Politically speaking, this past week had something troubling for everyone. Republicans, especially those of the MAGA variety, had to be troubled by the fact that Joe Biden is taking office and the Democrats will control both houses of Congress as well as the presidency. So they have something to be bothered by. Democrats and many Republicans and many politically unaffiliated people also have things to be troubled by. They're concerned by the events of last Wednesday when some of the protesters entered the Capitol building and disrupted the certification of the Electoral College vote. Regardless of how you voted or which political party you identify with, including none of the above, There's something to be troubled about when it comes to our current nation, our current political divide, and the state that we find ourselves in. There are lots of reasons to be concerned about our nation, political reasons, but also moral reasons as well. So if you're worried about America this morning, you're in good company. One of the responses that I have seen to the way things are going and the things that have been going on is that people have been calling to pray for America, pray for our nation. These are words I've heard people say, I've read them online. And obviously as Christians, this is always an appropriate response to every concern, to every problem, to everything that's happening in the world. But what does that mean exactly? When someone calls on us to pray for our country, when we're encouraged to pray for our nation, when somebody wants us to pray for America, what exactly are they asking us to pray about? What specifically? would be honoring to God in a situation like this when it comes to praying for our nation. That's what this message is about. And that's what I would like for us to consider as we look at God's word this morning and think about what he would want us to do in the situation that we find ourselves in. We begin this morning by looking at the first verse of our text, 1 Timothy 2, verse one. Please follow along as I read the scriptures there. 1 Timothy 2, verse one. says, I urge then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness, and holiness. These two verses begin the discussion of how Christians should pray for their nation, how Christians should pray for whatever type of government, whatever kind of political situation they or we find ourselves in. And the first principle that we take away from this passage is that when we pray for our nation, we should pray for the leaders of our government. There are many things to pray for in regard to the nation, but one of them ought to be the leaders of our government. And since this is God's Word and it was written in a non-American context, obviously God wants this to be applied by Christians, whether you are living in, whether they are living in, whether we are living in a monarchy, a dictatorship, a constitutional republic, or some other form of government. Regardless of the form of government, God's word says that God's people should pray for whoever is in control of that government, whether they have the absolute power of a dictator or whether they have some kind of limited power. The scripture's commands to us as Christians is to pray for our leaders, regardless of who they are. or regardless of how they came to be in power. But the first thing I want you to see from verse one is just how important this is as a prayer request in the scriptures. The verse I just read tells us we should pray for these governmental leaders, but I think maybe it's easy to miss how much stress is laid on commanding us to pray in this way. And so as we look again at verse one, I want you to see that God wants us to make praying for the leaders of our nation a priority in your life. that if you're going to pray for our nation, and you're gonna do that biblically by praying for the leaders of our nation, God wants this to be a priority in your prayer life. Look with me at verse one and notice all the ways in which this is stressed in the scripture. 1 Timothy 2, one says, I urge then. Now the word urge is a strong word. Paul doesn't say, I politely recommend for your consideration that you do this. He doesn't say, here's an option for you if you need something to pray for. No, he says, this is something I urge you to do, a very strong word. But notice, he says then right after that, he says, I urge then first of all. Now, sometimes when we say, first of all, We say it because it's the first thing that popped into our head. And we're just kind of trying to organize our thoughts as we talk. Sometimes we say, first of all, because it's the first thing that occurred to us. Sometimes we say, first of all, because it's something we want to stress. And I think that's what's going on here. That Paul not only uses the word urge, but he uses the phrase, first of all, to add extra stress to the command, to tell us that this is a priority for us. that this is important and we ought to pay attention to it. And so when God calls us to pray for our nation and to pray for the leaders of our nation specifically, He wants us to understand that this is important and it ought to be a priority for us. But there's another way in which Paul adds stress to the importance of this in verse one. Notice again what it says. He says, I urge them first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made. That's four words. all of which talk about prayer. And three of them are roughly equal to each other. In verse one, when Paul says, I urge that petitions be made, how are petitions different than prayers? They really aren't. And when he says at the end that intercessions be made, how is that different than petitions and prayers? It isn't, really. I mean, there may be little shades of meaning, but basically they are all words of prayer. Thanksgiving, of course, is a very specific type of prayer. But most commentators, and I agree with them, I think they're right, Tell us that Paul wasn't trying to tell us four different kinds of prayer that we should be praying. Rather, he piled up four words that all talk about prayer, again, to add stress to this point, that it