All Kinds of Prayers

Brad Fiddler and Chris Byberg unpack 1 Timothy 2:1-4, exploring supplication, intercession, thanksgiving, and prayer for everyone, especially leaders. The conversation points toward gratitude, relationship, and heart change as God’s purpose in prayer.

Transcript

You look at the children of Israel, they spent all those years roaming around in the wilderness and they didn't make it in and it's because of the murmuring and the grumbling. And who were they murmuring and grumbling against? The Lord and the and the government that he put in its place. >> Moses and Aaron and Miriam. Yep, they're grumbling about against them. Yep. >> Against them. And so as a result, it took them way longer. So I want to say this to you. If you have a propensity to do grumble and complain and you find things are taking an awful long time, >> there might be a connection there. >> Maybe you need to make a change. [music] >> [music] >> Welcome to Prayer Stream, a podcast from

the National House of Prayer in Ottawa. We're here [music] to have conversations with leaders and authors about prayer and how it intersects [music] with the local church, politics and government, Israel, and anything else that might pop up in the news. Join me, your host, [music] Brad Fiddler, along with Chris Byberg, as we wade into the prayer stream. [music] All right. Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of Prayer Stream. I'm Brad Fiddler here with Chris Byberg. How you doing, Chris? >> I am doing great. How are you? >> Yeah, not too bad. Not too bad. Excited to talk about 1 Timothy 2 today. >> Wow. This is >> This is for for ENHOP, for us at ENHOP,

this is kind of like our theme verse, right? This is our main This is what we do and why we do it. Um yeah, we'll just We're just going to jump into kind of unpacking it a little bit. This is kind of This is kind of ENHOP 1.0 101, I should say. This is introduction to If you're wondering what we're about, this is kind of what we're about. So I'm going to read it and then we'll just kind of walk through it together. Sound good? >> Sounds excellent. >> All righty, let's do this. So from the ESV, Paul says, "First of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead

a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So, in those four verses there, we've kind of got five ideas or five things we want to just kind of tease out from this. So, number one, Paul starts off by saying, "First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people." So, right off the bat, Paul's listing a few different types of prayer, right, Chris? >> That's right. There's many different types of prayer. I like to call them many different types of weapons or

tools. I was at a men's conference a little while ago. I talked about which is the better drill set, a Ryobi or a Milwaukee. And the guys are going, "Well, everybody knows Milwaukee's way better." And so, these are different tools that we can use for the tasks that are hand at our hand in our prayer lives. >> Right. Different prayers for different things. So, yeah, you got supplications, you got prayers, you got intercessions, thanksgivings, all these different things. So, yeah, one of the things we like to say from this is just pray all kinds of prayers, right? Sometimes we can get hung up on I don't know what to pray or how to pray or what kind of prayer or whatever.

Like, just start with just pray all kinds of prayers, right? And uh I like I think it's in 1 Thessalonians 5, he mentions Paul mentions, you know, praying all the time but with thanksgiving. Always thanksgiving sprinkled in there, always with gratitude, but praying all kinds of prayers, right? All different kinds. >> All kinds of prayers all the time. I I love the thanksgiving thing because the scripture tells I will enter his gates with thanksgiving into his courts with praise. It's always a great spot to to start from from a heart of an attitude of gratitude, right? To come from that place of gratitude and Thanksgiving. And I think I think one of my favorite

weapons in my a little quiver of arrows here is God is good. >> Yes. >> that's one of my favorite favorite places, like the goodness of God. And to be grateful for to how good he's been to me in my life and in my family, around me, in my neighborhood, at my local church, in my job. I mean, the goodness of God is our testimony. And so, we start from this place of Thanksgiving and gratitude. It brings you a long It actually puts you in a much better state of mind. It really does. If you rather than murmuring and complaining, which yes, sometimes I have a propensity to do. I can do that. I In fact, I said to Marilyn one time I said, "If If complaining were an Olympic sport, I know we're not

supposed to time that, but in the Olympics, I would be a gold medalist." Sometimes I think I'd be a gold medalist in complaining. But but I counteract that with coming from a place of of thanks and thanks and I use God is good. >> Yeah. And you're actually reminding me of, you know, James 4. James says this thing or he quotes quotes how God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. And proud people aren't grateful. Yeah. They've got nothing to be grateful for. They're self-sufficient. They have everything they need. I can do everything myself. It's the humble who are grateful. And it's the humble who realize I've needed to benefit from someone. And so, this

