Living Under the Obama Administration

The mothers of the, the unborn. This is sanctity of Life Sunday, and it's a good opportunity for us to just, remember, the crisis that, plagues our country and what some are doing about it and even what we might be able to do as individuals and as a church. Carlos Slimtiaco and I and Jim Ward, as a, Jim is a member of our church's Agape team. We had the privilege on Friday of this week to go to the, San Bernardino.

A pregnancy resource center. They do crisis pregnancy counseling. And I forget her name, Lisa something, and let's see. Lisa Stifkin.

And I hope I'm pronouncing that right, but she's the executive director of the, of this pregnancy crisis counseling center, and we got to meet her, just a precious sister in the Lord, who has been at this for, decades, and they, they have planted a Christian pregnancy crisis counseling center right next door to a Planned Parenthood in San Bernardino. And it's not just next door, it's in front of. So, like as you're pulling off hospitality lane, you see that before you see the Planned Parenthood.

And they've had women sometimes go in there, thinking that that's where they needed to go to abort their child and they ended up walking into this, pregnancy counseling center, and they tell them up front, we are not, they tell them they don't want to deceive.

Planned Parenthood is behind us. If you want to go there, you can, but we'd sure love to talk to you and, they've been able to help over 2000 women over the course of 2008. we hear statistics like there's 1.5 million million abortions that are committed every year in our society. This week it hit a little closer to home, meeting with the people here at this crisis counseling center.

They were sharing with us that in the Planned Parenthood right behind them and a family planning clinic nearby, there are 600 abortions a month. That are performed. Just in that San Bernardino area, that doesn't represent Montclair and Riverside and, and so forth, but just between those two, clinics, 600 abortions are performed every single, month, and this ministry is a little lighthouse that is put in the darkness as women are reeling from an unwanted pregnancy, most of them not even married, and they're just don't know what to do and their only thought is to, to, In the life of, of their child, but they need some direction and so many of these women have been helped.

The Planned Parenthood people tell ladies don't go over there because all they care about is, is that fetus.

They don't care about you. But that's completely untrue because at this counseling center, they counsel women to consider carrying the child a full term and being a mother to the child or putting the child up for adoption. But they tell the women that if you decide to abort your baby, please come back to us because you're going to need help. And they have a post abortion, Bible study where they can just walk ladies, through the word of God and, and tell them of the forgiveness and the grace that is yours.

And so they've been able to help a number of women, both pre abortion and after, abortion. So, this is a wonderful ministry. I was sobered by one statistic and this shows us as a church how great the need is. but the lady was telling us, and this, this statistic is from a pro abortion group.

So, if anything, the number might be a little bit on the low side. But listen carefully. Women in our culture under 50 years of age, Among all the women in our culture under 50 years of age, 45% of them. 45% of them have had at least one abortion.

So you walk through the shopping mall and just start looking at all the women under 50. And 45% of them, a little under half of them, Have had at least one abortion, and many of them have had more than one. This lady was sharing us, with us that, that abortions breed other abortions, and she said, I've had women look at me in the eyes and say I've had 8 abortions. Because I don't deserve to be a mother.

And so there's a lot of broken lives out there and a lot of women that have made the wrong choice and have chosen to end the life of their child, and they're carrying around the guilt, of that sinful choice, and they need to hear very desperately the grace that is theirs in the gospel. and we as a church can give them that message. We can love them. We can stand with ministries such as I'm speaking about here in San Bernardino.

We were picking their brains trying to figure out how can we as a church help and come alongside of your ministry, and there were very clear and tangible ways that they gave us and we'll be, coming to you with, more of that information about how we as a church can partner with ministries like this. and, and bringing hope and healing and direction for, for broken lives. So be praying for us as elders as we sort through some of that and for our churches agape team, as they, wrestle with how we as a church can, can go about standing with, this ministry and other ministries and really bring the help to people right where they need it.

also, let me just say real quick, we have a book by Randy Alcorn, Why Pro Life, that we, I think we bought 50 of them, and these will be available in the information booth as you leave this morning, $3 apiece, OK?

that covers our costs for them. We're not making any money off of this, but this will just help make the case for why this is an important issue for the church and, and for, believers. You can pick that up after the message. All right.

