WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.120 Okay, so we're going to look this morning for a little while at 1 Timothy, chapter 2, 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:13.599 as we go through this letter that Paul wrote, Paul the Apostle wrote to a young church planter, 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:19.359 church leader called Timothy. And really the next section from chapter 2 onwards for a 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:25.839 little while is about really instructions for setting up this church more formally and 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:34.000 the kind of things that are important in the church. And that was not obviously just for the 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:39.679 church in Ephesus that Timothy was part of, but it's for the church of all time. And there are 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:45.760 huge and important principles. Because what we do together in our worship is really important. 00:00:45.760 --> 00:00:52.400 It's the essence of what we are as a people is that we worship together. We live our lives, 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:58.560 of course, and our lives are worship. But so is this corporate act that when we come together, 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:07.759 it's very important. The praise that we offer, the song, the prayers that are offered and our 00:01:07.759 --> 00:01:13.759 amends are said to, the word we read, the hearing of the word preached and shared, 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:21.599 these things matter to God and they matter and are important for us. And he gives us that day, 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:27.280 he gives us one day when we can set apart at least some of the day for coming together in 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:37.439 worship. And I really am not talking about the importance of the institution or the church as 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:46.079 an institution. I'm talking about us as a people and the church of God worldwide as a people who 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:56.400 gather in worship. It should be for us to a greater or lesser degree, I hope, at least. 00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:00.799 And I feel almost embarrassed to say this, but it should be a little reflection of heaven. 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:05.359 Embarrassed why? Because I think heaven is so much greater than we can ever imagine 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:10.960 that it seems strange to try and compare it. But there should be something about our being together, 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:20.000 the presence of God among us, the beauty of worshipers who have come humbly in faith to Jesus 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:29.600 Christ for salvation, an unparalleled sense of goodness, not in ourselves, but that outward 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:37.760 looking love for one another, the company of God. It should at least be a taste. 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:42.879 People, I believe people should come when we gather together, whether it's formally like this in 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:47.919 worship or whether it's just as we gather, they should think, hmm, something good about that. 00:02:48.959 --> 00:02:54.959 There's something right. There's something attractive about this people together. It's a very 00:02:54.959 --> 00:03:00.560 vital, it should be something vital and living. Now I know that sin often shoves it otherwise into 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:08.159 the corner in our hearts and in our lives, and we marginalize it, and sometimes we ritualize it, 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:14.800 and ministers can be the worst people for ritualizing church. We can have a critical 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:20.960 spirit which doesn't help, you know, or we can relegate that so that it doesn't become something 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:30.319 that we regard as, our presence there is really significant for others, which I think always 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:36.319 should be. So I just want to say a couple of things that I think Timothy, that Paul, sorry, is 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:46.159 foundational things that he's saying that church can be built on in a sense and that the importance 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:56.479 of our gathering and being a worshiping people is focused on. And the first thing is that God 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:04.000 matters. God matters, and the second thing is that other people matter, so very, very simple 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:10.079 things really. But God matters. In verse 5, which I think really, I think is the pivotal 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:19.519 verse of this paragraph, he says, for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:24.719 the man Christ Jesus. And that's just a very simple phrase, we'll probably just read over that very 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:29.840 quickly and moved on because we all know that. But there is one God, and that's what he's saying here 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:36.880 because it reflects the whole teaching of the Bible. It's the chorus of the Bible, there is one 00:04:36.880 --> 00:04:42.320 God. And actually, even more so, it's the chorus of the Old Testament, because the Old Testament, 00:04:42.320 --> 00:04:46.640 the whole of the Old Testament was stressing that to the Israelites, to the people of God. 00:04:46.640 --> 00:04:53.840 They were stressing that there is one God. There's one God all over the place. It says that he is 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:59.199 one God. You know, there's no God except me. He is God. There is none other beside him. 