A Warfare of Prayer (1 Timothy 2:1-7)

A try out again.

Good to see this morning. If you have your bible's

turned with me to First Timothy. We're in our study

through the Book of Timothy. Today's First Timothy, chapter two

is where we'll.

Begin this morning. It's good to be back with you.

I was with you last week, but we were just

coming back from our mission trip to Kenya, and so

I was a little bit jet lacked. So Tanor did

a wonderful job filling in for me. But it's good

to be back. I will say. It's just wonderful to

go on missions, and so thankful for our church that

believes in missions, believes in going and it was a

delight to.

Go and serve in Kenya.

And I encourage you to continue to pray for our

teams as we continue to think about other trips we're

leading in the future. Will Hawka we have for our

students this summer, and so we already planned a big trip.

I think twenty students are.

Around that to be going to Willhawko, Mexico this summer,

and we'll also be planning some other trips pretty soon

for you. So be praying about how you might go

with us. You know, as we went into Kenya. It's

the first time I've been to Kenya. I've been to Tanzania,

and I've been to some other countries, but this is

the first time i've.

Been in Kenya. And as we were kind of in there.

The first day, you're learning, you're kind of learning the

different people, the different things about that country. And one

of the things that we first got in we got

into our little city. We're staying in Harrow, and we

were going through a little dirt road and we're stopping

at a place where we're going to stay that night,

and I noticed these two ladies started walking down the street.

And I noticed these ladies were dressed very different. They

were all white. They had these all white dresses that

were from the top of the head to their bottom,

and there were long white dresses. And on their dresses,

right on their chest, they had this big red cross.

I sounds strange, and then just never seen that before.

Both of them had identical outfits. And then on their

head they had these.

Kind of I guess these bonnets, whatever you want to say.

And they were white too, and on the top of that,

in the center of that white bonnet was also a

red cross. And so I looked at our translator and

I said, what is this Why are they dressed that way?

And he said it's a cult. He said there's a

cult in this and he said, we call them the

Red Cross cult. Well, we think red Cross, we think

of red Cross, you know, give blood. This is not that.

This was some other type of Red Cross, and it's

a cult. And he started telling us a little bit

about that, and so and then periodically we just continued

to see every time you saw somebody a member of

this cult, if it was a man, he had a

hat and on that hat was a red Cross. And

if it was a lady, she also may have had

a hat on and it would have a Red Cross.

And so you'd begin seeing them everywhere.

And so he began telling us about this cold and

then he says, well, then there's another cult that branched

off of that. There's a leader from that cult that

went started his own colt and they're called such or such,

And so he began going through these different things, and

so suddenly we started realizing Kenya had a cult problem.

They really have a battle of false teaching all around them.

In the midst of trying to reach people for Christ.

You have a battle of false teaching that writes this

in the midst of Kenya, you know, and you look

at that and you think, you know, man, I hate

that to hear that for Kenya and all those opportunities

for the Gospel, all the needs there in Kenya for

the Gospel. Yet in the midst of that is false teaching.

But can I tell you today, whether you realize it

or not, we might not think we have that same

problem that can I tell you today there is a

war in America.

For false teaching.

Did you know I told you just a few weeks

ago on TikTok today that wicka is growing on social media.

Did you know also that we know that New Age.

Teachings of healing crystals and New Age thoughts are also

spreading throughout our country today. Do you not only know

that in our world today, false teaching is spreading on

social media, It's spreading throughout a world where whether it's

New Age thought or whether it's WICCA, but liberal theology

is also spreading in our world today. It is a

false teaching just as bad as wicka, just as bad

as New Age teaching. It's also as deadly is liberal theology.

Did you know.

There is a guy on TikTok. He's pretty popular on TikTok.

His name is Reverend doctor Caleb Lines and he is

the senior Minister of the University of Christian Church in

San Diego, California. He's also the co executive director of

the Center for a Progressive Christianity. And he makes his

fame from doing videos on TikTok about confronting things in

our world in saying what the Bible, what he believes

the Bible.