Let me have you turn in your Bibles this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 1, or chapter 22 Timothy chapter 2. For those of you that are visiting with us, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy, and we're just taking in a verse at a time and just saying, God, what do you want to say to us? And whatever he says, we want to believe, whatever he tells us to do, we want to practice. And so as we continue in this study of this particular book of God's word, we come this morning to First Timothy chapter.

One or chapter 2, we've been in chapter one so long, chapter 2, verse 1. And my goal today is to cover verses 1 through 4. And the title of the message is Living Under the Obama Administration. Living under the Obama administration, which we're all going to do, Lord willing, over the next 4 years at least and possibly 8.

How do we live? what should our policy be as a church and as individual believers in how we live our lives, how we behave, over the next several years., on Tuesday of this week, there will be a remarkable thing that will take place. And that is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power from our existing president to our new incoming president, and I hope that that never gets old hat with you. In the history of the world.

This is extremely unique that a living, healthy president and his administration, a leader of a country, can hold enormous power. For an 8 year span, and at the end of that, peacefully pass that power over to another president and his administration. in accordance with the vote of the people. This is a great blessing that we can thank God for.

And so I know I on Tuesday, I'm just going to be marveling afresh at the American experiment and over God's goodness and His grace, that we do not deserve in this country of ours. on Tuesday, we will also be able to relish, the First president of the United States who is of African-American descent. this is truly a colossal, accomplishment in the conscience of America that is worth, our celebrating. I was thinking this week, about, Martin Luther King's speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial 40 years ago.

And how he spoke his dream of a day in which all Americans would be given equal rights. He dreamed of more than just that. He dreamed of a day when people of all races, black and white, and whatever else can sit down at the table of brotherhood together. And he had the audacity to speak that dream.

In front of hundreds of thousands of people and it spoke to the conscience of a nation. And there were people standing in that crowd who, held on to that dream. They embraced that dream, and they had every reason not to because some of the people standing in that crowd bore in their bodies the scars of police brutality and racism, but they stood there and they listened, they embraced and they believed along with Martin Luther King and many others. But even the most believing of that crowd.

Probably very few, if any, of them believe that in 40 years there would be, a man who would ascend to the presidency of African-American descent. There's so much in our country that is going the wrong way. We can be thankful that in the area on the issue of racism, that, that God has shown His grace to this country and has pricked the conscience of this nation. And there is forward movement and progress, and the ascendancy of Obama to the presidency is, is symbolic of, of at least one of the steps towards the accomplishing of Martin Luther King's dream and ultimately the dream of Christ for this country and for the church.

That's why he died, to eliminate the barriers between peoples and between us and God. So there's much to enjoy and to celebrate on Tuesday. There's also great causes for concern., what direction is Obama going to go in the decisions he will make on the abortion issue and on the marriage issue? What will the Congress do regarding these and other very pressing issues?

These are grave causes of concern. The stakes are very, very high. And so on this day of rejoicing, which will be Tuesday of this week, there will also be a burden that we will feel that hopefully will prompt us to, to prayer and to take a stand for what is right. Having said that, I feel sorry for Barack Obama.

Our country is in a mess and in a variety of standpoints, and all eyes are on this guy to see what he's going to do. To pull our country out of the mess that it is in already, all of his decisions have been hyper analyzed. Every step he's taken, every train ride, it's all been tracked, and already I was reading an article this week about what is he going to do in the 1st 100 days. he's not even president yet, and already, they're talking about what will he accomplish in the 1st 100 days, what will his decisions be, and people are like, our country is in a financial mess.

What will he do to deliver us out of the mess that we're in? And there's partisanship and bickering and just a poisonous, toxic tone in Washington. What will he do to deliver our country out of just some of that vitriol that Characterizes politics and so many people are looking to this man to be the man who's going to deliver our country out of the mess that it is in. Unfortunately, very few people this week will be looking at themselves in the mirror and asking, what should I do?

To make a difference, what should I do to be a difference maker in this society in which God has placed me? What should I do over the next 100 days? What will my agenda be over the next 100 day span? What will I do over the next 4 years and 8 years to truly be a Difference maker in the lives of those in this culture in which God has placed me.

We as a church should be joining with other churches and at least asking the question, what should we as the church be doing to make a true and profound and lasting eternal difference in the communities. In which God has placed us to make a difference in this nation. What does God want us to do with regard to our president and the Congress? What are our responsibilities in these areas?