this gratitude, Thanksgivings, really it's hand in hand with humility. And if we want, you know, if we want to be effective in prayer, like God giving grace to the humble, that's where we want to be. We don't want him resisting us as the proud. >> Exactly. We want to become irresistible to God. >> Irresistible. I don't want to be resisted, so I want to be >> resistible. So, I'm going to take on a posture of humility and really be humble, not just put it on and put on a show of humility, but to actually be that person of humil- of humility cuz I would like to be embraced by the Lord. I want him to come close and I want to come close and draw close to him. >> Yes, that whole attitude of

self-sufficiency, right? >> Yep. >> We can do it all. >> The only thing I can do I can do all things through Christ that gives me strength. When it's in myself, it's pretty futile. >> It usually falls short. That's right. Yeah, Thanksgiving's is a huge huge part of this. And then we'd also say like in Paul highlighting different types of prayer tells us well, there's there's different approaches to prayer. I think one of the most common approaches to prayer that we're familiar with in the west is just praying through our prayer lists, right? And we have our here's our 20 things that we're praying for and there's nothing wrong with that. That's good. It's good to keep bringing

petitions before the Lord and keep asking persistence in prayer. But there are other types of prayer, other ways to encounter God in prayer. So, going through our lists is one, but then listening and dialogue, that's another one, right? >> Yes, that's exactly a dialogue. My mom used to say this to me, I have two ears and one mouth. >> I thought that was coming. >> You did? And that's how we are to posture ourselves in prayer. It's good for us to have to, you know, cast our cares on the Lord for he cares for us, right? But it's not all the time. It's a dialogue. >> It says >> Yes. >> back and forth listening through the word, listening to to I'm most most of

the time it comes through the word. Like uh we were in a prayer call this morning and uh I think we there were over in an hour and a half there were about 32 prayers that we prayed. And every one of those, cuz I kept note, and I I keep a diary of of our prayer calls, and I write down every scripture verse, and every prayer was intertwined with the word. Yes. Every prayer. And so, so you want to know what the will of God is? You pray the word, right? The word, and and you'll know you'll hear what the will of God You could hear it really clearly this morning. It was a wonderful time of praying on behalf of Canada and the United States. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, so that's the first thing about

prayer that we would highlight from Paul here in this verse is there's different types of prayer. Sometimes it's asking things, it's going through our prayer list. Sometimes it's this more listening or this two-way dialogue thing of actually interacting with God, right? We sometimes just think we we come and tell them our stuff and we leave, but there's an important a really important side of prayer, which is to actually listen. Like if we're going to ask God things, why would we not listen, right? Do we Are we just asking him out of rote and then expecting him not to not to hear, not to respond, not to care? Taking time to sit and be quiet or just to listen,

to linger, and to listen, that's an important part of prayer. Sometimes there's intercession as well, so it's more than just praying through a list, we're actually contending on behalf of somebody else. Praying for someone else in in that way. Do you want to add anything about that, Chris? >> Yeah, the the especially in intercession. Actually, you know what's really kind of interesting, because different traditions in the Christian faith, cuz we you know we we're in the radical middle here, so we we walk with a lot of people. So, when I go to the places that are more liturgical and go to those traditions that are more liturgical, they think of petitions very

much different, especially intercession, they think of intercession more what we would call petitions. Whereas Whereas, that's just just the way it is. So, when we're talking about intercession, we're talking about standing in the gap, right? We are that person the it the the mediator in between two situations, the mediator between God and and say somebody in your family. And we're standing in in the gap and we're interceding. I look at I look at Daniel chapter 9, where he intercedes on behalf of the nation of Israel, right? They'd been in exile, he sees the scripture, and then he starts to repent for Israel. He didn't do the sin, he didn't wasn't a part of what happened back there where

the Lord was judging him, but he took that place, he stepped in, he says, "I'm going to do He's going to He's going to treat it as if he was the perpetrator and stand in the gap and ask for forgiveness." And he says, "God forgive, God restore, Lord be merciful." And so, sometimes we're called to be to to come into that place as an intercessor or to be in intercession. I don't necessarily like the intercessor word. Right, they are and I really and I and I like it, but I would rather be an obedient servant than to just slap a title on it. >> Right, right. And it's just a just to say one thing for clarification, we're not suggesting like we're we'll say this

way, we recognize Jesus Christ is the great intercessor. There's one mediator between God and man. So, we're not saying that we're putting ourselves in that place, but that's something Jesus does invite us into sometimes is to carry carry a prayer burden that like something that's on his heart for another person. Here, would you would you pray would you carry this burden in prayer? Will you pray for this person in this way? It's kind of it's partnering with Jesus in that. It's not suggesting that we have to do that job. I know that's what you're saying. I'm just kind of adding that in there. >> That's exactly it because we don't want you to think something that we're not saying. And it

is Jesus is the intercessor. But also, but if you look in you look at even in the Old Testament when you look I look at Moses, he was a phenomenal intercessor. >> [clears throat] >> He would go you'd be in that tent of meeting and the Lord says, "I'm going to wipe them out." And then he says, "No, no, you can't." And I think the Lord did that kind of stuff not so that I'm not that God was mean. I think God was doing things for Moses just to see what was in his heart. Testing Moses' heart in that. So as we recognize what's in his heart. And his heart was after the Lord because he had a a heart that was merciful. And that's what the Lord you know, back in was it Exodus 32? Show me your glory.