Let me give you an example.

He says, why this is one of the questions, this

is one of his most popular videos on TikTok today

is why does religious groups care about abortion? And in

his response, his answer is racism and he says that

even this is his solution to that question. He believes

the Bible teaches that even Mary gets got a choice

to choose her pregnancy. That's one of his most popular

videos online. It's liberal theology that's pushing throughout our world

to justify abortion through manipulating scripture.

To justify it.

Okay, I tell you that there is a war in

Kenya in false teaching, but there's a world right here

in America today against false teaching.

Can I tell you that war.

That's happening in Kendyana, a ward's happening today in false teaching,

was also a war that Paul fought in one Timothy Paul.

If you remember as we came to first Timothy, Paul

had been in prison in Rome and had been released there,

and he's making.

His way back through the churches.

He started Kree, and there he left Titus to lead

the church in Creede, and then he went to Ephesus,

where he spent three years in Ephesus, if you remember

as we walked through Acts, and there he left Timothy

to shepherd the church at Ephesus. From there, he left

Ephesus and he goes to Macedonia to visit all the churches.

And as he's visiting all these churches, he hears that

false teaching is growing in Ephesus, where Timothy is, and

so he writes First Timothy to lead Timothy to confront

the false teaching that's spreading in Ephesis. And so that's

the whole purpose of this letter. And so as we

come to chapter two, he's told Timothy this in chapter

one ten or just talking about last week, if you

look at verse eighteen. In First Timothy, Chapter one, he

says this charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child,

in accordance with the prophecy fervolously made about you, that

by them you may wage the good warfare. You know

what he's saying, Timothy, You're at war, and there's a

war against false teaching, and you've got to battle it.

And can I say to you today as he comes

to us, as he leads us to this passage, he

tells us we're in war, and he tells us to

wage a warfare against false teaching?

And how do we wage it? By prayer?

And this morning he leads Timothy of how he wages

against warfare of false teaching in prayer? Can I encourage

your church today? Do you recognize today, even in this community,

even in your community, maybe even in your home, maybe

in your schools, maybe at your workplace, false teaching is

at war around you?

Do you know there's a battle there around you?

And are you ready prepared for the battle that you

and I are going to face?

And how do we battle on that?

How do we war against those things?

What actions do you and I take?

Well, Timothy leads us, And how we are wage the

warfare against false teaching by prayer. Let's stand together and

let's read Paul's words to Timothy, and may as they

inspire Timothy, may they inspire us in our war against.

False teaching today.

The Bible says in One Timothy, chapter two, starting in

verse one, what we read.

Through verse seven.

First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions,

thanksgiving 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's pleasing in the sight of God, God,

our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and

to come to the knowledge of truth. There is one God,

and there is one mediator between God and man, the

man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.

And which is the testimony given at a proper time.

For this was this.

I was appointed to the preacher and apostle, and I'm

telling the truth that I'm not lying a teacher of

the gentiles and faith in truth. Let's pray together. Father,

we ask you today lead us.

Lord.

Sometimes we are oblivious to the war that's re waging

around us, Lord of the false teaching that is permeating

in our country. So Lord, I pray today we would

be on guard, we'd be prepared for battle. And Lord,

I pray that we would follow your instructions of how

we are to wage this warfare against false teaching. Lord,

lead us to the priority of prayer in the midst

of our battle. Help us be people of prayer, Help

us be a church of prayer. And Lord, I pray

that your word today would speak to our hearts, would

grip our hearts on our need Lord to seek you

and seek the salvation of others.

Lord, we love you. Lead us. Lord, I pray speak

through me. Lord. You know I'm broken. Lord, you know

I'm sinful.

Lord you know how I'm unworthy to be your messenger,

and I feel inadequate.

Lord to be what you've called me to be.