Well, hopefully, we can ask those questions this morning and this week. And if we do, we are blessed to find the answers to those questions in verses 1 through 4 of 1 Timothy chapter 2. In fact, Paul in these verses essentially gives us a policy. This is a policy statement, an action plan, and we're going to look at these four verses and, and we're going to pull out 5 actions that we as a church and we as individual believers should be engaging in, in order to truly be difference makers in This country that God has, has put us in.

Let me read the passage to you, and then we'll begin to break it down. He says, first of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life and all godliness and dignity. 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. All right, we're going to start in verse 1 and just look at the actions, 5 of them that God wants us to make a part of our lives.

Action number 1. We need to pray to God and petition favors for all men. We need to pray to God and petition favors for all men. We need to be a praying people.

In fact, look at how he begins. He says, first of all, and he's not saying first of all, to let us know that what he's about to say is first in the list of things in the sequence in which it appears in the text. What he's saying is, first of all, in the sense of this is The most important out of everything, he says, first of all, out of everything that I could tell you to do, and that I'm going to tell you to do, this is the most important thing. This is of first importance.

And that is, he says, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions be made on behalf of all men. Let me say a quick word about the word all. if you like to find keywords in a text, then look for the word all in our passage today. look at this real quickly, at the beginning of verse one.

First of all, there it is the first time. I urge that entreaties, prayers, petitions, thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, verse 2, for kings and all who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior who desires all men to be saved. Look in verse 6, speaking of Christ, it says he gave himself as a ransom for all.

So 6 times in these 1st 6 verses we see the word all. occurring, meaning that what Paul's instructing us here to do is like all encompassing. This ends up impacting everything, and we're going to see even the world over. And he's saying at the very beginning of verse one, out of everything that you can do, in the society in which God has placed you, out of all of those things, the most important is to pray.

And you might say, OK, we're supposed to pray, and it says here, we pray for all men. Why do we need to do that? I guess it's the spiritual thing to do. And saintly old ladies, maybe you have a picture of saintly old ladies having a little prayer meeting, and they're just so godly, they do that.

but think about it, guys. We have a God with a big heart, who wants to do something, something big that affects the whole world and everyone's life. And this God who has a plan says, come and ask me, pray for all men. This is a big God with a big heart, who wants to do great things the world over.

And our prayers make a difference or God would not give us this instruction. One writer says this regarding this instruction, If such praying were useless, the apostle would not write what he does write here. So God says, come to me, talk to me, and pray to me on behalf of all men. He uses three words for prayer.

And I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but just real quickly, because each of them has a little bit of a nuance. The word entreaties, just basically means request that's based on a need. There's a need in someone's life. So you make a request.

I can, I can come to you and make, make a request and say, can you give me $5 for whatever, I'm making a request. That's an entreaty. All right, the word prayer, is the most general word for prayer, but the thing that it means in every single occasion where it ever occurs is it always speaks of talking to God. All right.

The word entreaty sometimes may speak of going to God with an entreaty, but a lot of times it would speak of one person going to another. The word prayer, though, always is directed towards God. It speaks of talking to him. And then the word petitions means something very similar to entreaties, but it has the idea of someone of inferior rank going to someone of superior authority and making requests of that authority.

This word was used to speak of someone coming into the presence of a king and asking a king. for some favor for oneself or for another. And he comes to the king, because the king has the right to make those decisions. And the king also had the wherewithal to grant the request.

And so you put all that together. And Paul is basically saying, I want you to come to God. I want you to speak to God. I want you to understand that ultimately, he is the king.

He is the ultimate authority. And he is the one who has all good things that anyone might need. Go to him, acknowledge his authority, and make requests of him. Look around you in your life.

look at the needs of other people, whether they're saved, or even those that do not know Jesus, look at the material needs and, and even the spiritual needs, the physical needs that they might have, see the needs that abound, and then take those needs and go to your king and petition favors on their behalf. First of everything, do this, be a praying person, going into God's presence on behalf of other people. I'm really starting to catch, a vision for this just in my own personal life and evangelism that, if, if someone has a need, they may not go to church anywhere, they may not be a born again child of God, but, but to look for needs and then to pray for those needs and even tell them I'm praying for you regarding these things, and even pray with them if they'll let you.

pray with them for those things.

