For Kings and Authorities

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Well, years ago, I was in a meeting. A friend of mine was there. It was a meeting of preachers, and one guy just kind of acted up during the meeting.

Have you ever been in one of those meetings where somebody just, maybe they don’t know as much as they think they do, and they show it? And I turned to my friend after the meeting, and I said, well, what do you think about how that went? And he just looked at me and said, well, can’t like everybody.

Those are wise words. I’ve found that to be true. I have said that to my wife.

She’ll say, did you see what so-and-so did? Well, you can’t like everybody. I try to, but some people just make it awfully hard, don’t they?

As Christians, we’re supposed to love everyone, but at the same time, there’s a difference between loving and liking. Some people are just going to rub us the wrong way. Now, our job as Christians is to figure out what to do about that.

Because it’s natural that not everybody’s going to be our best friend. Some people we might even dislike a little bit, but we have to figure out how we handle that, how we deal with that. Now, the natural state of things is for us to respond with antipathy toward them.

Either we totally ignore them, have no use for them, or we actively dislike them and let them know it. It’s hard to honor God in doing either of those things in our relationships with other people. So our natural impulse as humans, when we dislike somebody, is to show it.

The Bible tells us to do something else. The Bible tells us to pray for them. And we’re going to be tonight in 1 Timothy 2.

If you’d turn there with me, 1 Timothy 2. And as you’re turning there, this passage that we’re going to look at tonight, just this first four verses of the chapter, it follows right after Paul has just told Timothy about fighting the good fight, and he’s talked about people who have rejected him, who have opposed him, people like Hymenaeus and Alexander, and he says, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. He’s talking about people that he has not gotten along with.

And then after that, his response to it is the four verses that we’re going to look at tonight. If you have made it there to 1 Timothy 2, if you would stand with me as we read together from God’s Word, 1 Timothy 2. As he’s talking about these people that he dislikes, he transitions here, and this is what he says.

Therefore I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For 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. And you may be seated tonight.

I want to be very clear that I felt led early in the week to talk about this tonight. And so I made sure to get this message written when things were still up in the air election-wise. And we, I mean, things are still kind of up in the air.

but when we really had no idea how things were going to turn out. So that what I was telling you was as little as possible influenced by my feelings, but was based on what God’s Word says. Just want to make that clear.

So I worked on this message early on in the week so I could try to get that done. And what we see here, the point of this passage, is that Paul encouraged Timothy and his church to pray faithfully for those around them. Now that includes, especially if we look at it in context, that includes people that they did not like.

As a matter of fact, I would say there’s a special emphasis there on praying for those that we don’t like. Because people we like, it’s a whole lot easier to pray for. We don’t need quite as much reminder or quite as much encouragement to go do it.

I like everybody in this room. Aren’t you glad to know that? I’m looking around to make sure I’m telling the truth there.

Yes, I like everybody in this room. And so you come to me and you say, can you pray for me? Absolutely.

I’ll write it down. I’ll make myself a note. We may even do it right then so I don’t forget.

But it’s not going to be twisting arms to get me to pray for you. But something bad happens to somebody you don’t like, and is your first impulse to pray for them or is your first impulse to go, you don’t have to answer that because we know the answer. We know the answer.

He’s talking about these people who have rejected Him, who have caused Him trouble, and He says, pray for all men. Offer up these prayers. He was saying to pray especially for those that weren’t necessarily your favorite people.

And then, just as it is now, it was and it is for us today all too easy to fall into the habit of looking down on people, especially non-believers. Because we get in this phase of life where we’ve been Christians for a few years God’s kind of cleaned up our act, and we look at people who aren’t where we are now. They’re where we were.

I think I talked about this a few weeks ago. We forget where we’ve come from. And so we kind of look down on them and say, well, why aren’t they as good as I am?

There’s always been a tendency to do that. And so instead of looking at these people that were causing such trouble to the church and saying, well, shame on them, and we hate them, and all those sorts of things, he says, pray for them, pray for them. And he lists some different ways of praying for them.

Of course, he uses the word prayer there in verse 1. But he lists some different kinds of prayer as well. Supplications, intercessions, giving of thanks.

This idea of supplications means dealing with their needs. You know, when you know that they have a need, when you know that there’s something they’re lacking, go to God about it on their behalf. That’s very easy to do for the people we care about.

He says we should be doing it for everybody around us. Now, I know realistically, we are not going to remember We’re not going to remember every need of every person we meet. You know, I’m standing in line with three or four different people at Walmart, and I’m going to remember all their names and all their stories and every need they have.

And then same thing at the bank, and then everybody you work with. I understand. We cannot realistically remember all of that.

But when you know that somebody has a need, when you remember it, when God calls it to mind, even if you don’t particularly care for that person, we should be offering those supplications. We should be asking God. We should be making petitions to God on their behalf for the things that they need.

This idea of intercession, interceding for somebody, it means to be for them. Now that’s going to be hard to do with some people. But he says do it for all men.