Say, Lord, I pray today that what I would speak

would not might be my words, my power, my might,

would be your power and your spirit. It would speak

through me, your messenger and your name. We pray, Amen,

you may be seated. How do we wage the warfare

against first false teaching? Paul begins, he gives us our instructions,

our first instructions as we battle this good warfare.

That he talks about.

In verse eighteen, he says, first of all, that first

of all tells us that what Paul is about to

say about prayer has everything to do with the warfare

he's talked about in the future. He says, first of all,

the first thing you to do. It's interesting in the

first chapter, Paul has been describing the battle that's been

taking place. He's been describing the false teachers. What is

false teaching and what is good teaching? What is false doctrine,

what is good doctrine. He's been doing, can compare and contrast.

And now chapter two he goes to the instructions of

what Timothy is to do as a pastor of the church,

what the church is to do against this battle. He says,

first of all, then and listen to what I said.

Listen to what Paul says. I urged that, And then

he lists four words for prayer. It's interesting as we

think about how we pray, in different ways that we pray.

There's all kinds of different things that we do in prayer,

different ways that we pray, and Paul puts these all together.

In chapter verse one of chapter.

Two, he says, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings. Supplications is

just a general request of God. These are things that

we ask of God, request that we make of God.

Maybe supplication of the word would be requests. It's just

a general word for a request that.

We make to God.

Prayers or is this a general world for prayer? This

is the idea that we we take time to pray

to God.

We offer prayers to the Lord.

Intercessions is the idea of we're interceding on behalf of something.

If you remember Abraham, you remember praying for Lot. Lot

had come into trouble and they were in a dangerous land,

and God was going to bring judgment against a Lot

and his wife.

And and what did what Abram do?

He went before God and he interceded on behalf of Lot.

What is the idea?

He understood that God had the power, right, so he

went to the one who had the power and interceded

that God would not what smite Lot.

In his family?

Right, that's the end. That's the idea of intercessions. Did

the idea of intercession as we're going to God who

has the power to change the circumstances of our life

the circumstances of the life of others, and we're interceding

that God might move on behalf of our life, on

behalf of others. The last term for prayers thanksgiving. The

idea of thanksgiving is is that the idea that we

go to the Lord with thanksgiving on a heart, gratitude

on a heart for what God has done to us.

It's different ways that we are to pray. You are

to pray.

Generally, we're pray supplications, will give requests. We are to

intercede on behalf of others. And lastly we should spend

time thanking God for.

The things that He's done in our life. That's part

of prayer.

But look at that in this past of scripture, Paul

says that we are to use these forms of prayer

to do what to battle against false teaching. That is

one of the tools that God has given you and

I and our war against false teaching is that we

are to pray. You know, it's interesting that this last

few weeks, when just for you on a mission trip,

I tell you one thing that you may not know

that we do is we kind of load up on medicine.

There's all kinds of things that's there that you have

to take that maybe we don't have in America. So

we go to the doctor and we say, hey, this

is where we're going, and he'll tell you this is

what you need to take. And one of the things

that prevalent and Kenya is malaria, and so we have

to go and there's some even mosquitoes have gotten immune

to some of them malaria medicines.

Who they'll tell you this is a malaria you take and.

Medicine you take, and now you imagine that's that's a disease.

Right.

The malaria is a disease that's happened in our world.

But there's a cure in some medicine and it's called

the one I forgot. I think Mefricklin was the one

that I take. But you know, malarias of sickness is

a disease passed on my mosquitoes. But you know, advil

won't cure it, right, talln On won't fix it. Zertech

won't cure it. There's a particular medicine that's been given

to cure malaria. Now imagine I said, you know what

it's really not that bad. It's just in the media.

It's just people talking about it. I've never I've never

met anybody have malaria. You know, they're just trying to

scare me.

You know. The doctor, he doesn't know anything.

I know, he got he got his PhD and all

that stuff, but you know, he don't really know anything.

He's never handled he's never had malariy himself. So I

tell you what, I'm not gonna take it.

I'm not gonna listen to him.