And then when God answers that prayer, you give thanks to God. But the thing is, guys, we as Christians, we have a blood bought power, a blood bought privilege to go into God's presence and ask things from Him. And he hears our prayers, because we stand in the righteousness of Jesus, what will we do with that power? We will deal with it what Jesus did.

We will use that power and service to our fellow men, to impact lives, to pray for their salvation, to pray that God would favor them enough to do very practical, physical, and material good to them. First of everything, let us pray. Let us pray. And then God can do amazing things.

I was telling you about Lisa. At this pregnancy counseling center, she was telling us on Friday. That, they don't just care about the unborn, they don't just care about the mother and the father of the unborn. They, they care about the abortionist.

And she was sharing with us that like 6 years ago, she and her husband, just felt that the Lord laid on their heart a particular abortionist doctor. And 6 years ago, they started praying for this man by name, in a concentrated fashion, never knowing what God might do, we just we're going to pray for him and just lift him up before God. So they did that, week after week, month after month, and year after year. And, just recently, Lisa's husband is also involved in the pro-life movement, so he stands out in front of Planned Parenthood and very lovingly shows the love of Christ to the ladies that come in and out and gives them flyers and so forth.

This abortionist doctor came to Lisa's husband and said, hey, I've, I've noticed you out in front of my clinic and, I'd like to do lunch with you. And The guy was like, well, sure, and, so they did lunch together. And this abortionist doctor began to unload on Lisa's husband, and he He said, what, I hate doing what I do. I hate it.

He said, I, I trained in the medical profession for the sole purpose. My dream was to deliver babies. And then I don't know the details of this, but he told a very sad and tragic story about how he got detoured from that into the abortion industry. It was just orchestrated by Satan.

And he said, I've been at this for 30 some odd years, and he says, I, I hate it. I want to leave it, but I don't know what I would do. It's all I've done. And so, the two of them talked over lunch, and Lisa's husband was able to just share the love of Christ with this man and hear his heart and just let him know I'm here for you.

And it turns out that this abortionist doctor, his wife was a born again Christian. Who hated what her husband did, and was also praying for her husband. Well, Lisa and her husband just recently received word that this abortionist doctor, after 33 years in the industry had resigned his position. And is no longer performing abortions.

He also told them that he would like to start going to church. So they are now just trying to figure out a way that they can have a couple to couple relationship with this doctor and his wife and continue to share the love of Christ, the forgiveness of God, with this man. Isn't that an amazing thing? And, and how does that happen?

Well, it began, just in the quietness of Lisa and her husband's heart saying, we're going to start praying for this guy. And they started praying, and over time, God ended up moving and answering, and who knows all that even still lies ahead as this story unfolds. Guys, First of everything, pray. A lot of times we think, man, we got to make a difference.

And so we get active and we develop plans, and we got to do this, and we got to do that. And Paul would say, what, that's fine. But first of everything, pray, pray, let everything begin with prayer, pray and pray for everybody, for everybody. There's a second action that we should engage in if we want to be difference makers in our society.

And that is we need to give thanks to God with regard to all men. We need to be thankful people, a grateful people. I left out one word in verse one. Paul says, first of all, then, I urge that entreaties, prayers, and petitions, and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men.

Paul is saying, I am urging this upon you, Timothy, and upon the church that you are to be a thankful people, not just feeling gratitude in sight, but expressing gratitude to God. not only for what he's doing in your life and has done in your life, but expressing gratitude to God on behalf of all men. Yes, you pray for them, you pray for their salvation. You pray for favors from God on their behalf, but you also thank God when he answers those prayers and does good unto them, and you communicate it in a way that the person you prayed for knows that this has come from God.

This is a goodness from God. The Greek word for thankfulness, we've seen this word before. It's the compound word, and it's the Greek particle that means good, combined with the word grace, good grace, to be truly thankful means that you look at what God has given you, you pronounce it good, and you pronounce it a grace. In other words, this is an undeserved good.

It's not just good, but it's an undeserved good. I deserve your judgment. And instead, you withhold that from me, and you give me this goodness, this grace, that is the opposite of what I deserve. If we want to impact our culture, I'll tell you what will make you stand out.

And that is be a grateful person rather than a covetous person, always wanting more, always discontent, and spewing that, that discontent, and complaining about things. instead, you are a grateful person. And everyone knows that person, every good thing that's in their life, they, they, they acknowledge that that comes from God, and they celebrate it. And I would commend to you guys to be thankful and not just be thankful, but be thankful for everything in your life, every good, no matter how large it may be, or how small it might be.

if you read Romans chapter one, Paul describes the downward spiral into spiritual destruction. where it begins? where the first step downward begins in Romans 1. He says they did not give thanks.

