(upbeat music) What is the easiest step of love? A step so easy you can accomplish it before you even get out of bed in the morning. Today we find the answer in an unsuspecting context. The answer comes in an old sermon from John Piper on 1 Timothy 2 verses one to four.

And it happens to be my favorite sermon to turn to when geopolitical tensions become evident in the world as we've seen a lot in the year 2022. The sermon is an early one preached back on January 20th, 1981. In fact, it was preached just two days before the Iran hostage crisis came to an end.

Also the same day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the new president of the United States. There was a lot of national and international news in the air when Pastor John preached the sermon on 1 Timothy 2. In this context, the Apostle Paul was eager for Christians to hold to the faith with a good conscience.

That's 1 Timothy 1.19. And to that end, as Paul explains, Christians should entertain a global view of reality. That's why Paul urges these early Christians to offer supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings. Be made for all people, for kings, and for 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. That's 1 Timothy 2, verses one to four. For individual Christians, these prayers for kings, prayers for the leaders of nations, is essential to keeping a clean conscience and not shipwrecking our faith.

It's an incredible claim, connecting our awareness of and love for the globe's rulers to our own perseverance in the faith. Here's Pastor John to explain how all this works. - A good conscience is a conscience that does not condemn us for what we do and that approves of what we do do.

Did I say that right? Does not condemn us for what we do and approves us for what we do. That means, therefore, that the reason Paul is saying you've got to have a clear conscience in order to maintain faith is that if we do things that our conscience constantly condemns, what's gonna happen is something like this.

This is the way my experience works anyway. See if yours doesn't also. If I fall into a habit that my conscience condemns, my conscience starts to say to me, Piper, all that talk about trusting Christ and hoping in God is a lot of hot air because if you really trusted in Christ and hoped in God, you wouldn't go on breaking your conscience like that.

And therefore, conscience starts to bore holes in the belly of the ship of faith and it starts to sink. And your confidence in the reality of your own conversion starts to melt away because you're constantly acting against your own conscience. And either one of two things is going to happen.

Either we confirm the genuineness of our faith by changing our behavior and plugging up those holes of conscience, or we go on and we show that our ship of faith was never seaworthy in the first place and we sink into unbelief and blasphemy like Hymenaeus and Alexander did. And therefore, Paul's charge to Timothy to hold to faith and maintain a good conscience are tremendously important commands or admonitions.

And anything that Paul can say that will help us maintain a good conscience ought to be welcomed with open arms. And I think that's what he does in verse one of chapter two. "Since you must keep a good conscience in order not to make shipwreck of faith, therefore, I urge you first of all, pray for all men." Now, in order to see why it is that failing to pray for all men will give us a bad conscience and jeopardize our faith, I think we have to ask, what is it that for a Christian pricks his conscience in relation to other people?

And the answer to that, of course, is clear from the whole Bible. All of God's instruction is summed up in two commandments. Love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, anything that a Christian does or leaves undone, which is unloving, will give him a bad conscience or ought to give him a bad conscience if it's not seared.

Now, with that as a foundation, I think it starts to become clear why we must pray for other people in order to keep a clean conscience and so not make shipwreck of faith. I see three reasons why prayer for other people is of first importance. And that's what I'm after to explain.

How come he says it's of first importance in keeping a clear conscience and not making shipwreck of faith? First, prayer taps the power of God on behalf of other people. I could try to help you as a pastor. You could try to help your neighbors. You could try to help Ronald Reagan, Governor Cui, Mayor Frazer, without praying for them.

And you might do a little good. And judged from a limited perspective, you could do perhaps much good in the world's eyes. But the little good that we could do without praying isn't worthy to be compared with the great good that God can do if he, in response to our prayer, starts working on behalf of another person.

So if we want to do what's best for people, if we really love them, then I think of first importance will be to pray that God work for them. The first thing you do for a person if you love them is ask God to work on their behalf. And of course, the way that God answers that prayer is almost always going to involve your labor of love on their behalf.

But what can be accomplished through prayer is vastly more than you could accomplish without prayer. There's a second reason why I think it's of first importance to keep our conscience clear through praying for other people. It's the easiest step of love. You don't even have to get out of bed to pray for kings and all those who are in high positions.

It doesn't take any great physical strain, no great financial output. Of all the forms that love can take, prayer is probably the easiest. You just get down on your knees and rest and talk to the Lord about what you want him to do for other people. And isn't it true that if we are unwilling to do for other people what is easiest, then it's very unlikely that we will be willing to do what's hard on their behalf.

And therefore, it makes sense, doesn't it, that Paul would begin by saying of first importance if you want to love other people is that you pray for all men. Third reason why I think it's of paramount importance. Prayer reaches farther than anything else in its effects that we can do.

It reaches farther in its effects than anything else we can do. Before there were those satellites up there going around the Earth, we could send a live television program from coast to coast. But we couldn't send it, could we, all the way around to the other side of the world live.

But now, if we want to get it to the other side of the world live immediately, we send it away from the world and then it comes back to the world. Pretty simple. Get it live immediately. And I think that's a beautiful picture of the efficacy and extension of prayer.

Without prayer, we can have an influence on a limited circumference of people. We can work hard and try to do good for them. And if we wait long enough, maybe by osmosis, our influence will spread all the way around the world. But God's influence is everywhere and immediate. And therefore, doesn't it make sense that first of all, if we want to help other people, if you want to bless the most people in the shortest amount of time with the most blessing, it just makes sense that you'd start by going to the satellite, going to God.

When a broadcaster wants to get a message to the greatest amount of people in the shortest amount of time, you can be sure that's going to happen today if those hostages are released before this service is over or before we meet tonight. We're all going to know about it because of those satellites.

If a broadcaster wants to do that, isn't it interesting that paradoxically, to get the message quickest this way, he sends it that way. And that's what we should do for other people. To bless them quickest this way, we should look that way. First, up to God. So if we would not make shipwreck of faith, but rather keep a clear conscience, therefore, we must pray for all men because of these three reasons.

Prayer taps the power of God for other people. Prayer is the first and easiest step of love. And prayer reaches farther in its effects than anything else that we can do. Powerful, especially given the historical setting of this sermon unfolding 40 years ago. That sermon is titled Pray for Kings and All in High Positions, preached on January 18, 1981, just two days before the Iran hostage crisis ended.

And Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the new president of the United States. The entire sermon is online at desiringgod.org. If you have a sermon clip to share, email me. Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, and the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio. And make a note of what stands out to you.

Put the word clip in the subject line of an email and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Well, some of the very best questions you all send to us come from tensions that you see directly in scripture, like the one coming up on Friday.

Do we pray for the salvation of unbelievers directly? Or do we pray for the evangelists who bring the gospel to those unbelievers? It's a sharp Bible question. And it's up next time. I'm your host, Tony Ranke. We'll rejoin in studio with Pastor John when we return on Friday. We'll see you then.

you