ought to be important to us. He urges us. He tells us to do it, first of all, as a priority. And he used four words for prayer to stress to us that if you're going to pray for your country, and you should pray for your country, that you should do it by praying for the leaders of your country. And I wonder how much we do that. I wonder how much of our bemoaning of the leadership or lack of it that we may find in our nation or our state, how much of that corresponds to time spent in prayer for the people who hold those positions of power and have that stewardship of leadership. If we're going to pray biblically, We need to make it a priority to pray for our political leaders. But there's another thing about this that I want you to understand as we talk about what it means to pray for our country. And that is not only should we make praying for our leaders a priority, but also God wants us to pray for every level of government authority, every level. of government authority. Now I don't, we have so many levels above us. We have national, we have state, we have local. I mean, we have massive infrastructures of government. So I'm not saying that we have to like legalistically pray for every person who might be in authority over us. But I do think Paul wants us to pray for more than just the top of the leadership. Notice again, verse two, he says, for kings and all those in authority. Kings of course, were the top rank. in the world in which Paul lived, and in the world in which most humans have lived. Most humans have lived under some kind of a monarchy, or a dictatorship who has taken the name of a monarch. And so even though we don't have a king, of course, I think it's very much the fact that God wants us to understand that whoever stands in the executive role in our government, it would be the president, but of course also the governor, And then whatever kind of local leadership you have, the mayor or whatever, those people also occupy the top positions of power in their little fiefdom or large fiefdom. When Paul says we should pray for kings, he has all of these levels in mind. But notice he says, and for all those in authority. That means people who occupy other parts of the government. And I think what really the takeaway from this is to think about where the government touches your life as a person. Maybe this might include praying for the school board of the school district you live in or of the school where your children go to school. Maybe it's praying for the principal. Regardless of what the specifics are, verse two is telling us that God wants us to pray for many levels of the government. And so when we talk about praying for our nation, that's where we begin. We don't pray for our nation in the abstract. We pray for the leaders of our nation, whoever they are and however they got to where they are. God tells us to pray for them. But what exactly are we praying for them about? What exactly does God want us to say to Him and ask Him about these particular people? Well, that leads me to the second idea that I want to talk about in this message from the Word of God, and that is this, that when we pray, we should ask for a peaceful world when we pray for our government leaders. What are we asking God to do when we pray for these people? We're asking Him to give us a peaceful world. Look at verse 2 again. Actually, let me start at the end of verse one, because Paul starts a thought, and he diverges away from it a little bit, and then he returns to it later. So at the end of verse one, he says this, we're to do all these prayers, and they're to be made for all people. Okay, that means all kinds of people, people all over the world. But then before he talks about all people, which he's gonna resume talking about them later on in verse four, where he says, who God wants all people to be saved. In between those two discussions of all people, he starts talking about these governmental leaders in verse two. He says, for kings and all those in authority. And so one of the ways we pray for the world, one of the ways in which we pray for people all over the world is to pray for the leadership. of the world, not just our own leaders, though we should pray for them, but actually we should be praying for governments all over the world. And when verse two says we should pray for kings and all those in authority that we may live a quiet life. I used to not really understand what this passage was when I would read this passage before I studied it. And before I preached on it for the first time several years ago in this church, I misunderstood what Paul was saying. When verse two says we should pray for kings and for all those in authority that we may live a quiet life, I thought Paul was including himself in those in authority. I thought he was saying, pray for me, because I'm an apostle, and so I have authority, and so pray for me and the kings and all this to live this quiet life. But that's not what he's saying at all. Instead, what he's saying is, pray for those in leadership that we Christians may live a quiet life. Look at verse two again. This is so important that you catch this. It says, for kings and for all those in authority that we Christians may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. So when we pray for government leaders, what are we praying for? We're praying that they will do a good job of creating a peaceful, stable environment that we can live under. That's what Paul is saying. That's the request that he's saying. He's saying we should ask for a peaceful world when we pray for our government's leaders. And at the end of verse two, and into verse three, Paul tells us why this is important. And let me just say that, just for understanding sake, that a peaceful world, as I define it, I think what Paul is saying here, is one where the government leaves Christians alone. It's a world where the government does not persecute people either here in America or in other parts of the world. It's a place where the government gets occupied with whatever it gets occupied with and doesn't try to censor the gospel message, doesn't try to regulate how we teach and preach the word