The first step to spiritual retardation is a refusal to give thanks to God. The first failure is the failure of ingratitude. Don't think being ungrateful is no big deal. It's the first step towards spiritual ruin, and all sorts of sin.

Ingratitude is the mother of all sin. Ironside, a commentator says this in connection with this passage and talking about thankfulness. He says unthankfulness is connected to unholiness. Thankfulness and gratitude to God, and holiness of heart and life are linked intimately together.

Think about your own life. Is it not true if you ponder it long enough that at the root of every sin, when you go outside the bounds of what God says He has given you, and take for yourself what he has not given to you, and what he has prohibited at the root of that is a spirit of ingratitude. And what, if we're preaching the gospel to ourselves every day, and we're like mindful every day of the hell that we deserve, then every moment we're not experiencing that judgment. We're thankful for that.

And then if God decides to add a drop, even the tiniest drop of blessing in the place of that judgment, well then we're just ecstatic with praise and thanksgiving. And, and this is the way that, that, that I know I need to think more and all of us, this is, this is one of the ways that we impact our culture. By the example that we set, this week, just as an example, because I'm not always in this place. I should be, but I'm not.

But this week I was on a given night, I was sitting at the dining room table with my family. Donna and my daughter had made one of our favorite meals, and it comes wrapped in tin foil, and, And so I'm sitting at the table, and I just zone out and I look at everyone around the table, and I'm just thinking, I got a family. I got a wife, I got children. They're all healthy.

I deserve to be in hell, but instead I'm sitting at this table with this family. And, and then I looked down at this tin foil on my plate, and I'm like, I deserve to be in hell, but I get this instead. And then I opened up the tin foil and all the steam came out and the potatoes were in there and the carrots and the meat and And I took a bite, I put it to my mouth just real slowly to savor the moment and the spices, everything was just perfect. And I just, I closed my eyes and I imagine God handing that food to me and putting it in my mouth, saying, Here, have this Milton.

And as I slowly chewed my food and enjoyed the taste, I was, I was moved in a powerful way. I was thinking, I deserve judgment, but instead, I get, I get this food. I get this family. So even, even eating that food wrapped in tin foil was a gospel experience for me.

And I began to realize, what, if I think this way all the time, everything's a gospel experience. Everything, every good thing. And we need to be a grateful people who acknowledges that God is the source of every good thing. Look at what he says here.

He says, Thanksgiving on behalf of all men. That means that when you see God bring blessing upon someone else, you thank God for that rather than being jealous and covetous, and angry and ticked. mad about that, that you actually thank God, and even perhaps communicate to that person. I am thanking God for what God has done in your life, even if that person is a nonbeliever, I would commend to you guys that even if you're interacting with a nonbeliever, and they do some kindness to you, that kindness came from God.

God is the source of that through his common grace, that nonbeliever is displaying the image of God, even though in a marred way. And you need to receive that and say, man, God has been good to me through this kindness that you have shown to me. And I thank God for you. I thank God for this good that, that I see in you that he has put there.

So be a grateful person to all and on behalf of all. That's the second action. A third action is to pray and give thanks to God for all who have governing authority. Paul narrows the focus a little bit.

And he hones in and Verse 2 on those who are our governing leaders. Verse 2, he says, in treaties, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, like who, for kings, and all who are in authority. Paul is saying take time to know those that are in positions of authority over you, your president and your senators and your representatives and your state governor and representatives and the police officers and, anyone that, that has governing authority over you, pray for them and give thanks for them.

Again, we live in a complaining culture where it's just easy.

It's just so easy to complain about people and governing authority, and it's so easy to blame George Bush for like every bad thing that's in our society today. That's such a cop out. That's so easy, and it won't be long before people on the other side will easily blame Obama for for every ill. Our culture.

That's, that's, that's easy, guys. That, that takes no character to, to do that, but to actually pray for those in governing authority, and not just to pray for them, but to give thanks for them, to thank God for them. He elevated them in his sovereignty to those positions of governance and authority. And when they do something good, to be thankful for that, to acknowledge that.

