Sermon Tone Analysis

Title: National Prayers

Theme: Praying for Our President and America

Series: National Day of Prayer

1 Timothy 2:1-4 says, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone -- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Pray!

Terrible times in the last days

The apostle Paul wrote the young pastor Timothy regarding the last days saying, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.”

(2 Timothy 3:1) If you have a child who is fighting our war on terrorism right now, defending this nation from those who hate America, the truth of this verse grips your heart.

The Apostle Paul is being led of the Holy Spirit to take the Body of Christ to the high level of intercession for those they love and for those in authority.

The truths found in this portion of Scripture guide the children of God to a very effective form of public worship, an act of worship that comes from a heart that has learned the joy of both singing the praises of God and grasping the truths of worship in spirit and truth.

The Holy Spirit moved Paul to write “I urge” (parakaleo) to indicate the urgency of the need of prayer.

This Greek word means to admonish or call someone to do something.

It is like a mother looking out and seeing her two year old out in the middle of a four lane highway.

Because her hands are full, holding a baby and packages from the store, she calls out for someone to intervene.

Dr. Ralph Earle points out that Paul is giving Timothy instructions on public worship in today’s text.

The Holy Spirit wants you to grasp this truth: our president and our country have great needs.

Pastors are to call out for someone who has ears to hear and a heart to obey, to urgently pray.

I would propose to you that the children of God can most certainly desire and call out to the Lord for godly leaders who walk in the fear of the Lord.

The last words of King David in 2 Samuel give us this truth, “The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: `When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.'”

(2 Samuel 23:3-4)

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, gave some great advice that we as Christians need to heed to, “...select capable men from all the people--men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain--and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens… If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied."

(Exodus.

18:21,23)

Our founding fathers knew the truths in these Scriptures.

Noah Webster wrote, “When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public offices let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose rulers men who rule in the fear of God.

The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect this duty and place unprincipled men in office the government will soon be corrupted.”

(Taken from “Pray the Vote, What to Pray For”)

Just what clear instructions does God’s Word have for us as we live in these last days?

Four keys words

The first step to becoming a pleasing prayer warrior is to grasp the truths of four keys words regarding to prayer in today’s key text.

The first word is “request” (deesis) giving us the application of presenting a special need or the intense needs of others by making the supplications with the sense of urgency.

In keeping with our theme for today, it was the intense prayers offered up to the Lord for protection of our president when he was being flown around the USA in Air Force One, while our nation was being attacked on 9/11/2001.

The second word is “prayers” (proseuche) meaning to become a house of prayer.

This is literally a house of prayer with set times to pray and involved in seasons of prayer.

Compare this to a house that has everything set in place, everything being done in proper dependable order.

The third word is “intercessions” (enteuxis) and as it is used in 1 Timothy 2:1 it means praying according to God’s will (Zodhiates) and standing in the gap before God on behalf of others seeking His mercy and grace for them.

In keeping with our theme today, it’s praying that God would bring America to repentance, God would put His protective hand around our president as He did King David, and that the Lord would give him wisdom.

The fourth word is “thanksgiving” (eucharista) meaning prayers that express thankfulness to God for hearing our prayers of faith in anticipation that He is going to work out all things for His glory and purposes.

Christianity Today had a quote from Karl Barth that should cause all Christians to grasp the power that is possible in offering prayers girded in these truths, “To clasp hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”

Pray particularly for those in authority

Praying with these four truths upon our hearts enables us to pray with Biblical faith.

Our key text today instructs us to pray particularly for those in authority.

Those in authority are there because God put them there.

In Daniel 2:21 we read that God “…changes times and seasons; He sets up kings and deposes them.

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”

Romans 13:1 says; “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.

The authorities that exist have been established by God.”

The Holy Spirit had given Daniel understanding, it is the God of providence, by whom kings reign and princes decree justice.

It is the inspiration of the Almighty God that gives men understanding, He enables them to acquire knowledge and use that knowledge in a right and humble manner.

Without Him knowledge leads to pride and to a nation’s downfall.

This truth is so powerfully displayed as we take time to consider the purpose of the writings of First and Second Kings.

These two portions of Scripture record the history of kingdom rulers, some were of noble God fearing character, most misruled and expressed a willful unrepentant heart in their failure to follow God’s commandments.

Obedience is met with blessings, and disobedience with punishment and chastening.

Throughout the times of the kings and judges when God wanted to bless His people He raised up righteous leaders.

On the other hand, when God wanted to bring chastisements, He raised up a wicked leader, sometimes among His people or from another nation to take them into oppression.

The Bible shows clearly that God will deal with His people on the basis of His promise in 1 Samuel 12:18-24.

In his farewell speech, Samuel, reminds the people of God that he had set a king over them upon their request.

(1 Samuel 12:1-2) As God’s spokesman he gives this exhortation from the Lord, “For the sake of His great name the Lord will not reject His people… But be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart, consider the great things He has done for you.”

(1 Samuel 12:22,24) God is the same today as He was in the past and He will be the same for the future when it comes to raising up and deposing leaders.

(Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6)

What the Holy Spirit wants you grasp is that the Lord is the one in charge of setting up leaders for a nation.

Intercessors for this nation can be humble and pray for a president with the spiritual character of Hezekiah to govern this nation.

The Word of God holds this testimony of the great leader, “Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel.

There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.

He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow Him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses.

And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook….”

(2 Kings 18:5-7)

Lord to lead the president

A foundational truth based on the whole of Scripture is seek the Lord in heartfelt petition for a president that is hungry for the commands of the Lord.

Christians can ask the Lord to lead their president as well.

Proverbs 21:1 says; “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases.”

The president’s heart is in the hand of the Lord and God is going to turn him just as He turns the course of a little babbling brook that runs down a mountainside and as He controls the rivers of the world.

In his early days of leading God’s people, Solomon expressed the heart of the leader that we should want for this nation.

The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, “Ask for whatever you want Me to give you.”

Solomon answered the Lord, “Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David.

But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.

Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.

So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.

For who is able to govern this great people of yours?" (1 Kings 3:7-9)

In these days of major conflict we need a national leader who understands his need for God’s grace and wisdom just like President George Washington who said, “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

In later years, President Abraham Lincoln said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go to.

My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.”(Taken

from a sermon preached by Pastor Gerald Flurry)

There is a powerful psalm written by King David that expresses what should be in the heart of someone who desires to walk under God’s directing course.

(Matthew Henry Commentary; Spurgeon; Thru the Bible Commentary) David’s song of praise honors God’s omnipresence.

He writes, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

(Psalm 139:23-24)

Proverbs 21 is a powerful truth that must be grasped so Christians may pray in faith that God is fully able to put in affect His perfect will, regardless of who has leadership in America.

The hearts of men are in God’s hand.

The Lord can change men’s minds and direct their affairs even in the freedom of their free will for His own purpose.

This truth is powerfully displayed in several passages of Scriptures such as Exodus 10:1-2, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.’"

In Isaiah we read of God using Assyria as an instrument of wrath to bring judgment on His people for disobedience.

The Bible says, “[Assyria], the rod of My anger, in whose hand is the club of My wrath!

I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger Me, to seize loot and snatch plunder and to trample them down like mud in the streets.”

(Isaiah 10:5-6)

In the last verse of Isaiah 44 (verse 28) into Isaiah 45 we read of God proving His Headship and His incontestable sovereignty in working through a king to get His will done.

The Lord uses a King who has not even acknowledged Him to deliver His people from captivity and to restore them back into their own Land.

God’s Word speaks of this king very clearly, “Cyrus, he is My shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.”

(Isaiah 44:28)