And God shows him and what's he roll out? He sets him in the cleft of the rock and he shows him his goodness, his mercy, and his loving kind. And that's who God is. >> Long-suffering, slow to anger. Yeah. That's really good stuff. So, that's kind of the first thing here. All different types of prayers, whether it's supplications, petitions, intercessions. Do it all with Thanksgiving. Paul's saying, "Pray all kinds of prayers. Just just pray. Just pray. Pray all kinds of prayers." Second one here, urging that supplications, prayers, intercessions, Thanksgivings be made for all people. For all people. For everybody. So, Chris, I know you love to say this. Who is everybody?

>> Who is everybody is everybody. Those that you like and those that you don't like. And that's the crunch because so often we want to pray for the people we like. Who doesn't? I mean, I like that. But Jesus said that anybody He says, "Anybody can can can bless those that they like." And then he says, "But it's going to take work. It's going to take Christ in you." He didn't say that. But it's going to take Christ in you to pray for your enemies, right? And I call it the divine setup, right? Jesus says this. He says, "Love your enemies." And then he gives you the why. He gives you the why and that Well, love your enemies and then he gives you the how. And this is the how. Pray for those that

despitefully use you. And you know, when we started in this role, praying for government, praying for leaders, it's like carrying a hornet's nest. Seriously. That's what we carry. You know, we carry this hornet's nest of of government and leaders. Everybody is has Everybody has an opinion on every portion of government all the time. We all have these opinions. And I have these opinions. There are days that I go, "I can't believe they did that. I can't believe they said that. I can't believe they're doing these things." And so it's a bit of a hornet's nest. And if you have a discussion with people, then you get them all riled up cuz they they land in a different They

might be in a different camp. They might have a different point of view. And it just can be messy. So, but we are to call be called to pray for our leaders. All kinds of prayers, like we said, even the people we don't like. And it what it does, it's the divine setup. It causes us to fall in love with them. I I just I think it's just not fair. That's I remember, you know, we came into this role when Prime Minister Trudeau was the Prime Minister. And it was COVID and it was bumpy. And I really felt the Lord saying to me, "I want you to pray for him as if he were your son." And everything changed. It was like, "Did I agree with everything he did?" Hardly ever. Hardly ever. But I

started to care for him cuz I started to see him with eyes that what the father saw. And because for God so loved the world, this is the prayer movement. For God so loved the world that he gave his son. That is why. That's the big why. And >> So, I started to pray that heart for him that that that, you know, he would know the Lord. And anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves. >> Yeah, and that moved that moved you into your heart changing towards him. Like you said at the beginning there the thing about it's going to require Christ in you to do this. In Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says verse 43, "You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."

That's how everyone thinks, right? Love your Love your buddies, hate your enemies. But I say to you, "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you." And then he says this, "So that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven." What he's saying there is it's kind of like saying when you love your enemies, you start to look like your father in heaven. You start to be a son of your father in heaven. You're And that's that's what Jesus embodied. On the cross, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do." The ones who are killing the only innocent man ever. And Jesus saying, "Father, don't hold it against them." He's loving his enemies. And that's kind of And a little bit

later, at the end of chapter 5, just a few verses later, he says this thing again in this context of loving your enemies, not just the not just your friends. He finishes with "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." It's like or that word could be not not like perfect in the sense of blameless, but as in the sense of mature or complete. And it's like we're mature in Christ. We're Christ is formed in us when we love our enemies. That's kind of where that's where that's where that's going there. So, it's this thing of prayers for all people, especially the ones that it's not easy to pray for. And actually, that's Yeah. Well, go ahead. Go ahead.

>> I think of Samuel when when Saul when the children of Israel decided to move away from the leadership of Samuel like to king because Samuel was the judge and he was the governing authority over the land. But it wasn't him. It was actually the Lord that was leading the land, right? That was the whole thing. That he was just the the representative voice of God, but it was the Lord that was was the king over Israel. >> Theocracy. Yeah. >> Yeah, so the Lord was leading that and so and today the two Samuel it looks like he was pretty upset about this. But he says this thing out of 2 Samuel 15:20 and he says this, "Be it unto me that I should not sin against the Lord."