Christians can be really good about writing letters to their senators and so forth when there's a big bill that is coming down the pipe, that, that might be adversarial to the Christian cause and, and rightly, we should, we absolutely should do that. But how many thank you notes have ever been written when the decision goes in a direction that, would be consistent with what we would have hoped for as believers. How many thank you notes do our senators get? let's be a thankful people.

And again, I'm not legislating, you got to write thank you notes. I'm just thinking out loud here that, however, we do it, both in person and written form, that, that we are a grateful people, our governing leaders ought to see that we, we're thankful for them. And we're thankful for the good that they have done. And so that actually would lend credence to our voice when we speak something critical.

and even when we do speak critical of them or to them, we do so in a context of gratitude for them that we are just as careful to communicate. Tertullian, I'm confident none of you will name your children after this guy, but he lived in the second half of the 200s AD, when the Roman Empire was, In existence and listen to what he says about this. He says without ceasing, for all our emperors we offer prayer. We pray for life prolonged, for security, for the empire, for protection to the imperial house, for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, a world at rest, whatever as man or Caesar, an emperor would wish.

He's like, what would an emperor ever want? Whatever an emperor would ever want for his empire and for himself, we as Christians pray for that. We pray that God would bring that to pass. We won't bow down to the emperor, and we're persecuted for that.

Christians are killed for that. We won't worship the Emperor, but what we will do is go to the true God, and petition favors from him on behalf of the Emperor. The very emperor who Kills Christians. We will pray for him.

These things, he says, I cannot ask from any but the God from whom I know I shall obtain them, both because he alone bestows them and because I have claims upon him for their gift. What he's saying is I got a blood bought right to go into God's presence, and to pray and ask for things. So what, I'm going to use that. For the good of the empire, for the good of those in authority, and I will ask God to favor them in these ways.

So let us be a praying people. Yes, we need to write letters. Yes, we need to speak as our society accommodates our voice in order to influence perhaps the will and the decisions of those that are in governing authority. But all of those actions should emerge from fundamentally a commitment to pray for them.

How much time do we spend criticizing those in authority? And how much time do we spend praying for them? Let us spend as much and more time praying for them as we do criticizing them. There's 1/4 action that we need to be engaging in if we're going to be difference makers in our culture.

And that is to live a life of godliness and dignity, to live a life of godliness and dignity. It is absolutely imperative that Christians live a holy life. If we're going to make a difference, then our life has to be different, right? Think about it, you want to make a difference, right?

You want to make a difference upon this culture, right? If you do, you have to be different. If you're just like the culture, you'll never make a difference. The culture will never become different.

And sadly, the church and Christians have allowed the culture to be the difference maker in their lives rather than them living lives that are very different. And then through that different life that they are living to make a difference upon the culture around them. Paul says in verse 2, you pray for all men and for kings in a grateful way. who are in authority, so that here's the agenda we may lead a tranquil and quiet life and all godliness and dignity.

The word tranquil and quiet speaks of both, that we pray for the absence of war, that God would protect us from assaults from without, attacks from without, and the quietness speaks of more of the absence of civil strife, the absence of Of, or I don't want to say the absence of, but we pray for peace, not just between nations, but we pray for peace inside of our nation amongst the people of this country. The word tranquil and quiet also speaks of our disposition, that yes, we are passionate.

Yes, we feel strongly about things that are taught in the Bible. And yes, we take a stand against that which is evil.

And yes, we do let our voice be heard. but when we do so, we do so with this disposition. We don't try to get our way and to get our agenda passed by being loud and nasty and screeching louder than the other groups are screeching in order that we might get the Christian agenda accomplished in this country. Yes, we fight for those things, but while everyone else is screeching and going berserk and using worldly, fleshly methods, we speak with dignity.

We speak with composure. There is a peace that is inside of us that is evident, even as we speak to those that are in authority over us. And he says that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. He says all godliness.

So it's not just, I want to add a little sprinkle of godliness here and there. And yes, I have godliness in my life. No, the idea is a full orb godliness to where godliness takes over the entire life, where we go all out. In our pursuit of godliness.

The word godliness speaks of devotion to God, where we're passionately devoted to Him. He is far and away the most important person in our life. We want to know Him and we want to allow that knowledge to transform us. And the world as they watch our lives, observe that God is the one we worship.

He is the one we serve. He is the one that we seek to please, more so than pleasing others, and more so even than pleasing ourselves. That we might live lives of all godliness and dignity. Dignity.