of God, doesn't try to change the way that we assemble together or what we believe, but rather it basically just leaves us alone. and lets us do what God wants us to do as Christians. And what is it that God wants us to do? Well, the next two things I'm gonna say, fill in what should be happening in a peaceful world. All right, and the first one is this, a peaceful world gives us freedom to develop godliness. Why are we praying for the government to leave us alone? So that we can work on our faith, so that we can work on our walk with God. Look at verse two again. We are to make all these prayers for kings and those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives. All right, so the government leaves us alone and what happens? Next phrase, in all godliness and holiness. We should live peaceful and godly lives or we should live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. What's the saying? It's saying that if the government leaves us alone, then we have time to teach God's word and discuss God's word and apply God's word. We have time to develop personal holiness, personal godliness in our lives. If we have the freedom to meet together as a church publicly, we don't have to run around and find secret places to meet. If we have the freedom to disciple people without fear of government censorship or persecution, If we have the ability to say to one another, hey, the way you are living is sinful and you should stop it without being told that we're doing something wrong, that we're discriminating against others, that leads to the cultivation of a godly life. And remember that this is what Jesus told us should be happening in the Great Commission. In the Great Commission, Christ said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you. That last part of the Great Commission. Teaching the people of God to obey the commands of Jesus Christ. Teaching people who come to faith in Jesus Christ, what it means to live a godly life, what it means to be separated from sin. That's what holiness is. That's what the church does. That's why we meet together on Sunday for worship. And part of our worship is teaching the word of God. That's why we have small groups to help you apply the word of God to your life. That's why we have classes in non-COVID times where people can gather. and read the Word of God. That's why I publish devotionals. That's why we have other kinds of communication. It's all designed to help you and me grow in our faith, grow in our godliness, and in growing in our godliness to become like Jesus Christ. And so, in a non-peaceful world, that makes it a lot harder to do. In a non-peaceful world, where government is censoring the things that can be said out loud, the things that can be broadcast publicly. In a world where the government regulates when the church can meet, if the church can meet, where the church can meet, what the church can say, who the church leaders can or cannot be, all of these things are obstacles toward personal holiness. They are hoops that we have to jump through. and hope that somewhere along the way, the truth of God's word gets communicated. The reason why God wants us to pray for our leaders, asking that they'll do a good job leading, and a good job means they don't bother us, is so that we can have the freedom to teach God's word and apply it so that you and I can become like Jesus Christ. That's why God wants us to pray that the government leaves us alone. so that we can grow in godliness. Now, the next thing that Paul is gonna tell us is that in a peaceful world, the gospel can spread. So I'm gonna show it to you, but then I wanna say something transitional between the point that says a peaceful world gives us freedom to develop godliness, and the next point, a peaceful world gives us freedom to spread the gospel message. That's what Paul's gonna say next, all right? But I need to say something transitional between these two ideas. When the government interferes with the church, it can do so in many ways. Other governments besides ours are closing their borders to missionaries coming in to teach the gospel message overtly. Many countries, and actually increasing numbers of them, are not allowing people to come in and live in their country if they're there to teach the gospel, to plant churches, to reach people for Christ. That means that missionaries who want to go into those countries have to jump through hoops. They have to find a secular job. They have to make up another excuse to move there so that they can preach the gospel covertly. That impedes the spread of the gospel. But you may have heard that one of the early church leaders, one of the early church fathers said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Have you heard that phrase before? It's a statement that says the church grows under persecution. And I want to talk about that idea a little bit. First of all, I want to affirm that it is true, that often when the church is persecuted, it grows. When God's people are persecuted, we get very focused and depending on Him. It's very easy for us to get lazy and fat and dumb and happy when we don't have to pay a price for our faith. And so we can get complacent about growing in the faith. It's true, all right? But that doesn't mean that persecution is ultimately good for the church at all. In fact, Jesus told the disciples, if you're persecuted in one place, what do you do? You flee and you go somewhere else. In Acts, whenever Paul was persecuted, he may have started a church there, but he would leave and go somewhere else. Remember, Jesus said, shake the dust off your feet if they don't receive your message. And the apostles actually did that in Acts. And so while there is a purifying aspect to persecution, really God does not want persecution. And persecution is not the end-all be-all of church growth. It's not the most important thing that happens in godly life. And I'm saying all this because there are certain leaders in America who almost have a romantic idea about persecution. And I want to dispel that because they have great influence. But I don't think they're right. I think they're biblically wrong. Now, here's