. That's why Daniel, when he was commanded and ordered not to pray to God, he went up to the highest point in his house, opened all the doors so everybody could see that he was praying. That's the sense of it.
That was not a thumbing his nose at the culture. That's him saying, I will obey God. I will pray to the Most High.
I don't care what you do to me. But there's an openness. There's a public nature to our faith.
Even the gathered assembly. We gather here as believers to worship the Lord. It means that we live as obedient Christians, wholly devoted to the Lord.
We are to be public Christians. It's not just something you believe and think on your own. You live it out.
You live it out. What about the word dignity here? Semnotes in the Greek refers to gravity or seriousness or moral earnestness. Some actually have rendered this word as respectfulness or even respectability.
The basic idea is that we are enabled now to live a life that is upright, full of integrity and respectability. And so we are to be praying that God would allow us to have a life that is peaceful enough where we can go out into public square and live a life that is respectable. We are to be people who are respectable.
We have integrity. We are to demonstrate dignity. We're not to be the seedy underbelly of culture.
That is not us. We are to be the most faithful, virtuous people who are full of integrity. Why? Is it because we're so great and everybody else stinks? No.
It's because of who we worship and who we serve. We serve God. We love the Lord God.
He's God of all creation and we belong to Him. Therefore, we live publicly in our knee, bow to Him. We live publicly in a way that pleases Him.
So again, people will see us and they will see Him in our character, in who we are, what we do. And so as godliness refers to our posture before the Lord, dignity refers to our behavior before others. This is why we read in 1 Peter 2.12, he says, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles.
Think about that phrase, keep your behavior excellent. He doesn't just say good, you know, moderate. No, we are to live excellently in front of other people, especially those who don't know the Lord.
Live excellently, he says, so that in the thing which they slander you as evil doers, they may on account of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. So yes, they will slander you. They will assign to you every possible name, curse word, title, that's fine.
They can say whatever they want. They can call you whatever they want. Sticks and stones may break my bones.
That's not a Bible verse, but maybe it should be sort of somewhere in there, right? There's a sense of, they want to call you a name? Go for it. So what? It's not true. Now, if it is true, Peter also says, don't let any of you be found as a murderer or thief or troublesome meddler.
Don't be actually guilty of what they accuse you of. Don't do that. But he says, keep your behavior excellent so that when they slander you, they will have no choice but to see what you're doing and then say, you know what? I have nothing to say.
Maybe there's something to this person's faith and they will glorify God when they see him someday. That's the sense of it. See, it's not just about living freely as Christians.
It's about exercising our faith publicly as a witness so that we may have opportunity to lead people to Christ through the proclamation of the gospel. That is what this is ultimately all about. Because the people who are living a tranquil, quiet life have opportunity.
You have freedom. Now, can you witness when you're being persecuted? Yes, you certainly can. There's an old saying, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
On some level, blood is the soil that evangelism grows. Many people will come to Christ through martyrdom. In many cases, a lot more people.
But yet, when you are not being killed for your faith, you need to stand for your faith. And you proclaim the gospel in the open square. That's why Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, 16, Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching.
For as you do this, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. Notice the repeated refrains here. Keep your behavior excellent.
Pay close attention to yourself. This isn't about just flaunting freedoms, friends. This is about assiduous, focused, determined posture of heart.
To say, I'm going to live my faith with integrity. I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to please the Lord with how I live.
Now, in this verse, specifically, 1 Timothy 4, 16, when he says, guard your life in doctrine, he's talking to Timothy as a teacher. But the sentiment reflects the ideal, again, that the goal of living the Christian life is to glorify God through evangelizing the world for Jesus Christ. Now, to be clear, God never promises that we will always be able to do this without opposition.
In fact, 2 Timothy 3, 12 says, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. We will not all be killed for our faith, but all of us as Christians will be persecuted. So, when it happens, when they harass you online, when they give you a hard time at your job, maybe they fire you for your faith.
When they call you names, when they slander you, remember this verse, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So, again, God does not promise freedom from any of these things. But nonetheless, we are exhorted to pray for our governing authorities, that they may fulfill their obligation to God.
Governing authorities have an obligation to God, whether they realize it or not, they do, they owe Him. They have an obligation to punish evil and to reward what's good, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Now, again, I praise God that we have been granted that, even here in the state of New Hampshire.
Just a quick little history lesson. The New Hampshire state constitution was ratified in 1784. Several of the legislators were from Gilmanton and belonged to the church here, and their pastor was Isaac Smith.
Isaac Smith had a fingerprint on legislators that decided all of this and wrote this constitution. Article 5 of the New Hampshire state constitution reads thus, Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and reason, and no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained in his person, liberty, or estate for worshiping God in a manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience, or for his religious profession, sentiments, or persuasion, provided that he doth not disturb the public peace or disturb others in their religious worship. This came about because Christians in New Hampshire prayed for wisdom for their leaders to uphold God's mandate that we would worship God freely and live responsibly and respectably in front of others.
1784, it's still on the books, it still belongs to us. So we are to pray, pray beloved, pray for those who are in authority above us. And then Paul qualifies this in verse 3. He says when he do this, he says, This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.
Paul notes that this is kalos, beautiful, excellent, this is good. It's good to pray for your leaders. We don't do this with gritted teeth, and I guess I'll pray for them.
No, this is a good thing. Not only is it good, he says, it's acceptable, it's pleasing in the sight of God when we pray for other people, when we pray for our leaders, when we pursue a tranquil life, when we use that life as an opportunity to share the gospel and bear witness to Christ in our character. Because remember that it is actually God who saves people.
We go to Him because He's the Savior. We can't save anybody. We can't.
