The Easiest Step of Love

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | What is the easiest step of love?

00:00:07.640 | A step so easy you can accomplish it

00:00:09.360 | before you even get out of bed in the morning.

00:00:12.000 | Today we find the answer in an unsuspecting context.

00:00:15.620 | The answer comes in an old sermon from John Piper

00:00:18.240 | on 1 Timothy 2 verses one to four.

00:00:21.080 | And it happens to be my favorite sermon to turn to

00:00:24.080 | when geopolitical tensions become evident in the world

00:00:27.080 | as we've seen a lot in the year 2022.

00:00:31.600 | The sermon is an early one preached back

00:00:33.420 | on January 20th, 1981.

00:00:35.800 | In fact, it was preached just two days

00:00:37.460 | before the Iran hostage crisis came to an end.

00:00:41.140 | Also the same day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated

00:00:43.620 | as the new president of the United States.

00:00:46.880 | There was a lot of national and international news

00:00:49.500 | in the air when Pastor John preached the sermon

00:00:51.320 | on 1 Timothy 2.

00:00:53.080 | In this context, the Apostle Paul was eager for Christians

00:00:55.780 | to hold to the faith with a good conscience.

00:00:59.400 | That's 1 Timothy 1.19.

00:01:01.480 | And to that end, as Paul explains,

00:01:03.560 | Christians should entertain a global view of reality.

00:01:07.520 | That's why Paul urges these early Christians

00:01:09.640 | to offer supplications, prayers, intercessions,

00:01:12.600 | and thanksgivings.

00:01:13.960 | Be made for all people, for kings,

00:01:16.000 | and for all who are in high positions

00:01:17.840 | that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life,

00:01:19.920 | godly and dignified in every way.

00:01:22.320 | This is good and it is pleasing

00:01:24.320 | in the sight of God our Savior,

00:01:26.580 | who desires all people to be saved

00:01:28.620 | and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

00:01:31.820 | That's 1 Timothy 2, verses one to four.

00:01:34.480 | For individual Christians, these prayers for kings,

00:01:36.960 | prayers for the leaders of nations,

00:01:39.900 | is essential to keeping a clean conscience

00:01:42.520 | and not shipwrecking our faith.

00:01:45.620 | It's an incredible claim, connecting our awareness of

00:01:48.380 | and love for the globe's rulers

00:01:51.800 | to our own perseverance in the faith.

00:01:53.640 | Here's Pastor John to explain how all this works.

00:01:57.340 | - A good conscience is a conscience that does not

00:02:03.360 | condemn us for what we do

00:02:05.640 | and that approves of what we do do.

00:02:09.120 | Did I say that right?

00:02:09.960 | Does not condemn us for what we do

00:02:12.400 | and approves us for what we do.

00:02:14.620 | That means, therefore, that the reason Paul is saying

00:02:19.760 | you've got to have a clear conscience

00:02:22.760 | in order to maintain faith

00:02:26.560 | is that if we do things that our conscience

00:02:30.560 | constantly condemns,

00:02:33.240 | what's gonna happen is something like this.

00:02:34.800 | This is the way my experience works anyway.

00:02:36.520 | See if yours doesn't also.

00:02:38.280 | If I fall into a habit that my conscience condemns,

00:02:43.640 | my conscience starts to say to me,

00:02:47.600 | Piper, all that talk about trusting Christ

00:02:52.600 | and hoping in God is a lot of hot air

00:02:58.000 | because if you really trusted in Christ and hoped in God,

00:03:03.000 | you wouldn't go on breaking your conscience like that.

00:03:07.480 | And therefore, conscience starts to bore holes

00:03:11.740 | in the belly of the ship of faith

00:03:14.720 | and it starts to sink.

00:03:16.600 | And your confidence in the reality of your own conversion

00:03:19.960 | starts to melt away

00:03:21.600 | because you're constantly acting against your own conscience.

00:03:25.300 | And either one of two things is going to happen.

00:03:28.660 | Either we confirm the genuineness of our faith

00:03:32.460 | by changing our behavior

00:03:34.080 | and plugging up those holes of conscience,

00:03:37.620 | or we go on and we show that our ship of faith

00:03:41.400 | was never seaworthy in the first place

00:03:43.840 | and we sink into unbelief and blasphemy

00:03:48.160 | like Hymenaeus and Alexander did.

