TEXT: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
7 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
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Leonard Ravenhill said “A man who is intimate with God is not intimidated by man.” “No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.”
Leonard Ravenhill said “The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.”
Alexis de Tocqueville said, “In the end, the state of the Union comes down to the character of the people. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. In the fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there. In her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits, aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
On the other end of that, in the news recently even Oprah stated that the church used to provide the moral fabric that would prevent some of the mass shootings. She said “I think what people are missing is a core moral center. Churches used to do that. It was a central place you could come to and there was a core center of values about a way of living and a way of being in the world.” She went on to say that until Americans embrace a moral center, “we will continue to be lost” and she was applauded for that statement by some Christians but what she was saying was that THE CHURCH USED TO PROVIDE THAT IN THE PAST. So while de Tocqueville was looking at why America was great and looking into the future with a stark prophetic warning and as he predicted the pulpits of the churches are not on fire any more and the people are, therefore, not good anymore, and now, even through the eyes of Oprah, we are looking at the church of what it used to be to America, and the sad tragic fulfillment of de Tocqueville’s prediction because the church has failed, the people are not good anymore, and America is not great anymore which is precisely what I stated at the beginning of this series and right after the El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, mass shootings:
As I have been saying for years, God is Mercifully, Lovingly, and Slowly Dismantling the Greatest Country in the World (Outside of Israel) Piece by Piece Because of a Noah-Period and Sodom-and-Gomorrah-Period Style of Sin going on in this nation
Along With Many Other Disasters, the Gilroy Massacre and the El Paso and Dayton Shootings Within 24 Hours and now the Odessa-Midland massacre Are a Part of That Dismantling or Judgment and We Are All to Blame. So Called Church Leaders, Pastors, and Preachers, Both Black and White, Have Failed America by not praying for the salvation of lost sinners, our government leaders and for our country, Not Proclaiming the Gospel, Preaching the Truth, and Not Speaking Truth to Power, that is to President Obama and President Trump. (And by the Way, Every Pastor, Preacher or Evangelist who has signed a non-disclosure agreement for President Obama or President Trump, you are effectively a Judas to Christ, the church, and America and you are no longer a preacher of the Gospel, whether you think so or not. God’s preachers do not sign non-disclosure agreements or confidentiality agreements. Can you imagine Isaiah or Jeremiah signing a non-disclosure agreement or confidentiality agreement? When you sign a non-disclosure agreement with the President so that you can be invited to the Christmas party, you cannot be a Nathan who publicly says to the President “Thou art the man” and “retain thine integrity.” I will not reveal who you are, but God knows who you are and you know who you are.) President Obama and President Trump Have Failed America by Allowing the Government to Sanction Homosexuality and Homosexual Marriage Among Other Evils, and Yes those other evils Include Both of Them Playing the Race Card for Their Own Political Advantage and We the People Put Them in Office. (By the Way, Racism Is Not America’s Main Sin or Problem. It Is the Easy Wicked Sin That We, Both Black and White, and Others Like to Pull Out and Use for Our Political, Social, and Financial Advantage) As I have been preaching for years, the race problem was solved in my heart and life on December 19, 1979 when I accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour, and that is the only way the race problem will be solved in anyone’s life whether they be black, white, red, yellow, or brown. But again, the white church and black church have failed America in not proclaiming the Gospel faithfully. So We’re All to Blame, Red, Yellow, Black, Brown, and White. So Let Me Give Everyone a Fair Warning. The Carnage That We Have Seen Over the Past Week in Gilroy, California, El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Will Continue Unabated Unless the Church Repents First of Its Evil and Starts Doing Its Job by Reaching the Lost by Any Means Necessary.
We have previously talked about one of the reasons why we ought to pray for all people in general and specifically for our government leaders is so that we as Christians in a secular world can live quiet, peaceful, godly, and honest lives without interference. But, another (and greater) reason why we ought to pray for all men and for government leaders is so that they can be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. If we truly want to make America godly again, and thus great again, it will not be done through legislation but through spiritual transformation.
Paul writes, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” Regarding this particular verse, Warren Wiersbe said, “What is God’s will? The salvation of lost souls. We can pray for ‘all men’ because it is God’s will that ‘all men’ come to the knowledge of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. God loved the world and Christ died for the whole world. Jesus died on the cross that He might draw ‘all men’ to salvation. This does not mean all people without exception, for certainly the whole world is not going to be saved. It means all people without distinction—Jews and Gentiles, black and white, rich and poor, religious and pagan. We do know that prayer is an important part of God’s program for reaching a lost world. We have the responsibility of praying for lost souls and making ourselves available to share the Gospel with others.”