He says, "I don't want to sin against God and not pray for you." This is basically what he says. "I'm going to continue even though I don't like what you're doing and I think it's a mistake and I think you're going the wrong way, I'm still not going to sin against the Lord and not pray for you." Meaning, "I'm going to pray with for you anyway." >> That's right. >> And that's where our heart should be, right? Even when people and I don't know if you get this way, but I get this way, you know, especially with my kids sometimes I go right? And I can't believe they done they did that and and we do the same thing with government and we can get even even just there was a policy

convention just recently, decisions were made and I was hearing from on social media all these questions. Walking away from their assignments, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And it's like you're having an assignment and the assignment is to pray for those in authority. That's what it is. Don't have throw up your hands, don't walk away, say "I'm not praying with for them anymore. I'm done with them." We can't do you because if wasn't for God intervening and your prayers are powerful. I know this, they're powerful. Because when you pray and you believe God answers prayers and we've seen that. I mean, for generations I've seen this for you know, I over I've been walking

with Jesus over 50 years. I know the faithful of God, faithfulness of God, and I know he hears my prayers, and I know he answers. >> The The other passage I was just thinking of was, and you know, you mentioned earlier we were on a prayer call this morning, Job 42 comes up where it's kind of the end of Job's story. God has revealed himself to Job, and then God addresses Job's friends and says, "You guys have spoken evil of me, not like my servant Job." And he basically tells them, "You need to offer some sacrifices, and you need to ask Job to pray for you." And then verse 10 says, "Job did pray for his friends, and then the Lord restored everything to Job."

More than I think double what he had before. But the whole thing of Job was asked to pray for his friends when he probably didn't feel like praying for his friends. His friends weren't really friends at that time. They They had probably offended him, right? >> I'm I'm sure it would be cuz he If If you read the story, he's pleading his case and they're going, "Oh, no, yeah, there must be sin in your life. You've done something." And he says, "I didn't." And with friends like that, who needs enemies, right? >> That's right. >> And uh yet yet he he does this thing, and he understands, and he does what the Lord asks him, and he prays for them. And that's it, and the Lord restored. So

again, again, the intercession, right? Listening and doing what the Lord asks, and so the Lord asked them even though they didn't deserve it, >> right? That's right. >> even though they didn't deserve it, he still prayed for them, and the Lord honored that, right? So So yeah, sometimes we get into into assignments that we don't like, right? And you said, "Praying for government is sometimes pretty pretty bumpy." And we get and we become so easily offended by so many things, yeah, right? >> Yeah. >> So be your offense, right? Hold on to things lightly. Keep your heart clear [snorts] and clean. Who can ascend the hill of the Lord with clean those with clean

hands and pure hearts. So, James 1, the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. So, make sure your heart's clean and tidy and neat and that you're not carrying offense into into prayer because it has to be like water rolling off a duck's back. Not that we turn a blind eye and just say that there's nothing there. There's times where we do, but we don't get offended and we don't get contaminated or soiled and we don't get our emotions all out of whack. >> Yep. Yep. Exactly. So, that's that second one there that pray for all people. It's easy to pray for the ones we love, the ones we like, the ones we agree with. Paul's saying all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people. And

that that theme is consistent through the the Bible, especially the New Testament, praying for not just the ones you like. Pray for even your enemies. The third one here, we've kind of touched on this a bit already, but specifically, you know, Paul says thanksgivings be made for all people and then he specifies for kings and all who are in high positions. And so, and this is where, you know, like like we've already been saying, this can be challenging. This can be be really tricky, but he he highlights kings and all who are in high positions. And I'll just highlight this, the it's when this book was written, when 1 Timothy was written, it's likely that, if I'm not mistaken, Nero was Caesar.

>> Yeah. >> The one who, you know, famously burned Christians as lamps in in garden parties. Like he he was a terrible terrible Caesar, so much martyrdom under his reign, and Paul's telling them, "Pray for him, for kings and all who are in high positions." So, that's other governmental officials as well, but your boss, right? Those in leadership in your church. Like wherever there's people in authority, he's saying, "Pray for them. Hold them up in prayer." >> Exactly. Police officers, those that are holding authority, coaches on on your kids' basketball team. >> Right? You're going to be that God loves order. He loves honor, right? And he loves us to have the right

attitude, right? That's that's the thing. You know, you you look at the children of Israel, they spent all those years roaming around in the wilderness and they didn't make it in it's because of the murmuring and the grumbling. And who were they murmuring and grumbling against? The Lord and the and the government that he put in its place. >> Moses and Aaron and Miriam. Yep, they're grumbling against them. Yep. >> Against them. And so as a result, it took them way longer. So I want to say this to you. If you have a propensity to grumble and complain and you find things are taking an awful long time, >> There might be a connection there. >> Maybe you need to make a change, right?