00:03:51.080 | And therefore, Paul's charge to Timothy to hold to faith

00:03:55.920 | and maintain a good conscience

00:03:58.360 | are tremendously important commands or admonitions.

00:04:03.360 | And anything that Paul can say

00:04:06.000 | that will help us maintain a good conscience

00:04:09.920 | ought to be welcomed with open arms.

00:04:12.160 | And I think that's what he does in verse one of chapter two.

00:04:15.800 | "Since you must keep a good conscience

00:04:20.200 | in order not to make shipwreck of faith,

00:04:23.320 | therefore, I urge you first of all, pray for all men."

00:04:28.320 | Now, in order to see why it is

00:04:32.920 | that failing to pray for all men

00:04:36.840 | will give us a bad conscience

00:04:39.860 | and jeopardize our faith,

00:04:42.280 | I think we have to ask, what is it

00:04:44.520 | that for a Christian pricks his conscience

00:04:47.820 | in relation to other people?

00:04:49.280 | And the answer to that, of course,

00:04:51.320 | is clear from the whole Bible.

00:04:53.160 | All of God's instruction is summed up in two commandments.

00:04:56.920 | Love God with your whole being

00:04:59.720 | and love your neighbor as yourself.

00:05:01.840 | In other words, anything that a Christian does

00:05:04.620 | or leaves undone, which is unloving,

00:05:08.820 | will give him a bad conscience

00:05:10.560 | or ought to give him a bad conscience if it's not seared.

00:05:14.320 | Now, with that as a foundation,

00:05:16.840 | I think it starts to become clear

00:05:18.600 | why we must pray for other people

00:05:23.600 | in order to keep a clean conscience

00:05:25.780 | and so not make shipwreck of faith.

00:05:28.720 | I see three reasons why prayer for other people

00:05:33.620 | is of first importance.

00:05:36.240 | And that's what I'm after to explain.

00:05:38.120 | How come he says it's of first importance

00:05:41.060 | in keeping a clear conscience

00:05:44.320 | and not making shipwreck of faith?

00:05:46.520 | First, prayer taps the power of God

00:05:51.520 | on behalf of other people.

00:05:54.520 | I could try to help you as a pastor.

00:05:57.440 | You could try to help your neighbors.

00:05:59.940 | You could try to help Ronald Reagan,

00:06:02.940 | Governor Cui, Mayor Frazer, without praying for them.

00:06:07.980 | And you might do a little good.

00:06:10.500 | And judged from a limited perspective,

00:06:13.120 | you could do perhaps much good in the world's eyes.

00:06:17.360 | But the little good that we could do without praying

00:06:20.840 | isn't worthy to be compared with the great good

00:06:24.760 | that God can do if he, in response to our prayer,

00:06:28.480 | starts working on behalf of another person.

00:06:32.800 | So if we want to do what's best for people,

00:06:37.340 | if we really love them,

00:06:39.360 | then I think of first importance

00:06:42.640 | will be to pray that God work for them.

00:06:47.640 | The first thing you do for a person if you love them

00:06:52.480 | is ask God to work on their behalf.

00:06:56.120 | And of course, the way that God answers that prayer

00:06:59.840 | is almost always going to involve

00:07:02.560 | your labor of love on their behalf.

00:07:06.840 | But what can be accomplished through prayer

00:07:09.520 | is vastly more than you could accomplish without prayer.

00:07:14.400 | There's a second reason why I think it's of first importance

00:07:17.600 | to keep our conscience clear

00:07:19.720 | through praying for other people.

00:07:22.020 | It's the easiest step of love.

00:07:25.640 | You don't even have to get out of bed

00:07:28.280 | to pray for kings and all those who are in high positions.

00:07:32.480 | It doesn't take any great physical strain,

00:07:36.620 | no great financial output.

00:07:39.680 | Of all the forms that love can take,

00:07:42.920 | prayer is probably the easiest.

00:07:45.260 | You just get down on your knees and rest

00:07:48.080 | and talk to the Lord about what you want him to do

00:07:51.920 | for other people.

00:07:52.840 | And isn't it true that if we are unwilling to do

00:07:56.960 | for other people what is easiest,

00:07:59.800 | then it's very unlikely that we will be willing to do

00:08:03.400 | what's hard on their behalf.

00:08:05.800 | And therefore, it makes sense, doesn't it,

00:08:07.520 | that Paul would begin by saying of first importance

00:08:10.960 | if you want to love other people is that you pray for all men.