This word speaks of moral earnestness. We're passionate about what's right. We are offended by what is wrong. We abstain and we pull away from, we renounce those things that are immoral.

We Not entertained by that which is sinful and that which is immoral. We are offended by those things. We renounce them and we choose instead to to embrace and to celebrate and to advocate that which is right, and we do so in an earnest fashion. This word translated dignity doesn't just simply speak of living that life, but it embodies the idea of living that life in a way that is observable to others, to where you win their respect.

All right, to where they might even say, what, I don't believe in your God, but I got to hand it to you. You have integrity. And you live what you say that you believe. How many Christians today, professing Christians can the world say that?

Not very many. We need to live this life, living differently in a godly way, in a morally earnest way, passionate for that which is good and noble and pure, renouncing, offended by That which is not and living a life of integrity, that wins the respect and earns the notice of those around us. You see, if we think about it, if we're praying for all men, and everyone, they, they feel that vibe from us, like, man, this person cares about me. They're They're, they're, they're praying for me.

I just sense that they love me, that they care about me, and they're also, they're grateful. when they, they, they seem really grateful for me and happy to have me in their life and they, they seem blessed to have me in their life and, and on top of that, this person is living a life of, of integrity, and I, and they're not perfect, but when they mess up, they're coming and asking forgiveness, they're announcing Confessing they're wrong and, and renouncing that this person definitely lives what they believe.

Think about it, guys. If that's what people observe in you, and then you got an opinion to state, are people going to listen to you?

They'll at least be more inclined to listen, and to give a respectful hearing to what you might say than they would if you're not doing any of these things. We got a big-hearted God who's giving us instructions here on how to live in a way that reflects his largeheartedness. To the culture around us. And action number 4 is that we live a life of godliness.

And dignity How are you living? What choices did you make this week? OK. What did you choose to be entertained by?

What did you choose to look upon? What are you looking at? What are you doing? What life are you leading?

What have others observed? In your life and in your family, What conclusions would they draw about your God based on what they observe? Let's live lives of godliness. And dignity.

There's a final action that we should. Engage in if we're going to impact our culture, and that is to embrace God's saving agenda for all men, to embrace God's saving agenda for all men. In verse 3, Paul says, these things I've told you to do here. If you live a life of prayer, a life of gratitude, and praying for those in authority, you're grateful for those in authority, and communicating that if you're living a life of godliness and dignity, here's what I want to say to you.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God. That word acceptable means that it delights the heart of God. He warmly receives that as he would a delightful sacrifice that is offered unto him. In other words, as you live, This way, your life ascends up to God as a sacrifice to him, and he warmly receives that and takes that in.

It is a delight to his eyes. He says, this life is good and warmly received by God. It is acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior. In other words, this is why God saved you.

He didn't just save you so you can go to heaven when you die. He saved you so that you would live this life and do the very things that I'm telling you to do in this passage here. The whole reason God sent His Son to shed his blood, so that your sins would be forgiven, and you would be clothed with his righteousness, the whole reason he has spared you of the judgment you deserve and lavished His grace upon you, the whole reason he has made himself and put himself into service as your Savior is so that you could live this life.

This is where it's at.

And then describing God as our Savior, Paul says, who desires all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Literally, God continuously desires all men to be saved and to come. To the knowledge Of the truth. Verse 4, unfortunately, if you look closely at this text, there's a lot of blood on the terrain of this text from theological battles that have been fought between Calvinists and Armenians for centuries.

If we can set that aside and not say, yeah, but let's run off to, elsewhere and balance this out. If we can just say, God, you have us today in this passage, and you're wanting to reveal something to us about your heart. So we will linger here. And God is saying to all of us, I want you to know something about my heart.

And that is that I continuously desire all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth of the gospel that is my heart for all men. Some say that the word all speaks of all categories of men, Jew and Gentile and people of every tribe tongue. And nation and certainly it includes that, but the language seems to indicate that God is saying here that he desires the salvation of all men as individuals. Some say the Greek word for desires here is a little weaker of a term than another word for will that shows up elsewhere in the New Testament that speaks of God's sovereign decrees and, if you study that out, you would find that that doesn't bear up under closer scrutiny.