I'm gonna go I'm gonna take my own chance.

And I'll be okay.

And basically what I'm saying is, it's not really there's

really a danger, and really I don't really need the cure.

I'm strong enough to resist the danger that's ahead, and

I can handle it on my own, and I don't

really need a cure. Listen, many times I tell you

that because many times when we think about false teaching,

we think about it and we think, that's not really

a big deal. It's not really a big deal in America.

It's not really a big deal to my family. And no,

they't they won't fall for that. No, no, no, it's

not really a big deal. In our in our community,

that people are not falling for these these crazy things

like WICCA and this liberal theot, that people are not

giving anything. We don't we don't really need.

To pray about it.

And I always saying to you and I listen, God

has given you a cure. God's given you something that

has power to defeat the endemy of false teaching, and

that's prayer. And listen, you cannot you cannot overcome the

disease and the cancer and the deadly nature of false

teaching without prayer. You've got to be on your knees

before God. And you've got to use every prayer that's

at your dismensal. If it's prayer, if it's intercessions, if

it's thanksgiving, it's supplication. You've got to use all your

resources of prayer to get on your knees before God.

And said, God, we need your help against this. Have

you thought about that for your family?

How do you pray that God would protect your family

from false teaching? He said, it won't happen to me.

I tell you, we need to be on our knees

before the Lord and the prayer against false teaching that's

coming in our world. That God would protect our homes,

that God would protect our church, that God would protect

our o, that God would protect our family members, God

would protect our neighbors. We've got to be on our

knees before the Lord. God has given us a solution.

God has given us the cure and his his prayer,

and we must be on our knees before the Lord

about these things. Listen only, He tells us he gives

us a cure, and that is prayer, and he calls

us to use all the reasons of our prayer to pray.

But then he goes further. He tells us how we

are to pray. Listen away.

He says, first of all, our urge you that supplications, prayers, intercessions,

and thanksgivings be made for listening to this.

For who, for all people, for all people.

You know, when you pray, you are to pray that

God would protect your family from false teaching. I would

prepare our church for false teaching, our academy for false teaching,

our schools, our workplaces, on and on and on. But

God only tells us.

That we are to pray. But God, we are to

pray for all people.

Don't know what you think about just for a minute,

as you begin this morning, you think about false teaching.

You thinkin about the false teachers. This pastor I just told.

You his name. I forgot his name already. You probably

did too.

You can go back and watch it online and catch

it later. But you may be thinking about him, and

you may think about those false teachers, other false teachers

you may know of, maybe liberal theologians, whatever it may be.

Have you ever thought about when you pray? I want

you to think about five people you've been praying for.

Just think about five people right now, your a prayer

sheet that you've been praying for daily.

Think about those five people. Who are they.

Most time, if we think about them, it's probably our spouse,

our children, made, some grandchildren, neighbor that's.

Sick, co worker, it's sick.

But then those five people you regularly pray for, where's

that liberal theologian? Where's that enemy it seems to be

every time you talk to them about the Lord, they

push you away. Where's that person that seems to be

opposing the very things that you stand for? You? So,

when Paul tells us us to pray for the for

the against false teaching and wages the war against false teaching.

He's telling us to pray for everyone. That includes our enemies,

that includes the false teachers.

We're to pray for all people.

I want you to notice that Paul even digs into

this a little bit, and he says this. He describes

a little bit and verse two describing who these all

people for kings, for all who are in high positions,

that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life for

all people.

The people.

He lists kings here. If you think about kings that

he uses the term in this passage scripture for those

who are in high position. High position here is another term.

Maybe use authority, those who have authority. He refers to emperors, officials,

local magistrates.

Think about it.

We pray for our president. Some of you may not

like our president. It doesn't matter if you like him

or not. God's calls you to pray for him. You

may not like our governor. You may see him as

an enemy to our state, may not like him, but

God calls you to pray for him. God calls you

to pray for our mayor. You pray for him or

do you pray for those who align to your political.