Maybe you need to make a change. And so I want to encourage you that cuz I've had to make changes in my life, right? Started to to to to to clue into some things and like so when I do this and this, this will happen. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't do that, right? So that's the old adage, the man walks into the doctor's office and he says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." And the doctor says, "Well, don't do that." Right? So so this is how we're we're doing we're walking. So if you find things are taking a little long, ask for is there something again the posture of search me, oh God, and know my only and know my anxious thought and see if there be any wicked way in me and

lead me in your ways everlasting. That's the posture we want to be have. >> Yes, absolutely. So prayers for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions and for our for our for our situation living in Canada with democracy, we've got all these all these different parties. We've got what? Five five national parties, five federal parties to vote for? >> What one's more of a provincial >> Yes. Yes. >> regional representation there. But >> But we often fall into the thing of praying for the one we vote for. And Paul's saying kings and all who are in high positions. And think we've touched on this already before, but James 2, James calls out the early church for

partiality, for treating some people better than others, treating the rich well, treating the poor poorly. And he calls it the sin of partiality. He treats it with a lot of seriousness. And for us, partiality can look like praying for the team we would vote for. And consigning the rest to consigning the to whatever will happen to them. The invitation from Paul here is pray for all who are in high positions. And so, we want to say this, whether you whichever way you vote, pray for all those in high positions. And not just that we get our way. Not that things will that they'll make decisions that we like, but pray for them. And we'll get to the why about that a little bit later.

>> Yeah, it was interesting when we first came in to Ottawa and started to build relationships with pastors in in the city. And one pastor said to me, "Are you telling me that you expect me to serve my member of parliament?" And I said, "Yep, serve them." "Where is that?" "Well, I we've gone through all this stuff today. This is where we're going. Yeah, go and serve them. You don't have to vote for them, but you can serve them. And you can develop a dialogue. You can be develop a conversation. And they get to know what's going on in your life and what your thoughts are and what your opinions are. Because you know, members of parliament, most of them really want to

know what's going on in their constituents' life. And if they never hear, they never hear I I I I I I was talking with Stockwell Day. And he said to me, "One telephone, one encounter, face-to-face encounter or telephone call with a member, not a staffer, but with an a member of Parliament, that's equivalent to like a thousand letters, all right? That's the impact." So, I would say to these pastors, "Pastors, it's not that your church is in the constituency of that riding or that member of Parliament, it's that member of Parliament is in your constituency, all right? And you should care for him as if he was in your congregation. And so, you should be planning on having a a

coffee with them once a a year and talking about how their lives are and pastoring them. And just bringing them and and be concerned and actually care for them. And you wouldn't believe the traction that I hear that these pastors have followed this advice, that they have what they've got great relationships. They didn't vote for them, but they have an opportunity to say something instead of just being those angry Christians that are always always mad, always upset. Don't be those people, all right? They put on put on Christ. Act like Christ. You're Christians, little Christs. So, be the hands and feet of Jesus to your member. Yeah. >> I I Last time I checked, the fruit of

the spirit did not include anger or indignant indignant indignant behavior. The other thing you you said in there, the thing of get to know your member so they can get to know your your opinions and your thoughts on things and so on. I would add this, a lot of people know a lot of other people's opinions because of social media. We share our opinions freely. There's certainly not a a shortage of opinions these days, but what's different when you know them is they can they can understand your heart behind your opinions and thoughts. And that is where we often get things wrong. We hear an opinion we don't agree with, and so we assume they're an enemy, We assume

bad motives. We we assume the worst of a person. But when you get to know someone and walk with them for a while, they start to understand more of who you are and not just that one hot take opinion that you posted on on Facebook or whatever. But it's that thing. It's the get to know me and then you can actually talk about differing opinions. There's actually Hold on a second. If I If you and I are walking together in a relationship and you share an opinion I don't agree with, because I know you and I know what you're like and I see how you've cared for me in other ways. I see how you you care for my family. All these different things. Now I have to I almost have to hear you out and try to

understand where that opinion's coming from because I know, okay, I don't agree with this, but I know that you're that you're good. I know that you care for me. I know, you know, X Y Z. So now I got to give your opinion a chance and and hear it out. If you're just firing these missives in emails and in social media posts and so on, they're never going to hear the heart behind it, right? And so that's a major reason why we encourage people to come alongside alongside or come underneath and serve, even if you don't agree with them, because how are you going to influence them for change if they never get to hear your heart behind the opinion? >> That's exactly it. Friends influence

friends. You know, just this past week a Jamil Jivani went down to the United States, but he went predominantly to go see a friend, right? And whether what you feel about that, whether you thought that was a great move or a bad move or whatever, I see it as two friends connecting with each other and leveraging a friendship of dialogue, right? And we will see what the fruit of that is, but it's because it's based out of love and mutual respect, there should be good things that come from it because shalom keepers are peacekeepers that sow in peace will reap a harvest of righteousness, right? You see this in James 3. We talk a an awful lot about James, but there's a You love that book.

>> There's a good reason for it. >> It's a good book. And so so that is what you're building. You are building relationships so you can sow peace or shalom, nothing broken, nothing taken, right? Something that destroys the destroys chaos, right? That's what you want. You want to build these these solid relationships with your members of parliament, right? If you become friends, awesome. But at least you have a dialogue and you have groundwork. And like I said, many of the pastors that adhere to the this and that does they do this, they have a They have a say. They have an ear. Right? So that way they have enough They have a strong enough bridge that they're working on building or

building a strong bridge so when it comes time to use a difficult conversation, that bridge will stand. And that's what you build. >> That's what we want to get to. >> Exactly. So, let's keep this moving here. So we've got pray all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people, especially for kings and those in high positions, so that Here's the fourth one. So that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good. It's a good thing. And so we we pray for this and this reminds me of from Jeremiah 29, you know, when there were so many in Judah had been taken captive to Babylon and there are some false prophets in the group saying, you know, the Lord says

don't worry about it. Sit tight. He's going to take us home real real soon. He's going to take us home real soon. And Jeremiah writes and says, "No, no, no, no, no. You're going to be there for 70 years." And he says this whole thing of build houses, plant vineyards, settle in. You're going to be there a while. And he says this thing of seek the peace of the city where you live that it'll go well with you because their welfare will be your welfare. And so this this whole thing of seek the peace where you live, pray for the good of the place where you live, even though even if it's not where you want to be, right? Even if it's not exactly the way you'd like it to be, pray for it that

you may lead a peaceful and quiet life to to bridge those two together. Pray for kings and all who are in high positions. Pray for Emperor Nero and for Caesar Nero so that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. >> I just want to say this before we move on to this. So in one of there's this little tiny verse at the end of Philippians Philippians 4:21 where where where Paul is says something. It's because a lot of people say, "How do you How do you get to the government stuff? How do you get there? Show me an example in scripture where this happened." And so the So Paul is writing to the Philippians. He's wrapping up in the book and he

[clears throat] says this little thing. I find it so amazing. And he says, "And uh And by the way, say hello to the house of Caesar." Right at the very end of this book. Say hello. So you could see that there was a kingdom influence in Nero's house. Now, I don't think it's talking about his relatives, but it's probably talking about the servants. That's what the commentaries say. It's about servants. Laughers. But he's had influence, right? Paul the apostle has had influence at the highest levels with the kingdom of God. And that's what we're to bring. Say hello to the house of Mark Carney. That's where we want to be, right? Or your mayor or parliament. So So think in that terms because we

want peaceful and godly lives. It's good. It's good. Jesus says this is good. It's good that Jesus got Why wouldn't we want it? >> Yep. It's good to seek the peace of the place where you live. We want to contribute to the to to welfare, to the health, to the well-being of our communities. We don't want to be, you know, I think sometimes we look for excuses to be agitators. You know, there's there's a phrase, you know, God uses the prophets, there's people to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. And I've never heard that phrase used to justify or, you know, to to push the idea of comforting the afflicted. It's always used as permission to afflict the comfortable.

We love to do that part. We we kind of love to for some reason we love to agitate. And here Paul's saying, actually, we want to seek a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. That's part of why we pray for kings and those in in authority, seeking the peace of where we live. >> Yeah. Exactly. You don't have to act like the Philistines, right? Don't be a Philistine, right? You see this David came in and goes, "What's going on?" I was thinking about this week, I was meditating on it. Who Who do these guys think they're Don't act like that. You're the people of God, right? And there's and your fruit needs to be evident. >> Yes. >> And that's that's exactly what we do. We

are the people of God and we embody the fruit of the spirit. And that's what we want to They want to see because it and this is what you can say because of the fruit of the spirit that you can actually say to people, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." >> Right. So that's good. So that's we pray all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people, especially kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior. And here's where we'll where we'll close. Who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. >> Amen.

>> And now, when I've I've heard this passage many, many times over the years and I've never heard it followed through >> Yeah. >> to the end of verse four. >> Yeah. >> Until just a couple years ago. We we usually stop at that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life. And so, it's good. We pray for that, but the goal is not for us to have a peaceful, quiet, comfortable life. The real undergirding purpose of this whole thing is God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. >> That's the big why. >> I remember I remember I remember when I first you know, I knew this verse. I heard it. I heard it and every time we were praying for government, I heard this and

then I I really thought I would I don't know why I never picked up on it. It was just like, what? There's more? The why is This is the why and everything that we do, this is the why, right? We pray for government and that they that all men and women women We pray for everybody that all men and women would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth because of the heart of the Father is that none should perish. >> Mhm. That's the heart. And so, it's not all about policies. It's not all about great great procedures and wonderful laws and all those things are all good things, right? We want peacefulness, >> [clears throat] >> godliness. We want those things, but

it's the ultimately we want them all to know Jesus. And we want wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. >> Yep. >> That is what we want. And if that's really going to change our That will change a nation. That will change a nation. The more believers that you have in your neighborhood, it's going to change your neighborhood. It's just the way it is, right? At least it's supposed to. And so, we we we that's our heart that none should perish, that all are saved. >> And this kind of leads into this thing of Sometimes we can look at the Old Testament and we we kind of try to model We look at the model of Israel and how they were set up to be. They were the

people of God. They were the They were The idea was like they're the kingdom of God, the expression of the kingdom of God on earth, right? And we look at that and we try to follow that model in a lot of ways, but Jesus kind of shifted some things when he came, and he he inaugurated the kingdom, and he said, "The kingdom's within you now. It's this It's already among you." And so, there's this shift of it's no longer the kingdom of God is brought through government, right? And it's It wasn't even necessarily brought through government then, but we kind of can equate that. But, a pattern that happens in the Old Testament is that you have good kings who turn to the Lord and the people

tended to follow while that king was in power. And then, usually as soon as that king's dead, they kind of go back to their old ways again. And so often today, it seems like Christians just think, "If we can just get one of our guys in there, if we can just get a Christian elected, then revival will come. The nation will turn." And the trick with where we live today is that because we vote in our government, Old Testament, it was kind of like government had influence on the direction of the culture of the culture. Government was upstream, culture was downstream, and that's reversed today. Today, culture influences who we have in our government, especially when there's

turnover every 5 years or so. Every time we have an election, culture has say in who's going to who's going to lead the country. And so, this this idea that we pray just to get our guys in, and that'll change everything, that doesn't It doesn't work in the system, and that doesn't work since since the cross. God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. It's not that God God's not saying, "I desire that all governments would be Christians." He's saying, "I desire all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." And if we see that, that will have a downstream influence on culture. That will or on government. That will play out in the

government downstream. But, an election isn't going to fix things. It's eyes The eyes of people's understanding being enlightened to see and know who Jesus is. That's That's where the change will start. >> You know, there may be changes that may be okay for a while, but they're they're they're not they're not changing the big things. They're not changing the hearts and women of men, right? They're not change women of God. They're not changing their hearts, right? And that's the whole thing that the word's after. He's He's after a heart change, not a necessarily a legislation change or a legislative change, right? Once the all their hearts This is the whole thing

about the Shema. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. With all your strength, right? It's about heart and it's about heart condition. All I can say, you know, is when we see certain parties, and not all parties, cuz I remember there was a season, you know, back 25 years ago. I knew I knew that my member of parliament I was pastoring in Exeter, he was a liberal. And he was a believer. He was a Christian. He was a really good member of parliament. He really was. And I would actually say to them cuz cuz I voted a particular way, I would say to them, "Are you sure you're not a You're sure do you sound like a conservative, right? And in fact, at

that particular time, they wanted me to the conservatives wanted me to run in that riding. I said, "No, he's a good man. This is a really good man, right? And and he's a godly man and he's a good man. Why would I run against him? Maybe if he was a tyrant, I might consider that." And the Lord never told me that he was saving me for this. So, but you know, we we can get so caught up in thinking that the political stuff will fix and it'll be maybe a pre-temporary fix. Maybe we'll get better laws, but it's not hard to change bad laws to good laws and good laws to bad laws. It's not hard. We've seen that, right? Doesn't take anything. All you need to have is one more than the

other team and you can change everything. So, that's that's not hard change. And so, and like in terms of abortion, yes, we we should get into it, but we want to come to the place where abortion becomes unthinkable. Not legislation does that. That's the love of God that does it. That's Christ new the hope of glory that's going to make you think, never do that. Why would we do that? >> Right. Right. That's where the change has to come. >> That's right. Exactly. I It's reminded me of a phrase that we Christians of all people should know that righteousness does not come by the law. >> Yeah. >> Right. That's That's the point of the Old Testament and then Jesus coming and

and giving himself up on the cross. The point was we could not be saved by the law. We couldn't live up to it. And so why would we think that our nation would be changed in any in a deep lasting eternal manner, that our hearts would be changed by laws? It doesn't work that way. And there's There are nations out there that have laws in place that a lot of evangelicals might say, "Hey, that sounds pretty good." But they're not righteous nations. In fact, they're very very heavy-handed closed Islamic nations. And so >> If you look at a lot of the Islamic nations, they have these laws that we would wish we had. >> But of some, not all. Not all. A few. >> Yeah.

>> Like pornography, yeah, that's it. Abortion, yeah, that's good. They're They've They have very strict laws on LGBTQ. >> And we wouldn't go as far as they go with some of those penalties and so on. Absolutely not. But >> But But I asked the question one time. I was at on a call and I said, this particular Saudi Arabia has this law, this law, this law, this law. All right? Is it a righteous nation? And you know, half of the people raised their hands and said, "Yes." And I said, "No. It's the blood of Jesus that makes us righteous, not laws." And so, yes, we want good legislation. Yes, we want fair and justice. Justice and and truth and justice are the foundation. Justice and

righteousness are the foundation of his throne. So, we want that. We want righteousness and justice. Of course, we do. And which is a good thing, but don't expect the the the the legislation to change the heart of man because it doesn't It's only Jesus that >> Yeah. And like you said, legislation can be easily reversed, yeah, right? We're going to in our in our system, like you're going to have a new government within 5 years, right? And you know, you go to the Old Testament and they had that king for as long as that king was alive. You know, sometimes 40-plus years. That doesn't happen here. And so, if you want lasting change, it has to be heart change. Just like an election will

not fix everything. It won't fix much. It's the hearts that need to change and that's that's verse four there. God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. If you want If you don't like the direction the country is heading in, you know, yes, we we we promote getting involved in the political arena in certain ways, but that alone won't change anything. It's verse four. That's where If you want to see the the direction of our country change, that's where it is. It's we need hearts to see Jesus. >> So, be involved in every portion of life, right? I'm saying it all the time. You're the pastor of your street. You're the evangelist of your street. Reach out

to your neighbors. You are the You are the hands and feet of Jesus in the workplace. You are the hands and feet of Jesus at school, in your family. You know, you are the ministry there. Reach out with the with with the goodness of God. And that will bring >> Be salt and light. >> Be salt and light. And we start We talked We started talking this on the beginning of the of the of the call, you know, the goodness of God. Tell your testimony of what God has been doing in your life. You'd You'd be astounded how people will respond. I remember one time I was working in sales and marketing and I was very I didn't I didn't preach at people really hard. I I didn't think I preached

at people very hard at all. I just told them about the good what God was doing in my life. And you know, I had this one woman come up to me one time. She says, "Chris, it's like your life is magic." That's a cool way of saying that. And it's like, "Yeah, because I would share about you know, the things we're going through and God would break through and show up and miracle after miracle after miracle." My life looked magical. And I guess from that's the world, that's how they think, right? >> Yep. Yep. >> Which, right? I would say that my life was more miraculous than magical, but that's what we live it and they saw these things. So, tell your testimony.

Tell the stories of God breaking through in your life everywhere you go, right? It changes hearts. >> And that's that's the goal. That's that's the goal. The goal is not to have a Christian government. The goal is for hearts to be changed to come to the knowledge of Jesus. That's the goal. And so, we're not building the kingdom of Canada. We're supposed to be building the kingdom of God, right? And so, that's what we want to see happen. So, with all that, you know, 1 Timothy 2, just to say it again, this is our few if you're wondering what and hop is about, if you're wondering, you know, what what drives us, this is this is our goal in a in a nutshell. This is our heart that we

urge that believers across Canada pray all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people, especially that we hold up kings and those who are in high positions. Government, yes, but like Chris said earlier, any sphere of life, anyone who carries authority, hold them up in prayer. And we do this so that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it's pleasing in the sight of God our savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's what drives the That's what That's what ought to drive our prayer lives is this to carry this same desire for people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth that

people's eyes will be open to see this is who he is, he's good, he's worthy. Yeah, this is what we want to see. And so, any last thoughts there, Chris? >> Yes, the reason we're called National House of Prayer is because we have a call to the nation, right? On all those spheres, all those things. That's why we're not called the Parliamentary House of Prayer. Otherwise, we would just be there. So, we're we're We just want to encourage you every sphere. Bring gospel, bring the testimony of of God in your life and watch lives be transformed. And pray, pray, pray. >> Yes, very good. So, we encourage you pray all kinds of prayers for everybody all the time. [music] And yeah, thanks

for joining us again on Prayer Stream. We will see you next time. Bye for now. [music] >> Thanks for listening to Prayer Stream, a podcast from the National House of Prayer. If you liked this episode, click the like button, share, and subscribe to stay [music] up-to-date on all our future episodes. For more information on upcoming events, >> [music] >> prayer resources, or the Canopy of Prayer, please visit us at www.nhop.ca. See you next time. >> [music]