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:06.000 Hero Israel, you know, the great Shema prayer. Hero Israel, the Lord our God is one. The commandments, 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:12.799 no other gods because there's one God. And it was repeated all the way through the Old Testament 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:19.279 in the context of gods all over the place, a multiplicity of gods and idols, the people of 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:27.519 Israel, worship the one living and true God. And in many ways, some of the Old Testament is just 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:38.079 exposing humanity's rebellion against that by their constant descent into idolatry, into ignoring 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:45.279 the living God, taking his benefits and then just kind of casting him aside. And that's the struggle 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:51.359 that we find through the themes of the Old Testament. But this is, he's saying that because 00:05:51.359 --> 00:06:00.959 he's real, you know, he's real. And he is God. We can't change him. He's the real God, the only 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:11.359 God, the standard of perfection. And he is God. You know, he's not liberal. He's not reformed. 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:17.920 He's not Presbyterian. He's not Baptist. He's not cute. He's not harsh. He's not right wing. 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:25.360 He's not left. He is God. He exists as God. We can't categorize him by our terminology 00:06:26.080 --> 00:06:32.879 because he's the living God. And amazingly, we, you know, our opinion of him, 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:44.319 our categorization of him is irrelevant to his eternal existence as God. There's nobody like him. 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:51.120 We can't compare him. We can't understand him fully. Who can understand God, the Father, Son, 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:58.079 and Holy Spirit? We've made up words to try and understand that by calling it Trinity. But we, 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:04.319 he is at that level not like us and not one of us, even though we know that we are, 00:07:05.039 --> 00:07:14.079 in some respects, made in his image. There is one God. And as Paul is teaching and giving 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:22.319 information and truth about God to Timothy, in 2 Timothy chapter 3, he often says something very 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:28.079 significant and one verse that we all know very well, 2 Timothy 3, 16, all scripture is God, is 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:34.079 breathed out by this one God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training, 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:38.240 and righteousness that the person of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:45.680 So he breathes out his word. He reveals himself in his word. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:57.439 And that word comes through different people, as we'll see in a minute. But he tells us that we 00:07:57.439 --> 00:08:04.960 are made for him and made by him. And that he is, in his word, tells us he's the source of existence. 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:11.840 He's the origin of everything good. We know, what do we know from our cacus of infinite, 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:19.279 eternal and unchangeable. He sees your life and my life right to the end today, right to the end, 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:27.279 because he exists out of time. And he knows everything. And in him, there is no darkness at all. 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:39.360 Provides the earth for our home to be with him. And his word that he gives us is his record 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:47.120 of his story among us in real time, because he's a real God. Yes, he's a spirit. And yes, 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:52.639 he's not like us, but he is real. And he gives us his word, which is not a history of the universe. 00:08:53.519 --> 00:09:01.919 It's the history of his dealings with us as people. And it can be ugly. And we don't like it. 00:09:02.560 --> 00:09:08.639 It's certainly not PC. There's much of it that is brutal, hard to grasp. But it's also glorious. 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:18.879 And unparalleled in its beauty, because it's his revelation. I know 35 authors, 66 books, 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:25.360 written over 1500 years. But it's the word of the one God, this one God. 