Be for them when you pray. I’ve made the joke before, and I’m only partly joking, but I’ve said there are some people you pray for and there are some people you pray about. And there’s a difference.

Benjamin told me one time, we prayed about you in Sunday school. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’m not merely suggesting you pray about people.

I’m saying you pray for them. Pray for their good. Pray for God to intervene on their behalf in a situation.

You talk about changing a situation. God may not change the situation, but if you start praying for those that you’re at odds with, God will change you in the situation. And sometimes that will be the change in the situation.

That’ll be all the change the situation needs. I have found this to be the case in my own life. If I’m mad at somebody, I just start praying for them.

Now, do I do that every time? No, I’m still human. But when I’ve been able to bring myself to that place of praying for them, I tell you what, it gets a whole lot harder to stay mad at them.

And then giving a thanks. He wants us to rejoice in the good things that happen to those around us. You know, where I said we kind of find out something bad happened and we kind of.

. . Well, what happens when they get the good news and we’re kind of bummed out by it?

He tells us, give thanks. Rejoice with them when good happens to them. He called the church to pray for those that they could easily be at odds with, because as I said before, it’s typically much easier to pray for those that we get along with.

Maybe even easier is not the right word. It’s more natural. It comes more naturally to pray for those that we get along with, those that we really like. He says, pray for those around you.

Make supplications and prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks for all men, he says. But look at verse 2. He includes in that or He emphasizes in that for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

This is where it gets particularly hard sometimes. Our responsibility to pray for those around us includes a responsibility to pray for our leaders. Sometimes that’s easy to do, isn’t it?

Sometimes that’s the last thing we want to do. And you may think, well, that’s easy for you to say. It’s easy for you to get up and talk about praying for your leaders when your guy gets in there.

Let me tell you something. My guy never gets in there. I’m just being honest. Anybody remember the days back when Dan Fisher was governor of Oklahoma?

Or Randy Brogdon? Y’all remember any of these governors? James Williamson?

No? That’s because they never were governor. All right.

I tend to be more active in state politics. These are some of the governor campaigns that I’ve participated in things on since I’ve been an adult. And some of y’all are looking at each other saying, who?

Exactly. Because I’m the guy who supports the guy that gets 9% of the vote in the primary. All right?

My guy never gets in there. Now, maybe he’s telling us who we should vote for. No.

I’m telling you who I voted for to make a point that my guy never gets in. My guy never makes it out of the primary. Or girl.

Never makes it out of the primary. Or rarely does. but I still have a responsibility to pray for the one that gets in there.

You can’t tell me. Me of all people, you can’t tell me. Well, that’s easy to say when your guy gets in because he doesn’t.

So if any of you ever run for office, you want to make me mad to not support you to make sure you’ll win and get in there, right? Just a little word of wisdom to you. And besides, it doesn’t really matter whether you like the person that got in there or not.

President, senator, governor, on down to dog catcher. The most important thing is not whether we like them or not, because when you think about what was going on in the world when Paul told Timothy this, wrote this to Timothy under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, think about what was going on in their world and who their leader was. It was a man named Nero.

Their ruler, the emperor of Rome at this time, was a man named Nero. And one of the most memorable stories I know about Nero is that Nero hated Christians. He may himself have been responsible for the burning of Rome, but decided to make Christians a scapegoat and started killing them in the Colosseum.

And here’s the memorable story that stuck with me, that Nero wanted to light the way to the Colosseum at night and would dip Christians in pitch in tar, put them up on spikes and light them as human torches to light the way to the Colosseum. Now, I can’t tell you for sure, I can’t tell you with absolute certainty whether that story is true or whether that story is legend. But what I do know is that people believe that story, and that tells you something about the character of the man Nero, right?

If somebody were to tell you that Jared’s out there, well, I’m not going to do that to Christians, but if Jared’s out there with, I don’t know, Jared’s, I can’t even think of a group. Jared’s out there with Canadians, all right? I like Canadians just fine, but Jared’s out there with Canadians, and he’s putting them on spikes and lighting them as torches.

Would any of you believe that? I hope not. Because it would be out of character for me, right?

I know y’all haven’t known me that long, but this is where you say yes, right? Out of character for me. People believed this about Nero, and that tells you something about what kind of person he was.

And for all we know, it may have been true. And they had a ruler like that, who despised them, who despised the Savior they served, who despised their churches, who despised their message, who was willing to stop at nothing to try to stamp out the gospel. And Paul could have easily said, we need to get together and try, you know, we’re a growing movement.

We could maybe do something. We could maybe put a stop to this. We could, you know, try to assassinate Nero.

We could do something. No, he said, pray for those in authority. And I’ll be honest with you, that’s not always what I want to hear.

Because I’m enough of an American that it’s in my DNA what Thomas Jefferson, I think it was Thomas Jefferson, said that rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God. There’s something in me that says, when you overstep my rights, we’re going to go toe-to-toe about this. But as a Christian, I recognize my duty is to pray for them.