the point that I want to say about this. It is true that the gospel does spread in areas where it's not allowed, where it's illegal. But here's another truth that no one ever talks about, except me. And that is this, you will also find in closed countries where it is illegal to be a Christian, where there is persecution and where doors are closed, you will also find false doctrine thrives. And so that's why when Paul describes the kind of things that we should be praying for and saying we should be praying for a world in which we are not interfered with by the government, the first thing he talks about is so that we can grow in godliness and holiness. Freedom is really helpful. not only to the growth of God's people, but also to the spread of the gospel. And so that's the second thing that Paul says, should be the result when we pray for a nation, when we pray for world governments, to give God's people freedom. One of the reasons that we do this is for the freedom of the spread of the gospel. Notice at the end of verse, sorry, at the beginning of verse three, Paul says, this is good. pleases God our Savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Now the phrase all people really describes the worldwide spread of the gospel. In other words, it doesn't mean all people in particular, as much as it means people of every nation, of every ethnicity, of every language. It's a description of the fact that God wants the gospel to go into every place on earth where people live. And when Paul says in these verses that we should pray this and it pleases God because God wants all the people of the world to hear the gospel and to be saved, to come to a knowledge of the truth, what he's telling us is when the government isn't interfering with missionaries entering into a foreign country, when people can go to a different nation without fear of persecution, when people can use tools like the internet, to spread the gospel message without fear of being jailed or having their internet access cut off or whatever. The gospel can spread. The gospel can flourish. When God's people can translate the Bible into other human languages and openly give away or sell copies of scripture to other nations in their own language, the gospel can flourish. And the Bible tells us that God's program, God's will, God's kingdom must enter every nation on earth before Christ will return. Christ's commission, his command to us as Christians was to take the gospel around the world. And there are many governments in the world and historically that have tried to interfere with the ability to preach the gospel. When God wants us to pray for our nation, when he wants us to pray for other nations, he wants us to pray for the government. He wants us to pray that the people who hold the reins of power in our government or any other government, leave us alone so that in leaving us alone, we can teach and disciple and help one another grow and we can spread the gospel in our nation and around the world. That's what we should be praying for when we pray for America. That's what we should be praying for when we pray for our country or other countries. And so my big idea for today's message and the point I want you to take away from this is you and I should just stop worrying about who controls the government and start praying for those in the government to leave us alone. I have seen, and I'm sure you have too, a lot of hand-wringing about who's in charge of the government now and who's about to be in charge of it. Christians in America are very worried about what's going to happen. And I think God's word offers us a very strong corrective. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't vote. I'm not saying we should disengage from the political process at all. I'm not saying that. All right, we should. What I am saying is we should stop worrying about the results. that are outside of our control. And so, as I said, that is the big idea for today's message, but that's not the end of it. Because I have some points to consider that I would like you to think about. I have some scripture passages and some ideas, some truths from scripture that help us to clarify and understand why we shouldn't worry about who controls the government. Instead, just pray that whoever has it leaves us alone. All right? So let me work through this. And let's begin with who's really in charge. One of the reasons why worried about who controls the government is because they fear what the government might do. They fear the power that comes with controlling the government. And as Christians, God does not want us to live in that kind of fear. And so my first thought, my first application point, my first point for consideration here is that for you to understand that God reigns supreme over every governmental leader. God was not worried whatsoever about the last election. I mean, he's omniscient, so he knew what was gonna happen anyway, but he wasn't worried about it. Notice this passage from Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is so essential for us to understand. And notice this verse from it. Psalm 2 verses 2 through 4, the scripture says this, The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles. Sounds pretty scary, doesn't it? The rulers of the world colluding together to overpower the Lord and to exercise authority against Him. But notice how God responds to that. The one enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. The strongest leader in world history, I don't know who it is and I don't know how you would actually measure that, but it doesn't matter because whoever it is, whoever the strongest leader in world history ever was, was no match for the power of God, was no match for the authority and the strength and the sovereignty of the one who created all things and the one to whom all things answer. And if you and I as Christians get too worried about what's going on with the government, if it bothers us too much that one person or another is in the White House or controls whatever branch of the government, it sort of shows that our faith really isn't in God, but rather it's in the leaders, the officials who