Bent?

To pray for all people, all your leaders, those that

you like, those that you don't like. You pray for

your You're to pray for those leaders. You're to pray

for your false teacher, the false teachers in your world.

You pray for your enemies, you pray for all people.

And that's how we wage the war against false teaching.

I wonder today as you think about your battle. Listen,

sometimes I think there's a fallacy in all the church today,

and one of the fallacies is that the false teaching,

the battle false teaching is the preacher's job. Well, that's

what he does. But he's preaching. He preaches truth, and

that's what we do as a church. We believe in church,

we make statements of faith that we put in our

constitution by laws that we believe these certain things. And

if we have a good, strong preacher that believes the

word of God, we have a good constitution to believe

the word of God. We're okay, we're imw to false teaching.

But listen, the battles with me, but the battles with

you as well.

You're gonna battle in your home when it's a student

of yours, a grandchild or a child that comes to

you and says Hey, I've been thinking about this. I

heard this on TikTok. What do you think about this?

Or or you know what, I don't know that I

really believe the Bible is true. Maybe there is some

things that are not true in the Bible. You're gonna

battle these things and it's going to come to your home,

and so you've gotten to be prepared from the very

beginning that I'm gonna pray and now all of them,

I'm gonna pray, but I'm gonna pray for my leaders.

I'm gonna pray for those enemies. I'm gonna pray for

all those people that oppose I believe that's how I battle.

I've got to battle in prayer. Listen, we wage the warfare.

It gets false teaching by praying, and we do that

by praying for all people. How are you praying for

your leaders? How do you pray for our president? How

do you pray for our governor? How do you pray

for our mayor? How do you pray for the enemies?

Listen?

The next part of this, Paul describes why we are

to pray. He explains really the reasoning by why we

pray and why we pray for all people, and that

is we pray by conviction. That's the way it says

for all kings and verse two, and all who are

in high position listen to this, that we may lead

a peaceful and quiet life. Hey, listen, when you pray,

you are to pray for as prayers. One of the

cures that God gave you or geinst false teaching, is

to pray. You to pray for all people, your enemy,

your leaders, false teachers. You're to pray for all of them.

But lastly, you're to pray with conviction. In your first

conviction of what you pray for and why we are

to pray that we are prayed for peace.

We pray for godliness. He describes here listen to this.

That we may Paul talking about we there we is

the church, that we as a church may lead a

peaceful and quiet life. You know, why do you pray?

Why do you pray for the president? Why do you

pray for the leaders? Why do you pray for the governor?

Why do you pray for the mayor? Why do you

pray for these leaders, those who are an authority. One

of the reasons why you pray for them is you

pray because God has given them authority to be able

to lead our country, our state, in our city, that

we pray that God would help lead them to allow

you and I to worship freely.

Do you know today Iran.

It has a government that's in charge that right now

is outlawing Christianity. There's there's peaceful protests that happening Irn

because of the election and the government itself is killing Christians.

Story I just read this week.

There's one newspaper that's coming out with articles about what's

happening to the Christians there. There's one Christian that was killed,

and he was killed from his family, and they took

the body and kept the body away from the family

for three weeks.

There's government.

By the way, the government kept the body away from

the family for three weeks.

They finally they beheaded them.

I believe they finally decided after three weeks they were.

Going to give the family the body.

You know what they under the stipulation of this, they

would black out the internet and black out power for

a few days to stop.

Them from having a memorial service.

That's a government who is in control and who is

silencing the Christians in the country. You see that gives

us the understanding that there are those who are in

power who have the ability to allow us to worship

freely that who do not, And we need to pray

that our leaders continue to allow us to have to

worship freely and allow us to continue to exercise religious liberty.

Something is very important.

When you pray, God, pray that you continue to allow

our president, our governor, our mayor to allow us to

worship freely in this sanctuary we have today, God, Thank

the Lord that God's allow us to live here opposed

to places like Iran today. So when we pray, we

pray that God will allow us to worship in peace,

but also it's also a pray that we will exhibit peace.