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:35.919 As he inspired through his spirit, these writers to bring together the message. And the overarching 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:47.759 theme is that God is love. So 1 Timothy, when we look at this or when we study any of the letters 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:53.679 that we look at in the Bible, it's not just an ancient letter to a church from long ago. 00:09:54.399 --> 00:10:02.559 It is his word. It's his word to us. And it's his word that says to us that humanity is in deep 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:10.479 trouble without recognizing the one God and recognizing his love because we experience love 00:10:10.479 --> 00:10:18.399 in great measure. But it's often disordered and at best shadowy. It's there to point us to the 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:25.519 author of a greater and more important love, because we have replaced him. Isn't it absurd 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:36.240 that we replace this one God, this infinite God with something else? It's absurd. The absurdity 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:42.399 of our heart is that we try and live without God, without his love and without recognizing 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:50.960 his unique reality. But there simply can't be another. And that means for us, of course, 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:58.480 that when we separate ourselves through our lives by from the author of life, we come under the 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:08.560 influence of death. And it's not that we have no God, it's we have a million gods, a million idols 00:11:08.560 --> 00:11:14.639 to replace him with, because we would need a million, wouldn't we? And more and more to replace 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:21.519 this infinite real God. I had an illustration and it's really probably rubbish. But I'm going to 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:26.240 give it anyway, because it would be like taking the battery out of a car. Now, why you would... 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:30.319 This illustration falls down because I can't think of a reason why you would do that. 00:11:30.319 --> 00:11:35.199 Okay? So forget the fact that I don't know why you would do it. But it's like taking the battery 00:11:35.199 --> 00:11:40.080 out of a car, maybe just because you don't like it. Okay? Don't like that battery. I'm going to 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:46.639 take it out of the car. And then thinking that you can make that car run by gathering a million 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:53.040 dud AA batteries and sellotaping them together with a wee bit of wire in the end and sticking them 00:11:53.040 --> 00:12:00.080 to the two ends of the battery connectors and thinking the car will run. A million dead batteries 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:06.640 wouldn't do it. It wouldn't do it. Now, that's a stupid illustration, isn't it? Sorry. But maybe 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:11.600 it gives you an idea sometimes of the absurdity of trying to live life without the author of life 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:19.840 and the author of love. We choose to simply because... Because we do, because we're rebels from Him. 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:28.960 But there is one God. And that's why we gather in worship. And that's why He is so important. There 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:39.680 is one God. But also, we recognize there is one mediator. There's one God and one mediator between 00:12:39.680 --> 00:12:46.560 God and man, the man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is testimony 00:12:46.560 --> 00:12:55.360 given at the proper time. There's one God. How hard was it for Matthew or for Peter 00:12:55.360 --> 00:13:04.560 or for other Jewish educated and these Old Testament scriptures of their day? How hard was 00:13:04.560 --> 00:13:12.480 it who are monotheistic Jewish people who believed in this one God, this one God? It's always one God 00:13:14.399 --> 00:13:21.279 to get their heads around the fact that Jesus was God. The revelation of the New Testament 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:29.759 and the revelation of Paul is that he met with Jesus Christ and worshiped Him as the living God. 00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:36.639 And we see that coming to fullness in the New Testament. Don't we? It describes this unique 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:44.399 God as God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, but not three Gods. One God. That's 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:52.959 what absolutely confuses our tiny minds, same in substance, equal in power and glory. And Jesus, 00:13:53.759 --> 00:14:01.840 this one God, this one God who is love, how does He, how does He express that love to a people who 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:09.840 have turned away from Him by sending Jesus Christ or by becoming, coming as a mediator himself. 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:19.600 He gives himself as a ransom. So he becomes humankind to represent us because a mediator 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:26.320 is the man in the middle. It's the person in the middle who can mediate between two parties. 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:31.920 He's the only one, a mediator is the one who can broker peace. That's maybe a very significant term 00:14:31.920 --> 00:14:36.720 at the moment when we think of what's happening in Ukraine and Russia. We need a mediator. We need 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:47.360 someone who can come and broker peace. And he came as God of love, to love God the Father and 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:58.160 people perfectly as the example of true humanity, the author of life, but then by choosing to pay 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:09.199 for our guilt willingly facing God's wrath, choosing death as the punishment and in His resurrection 00:15:09.199 --> 00:15:18.959 it says paid in full. The ransom is paid, paid in full because death cannot hold this one God, 00:15:18.959 --> 00:15:24.879 can it? Death cannot hold Him. That's why the resurrection is so important because He's the 