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Nanosermon Script:
I don’t know if you find it difficult to pray, or tough to find things or people to pray for? Or maybe you are always praying for friends, family and situations. Anyway, whether prayer is a challenge to you or whether it comes easy, the Apostle Paul gives us encouragement and direction in the first letter he wrote to Timothy. It’s in chapter two:
1Tim 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (KJV)
In the nanosermon ‘Ministers of God’ I show from Romans chapter 13 and verses 3 AND 4 that it’s not just pastors and bishops who are ministers of God. I explain how every earthly ruler is responsible to Almighty God to uphold those who do what is righteous and punish those who do evil in the eyes of God.
Why pray for rulers specifically?
And now the Apostle tells us to pray for them. He speaks of supplications, which are requests, prayers, which involve humility and worship, intercessions, where we ask something for someone else, and giving of thanks for requests granted and for all God’s blessings. And though he says do this ‘for all men’ he singles out ‘kings’, and ‘all that are in authority’.
So why should we pray for rulers specifically? So ‘that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty’. You may have a romantic notion of the church thriving when it is persecuted, but God’s heart is not for his people to be hacked to pieces or imprisoned. It is for us to enjoy peace and quietness and for godliness and honesty to abound both in us and in a realm. It grieves the heart of God that in some places in the world, Communist or Islamic law makes it an offence to have a Bible, to meet together or to evangelise.
And even though we are not routinely in peril of our lives, even in the West Christians are now under pressure from so-called ‘equality laws’. But the Apostle was writing at a time when Christians were being locked up for their faith and the great persecution under Nero had either started or was imminent. If Paul could write as he did then, we have no excuse not to pray as he says today, wherever we are.
Our ‘law’ should follow God’s law
The Apostle says it is ‘good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour’ when his people have peace, and righteousness goes forth. Then he gives a further reason for us to pray for our leaders. He says God: ‘will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth’. He is saying it is easier to convict men of sin when the law of the land is in line with the laws of God.
Today, our rulers in the Western world have for a generation passed laws in direct opposition to the laws of God.
Abortion, no-fault divorce on demand, pornography, gay-marriage are all legal in Britain. And those are just a few of the obvious ones. How are people meant to know right from wrong in such an atmosphere of rebellion against God? How are they to turn to the ‘one God, and the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’ if they don’t know they have done anything wrong? Yes, they have a conscience, but the Bible is showing us how much better it is to have that confirmed by righteous laws.
Pray with precision
So keep praying, expecting God to answer and work miracles, and keep asking him in your prayers for something you can do to further his purpose.
It is good for prayers for our rulers to be specific, so organisations like Christian Voice here in the UK provide prayer and action targets so you can pray with precision. When you see an answer to prayer, give God the glory. Thank God for letting you be part of his victory. And it’s no sin to say to yourself: ‘Hey, I had a part in that!’
SCRIPT ENDS
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