I want you to understand today one of the issues

that Paul is praying about is is describing in this

passage of Scripture is that the Christians and the Church

should be people of what peace in godliness, And the

opposite of that was the false teachers at the time

who are actually we're not bringing peace, but actually we're

bringing chaos into Ephesus, actually bringing turnmbul. We saw this

in Acts and I won't go into it, but if

just very quickly, if you want to go do some

research on your there's a Priscillian Equila, if you remember,

they were ran out of Rome. Why because there was

animosity between the Jews and the Christians and their battle

and so much. The Roman governor says, no more Christians

in Rome, and he he made all the Christians leave

and Priscilla Aquilla had to leave Rome because of it.

Claudius Well, I believe, was the emperor at the time

who made that happen. And he's he's knowing, these people

are creating this conflict in Ephesus, and if it doesn't stop,

then the leader of Ephesus may run out the Christians

out of Ephesus. But the false teachers are creating this

chaos in the city. He's saying, listen, the false teachers

may create chaos, they may create disruption, but we as

a church need to pray that God allow us to

worship in peace, but also that we might demonstrate peace godliness.

You know, just a few months, just a few months ago,

I think last month right in our own country, Minnesota,

a church, right in church service like this, protesters came

into service.

And what did that cost?

Disruption and chaos confront of church members in their faces

right confront of the pastor as who standing in the pulpit.

That is the idea of false teachers.

Right. It's not peace, it's chaos.

And he's saying, listen, we are to pray that we

might worship peaceful but we listen, we are to be

people a church that demonstrates peace and godliness, not chaos

and disruption, and we do that by praying. I think

it's very important for us to think about when we pray.

We are pray that God may worship his peace, but

we've got to be people who demonstrate that peace and godliness.

You also have to think.

For these false teachers, their lives who are demonstrated not godly.

Lives or ungodly lives.

And he says, we must be people that pray and

we demonstrate peace, and we demonstrate godliness as we are.

Another reason we are to pray, he says in these

this passage of scripture, listen, verse three, he says, this

is good.

What is this is praying?

Praying is good and it's pleasing in the sight of God,

our savior. Listen, do you know when you pray and

you pray for the false teachers and you pray for

your leaders. You pray for the unbelievers. It pleases God.

It pleases God.

When you lived a peaceful and godly life pleases God.

Not only is it please God, but listen another thing

that pleases God. Listen to this.

This is good and it pleases God.

In the side of God, our savior, who desires all

people to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.

Do you know that They're one of the reasons we

are to pray. We are to pray because for peace

and godliness. We are pray for the salvation of all people.

People.

You know, that's what God desires, is that all people

be saved, even your enemy, even those protesters that came

into the church a few months ago. God wants everyone

in them to be saved. To the false teacher, this

liberal theologian, progressive theologian that puts things on tiktoks, God

wants him to be saved. And when we pray for them,

we should pray that we should worship in peace and godness,

but we should pray that they get saved because God

desires for them to be saved, just like God desires

you to be saved. And that's the heart of this passage.

I love that even so much so. Paul, in this

passage of Scripture, he says, this is good and it's

pleasing the side of God. Our Savior desires all people

to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. Listen,

they are believing a lie, they're believing false teaching, and listen.

God wants them to know him, but he wants them

to know the truth.

Listen.

That should be our heart is when we pray, as

we pray for godliness and peace, but we pray for

their salvation.

We pray for the salvation of others.

Paul in this passage of scripture, to demonstrate just God's

desire to all people who say to be saved, he

really describes who God is in theological terms. It's just

God's identity. Who God is, what is his character, what

is his nature? And he describes God. He describes Jesus

in this. So he describes this. Listen to this, for

there is one God. First, he describes God, and he

describes God as one God. There's only one God, and

he's one God over all people.

You think about that.