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:34.399 living God. He chose to pay the price, our death, in order that we might live. And the source of all 00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:42.559 that love, it points to Him. All the love you enjoy, the love you shared this morning with people, 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:46.399 the love of your family, the love of your partner, the love of your children, the love of your 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:51.759 neighbors, your sisters, the love that you have for people. Where does that come from? 00:15:51.759 --> 00:16:01.360 And that comes from the author, the Lord God. But it's to point us to the perfect love 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:08.799 and to be reconciled with our Father so that we can love like Jesus. So there's one way, 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:16.000 one God, one way, one answer. And we remind ourselves of that. And Paul is reminding Timothy 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:22.320 that that is really important as a foundation for gathering and worship because it has to be 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:27.759 that that is the way. It has to be all or nothing. Otherwise, you have to come up with a different 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:34.000 answer and I have to, and we have to recognize that there is no revelation from God, that Christ 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:40.639 probably isn't God, and therefore we don't know who God is if He exists at all. If He's not made 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:49.679 Himself known objectively to us through Jesus Christ and in His Word, then our worship is futile. 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:57.759 And I know we're called to accept it by faith, but it's not a blind faith because we know that 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:06.079 this one God has entered the room. He's got dust between His toes and He has bled real blood 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:13.679 in the hands of Roman soldiers. And it can't just be a nice feeling or a figment of our imagination 00:17:13.679 --> 00:17:21.679 for all of us to make up. He's either real and we deal with Him eyeball to eyeball or He's not. 00:17:23.199 --> 00:17:28.559 And we have to make that choice in that decision. And Paul recognizes that in verse 7, you know, 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:33.039 he says that. He says, for this is appointed a preacher and a apostle. I am telling the truth, 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:39.519 he says. I'm not lying. You know, he really wants to get across. He is met with the risen Savior. 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:47.599 He's been appointed to bring and reveal who Jesus Christ is to the Gentiles. And he wants 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:53.200 people to know that his experience is an experience of the truth. And you know what convinces me so 00:17:53.200 --> 00:18:01.920 often when I struggle? What convinces me that he is my Redeemer and my Lord, apart from His Spirit 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:07.920 at work in my heart, is that when I meet a complete stranger from maybe China or from Russia or from 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:13.920 a different part of the world, maybe even from Lewis, and I've never met them before, 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:23.440 and they're Christian. I know immediately there's a brotherhood, a sisterhood, that the core truths 00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:30.000 of Christ and what He has done are as real to them as they are to me, because we both know Jesus. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.880 There's a knowledge of Jesus that we have, not a knowledge about Him, a knowledge of Him. 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:41.599 And we share that, and there's a commonality there. So there is one God, and that's a great 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:48.160 foundational truth that he speaks here in this passage. But he also, secondly and briefly, 00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:55.039 also says that other people are important in our understanding, not only that we come at 00:18:55.039 --> 00:19:00.000 terms with this one God and His love for us and what He has done on our behalf, but other people 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:05.599 are important as we worship together, as we live our lives together. Bible, the New Testament's 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:11.920 full of that, and here Paul is urging Timothy about the importance of praying in our worship 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:17.519 together. You know, he's instructing him about the public times of worship that they are to have, 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:22.720 and that because Timothy is a leader of the church, he's saying, look, the prayer you do 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:28.160 together is a really important part of church life. It's a really important part of being together, 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:35.120 because it reflects, as does all of church, reflects the public face of your private walk with Jesus. 00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:40.640 So what we think is important publicly reflects often what we think is important personally. 