In recent months, we have seen several legislative successes for the pro-life movement. These political battles have been accompanied by bitter and vociferous protests, demonstrations, boycotts, and condemnations on both sides. Some Christians who are concerned about America’s drift from godliness may be tempted to see laws restricting abortion as the main victory. Legal analysts believe these state-level victories are moving the country toward another Supreme Court battle that may very well end in the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And that is good — at least people who kill innocent unborn babies will be punished for their crime. And by the way, if Christians are not going to fight just as hard to overturn what the Supreme Court did under Obama regarding the governement sanctioning homosexuality and homosexual marriage which is sin that prevents babies coming into the world altogether, then that would make Christians hypocrites. So let’s not get the cart before the horse as th emodern church oftentimes does because the question has to be raised: truly, what real good is overturning abortion if the hearts and minds of those in the lost pro-choice/pro-abortion movement remain unsaved and unchanged? Without Jesus Christ in the hearts of people, the moral civil war in this country will continue and unborn babies will still be murdered in other ways. We can achieve great legal and political “victories” in this country — we can pass this law or get that man elected. But legal and political victories alone will not heal the fabric of this nation. It is no real victory for the Church or for Christians if we outlaw abortion but let the woman who has the abortion and the man who agreed to the abortion go to Hell. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ needs to focus on getting the Gospel to lost people and not just getting a law passed.
Our first prayer for those whom we consider political or ideological enemies ought to be that they would be saved (and unfortunately many Christians see lost people as the enemy because they listen to too much conservative talk radio and not what the Holy Bible says). We often make the error of assuming that their opposition to our Biblical views is something that prevents them from receiving the Gospel, when the problem most often is that we have simply failed to share the Gospel in a loving and effective way. If we present the Gospel, and they receive the Gospel, then we let Jesus do the hard work of transforming their hearts and minds so that they begin to live in alignment with Him. Jesus is the Truth, and we have the truth about the world as laid out in Scripture. Our society will not change until people “come unto the knowledge of the truth” — through a personal relationship with the Jesus Christ the way the truth and the life who will lead to an acceptance of the truth. And that can only happen if we start praying for all people to be saved.
Alfred Woodhull wrote:
Great God of nations, now to Thee
Our hymn of gratitude we raise;
With humble heart and bending knee
We offer Thee our song of praise.
Thy Name we bless, Almighty God,
For all the kindness Thou hast shown
To this fair land the pilgrims trod,
This land we fondly call our own.
Here freedom spreads her banner wide
And casts her soft and hallowed ray;
Here Thou our fathers’ steps didst guide
In safety through their dangerous way.
We praise Thee that the Gospel’s light
Through all our land its radiance sheds,
Dispels the shades of error’s night,
And heavenly blessings round us spreads.
Great God, preserve us in Thy fear;
In danger still our Guardian be;
O spread Thy truth’s bright precepts here;
Let all the people worship Thee.
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Now, if you are with us today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your first prayer needs to be what we call the Sinner’s Prayer. First, please understand that you are a sinner, just as I am, and that you have broken God’s laws. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”
Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Now this is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.
Romans 10:9 & 13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your Salvation today, please pray with me this simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.
If you just trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, I declare to you that based upon the Word of God, you are now saved from Hell and you are on your way to Heaven. Welcome to the family of God! Congratulations on trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. You have done the most important thing in life. For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
God loves you. We love you. And may God bless you.
Daniel Whyte III has spoken in meetings across the United States and in over twenty-five foreign countries. He is the author of over forty books including the Essence Magazine, Dallas Morning News, and Amazon.com national bestseller, Letters to Young Black Men. He is also the president of Gospel Light Society International, a worldwide evangelistic ministry that reaches thousands with the Gospel each week, as well as president of Torch Ministries International, a Christian literature ministry.
He is heard by thousands each week on his radio broadcasts/podcasts, which include: The Prayer Motivator Devotional, The Prayer Motivator Minute, as well as Gospel Light Minute X, the Gospel Light Minute, the Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message, the Prophet Daniel’s Report, the Second Coming Watch Update and the Soul-Winning Motivator, among others.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in Religion, a Master of Divinity degree, and a Master of Theology degree from Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity (formerly Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary). He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree.
He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.
BCNN1 WP 