Sermon: Prayers for All People
From the first eight verses of
1 Timothy 2
Right after President Obama
was elected there was a flurry of reporting about how historically
“black” churches were praying for their leaders. We heard audio
clips and saw video clips of pastors praying for their
commander-in-chief. How did we react to this? How did our world
expect us to react to this?
1) only supporters of the
leaders would pray for their leaders
2) nobody would think to pray
for people they disagree with
3) prayer is a human grace
What does the Scripture say
about this?
1) We pray for all people -
supplication, prayer, intercession, thanksgiving
not
based on those people’s merits
not
based on whether we agree or disagree
prayers
for their good, for god’s blessing upon our friends and enemies
2) We pray for leaders, even
though our leaders, like Paul’s, may not be people we would choose
to support.
Visit
with a senator on a national day of prayer - cornered him in the
hallway and prayed for him
pray
for God’s blessings
pray
for God’s mercy
pray
the Lord would use these people in positions of power as a blessing
to the world
3) Prayer is not a human
grace. Nobody earns our prayers, just as we don’t earn the Lord’s
favor.
We
pray for all people.
We
pray for people because they need the mercy of God in Christ.
We
pray that the Lord would bless our world to live in his peace, his
rest, godly and dignified.
peace
from forgiveness in Christ
rest
from our sin and strife
freedom
to love God and serve our neighbor
ability
to live an upright life, not in crime or dissolution
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