As we meet the folks from Kenyon, and we have

these people who are worshiping this Red Cross cult. And

I don't know what all they believe about God, but

I can't tell you.

There's only one God.

Know Muslims there in Kenya, there's Muslims all over our world.

There's Hindus whatever it may be, and they may be

worshiping other gods.

But in the end, there's only one true God.

What Jesus says, I'm the Way, the Truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but by me.

There's only one God.

There's not another God. There's not another way. He's only

one God. You know, as we all die and we

stand before God one day, we're not going to stand

before Buddha. We're not going to stand before Mohammed. We're

not going to stand with some false teacher. We're going

to stand before that one God. And whether false teachers

understand that, recognize that or not, that is truth. That

is who he is. But listen to what scripture says

Paul Knowledge scribes there's not one God. But listen, there's

one mediator between God and man. The word mediator here

we think about a lawyer mediating between a judge and

you know, a person that this is really the term

would better be made be described as a negotiator. You know,

when we get to Kenya, I know like a few

words in Swahili, like jombo. Right, I could say a

Santa sana which means thank you very much, or.

I could say welcome. I could say a few words.

But then it's so funny because I'll go and I

know my few words. I'll like Johnbo, John Alongay, Jonathan.

I'll say my name and they're like, oh, he knows Swahili,

and so they'll be spatting off Austin and I'm just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

You know Johmbo again. You know, that's all I got,

you know.

And so because of there's language barrier, barrier, and we

were in a particular area they speak a lola I

think was Luo and so, which is another tribal language.

And I had no idea of any.

Of that because there's like a you know, a language

barrier there. We have a translator, right, you know, imagine

when we have the translator, we go into this little

village and we're going to meet the local Kenyons in

that area, and a hero when I go up to

them and I speak to them I speaking in English.

They have no idea what I'm saying right. So I

had to have a negotiator. We call him a translator

who would take what I said right and go to

the one who needed to hear right and negotiate on

my behalf. Without him, I would never be able to

communicate without with those kenyons right, And this kenyon is

not with me.

That's the imagery of this passage scripture.

You see, there's one God, and there's no way you

and I can be reconciled to this one God without

a mediator, without a negotiator.

And who is that negotiator. His name is Jesus.

And he takes to you and I, simple man who

have no way to communicate to a holy God.

And he goes to God and negotiates salvation for you

and I.

The scripture says, not only this, there's one negotiator and

his name is Jesus. But listen to this passive scripture

as it finishes. Here there's one God, there's one mediator

between God and man, Christ Jesus. And that negotiator gave

himself as a ransom for all, which is a testimony

given at a proper time. The good news is the

gospel is there is one God and there's only one

negotiator's only one media, and his name is Jesus, and

that Jesus died on a cross to reconcile sinful man

to God himself. And that's the good news of the gospel.

Why did God do that? Why did Jesus do that?

Because he paid the ransom to the idea is that

you paid the price for the sin of man.

Did you know Jesus paid.

The price of your sin so that you can might

be reconciled to God.

And the good news is Jesus did that. Why that all.

People could be saved, all people, from the liberal theologian

to the man in Africa who's not yet heard.

God died on the cross.

Jesus died on the cross to reconcile.

All man to himself. And the desires all men to

be saved. That's God's desire.

It's why God provided salvation, is that people would come

to know the Lord. So when we pray, pray with

conviction that God wants us to live peaceful and godly

lives and he wants all people to be saved, even

our enemies.

And so we're to pray for them.

You know, I got a few things I want to

show you. When you go on a mister trip, you

got to have a little bag and you got to

carry all kinds of stuff, and I brought my little

back here.

I'll show it to you. So you got to pack,

You got to be ready. You got to be prepared because.

You don't know what you're going to face when you

get to Kenya. Now, when we got to Kenya, we

were going to be building houses, and so we took

a hammer. It's a much better hammer than this. I

left it in Kenya, so this is not the hammer.