00:08:16.520 | Third reason why I think it's of paramount importance.

00:08:19.880 | Prayer reaches farther than anything else in its effects

00:08:25.880 | that we can do.

00:08:27.400 | It reaches farther in its effects

00:08:29.200 | than anything else we can do.

00:08:31.040 | Before there were those satellites up there

00:08:34.560 | going around the Earth, we could send a live television

00:08:39.360 | program from coast to coast.

00:08:42.200 | But we couldn't send it, could we,

00:08:44.080 | all the way around to the other side of the world live.

00:08:47.280 | But now, if we want to get it to the other side of the world

00:08:51.760 | live immediately, we send it away from the world

00:08:55.880 | and then it comes back to the world.

00:08:58.360 | Pretty simple.

00:08:59.960 | Get it live immediately.

00:09:01.720 | And I think that's a beautiful picture

00:09:03.880 | of the efficacy and extension of prayer.

00:09:08.760 | Without prayer, we can have an influence

00:09:11.200 | on a limited circumference of people.

00:09:12.880 | We can work hard and try to do good for them.

00:09:15.600 | And if we wait long enough, maybe by osmosis,

00:09:18.000 | our influence will spread all the way around the world.

00:09:20.920 | But God's influence is everywhere and immediate.

00:09:26.160 | And therefore, doesn't it make sense

00:09:28.560 | that first of all, if we want to help other people,

00:09:31.240 | if you want to bless the most people in the shortest

00:09:34.440 | amount of time with the most blessing,

00:09:37.600 | it just makes sense that you'd start by going to the satellite,

00:09:42.280 | going to God.

00:09:43.720 | When a broadcaster wants to get a message to the greatest

00:09:47.880 | amount of people in the shortest amount of time,

00:09:50.120 | you can be sure that's going to happen today

00:09:52.240 | if those hostages are released before this service is over

00:09:55.720 | or before we meet tonight.

00:09:56.920 | We're all going to know about it because of those satellites.

00:10:00.480 | If a broadcaster wants to do that,

00:10:02.080 | isn't it interesting that paradoxically,

00:10:04.360 | to get the message quickest this way, he sends it that way.

00:10:08.720 | And that's what we should do for other people.

00:10:11.680 | To bless them quickest this way, we should look that way.

00:10:15.640 | First, up to God.

00:10:19.280 | So if we would not make shipwreck of faith,

00:10:24.240 | but rather keep a clear conscience,

00:10:28.000 | therefore, we must pray for all men

00:10:32.480 | because of these three reasons.

00:10:35.240 | Prayer taps the power of God for other people.

00:10:39.720 | Prayer is the first and easiest step of love.

00:10:42.840 | And prayer reaches farther in its effects

00:10:45.280 | than anything else that we can do.

00:10:48.360 | Powerful, especially given the historical setting

00:10:50.760 | of this sermon unfolding 40 years ago.

00:10:52.640 | That sermon is titled Pray for Kings and All in High

00:10:55.280 | Positions, preached on January 18, 1981,

00:10:58.800 | just two days before the Iran hostage crisis ended.

00:11:02.160 | And Ronald Reagan was inaugurated

00:11:03.640 | as the new president of the United States.

00:11:05.680 | The entire sermon is online at desiringgod.org.

00:11:10.840 | If you have a sermon clip to share, email me.

00:11:12.720 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title,

00:11:14.560 | and the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio.

00:11:16.880 | And make a note of what stands out to you.

00:11:18.640 | Put the word clip in the subject line of an email

00:11:21.080 | and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:11:24.160 | That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:11:28.720 | Well, some of the very best questions you all send to us

00:11:31.080 | come from tensions that you see directly in scripture,

00:11:34.520 | like the one coming up on Friday.

00:11:36.280 | Do we pray for the salvation of unbelievers directly?

00:11:39.760 | Or do we pray for the evangelists who bring

00:11:42.080 | the gospel to those unbelievers?

00:11:44.080 | It's a sharp Bible question.

00:11:45.960 | And it's up next time.

00:11:46.920 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.

00:11:47.680 | We'll rejoin in studio with Pastor John

00:11:49.400 | when we return on Friday.

00:11:51.000 | We'll see you then.

00:11:52.960 | [END PLAYBACK]

00:11:55.520 | [AUDIO OUT]

00:11:58.520 | you

The Easiest Step of Love

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