This word desire here is as powerful, passionate, and strong of a word as the other word for will, and they're used interchangeably, used in the same kinds of passages. So God pulls back the curtains and says, I want to show you something about myself, and that is that I desire continuously. All men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And I want you to look at me, and to observe this about me.

In fact, it is because I desire this, that I have given you the instructions that I've given you in this text, to pray for all men, to pray for kings, all who are in authority, to live the life that I call you to live. I'm telling you to do this because I desire the salvation of all men. And I desire them to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just focusing on this aspect of the truth.

this is affirmed elsewhere in Scripture. We know that God desires the salvation of all men, because he commands us to preach the gospel to everyone on earth, right? Christ dies, he's raised, he's ascended. Salvation is now provided.

God says, Jesus said, go tell every single person on the planet about this. Announce this good news to everybody. Everyone needs to know about this. We also know he desires the salvation of all men, because of all those who hear, every single person who believes and calls on the name of the Lord, God saves, he never rejects anyone.

Jesus says anyone who ever comes to me, I will in no wise ever cast them out. And he, he uses a double negative there, I will not, I will not cast anyone out whoever comes to me. A woman can come to him who's committed 8 abortions in her life. And if she comes to Jesus and believes in Him as our Lord and as our Savior, he's not going to send her away.

He will happily receive her and give her forgiveness and give her grace. He delights to do this for sinners, regardless of what we have done. We know he desires the salvation of all men because he tells us to preach the good news to all men. And he Saves all men who actually believe this good news, and we know that he desires the salvation of all men because he weeps over those who reject him.

Even if their rejection was foreordained. And the eternal counsels of God, God still weeps. Over their rejection of Him. Jesus, as he entered into Jerusalem in Luke chapter 19, paused, and he wept and wailed over the city.

And he did not say, well, I guess in the foreordained counsels of God, this was meant to be. And so it is what it is. No, he wept, because his desire. For their salvation was not being satisfied.

He desired for them to be saved, and he wept over their rejection of him and now the fate of destruction that awaited those that rejected him. If you came to God and said, God, I've been wondering, I've been having a debate with my friends theologically, and do you desire the salvation of every person? How would he respond? Would he say, well, actually, I haven't really thought about that, but now that I think about it.

I guess in a theological sense, in a narrow sense, yeah, properly qualified, yeah, I do. I would, I would say that, I guess I do. No, if you came to God and you asked Him that question, do you desire the salvation of every person? Tears would well up in his eyes, and he would say, oh.

Oh, I do. I do. And I grieve over those that Do not receive this salvation. That I have purchased for them through my son.

If we're going to impact our culture, we need to have a heart as large as the heart of God, to let our hearts be expanded by his heart and embrace this heart of God for the salvation of all men. Does this passage mean that everyone's going to be saved? No, absolutely not. But it does mean that God desires for all to be saved.

And God reveals this about his heart to us so that we would embrace it and be like Him. Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning. We're going to be taking up an offering, as we always do at this point in our service, and we just ask you to give as the Lord leads. If you're visiting with us, don't, we would ask you not to give.

you're our guest, but this is just what we do as a, Church body And there's a comment card in your, Bulletin, we would ask you to fill that out, maybe by way of responding to the message, or if there's anything we can pray for you about, then we would ask you to, Put those requests on the comment card and, We'll pray over those in our staff meeting on Tuesday, and, put that on our church family prayer sheet if you would like for us to do so. Let's pray together, Lord. If 100 days from Tuesday, If over that span, someone were to watch us as a church, To watch our individual lives.

And 100 days later sit down and chronicle what they saw.

May they write this text. May they say that we have observed a people. That prayed, The praying people. A thankful people.

People that prayed for those in governing authority. We observed a people committed. Passionately to all godliness and dignity. We have observed a people who are seized by, The large heart of God for the salvation.

Of all Help us through the lives we lead, the words we speak. By following this policy that we find in these verses to be difference makers. In a way that will endure. For eternity and survive the fires of Judgment Day.

We give our offerings to you, Lord, and at the same time, we give our hearts to You, our lives to you. In the name of Jesus. Amen. imagine Yeah.

declares Your Majesty. Oh. and Amen. We're just, it's been a blessing to worship with you guys today.

We have a couple of family items here. just really encourage you to take a look at your bulletin, as you head out. if you could just remember, our sign up for our men's breakfast and remember about our evening, celebration and vision meeting next week. the guys wanted me to remind that the