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Matthew Stuckey here, and I wanted to make a quick video giving you some reasons why we should pray for our political leaders, why we should pray for those in authority. Whether we live in a country with kings or queens, princes, whatever your system is, why should you pray for those that have the political authority or rule over you? It says in 1 Timothy 2 verse 1, I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. So 1 Timothy 2 1 says we should be praying and making supplication to God on behalf of all men. Then it says in verse 2, it's gonna highlight those that are in authority when it comes to all men. That category of those that are in political authority. For kings and for all that are in authority, semicolon. So he's specifically talking now in verse 2 about those that have a political authority or rule over you. Now why is it that we should pray for them? Is it that we should pray that God will bless them and give them lots of money? Is it that we should pray for them to be saved over other people being saved? Because I want you to realize in the Bible that when Naaman needed to be healed of leprosy, a very famous person, Elisha just treated him like he was a normal person. He didn't even go to do it himself, you know, he sent Gehazi because to him it was just like it's not really that big of a deal. I don't care if you're famous, it's like I've got more important things to do. It's not that he disliked Naaman, it's just that he didn't value one person over another human being. The Bible says we're not to be respected, you know, have respected persons with God. And so when it talks about praying for all men, it's not saying praying individually for all men because there's not time to pray for 8 billion people in this world. Obviously those that are in your life and people that you know, but it's talking about in general praying for those that are in authority. So what should you pray for them? Should you pray that God's gonna bless their life? Should you pray for them to get saved? Look, you could spend all day praying for people to get saved. But what it says is, pray for those that are in authority, and it says that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. So reason number one is so we can lead a quiet and peaceable life. We should pray that the authority, the political structure, gives us the opportunity to lead a quiet and peaceable life. And what does that mean? Well a quiet and peaceable life is just saying that we're able to just work hard, provide for our families, you know, go to church, go soul winning, read the Bible, memorize the Bible, pray, serve God. That we're able to just basically do the things that God has called us to do. As a husband to provide for your family and just make sure your family's devoted to church and the things of God. For a wife to be that help meet and be devoted to the things of God. Take your family out soul winning, make sure your family's reading the Bible and they're spiritual and they're godly, and just do the things that are required to get you through your normal work week and your normal life and then just serve God. And you know our goal as Christians should be to be able to lead a quiet and peaceable life. You know I am for peace but unfortunately sometimes when you speak they are for war and they want to fight you. But our goal is to be able to be at peace with all men if it's possible. Just lead a quiet and peaceful life. Just go about our lives serving God but unfortunately sometimes there is resistance. But we should pray that our political authority gives us the opportunity to lead a quiet and peaceful life. Because if you grew up in North Korea or communist Russia in the past or some of these places you're not going to be able to freely serve God in quietness and peace and just go about your lives. You're gonna be oppressed from being able to do that. It also says in that verse, in all godliness and honesty. And so not only that we can lead a quiet and peaceable life, that's one reason to pray for those that are in authority, but also that we can just serve God with godliness and honesty. Now I believe godliness and honesty are mentioned together because the reality is that if you're gonna be godly, sometimes that can force you to be in positions where you have to be dishonest about what you're doing if there's resistance from the government. Take for example if you lived in a country and they made it illegal to go to church or illegal to read the Bible. Well you should still be going to church and reading the Bible. You should still be serving God and if they made it a point to make it illegal, you should still be doing those things. But unfortunately it might put you in a position where you have to be dishonest if you lived in communist Russia. And look for the most part that's not the world that we live in here in the Philippines or in the US. I you know quite honestly there is a lot of freedom to serve God. It's not like Egypt in the past with the Hebrews. But if you live in those places you should still be trying to serve God, but unfortunately you don't have all the freedom in the world. Or if you lived in a Muslim country and they ask you did you preach the gospel to someone? I don't believe it would be wrong to lie about that if your life is at stake. So you should still be preaching the gospel, but unfortunately it could put you in a position where you're required to be dishonest in order to actually be godly and for the protection of your life. Rahab is an example in the Bible where she actually lied and said the spies went that way when they were right upstairs and the reason why was for the protection of their lives. So there is a point where you can be dishonest for your own personal safety, but we don't want to do that. We want to just be able to be godly and honest and lead a quiet and peaceful life. And number three, not only to lead a quiet and peaceful life, not only to serve God with godliness and honesty, but also that the gospel just has free course to go to all men. Because these first two verses in verse two is linked to verses three and four. Verse three and first Timothy two. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. See God wants everybody to be saved because he died for the sins of the whole world. Jesus died for everybody and the reality is that the Bible talks about freeing that the gospel can have free course because not all men have faith. And sometimes people that do not believe might put restrictions on preaching the gospel and getting people saved, but in the heart of God he wants the gospel to go out to everybody and he wants everybody to be saved. He wants everybody to hear the gospel and have a chance of believing. And so look we should pray for those that are in authority that we have the opportunity to just go out there and preach the gospel and get people saved and do great soul-winning works and be able to serve God in quietness and in a peaceable life and just in godliness and honesty. So the reason why we're meant to pray for those in authority is not that God blesses their life, not that they become rich, but that just that we have opportunity to serve God to our fullest and go about our natural routine that we need to do without getting resistance from government. But notice it's not that well you know I don't want to have to drive the speed limit or I don't want to wear this you know mask or whatever or I don't want to deal with this curfew. Now some of those things maybe we don't personally agree with or maybe they're things that might be annoying but that's not really why we should be praying for those that are in authority. We should be praying that we just have opportunity to serve God 100% without having to worry about the threat of our lives. Thank you and God bless.