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:46.400 And he's saying we as a people should reflect that we are lovingly dependent on the living God 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:52.240 in prayer, because, well, if Jesus needed to be, because He prayed more than anyone, 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:56.319 didn't He, when He was here, how much more should we be prayers as well? Prayers, He says, all kinds 00:19:56.319 --> 00:20:03.039 of prayers. Prayers as worship, prayers as intercession, prayers as supplications and thanksgivings, 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:10.720 all kinds of general prayers, specific prayers, prayers for in worship and prayers of thanksgiving. 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:17.359 And because, why? Because we're channeling it to the one source of life, the one God, the one hope. 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:24.639 It's a reflection of who we are. We're created to be in fellowship and in communion. And in His 00:20:24.639 --> 00:20:31.199 presence, and worship is about presence, it's about knowing Him, whether these prayers are 00:20:31.199 --> 00:20:38.719 verbalized or otherwise. And so prayers is always part of our corporate worship on a Sunday, or as 00:20:38.719 --> 00:20:43.279 we gather on a Wednesday evening for the engine room, or on a Friday morning for one, two, seven, 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:52.160 one prayer, is what we do. It's just what we do, because together we show and we pray as individuals 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:57.519 and as people together. It's not really meant for the few, or the elite, or the retired, or the time 00:20:57.519 --> 00:21:05.039 rich. It's part of our DNA when we can, that we pray together as a people before the living God. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:12.559 Why is that important? Because it's outward facing. Not only are we upward facing in God, 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:20.559 but we're outward facing, because we are not people who believe primarily that our salvation is 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:27.519 only individual. That it's only just me and my walk with God. It's a reflection of the truth that 00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:32.799 once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God, and that we're doing something 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:38.159 that we'll enjoy in heaven forever, which is a multitude that no one can number. 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:46.640 Man, that's a real battle, isn't it, sometimes, when we want to be in our own. But one day we'll 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:52.880 not just want our own company. We'll want everyone's company. And so our salvation is not simply, it is, 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:58.960 but it's about, but it's not simply about my walk with God. And as a church, our church has not 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:03.120 been navel gazing. We're not just interested in ourselves and St. Columbus, or it's all about 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:09.839 St. Columbus. It's not about that. It's, and it's not about my place in St. Columbus. It's 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:15.679 expansive. He says, you know, our prayers are to be for all people, for all people. It's massive. 00:22:16.239 --> 00:22:24.479 You know, I mentioned that in prayer and was provoked and reminded of my own failure so often 00:22:24.479 --> 00:22:30.000 to do that today, that there's no one in our lives beyond prayer. There's no one we should say, 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:37.279 well, I'm not going to pray for them. God says, pray for all people with all kinds of different 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:41.519 requests. Maybe say to someone someday, oh, I prayed for you this morning and I was root, 00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:47.119 because I wanted to thank God for you. Doesn't need to be a Christian that you're thanking God for. 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:53.440 And but just that we're praying for all people. It's massive. No one outside of God's reach. 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:59.920 What a privilege we have to be praying for people. I'm way, what a great privilege you can pray to 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:06.240 tomorrow as you go into work or go to study or in your neighborhood for the people around you. 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:10.640 What a great privilege that is that we have to pray for all people and we're commanded to do so 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:18.240 here, but also for our national and world leaders, for kings and all who are in high positions, 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:24.880 that we may lead peaceful and quiet life. So we pray and I hope we pray together, but maybe 00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:30.960 generally that we pray for our leaders to rule well. Man, that is a big prayer to protect their 00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:37.200 people, to provide peace, stability, justice, security, to protect the poor, to protect the 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:42.480 vulnerable, the voiceless. Because what we see so often is the opposite, isn't it? 00:23:44.320 --> 00:23:48.640 And in conclusion, why do we do that? Why do we pray to the one God? And why do we pray 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:55.840 to the one God? Why do we pray recognizing the importance of other people and leaders? 