Pray.

1 Timothy 2:1-7New International Version (NIV)

Instructions on Worship

2 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. 7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

I cannot recall a time where preparing a sermon has come with such difficulty.  I was certain I wanted to preach on Paul’s advice of praying for our leaders, even if we happen to disagree with them.  The lesson in that seems pretty clear, though.  Plus, I think I touched on this subject just a couple months ago.  However, I made up my mind that this was going to be the message I presented today.  I made that decision.  I didn’t do the one thing I was going to encourage all of you to do in that message.  I didn’t pray.  I didn’t pray until the hours were getting shorter and my time was running out.  I didn’t pray until I was desperately searching for the words.  And then that prayer didn’t reflect what I was really needing help with.  Instead of praying for God to guide my heart and mind to the message I should present, my prayers became panicked and desperate.  Instead of “God, help me to prepare a message that will stir the hearers (or readers) in a way that ignites their passion for You and causes them to want to be closer to You, amen” my prayers turned into, “Dear God, just give me something to say, at this point I don’t care how long or even how bad, I just need to say something, please God, PLEASE, amen.”  My intention was to focus on who Paul was wanting us to pray for and about but maybe, just maybe, we ought to turn our sights inward.

I am in agreement with Paul.  We ought to pray for our leaders, despite our differences.  We ought to respect those positions and lift them up in the hopes they make the decisions that best fit their constituents, hopefully not just themselves.  I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking “I thought he said he wasn’t going to preach on this...”  You’re right I’m not.  But if we are going to say that prayer about our congregational, presidential and community leaders, should we not also say that prayer about ourselves?  Think about it.  As Christians, we have this gift.  A gift of knowing Christ’s love.  As Christians, we ought to be more aware of the love and grace of God than those who aren’t.  The grace and love we are freely given ought to be so incredibly obvious that no one can deny it.  As Christians we are leaders, whether we like it or not, whether we thought we signed up for this or not.  Our faith calls us beyond the ordinary of human life.  Our faith makes us a leader, whether or not we think we are fit to lead.  I often catch myself taking this role too lightly.  I justify my inaction by telling myself if I give the appearance that I am ordinary, I will be more approachable and people will be knocking down my door to ask me about my faith.  Again, I am mistaken.

See, Christ’s love is anything but ordinary.  Anyone who has felt God’s love and grace in a moment of brokenness and weakness knows exactly how extraordinary a relationship with Christ truly is.  There is no earthly relationship that pushes us to our limits like a relationship with Christ.  That being said, being a parent definitely pushes us to our limits but in a different, yet similar way, but I digress.  Every action and thought is altered by God.  And if it’s not, we soon realize that it should have been but not so we feel guilty but so we can better show others just how powerful Christ’s love is for us.  We sin.  We fall short.  We cannot take ourselves to eternal life.  We are perfectly imperfect beings and God’s love and grace takes us to places we didn’t think we could go.  Over time, we become complacent in God’s love.  In other words, we forget the power we have in God.  We forget about our gifts that make us uniquely qualified to share the gospel with others.  We forget to pray until we become desperate.  God hears those prayers of desperation.  You know how I know that?  This sermon was a prayer of desperation!  ;)  Had I spent more time lifting myself up in prayer, you all might have been blessed with a better sermon! ;)  I am kind of joking but not really.  We probably feel too prideful or feel that there are more important things that need our attention than a prayer of lifting ourselves up.  We have to know and understand that we cannot take care of others if we ourselves are not taken care of first.  As a minister, I pray for you.  I lift you guys up and hope that each of you are successful in whatever your passion is.  But, I don’t know if I have ever prayed that prayer for myself?!  How many times in the gospels do we find Jesus going off to be alone so he could pray?  About 6 different times Jesus withdrew himself to go pray.  We need to pray and we need to spend time lifting ourselves up.  

We pray for our leaders, and most likely we pray more for the leaders we do not agree with in the hopes that God’s power brings them around to our way of thinking.  Sometimes prayers can be passive-aggressive and with ulterior motives.  Sometimes our prayers are misguided and incorrectly influenced.  Sometimes we ourselves are imperfect, passive-aggressive, misguided and incorrectly influenced but that is part of our human nature.  Our imperfections are as much apart of who we as our strengths.  We each have gifts and strengths and we each have sins and imperfections.  Our weaknesses are meant to show us how much we need God and one another.  Our strengths are meant to show the glory of God and how we can help one another.  We are given this one life here on earth to make an impact.  If nothing else, we are the leader of this one life that we get to live.  And we need to pray for our leaders, right?  We need to spend time lifting ourselves up.  We need to spend time alone with God.  When we pray for our leaders, like Paul mentions in our scripture for this morning, it allows us to “live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”  Why does it seem like the world we live in today is not peaceful as yesteryear?  Why all the unrest?  We. Have. Quit. Praying.  

God is anything but ordinary.  You are anything but ordinary.  Pray for your leaders and pray for yourself.  I read a quote by a British theologian named Walter Lock that says, “God’s will to save is as wide as his will to create.”  As Christians who believe in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, we know that the ransom has been paid.  We know that Christ is the mediator between God and us.  As Christians, if our goal is to be truly Christ-like, then we know that we too must assume some of the responsibilities of Christ.  We too are given the gifts necessary to lead others to know that Christ’s life, death and resurrection was also meant for them.  Sometimes we make decisions without any prayer or input from God and sometimes that leads us to struggle.  How sweet is the peace found in lifting those times up to a God that loves each one of us?  Pray for your leaders and do not forget that you are one because YOU may be the only person that can help someone find their way to God’s love and grace.  Please join me in the spirit of prayer: