1 Timothy 2:1-7 | Pray for Everyone

I'm recovering from a slight sore throat, so my voice is a little deeper, and I'm going to have a little bit more sniffles, so please be patient with me, but it's a joy to bring you God's Word this morning.

If you have a Bible, grab it and open it to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 1 through 7. For the last couple of weeks, we've been seeing Paul's exhortation to Timothy, warning him against false teachers and urging him to be faithful, just as he was, in the midst of great difficulty and tragedy, empowered by the grace he's received in Christ. Now, Paul exhorts Timothy after telling him the main point of the letter: to fight the good fight.

This is now the first instruction that he gives Timothy in terms of how he is to lead. You see him begin in verse 1 of chapter 2, which says this:

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time. For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. — 1 Timothy 2:1-7 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would help us to believe that your word is true this morning, that your priorities are right, that your scope encompasses the entire universe. I pray that your Spirit would speak to us directly through your word this morning. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Trusting the Global God

Today is the first Sunday of February, so I want to ask you: How are your New Year's resolutions doing? I imagine some of your New Year's resolutions mock you. One of the things that I've been doing this year to try to maintain my own productivity is I have a whiteboard now in my study where I write down a new to-do list every single morning. Just bullets, and every single time I'm done, I pop open my Expo marker, I get to draw a big little ‘X’ through a little bullet. I feel accomplished, you know? I get to look back at the end of the day, look at that list, and feel like I did something.

We live in a society today that's obsessed with to-do lists, whether it's your Google calendar, whether it's a little notes app that you keep on your phone, whether it's just a list that you've written down in your kitchen refrigerator. We love to think about all the things that we want to do. But are our to-do lists actually the way that we should be living our lives? I'm not saying that you should scrap your own productivity plans, but do you think that to-do lists have some negative effects on the way that we think?

I think it's negative for a couple of reasons. Two come to mind. First, because it makes you focus mainly on what you accomplish. To-do lists are fundamentally individualistic in terms of their focus, right? It confines your view to yourself. And secondly, it tricks you into believing that you can actually accomplish all the things that you want. Your to-do list is something that you accomplish with your own force, with your own action.

Because we could take that type of attitude and apply it to our own Christian life. We wake up in the morning and we have our own little checklist of what God expects from us, right? Our New Year's resolutions become resolving about all the things that we're going to accomplish for the Lord, all the Bible reading that we're going to do. We can even take things as simple as loving those around us and turn it into a task that needs to get checked off.

I think there's a solution to that type of productivity-minded attitude: a more effective, more global tool that God gives us, which actually helps us accomplish more while simultaneously having the right perspective and priorities. And it isn't a to-do list; it's a prayer list that, by going to God, actually helps us have a view of His glory that is more expansive than the things we accomplish in our everyday life. So this is going to be the main idea for us this morning. Paul and God want us to be able to trust in the global God, not in the things we accomplish—to trust in the global God.

And there are really three things that Paul's kind of bringing into view before Timothy here. First, he is teaching Timothy about global prayer. Secondly, he tells Timothy, and reminds him, about the global gospel. And lastly, he reminds Timothy of the global commission that he's been given. It's a global prayer, the global gospel, and the global commission. We'll see how many times I can say “global” without messing it up.

The Power of Global Prayer

Point number one: global prayer. Let's look at verse one again. He says, “First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.” As we can see, Paul urged Timothy to fight the good fight—that's the point of the book. And now Paul finally gets to work. He begins with his exhortations that Timothy needs to get to work. If he wants to accomplish the work and fight the good fight, if he wants to be able to defeat the false teachers in front of him, hold fast to the gospel, if he wants to be found faithful in the day of Christ when He comes back again, Timothy doesn't need to charge the battlefield; he needs to fall on his knees in prayer.

The first thing, above all, as Paul says, the beginning step of a Christian's work is to pray. He doesn't just tell Timothy to pray; he urges Timothy to pray. He's saying, “You have to pray.” Sounds obvious, doesn't it? So obvious that you might be tempted to overlook it. “Yeah, I know we need to pray, I'll check that box, but what do I actually need to do?” Have you stopped to consider why Paul starts with prayer? Why does he begin by saying that you need to pray? Because prayer isn't just the first thing you need to do chronologically; it's the first thing you need to do in order of importance. Prayer is the most important thing that we do in the Christian life.

All of us want to make an impact for the kingdom, to be found faithful when Jesus returns, to be able to bring in more glory in our lives. If you want to be able to do that, if you want to do something with your life, that work starts with prayer. Our work begins with prayer because in order to do anything, in order to do anything that actually matters, we need God to work. Nothing is created without Him. Nothing is sustained by Him. And we believe that God needs to work in our work. If you believe that God is real and that He actually works, then you will pray. You will pray. In fact, you must pray. Our faith is inextricably tied to our prayers. As one pastor said, “Prayer is the chief exercise of faith.” It is the main thing that you do if you believe.

And prayer is more than just offering “thoughts and prayers.” I've heard that phrase on social media whenever you see a tragedy happen, like the one last week. “Thoughts and prayers” are really just code for your own compassion and your consideration. It's a way of looking at the world and saying, “I care. I'm giving you my heart.” But at the end of the day, that kind of sentiment, while sweet and genuine, I think, ultimately is only confined to what you can accomplish, what you ultimately do. It's about your consideration, your compassion.

But when you pray, when you actually pray to God, when you do more than just saying, “I'll pray for you,” but you actually do it? We believe that the almighty God of the universe bends His ear to hear our prayers. Because we actually believe that God is the one who acts. We pray because we believe that God actually does something. That when we share the gospel with someone, God is the one who shines a light into the darkness of their hearts as they hear the word being proclaimed. It's not that we sound funny or that we're cool. That when we obey the Lord, when we walk in righteousness, it's God who's strengthening us by the Spirit to be able to desire godliness and pursue Him. And that when we suffer, when we endure pain, it's God who will weave all things together for the good of those who love Him.

We are believing people. And when you believe that that's true, when you truly believe that God is actively working in your life and in the world today, the most logical thing that you can possibly do with your time and with your energy is to go to Him, to talk to Him, to bring Him your needs. Now, we believe that God is in control of all things, so you may be hearing this and wondering, “Why pray at all if God's already in control of everything?” I mean, isn't the fact that we rely on God for everything mean that God's going to take care of everything anyway, right? Doesn't Jesus Himself say, “Don't pray long prayers like the Pharisees do; the Father already knows what you need”? Can I just wake up in the morning and trust my Lord by not praying to Him? That's something that I used to actually say in high school. It was bad. It was wrong.

Now, when I was a kid, I'd nag my mom all the time about when I was going to eat dinner. And it showed, I was a chubby kid, right? Now, as an adult, all my mom wants to do for me is cook me dinner. Of course, she chewed me away and told me dinner would be whenever it was ready. Now, all she wants to do is feed me. Why does she want to do that? One reason is because she's a good Korean mother, right? The other reason is because I think my mom misses when I was dependent. She misses when I needed her, when she had the privilege of being able to serve me her food. As I'm saying this now, I'm just thinking, like, I should probably eat my mom's food more often, right? She misses the joy of being able to serve me.

And friends, we are far more dependent on our Heavenly Father than any earthly parent. And our Heavenly Father doesn't just hear your requests and check it off His to-do list. Our Father delights to answer us because He loves us. Jesus understood this about His Father. He says in Luke 11:

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” — Luke 11:11-13 (CSB)

Do you pray? Do you actually pray? Have you entered into your Father's house in prayer and received His good gifts, His love, His delight in being able to answer your needs and your requests? That's why we take time to pray in our church services, because time spent in prayer is never wasted time. We take the time to go before our Lord with our praises, our confessions, our laments, our needs. We are unhurried with that type of conversation because our Father delights to hear us and to answer us. That's also why we gather in our evening services every single Sunday at 5 p.m. here, because we want to take extended time to pray together.

I truly believe in my heart of hearts that our Sunday evening service is more important than any ministry our church will ever do throughout the rest of the week. It is the most important thing next to our morning service that our church does. It is more important than our outreach. It is more important than our children's ministry, as much as I'm grateful for the people who will come after service today to talk about it. It is the most important work that we do, apart from gathering here to worship God, because this is when our Father gets to hear from us and He gets to answer our requests.

Praying for Everyone, Especially Leaders

Now we should be praying for everything, but Paul doesn't just tell Timothy to pray; he also tells Timothy who to pray for. Look again at the end of verse 1. He says to make prayers for everyone, for everyone, for all people, of all mankind. See, we tend to think of prayer in relation to ourselves, our problems, our loved ones, our wants. And don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with praying for those things. You should be honest about the stuff that's going on in your life. I mean, who else is going to pray for those things that most directly affect you apart from yourself?

But is that all that you pray for? John Omochekwa talked about how prayer can often act like a price tag, that whenever you pray for something, it's like you're placing value on it. It reveals what your heart actually desires; they're windows into our heart, that we go to the Lord about the things that we ultimately care about the most, that your prayer list actually also doubles as a list of your priorities.

If someone heard all your prayers in the last month, what would people say that you value? You mainly value your work, your family, your bank account, your health? Not only do prayers reveal what you love, it also reveals what you think about God, right? You go to the person who you think can help you with your problems. What would your prayers say about who God is? That's what ancient idolatry was exactly like. You had gods that accomplished very specific things that would help you in your life, right? The Israelites didn't just worship Baal because they thought that he was cool and exotic. They worshiped Baal because he was a god of the harvest; they wanted more food. Asherah was a goddess of fertility. People would appeal to their gods to get what they want.

Someone heard all your prayers in the last month, who would they say your God is like? Is He a small village god there to just make your life easier? Is His power limited to your daily life, to your immediate surroundings, or your immediate loved ones? When our hearts are tunnel-visioned on ourselves, we make our God into a genie destined to answer our menial requests for comfort. What we need to do is we need to expand our gaze, to look up at the God of the universe and be captivated by who He is. And when we see God holding the entire universe, that helps us pray for the whole universe. Our God absolutely knows our local problems. I'm not saying you shouldn't pray for those things, but our God is a global God. God is not just God over this church; He's God over the whole world.

John G. Paton was a missionary to an unreached people group in the New Hebrides. And his main motivation as a child that inspired him to go to the nations was the time that he spent in family worship, watching his father in tears going before the Lord on behalf of the nations, on behalf of those who had never heard the gospel before. He writes in his autobiography that when he heard his father, he prayed and asked the Lord to privilege him with the opportunity and honor of being able to dedicate his life to such honorable service. An expanded view of God causes us to pray for all peoples, for all mankind, to pray for everyone.

And that includes especially those who lead mankind, which brings us to verse number two. “Prayers be made for everyone for kings and all those who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” If we are to pray for mankind, then that means that we ought to pray for those who oversee mankind, for those who are in authority. And this may seem like a very reasonable thing to do. Yeah, of course we should be praying for our leaders, for religions to be going before their God and asking God to honor their nation on their behalf. But I just want to take a moment to note just how radical of a request this would be.

Paul is actually shifting the paradigm of religion and culture with his command here. I mean, imagine what Paul is telling Timothy to do as he's serving in Ephesus. He is saying that Jewish Christians who believed that their Messiah would come establish His reign and rule over all nations would pray for the Roman Empire who dominated their own lands. This is like telling American revolutionaries to pray for King George III. This is like telling North Koreans who are suffering today to pray for Kim Jong-un. This is a radical command to pray for everyone in authority, regardless of whether or not they're wielding their authority properly.

Paul tells Timothy to pray for all who are in authority. That means that you pray for Emperor Nero as he enslaves thousands of people. That means that you pray for President Biden when he's in office, and you pray for President Trump today. That means that you pray for the czar, the dictator, the boss, the mayor, the general, the judge, the police officer—anyone who's in authority over human beings. You pray for those who lead society. That's why we pray for those who lead our communities, whether they're firefighters, whether they're Tony Lima, we pray for everyone. In our public prayers and our private devotions, we pray for those who exercise true authority, that they would use their authority in a way that brings about the most flourishing for the most people, and that they would protect the rights of their citizens.

See, Christianity completely flipped the relationship between the church and the state upside down. Up until that point, religions were tied, to some degree, to whatever your state controlled, whatever your state's authority structure would be. So church and state would be intertwined together. You would have a nation, and it would generally be a religion that that nation would hold to. You could experience this today as well. You could talk to Christians right now in North India that are facing militant Hinduism as the government actually proactively tries to oppress them and prevent them from being able to gather. Or you could look at the Islamic state in the various countries in Central Asia right now that are oppressing and kicking out Christians on behalf of the Muslim religion.

See, religion tends to be attached to state authority and enforced in order to produce an orderly society. But what Christianity does, what Paul's command here in verse two does, is it subverts both government authority and religious political influence. Christians understand that their ultimate allegiance is not to any nation on the earth. That if a Christian from Afghanistan steps into our church building, we have more in common with that brother than we would with any American patriot. No Christian should give their primary allegiance to any country, whether it's Korea or China or the Soviet Union or the Philippines or the United States. Our primary allegiance is to Christ and Christ alone. He is the King of all kings.

That's a radical statement. That's the kind of statement that leads to revolution. That's the kind of statement that makes kings concerned, like King Herod did as he tried to kill baby Jesus, who was claimed to be the Messiah, the King that was promised to come. But at the same time, that doesn't lead to earthly revolution. You have your ultimate allegiance to Christ, and that doesn't lead to you overhauling the nation that you're currently in. Jesus's goal isn't political revolution where we establish Christian nations all over the earth. Jesus teaches His disciples that His kingdom is not of this world. That our God's kingdom reigns over and transcends all earthly authorities. And it's precisely because of our allegiance to our heavenly King that we pray for our earthly ones.

See, Christians, when they lose their ultimate allegiance to their nation and they pledge their ultimate allegiance to God, they end up becoming better citizens in whatever country they live in. Do you realize how weird that is? To say, “My ultimate allegiance is not to our country,” and that's going to make me a better American citizen because we understand that when we're not violating God's commands, when the government is not forcing us to sin, our submission to earthly authorities is our submission to our heavenly authority. Romans 13 teaches us that God has given the state the authority to wield the sword, to use state-sanctioned force and violence in order to establish order in society; it leads to the common good.

And that's why Christians pray. That's why we pray for our leaders regardless of whether or not you voted for them, regardless of their own degree of righteousness. Like priests, we go before our God and we intercede for our country, for our leaders on their behalf. And the purpose of it is so that we can lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. The purpose of our prayers is not political revolution, but peaceful righteousness. See, what we want is not for America to become a Christian nation. And here's what I mean: we don't want America to then take the Ten Commandments or the gospel and point its rifle at your face and force you to become a Christian or give you penalties if you don't become a Christian. And the reason why you don't want to do that is because guns don't save souls. They don't transform hearts. If you try to use political force to make someone a Christian, you create fake Christians.

What we want is a state that protects everyone's rights so that we can stand up and preach the gospel, so we can say this is what I believe without fear of repercussions. See, Christians are way more concerned about your ability to live a godly, quiet Christian life than you are about enforcing your righteousness on people that do not believe in Jesus. We are way more concerned about the public square than we are about the Capitol building. It's about sharing ideas. 2 Corinthians 10 says that we wage war against ideas, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. That the way that Christians conquer is not by our swords. The way that we most impact society isn't bending kings to our will, but by putting the righteousness of Christ and the gospel of Christ in full display. By letting people see our lives. By letting people hear the gospel, getting persuaded in their freedom of thought. The word of God actually pierces into the darkness of their hearts and they pledge allegiance to Christ. That's what leads to the most peaceful society. That's what leads to the most souls being saved. Not by having a nation that has a cross on its flag, but having a nation that allows Christians to be able to share the gospel with their neighbors and live a peaceful and quiet life. That peace speaks louder than any kind of power that we may obtain.

So let me ask you, do you panic when you feel like your country is starting to slip away? Do you clutch your pearls in anxiety over where America's headed? Or would it put another way: do you pray more than you panic? Do you actually believe that God is in control? See, where your priorities are, your practice will follow. If you think that political influence is what will save our country, then you will mainline 24/7 news channels all day into your veins. You will be concerned about whatever happens every single week that seems to be changing every single day.

But if your ultimate hope is in an unchanging, Almighty King who reigns over the entire universe, who laughs at every evil nation's ultimate attempts to usurp His power, then of course you pray for different concerns in your nation. But you pray that souls would be saved first. You pray that we be able to live a peaceful and quiet life and you submit to your authorities because that's not what ultimately matters. What matters is our Lord and Savior. What matters is the gospel of Christ. Our godly living brings Him more glory than any government decision that America will make in the next four years or the next 400.

The Global Gospel and God's Will

Because that godly, global, praying life points to a global gospel. Which brings us to point number two: the global gospel. Let's look at verse three: “This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” See, the way that we conquer is not by overthrowing society but by saving souls. In order to do that, you need to be able to live a peaceful, unapologetic, quiet life, because we want to be able to say the good news of Jesus, because we want to see everyone come to faith, regardless of whether or not they're a citizen of our country or not. And that desire, that will to see everyone saved, is exactly what God wills as well. God wants everyone to be saved. And if you want everyone to be saved, you have to be able to share the gospel with everyone.

Now, I'm going to open a little bit of a can of worms here. I am running behind on time, so I'm a little worried about how much time I have to say this. But it leads to a pretty good question that I think is worth pondering: If God wills everyone to be saved, why can't He just save everyone? Have you ever asked that? If God wills, if He wants everyone to be saved, why doesn't He save everyone? After all, can't God accomplish everything that He wills? That's a tricky question. The question makes it seem either as though God wants to save everyone, but can't, or that God doesn't want to save everyone, and then He's not loving. Right? It's a paradox. But that's not how God's will works. It's a little bit more complex than that. In fact, that's not how our human will works either.

So let me use a real practical example. I'm sorry, I didn't ask for permission. But let's say Joe one day, leading his family after his service, wants to go. He wills to go to Chow King for lunch. If you've never heard of Chow King, it's like trashy Filipino-Chinese food. It's delicious. It's amazing. That's his desire. He wills it. As he goes to his family and says, “Hey, what do you guys think about Chow King?” Lana looks up with her adorable face and says, “I want In-N-Out!” And Joe, hearing his lovely daughter's desire, decides, “Okay, we're going to eat In-N-Out for lunch.” In that moment, did Joe get overpowered by Lana? No. Right? In that moment, Joe has two wills. Joe desires to go to Chow King. Joe decides to go to In-N-Out, even if it may not be exactly what he himself desires.

Now, in that relationship, in that interaction, I don't think anyone is thinking, “Well, is Joe not in charge anymore? Are you just a slave to whatever your daughter wants?” No. Right? Now, this is not a perfect analogy for the way that God enforces His will. Joe obviously doesn't carry the authority or the omnipotent power of an Almighty God. Joe has had his plans disrupted plenty of times in his life, as he does with all of us. But my point being that there are multi-dimensions behind that will. Right? It's not as simple as one or the other. It's not black and white.

And the term that Christians have used for these two different wills—for your desires and your decisions—are the will of command (what God teaches, what He wants you to do) and the will of decree (what God decides, what He declares to be). See, what God desires, you can disobey. God can say, “Do not lie,” and you can lie, and it's not like God ceased to be omnipotent. Right? It's not like He lost control of the universe. But what God decides happens no matter what. What God sovereignly decrees happens. Right? We believe that to be true. There's not a single hair that falls from your head that God did not declare to be. In fact, this is exactly what the Bible teaches, even in the Old Testament.

So in Deuteronomy 29, 29, we don't have time to turn there. It says:

The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law. — Deuteronomy 29:29 (CSB)

So Moses creates two categories: you have hidden things, and you have revealed things. Some people treat the will of God like a crystal ball. You wake up every single morning, and you're like, “I wonder what God is going to do. Am I walking in the will of God? Am I disrupting His plans?” You see this with people that try especially to try to predict the exact day or hour that Jesus is going to come back. They try to predict the will of God, right? But Jesus himself says in Matthew 24:

“Now concerning that day and hour no one knows—neither the angels of heaven nor the Son —except the Father alone. — Matthew 24:36 (CSB)

If you wake up every single morning asking, “Who's the one that God's destined me to marry?” or “What's the job that God's destined me to take?” if you're thinking about the will of God revealed to you in the form of destiny, you're probably going to end up disappointed. The point isn't what God destined to happen; He doesn't tell you. He doesn't tell you exactly what's going to happen. It's about what He desires for you, and He speaks to us about His revealed will through this book. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The revealed things are given to us and our children so that we may follow all the words of this law.” God reveals His will of command so that we may obey Him. In other words, the question isn't what God is going to do, but what God wants us to do. We need to care more about what God desires of us, more than what He may or may not decide for us to do.

Christians both believe that God is in complete control of everything and that He has commands for us to obey. We believe that God's plan doesn't change, that His plan is perfect and just, and we believe that we need to obey His commands even when we sin. We still need to obey Him. This is a giant deal all throughout church history. You could go back every 200 years or so and can point to another debate where this comes up in the forefront. About 200 years ago, there was a guy named Andrew Fuller who was a faithful pastor, and there was a giant debate going on in society.

There were two camps. One was a hyper-Calvinist camp—I said the “C” word, right? This, mind you, marked most *hyper*-Calvinists, not most Calvinists today. They believed that God was in control of everything; therefore, don't share the gospel with anyone. There was one pastor who literally said, “God will save the heathen with or without you.” So they took God's plan as such an enforceable thing that they gave up on evangelism altogether. And if that's your understanding of Calvinism, get rid of it. It's not true; it's not biblical.

On the other hand, there was this group called the Socinians who taught that because all of us have decisions and are responsible for those decisions, God is not in control of everything. In fact, God can't know the future because He doesn't know what you're going to do. Now, I'm trying to tell you, as your pastor who loves you, both of these sides are wrong. They're both wrong. Don't believe either of those things. Andrew Fuller taught very clearly that it wasn't a question of whether or not God was in control or whether or not human beings had responsibility to obey God's commands, because the Bible teaches both. The Bible teaches that God is in control of everything and that you are responsible for the decisions that you make, which means that God is in control of all things in all plans, in all places, and at the same time, He desires that everyone be saved. That everyone turns from their sin and trust in Christ. Does that make sense? Both of those things in the Bible are true. He tells you what He wants, and God also decides according to the good of those who love Him.

And this truth changes everything. It changes more than just the way you share the gospel. It changes the way that you view your entire life. This means that if you're a victim of abuse and you've endured unimaginable pain, and someone tries to ask you, “How can a good God allow this to happen?” you can tell them to their face, “God hated what happened. He was 100% against any evil that happened to me.” And at the same time, you can say that, “My God has a plan and I can trust Him. He's going to work every scar, every tear, every hardship for the good of those who love Him, to bring Him glory.”

You can look at your worst tragedies and say that God also hates all sin, all death, all sorrow, all rejection, all condemnation. And be able to say, “My God is good. He is in control, and I can trust Him.” You see how that works? You need to believe both. You need to believe in God's will of decree and His will of command. You need to trust that God has a plan, and you need to have a burden to share the gospel with every single person that doesn't trust in Christ. We believe in both. We're engaged in a war of persuasion because we have an exclusive Savior, who has a global vision for all people under all regimes to trust in one Savior.

The Global Commission

This brings me to verses five through seven. Let me just read this and close for us. He says:

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time. For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. — 1 Timothy 2:5-7 (CSB)

We have an inclusive, we have a global desire and burden to share the gospel to the nations because we have an exclusive Savior. You will have Christians scattered through all nations. There are happy, good, obedient citizens of all these different nations with all these different kings and all these places, and yet Christians at the same time believe that there is only one true God, that there is only one way to salvation, there is only one God that reigns over all, and there is only one way to get to Him, and that is through the person of Jesus.

Because of sin, we have been completely cut off from God. We are unable to have a relationship with Him because of our sin. Because of our sin, every single human being is destined to go to hell forever. Whether they're American, whether they're Afghani, whether they're African, whether they're Latin American, everyone is destined to go to hell. But the good news of Jesus Christ is that He came to us. As a man, lived the perfect life that you and I could never live, and died as our perfect substitute on the cross, bearing the wrath of God on His shoulders, dying for sin and arising on the third day from the dead. He is the tie between us and God. He is the mediator. He is the way that human beings in every place on the planet are able to get to Him. If you want to go to God, if you want a restored relationship with Him, all you have to do is trust in Christ. And that is an exclusive salvation, which is what forces us to look outward with global expansion.

If Jesus really is the only way, that means we have to go everywhere. And that's why Paul, in verse 7, talks about his appointment. Unlike the false teachers who are critiquing Paul, Paul is appointed by his King, the King of the universe, to go with the gospel to the Gentiles, to those who are not of the people of God, with faith and truth. He is converting the heathen to become Christians through the proclamation of the gospel. And God is calling Timothy to do the same. He is saying that same God who had an eternal plan in sending His Son also put you in Ephesus to do the work of the ministry. That same God who appointed Jesus and appointed you also appointed me to go to the Gentiles.

And I'm telling you now this morning that God is telling you that He has also placed you in this church, in this community, to go out and share the gospel. All of us are commissioned to be heralds of the King, to go and proclaim the gospel to the nations, to our neighbors, to our co-workers, to our family and friends. Do you really believe that Jesus is the only way? Do you really believe that this gospel is for all peoples everywhere? Not just the ones that are friendly, not just the ones that are similar to you, but that the gospel is for every single person, that you will share the gospel with everyone. Don't negotiate with your King about the terms of your service. It is better to share the gospel poorly than to not share the gospel at all. Trust that your global God is able to use your obedience to His revealed will to accomplish His eternal plan.

I love hearing stories of gospel conversion, especially from people who heard the gospel from terrible examples, people that share the gospel really poorly or stumbled over their words, and yet they heard the truth. This global gospel also spurs us to support global workers. That's why we pray for gospel work that goes beyond our church, even beyond our own country's borders. We are in the top 1% of all of humanity with our wealth. If you own a refrigerator, you are already in the top 10% of all of humanity, right now, on this planet. What is God going to do with our dollars? We need to use it to leverage gospel work in places that need our resources, that need the gospel. We want to be able to leverage our funds to be able to share the gospel to the ends of the earth. We want to train up people and send them out to the ends of the earth because the global gospel changes our priorities. It changes our focus from to-do lists to prayer lists. It motivates us to make radical sacrifices, to step into discomfort, to make the gospel known to the ends of the earth.

Many of you may be familiar with the story of William Carey, the first kind of man who spawned the modern missions movement with the Baptist Mission Society, the reason why we have the IMB, the reason why we have the missions movement that we know of today is because of this man, William Carey. You know what inspired him to think about going out to the ends of the earth? It was reading Andrew Fuller's defense of a God who is in control of all things, who desires all to be saved. It is an understanding of a global God who has an exclusive Savior, and it spurred him to willingly give up his life and go to India as a missionary to convert the heathen. He inspired the modern-day missions movement, and this is what he wrote. I'll close with this. He said: “One of the first and one of the most important of those duties which are incumbent upon us is fervent and united prayer. However, the influence of the Holy Spirit that may be set and run down by many, it will be found upon trials that all the means that we can use without prayer, it will be ineffectual. If a temple is raised for God in the heathen world, it will not be by might, nor by power, nor by authority of the magistrate, or by the eloquence of the orator, but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts” (cf. Zechariah 4:6).

That's the God that we worship. Wanna reach the nations? Start by putting your hands together and bowing your heads, and our Lord will delight to answer that prayer. Let's go before Him now and pray together. We pray for us as a church: help us to be globally minded with the gospel. Pray, Lord, to have conviction that your word is true and is worthy of all sacrifice and devotion and obedience. Pray, Lord, even today that you would spawn a movement of our church of full-hearted, dependent prayer before you on behalf of the nations, even in our own lives, and that it would drive us towards gospel-centered obedience and trust in you. Pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.