We can pray for them, but I can't save any of you. I can't save anybody. And we also can't change anybody.
God is our Savior. He is the Savior. And just as He commands us to pray for all men, for all people, He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
And some have tripped over this verse, verse 4, when He says, God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Does that mean that all people will be saved? No, it does not. We don't believe universalism.
There's 300 verses in the New Testament that speak to the contrary. That's not the context. He's not saying that it's going to happen.
This is not an expression of what's known as God's decretive will, whereby He ordains something will happen. For example, creation or the cross. Rather, this is what is known as God's perceptive will or His moral will, whereby He commands what He desires.
He's commanding on behalf of His own character. Another way to say it is that His moral will refers to His own holiness and goodness. That's where Jesus in Matthew 23, 37 cries out to the people from His heart.
He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted, I desired to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you are not willing.
Even though because of the hardness of the sinful heart, not every person will come to Christ to be saved. God's heart is one of love and compassion. God does desire that salvation would occur.
In fact, again, John 3, 16, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. And so this verse is reflecting God's heart. It's a loving, giving, saving heart.
And because of His desire to save people around the globe, every tongue, tribe, and nation, because of that desire, He has called for all people everywhere to turn away from their sins and to trust in the work of Christ on the cross and be saved from the wrath to come. Of course, we know that Paul warns that wicked men, false teachers, according to 2 Timothy 3, 7, are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. They reject it.
They won't hear it. But God's desire in our prayer is that of Colossians 2, 2, that people's hearts may be encouraged and knit together in love to attain to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Our prayer, our desire, God's desire, is that people everywhere all around the world would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.
It's not just about a feeling. Oh, Jesus is my friend and I feel close to Him. Salvation will produce those feelings, yes, but this is about truth.
This is about declaring the truth of the gospel that Jesus Christ came into the world to give His life as a ransom for sinners, dying, and then rise in the third day to bring life. And if a person confesses their sin and trusts in Jesus Christ, they will be saved. The message of the gospel, people have to come to understand the truth of that.
They have to embrace that. I understand that I'm a sinner and I've rebelled against God. I understand that Jesus gave His life as a ransom for me.
I understand that if I put my trust in Him and reject my sins, I will have life. I trust and believe and know that one day I will see Him face to face. That's what it means to come to the knowledge of the truth.
And that's what God desires. We pray for that. Again, only God can save a sinner.
My friends, only God can save a nation. And so we pray to Him on behalf of all people everywhere, especially for kings and those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. That is our charge.
That's our charge today. That's our charge this week. That's always our charge.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we lift our hearts to You. We lift our hearts to You earnestly, humbly, needfully, O Lord.
Confidently, as You have told us to come to You, we lift our hearts to You, Lord, in prayer for others interceding for them. Lord, we pray for those who don't even know they need to be prayed for. And Lord, we pray with thanksgiving.
We're grateful to You, Lord. We're grateful that we even have the ability to come to You because of Christ. And yet, even in all of that, we're thankful of what You've done for us in salvation, in our life, in our future.
We have so much to be thankful for, O Lord. And yet, You call us to pray for all people. So, Lord, we lift up those who are in our number here.
There are so many here who are hurting, who are depressed, who are in difficult relationships. Maybe their health is in turmoil. Their finances are a wreck.
Lord, we pray for one another and we ask that You would intercede and help. We also pray for the lost. We pray for those who don't know You.
Our friends and our family members who have rejected the gospel. We pray for those here in town. We pray for people in the state.
Lord, that people would turn to You, especially in light of everything going on right now, that You would use this as a catalyst to draw people to You into a saving relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray for the family of Charlie Kirk and those affected by his death. We pray that You would strengthen them, comfort them, and give them a godly resolve in how they respond.
Lord, we also pray for the salvation of the shooter. We pray that even though he will be punished in this life, I pray that he would see his desperate need for salvation, that You would grant him forgiveness for this heinous crime, and that You would save him eternally. And also, we pray, Lord, for his family.
His own father put him in cuffs and brought him to the police. Lord, I pray for him. I pray for his mother.
Lord, we pray for everybody involved in that situation. Lord, we pray for the countless other numbers and thousands of people who are hurting and in pain right now around the world. Lord, we pray for our President, President Trump, Vice President Vance.
Lord, we pray for them to have wisdom and godliness in their leadership. Lord, I pray for salvation. I don't know if our President is a Christian.
It does not seem to be. I pray that You would grant him repentance and faith, that he would come to know You as Lord and Savior. Lord, I pray for Governor Ayotte and those who are in her cabinet.
I pray that You would grant her wisdom and leadership. Lord, I pray for the selectmen in our town, that You would grant them wisdom and godliness as they make decisions and lead on behalf of the people here. Lord, we pray for those who are in authority above us.
And Lord, we don't spite them. We don't push up against them. We don't despise them, Lord.
We recognize that You've placed them over us as a protection. You've placed them over us, Lord, as a minister of God to punish evil and to reward good. Help us, Lord, to be good citizens.
Help us, Lord, to live a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and all dignity. Lord, we entreat You. Lord, we need You.
This nation needs You. And Lord, I pray that You would root out and destroy every false philosophy, every false belief against You, that righteousness would reign, that the gospel would reign from every corner of this country and extend to the entire world. Lord, would You ignite a revival, not just in this land.
Lord, ignite something here in New England, in New Hampshire, in Gilmanton. Let us be a people who proclaim Your name boldly as those who love You and are called according to Your divine purpose. We thank You for Your loving kindness to us given in Christ.
We love You, O Lord, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we pray to You in Jesus' name. Amen.