00:23:58.800 --> 00:24:07.360 Because I think it reflects God's heart that people are to be saved. This is good and it's 00:24:07.360 --> 00:24:13.040 pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge 00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:19.359 where our lives, our prayers, our understanding of God reflects His love, doesn't it? It reflects 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:24.799 His mission. It reflects who He is. That when we pray for all people, when we pray for leaders 00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:28.879 and for people in high places for every nation, when we recognize that, 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:37.039 we recognize that at the heart of it all is God's desire that people are saved. His saving 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:46.079 work. No one's disqualified. God has provided enough in Christ for every single human being 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:54.960 to come to know Him. Now, we dive there into the mystery of His sovereignty, of His electing grace, 00:24:55.519 --> 00:25:03.359 and of our human responsibility. I leave you with a great word, antonomy, an unresolved paradox. 00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:11.919 But I believe somehow, and I don't know how, but somehow our prayer lives make a difference to God 00:25:12.639 --> 00:25:19.759 in that respect. Our prayer lives make a difference. He chooses to work through the channels of our 00:25:19.759 --> 00:25:28.559 prayers. If we are prayerless, we may not see God in His power and His glory working. 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:35.679 But we pray for people and we pray for leaders because God is sovereign over the universe and 00:25:35.679 --> 00:25:40.960 over the nations as they rise and fall. And as we pray for them and pray for peace, 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:49.039 that seems to suggest that it will allow us then to live lives as Christians of both godliness 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:58.559 and holiness and live lives that are peaceful and quiet. Isn't that great? That we can live lives 00:25:58.559 --> 00:26:06.159 that are peaceful and quiet. And that seems to provide a better foundation for the gospel to 00:26:06.159 --> 00:26:12.159 flourish. You can think of the Pax Romana at the New Testament or Cyrus in the Old Testament and 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:20.080 Babylon and how God's blessing was on these leaders and nations so that the gospel flourished. 00:26:20.080 --> 00:26:27.440 And that is good and pleasing to live a quiet and peaceful life, lived out prayerfully and 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:34.400 practically for other people. You know, I really praise God. I read this passage and I looked at 00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:39.680 it and I was thinking about it and I really praise God that there's no regret in heaven. I really do. 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:46.160 I really praise God there's no regret in heaven because I can't imagine not looking back and saying, 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:52.799 well, why in earth didn't I pray more? I don't know how there's no regret for that, but I'm glad 00:26:52.799 --> 00:26:59.039 that there isn't. So we're glad today that God speaks through His living Word and reminds us 00:26:59.840 --> 00:27:08.160 that He is this one God. He's the real God and He's teaching us in our hearts and lives about 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:15.519 our privileges and about our corporate worship and about who we are. And I know that He wants 00:27:16.320 --> 00:27:23.759 me and you to see Him more clearly and His love for us more clearly and to see that He uses ordinary, 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:33.519 apparently run-of-the-mill, peaceful and quiet Christian lives to radically change the world. 00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:40.400 And that's good news. Let's pray. Father God, we ask and pray that you would help us to live 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:47.359 out the good news of the gospel. You don't ask us to be super people. You don't ask us to be Jesus. 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:58.319 Thankfully, you help us to buy the indwelling of your spirit, live upward in our gaze and outward 00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:05.919 in our gaze, loving you and loving others. Buy grace and through your amazing redemptive power 00:28:06.639 --> 00:28:12.000 that we are covered in your righteousness, not our own. And we come to you for forgiveness and help. 00:28:12.879 --> 00:28:16.799 We thank you for the love that we share. We pray that it would grow each day. 00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:22.159 Pray that we would be long-suffering over one another, that we'd be quick to forgive, 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:27.519 that we would look at our own hearts often, that we would embrace one another in grace, 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:37.600 that we would pray often for each other, for others around us, and for the leaders and kings 00:28:37.600 --> 00:28:43.840 and governors of this world. And I know that I often think in my own prayers that that is 00:28:43.839 --> 00:28:54.399 beyond my pay scale to do. And it seems almost like we're praying just into the ceiling, 00:28:54.399 --> 00:29:00.159 because it seems such a massive thing, and we are so insignificant. But yet you choose to work 00:29:00.159 --> 00:29:06.799 through our prayers and we plead and pray that we would see that. And we would see the power of 00:29:06.799 --> 00:29:12.000 prayer and see answered prayer, not just in the Bible and not just in history, but in our own lives, 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:23.759 day by day, this gentle, loving, sovereign, powerful Father whose love is at the very core of the 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:43.039 universe on our side. We thank you for that. Amen.