That doesn’t mean that there’s never a time to stand up. That doesn’t mean there’s never a time to speak up. But as Christians, we’re supposed to pray for them first and foremost. They had these wicked rulers, but they were supposed to pray for them.

Now, why would we want to pray for them? Say somebody gets there you don’t like, why in the world would you want to pray for them? Why would you need to pray for them?

Well, he tells us why. He says, pray for kings and all who are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. Pray for those in authority, because who out there needs godly wisdom more than those who have responsibility for us?

Who needs godly wisdom more than those whose decisions affect our everyday lives? Why in the world would we not pray for them so that we could live quiet and peaceable lives, so that we could live godly lives in quietness and reverence. If anybody needs to be lifted up, if anybody needs godly wisdom, it’s those in authority.

We all need it, right? Every one of us needs that godly wisdom to live our lives and make our decisions. But the more your decisions affect other people, the more you need that godly wisdom, and the more we need them to have that godly wisdom.

It was for the church’s benefit as well. And as I said, that doesn’t mean there’s never time to speak up, never time to stand up. Right is right, regardless of who’s in office.

And wrong is wrong, regardless of who’s in office. That has not changed, and it’s never going to. And regardless of how this election or any other ends up, there are some bedrock principles that I will stand for, and I hope you will as well, that we believe the Bible is the Word of God.

We believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, even if the government classifies all that as hate speech. We believe that God has designed marriage to be the union of a man and a woman. We believe that human life is sacred because we are created in the image of God.

We believe that religious liberty is a bedrock principle of who we are as a nation. There are certain things that we stand for and always will, or we must always stand for those things. But anytime we have to speak up and stand up, we don’t do it from a posture of, I hate that person who’s in office.

We do it from a posture of praying for them, praying that God will give them the wisdom to see what’s true and what’s right. Again, I want to make it clear. I started working on this earlier in the week before we knew anything.

Because you see, what matters most is not who represents us. What matters most is who we represent. I’m going to say that again because I need to hear it.

What matters most is not who represents us. It does matter who represents us. But what matters most is not who represents us, but who we represent.

He said about praying for those in authority, that 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. It’s God’s desire that we represent Christ to the world, that we represent Christ to our community, that we represent Christ even to our leaders. Because when you get right down to it, no matter how much you like or dislike that person, no matter how much you think they can do no right or do no wrong, They are human beings just like you and I are.

They bleed, they sin, and they face an appointment with eternity, just like the rest of us. And what determines where they end up in eternity is not what party they were part of, not whether they ruled us well or poorly, but whether they trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior. As he’s talking about this, he says, this is what God wants you to do.

This is what is acceptable. This is what he looks for, the God who desires all men to be saved and to come to know the knowledge of the truth. Before the election, a few weeks before the election, I saw something being passed around on Facebook that talked about how Jesus died for Donald Trump.

God gave his only begotten son for Joe Biden. Before he formed Mike Pence in the womb, he knew him. God desired Kamala Harris to come to a knowledge of his son.

I think we as believers have got to remember that. And if you think I’m getting on to you tonight, I’m not. I promise I’m not.

There may be no person in this room who needs to hear this more than I do, because I’m a man of strong opinions, am I not? I have an opinion on everything. It’s okay to answer, but I need to be reminded that our opponents are not our enemies.

We have one enemy, and that enemy is not flesh and blood, but principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. Satan is our enemy, and if they bleed, they are not the enemy. We’re in a war with the true enemy for that person.

So we need for them. For our good, for our peace, for our ability to live godly lives in quietness, but also for their eternal souls. We need to pray for them.

And I try to leave you each time with some step to take to apply this. And the step to take with this is very simple. Do it.

I’m telling you that. I’m telling me that. We need to actually pray for them.

And there’s a couple ways I think we can accomplish this. And whichever way works for you, have at it. One suggestion is you could make a list of those who are in authority over us.

Either include everybody running or wait until the dust settles, but make a list. And go from president on down to school board. Everybody that’s elected to represent you. Everybody that has rule, as the Bible would say.

And pray for them every day. Another thing you can do, and I think this would work better for me, they’d get a lot more prayers out of me, is you wait until they irritate you. Okay?

Anybody get irritated by our politicians? I get irritated by them on both sides. wait until they irritate you wait until the next time they they run their mouth and they say something that you think who voted for this guy and wait until you’re really amped up and raring to go and and and ready to rant to your wife until she turns the phone on mute and just sits there and says uh-huh uh-huh wait until you’re ready to go and when you feel that irritation let that be a reminder to you to pray and that’s what I thought of this week because like I said they’ll get a lot more a lot more frequent prayers out of me doing it that way than just making a list and praying through it once a day.

For their sake, for our sake, for the gospel’s sake, we need to be in prayer for our country, for our state, for our city, and for those who lead us in it. Again, don’t take this as me getting on to you. I think you’re doing anything wrong.

This is for me. Maybe you’re right there along with me. But the most important thing, again, is not who represents us, but who we represent to them.