You had to take a hammer because we're gonna be

building houses and you can't build houses without hammer. So

we took a hammer. So that was important for me

to be on my little bag. When you get to Kenya,

it's high and it's pretty close to the equator.

So this is your friend. Right.

If you don't have sunscreen, you're gonna get burnt.

And so this was a necessity when you're in Kenya.

When you're in Kenya, it's important that you take some

little things that you think might be a little simple.

But you need to take a spoon because Kenyas eat

with their hands. Well, Americans are not quite used to that.

So I had me a little spoon in my bag

just in case we got somewhere and they didn't have one.

Have a spoon. That's important, but you know, you may

not know it.

And I didn't quite know when I got there what

kind of battle we were gonna face. Yeah, we're gonna

work and were I was gonna battle some some pretty

intense sunrays. I'm not gonna be hungry. They fed me

really well, so that wasn't a battle I face. But

every night in my room there were probably thirty or

forty mosquitoes swarming.

You think I'm joking. I am not joking.

You slept with this and I already told you Malarry

is prevalent, right, you sleep with this mosquito in that

around you. And I shared a room with Devon and

never were about to go to dead And you hear

Devin over here clapping.

You think he's clapping this O.

No, No, he's trying to kill the mosquitos that's in

his net. So he's you know, he's trying to get

him everywhere. And so we wake up in the middle

of the night. We wake up in the morning and

we have a fan in our room and there is

a slaughter house of mosquitoes, probably thirty or thirty dead mosquitos.

All over for we think the fan got him. I

don't know.

So with the battle of mosquitoes that you fight every night, listen,

you better you better have some off deed. I'm just

telling you because you're going to war with mosquitos and

you need to have this.

Listen.

I want you to hear this when you go and

you're going to the battle of mosquitoes. You're not taking

a hammer, right, because you're gonna get hurt if you do. Listen,

the sunscreen, it can't fight against the mosquitoes, right, the spoon,

you don't take a spoon in your battle against mosquitos.

Right. You've got to have the right stuff. Listen.

In your battle against false teaching, you can't take the

wrong thing. God's given you a tool and your battle

against fault teaching against prayer. And you may say, I

don't need prayer, I don't need to do this. It's

not the big issue in my life.

Listen.

God has told you and I today through his word,

through the messenger of Paul, that there's a war raging

of false teaching, and God's given us a tool in

our war, and that's prayer. And we need to be

people of pray, people of prayer, a church of prayer

who prays for all people. We need people who pray

for all people, our leaders, our enemies, the people in

our family, our church, our school. And we need to

be people who pray that God might use us to

demonstrate what it means to live peaceful in godly lives.

And we need to be people of prayer that pray.

That God would say all people, even our enemies. So today,

would you arm yourself in prayer? Would you pray with me?

Father? We thank you Lord for this morning. God. I

thank you Lord for your word. God. So many times, Lord, we.

Go against battle and we are defenseless because we've never Lord,

we've never went to you in prayer.

We may.

Try to battle through thought or debate, but Lord, we

must be armed by prayer. Say, Lord, help us today

be people that takes prayer seriously. That we would be

people of prayer. We'd be a church of prayer.

Lord.

We thank you Lord today that you know our hearts,

you know our needs. Lord, I pray today there's someone

here today that knows a loved one, a coworker, and

aabor or friend has been swept away today by false teaching. Lord,

I pray today that they would, Lord, go to you

on their behalf. They were interceved for that individual. R

I pray that we'd be a church today will prepare.

Pray that you will protect us from the false teaching

in our world.

Lord.

I pray today that we pray for the salvation of

our leaders, in our country, in our state, and our community.

God.

I pray that Lord, you help us be people that

demonstrate what it means to be peaceful in godly lives.

Lord, May you give us a heart.

That wants to see all people save, just as you do, Lord,

and may you send us as messengers for that cause.

Lord.

Lord, we love you. We thank you Lord for today.

We thank you Lord for your word. Lead us now

to respond in your name. We pray, Amen and all

to him.