control the reins of power. And perhaps one of the reasons why God allows us to go back and forth with these types of leaders is to remind us never to put our confidence in any human leader, but rather to remember that all of them operate under the authority of the Lord God himself. And I'll just remind you, if you're reading the Old Testament with me and you're reading the daily devotionals, and we've been reading the book of Ezra, And in that book, godless kings not only allowed God's people to rebuild the temple, they actually funded the work because they operate under the power of the sovereign God. So while I'm not saying to detach from the political process, I am saying quit worrying about the outcome. God is in control of it all. God reigns supreme over every governmental leader. Scripture also tells us this, that God will replace every human government with his kingdom. One of the reasons why you and I should stop worrying about who controls the reins of power is that this government, whatever, however you define it, however you want to describe it, however you want to slice it, it's temporary. God does not call us to Christianize the American system. God says, I've got a plan to replace it. I want to show you two prophetic passages of Scripture, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament, where God says, this is my plan. The first is in the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 7, verse 27. Daniel received this amazing prophecy foretelling the coming of Christ and laying out for him what it was going to look like. And notice what these verses say, what this verse says, Daniel 7, 27. Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey Him. God has a plan for the government, and it's to replace whatever government exists with Himself. And that will be the only perfect government that has ever existed. The book of Revelation also forecasts, it also prophesies this happening, but it tells it to us in reverse. That is, looking from eternity, when it's happened, backward. In the book of Revelation, chapter 11, verse 15, the scripture says, the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven which said, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever. Why shouldn't you worry about who controls our government? You shouldn't because God's in control of it all anyway, and second, he's gonna replace this government with himself. when the kingdom of Christ comes. Third thing I want you to understand in understanding and applying this big idea is that God commands us to seek his kingdom, not the kingdoms of this world. God doesn't tell us to try to seize the reins of power in any kingdom that we live in, in any government that we have. Sure, engage in the political process by all means. But the scripture never tells us that success or failure, that godliness or ungodliness, rests in whether or not we control the government. Instead, the Bible says we should be seeking his kingdom, not the kingdoms of this world. When Jesus was, and you're familiar with the Sermon on the Mount where Christ said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all this will be added to you. So I could put that verse up there, but I'm gonna put this verse up here instead. When Christ was arrested, remember Simon Peter, Went to chopping, right? Chopped off the ear of Malchus because he was going to lead an insurrection. He was not going to let Jesus be taken by force. Well, it happened anyway. And as Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, the idea of who's in charge and whose authority matters came up. And here's what Christ said. Jesus said, John 18, 36, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest. by the Jewish leaders, but now my kingdom is from another place. Why don't we believe in using violence to seize the reins of power? It's because we understand that God doesn't tell us to Christianize this government. He tells us to wait for his return when all human governments will be replaced by his government. And that means the Democrats who stormed the Capitol when Brett Kavanaugh's hearings were going on. And the protesters on Wednesday who stormed the Capitol and disrupted the count of the electoral vote. Both of them, if there were any Christians involved in either of those, they were badly outside the will of God. God commands us not to use violence to try to seize the reins of power. Rather, he calls us to pray, let your kingdom come. So God commands us to seek first his kingdom, not the kingdoms of this world. And so finally then, my conclusion is this. So trust God and stop worrying so much about who is in the White House or who controls the Supreme Court. or who controls which branch of government, who our governor is. Instead, as the big idea says, stop worrying about who controls the government and start praying for those in the government to leave us alone. It's a lot of worry out there, a lot of hand wringing, a lot of concern about what the next two years or the next four years holds in store for us. And I understand it. But God's word tells us we're worried about the wrong things. This whole government thing is a huge distraction that Satan wants to use to take our attention off of the gospel and off of personal godliness and focus on living anxious lives, worried about things that are under the control of God anyway. Yes, we live in troubling times, and I understand the concerns. We all have them. God's word tells us let's focus where God tells us to focus. God tells us to focus on developing personal godliness and spreading the gospel around the world. The way we pray for our nation and every nation on the world, in the world then, is to pray that they'll stop persecuting where there's persecution going on, that they'll stop censorship where censorship is going on, and that God would prevent it from happening here so that God's people can thrive and grow in their faith. and that unreached people can hear the gospel message and be saved. That's what God wants from us. That's how we should pray for our government. We should pray for our government to leave us alone so that we can pursue what God has called us to do.