This sermon focuses on the importance of prayer, specifically interceding for kings and nations, to align with God's will and bring about His kingdom on earth. It delves into the concept of bridging the gap between God's desires and the current state of the world through the prayers of believers, emphasizing the active role God plays in human affairs. The message highlights the power of prayer in partnering with God to fulfill His purposes and bring about His will on earth.

Lord I pray for your guidance and your wisdom as we go into the Word of God now and seek your guidance and the leading of your Holy Spirit concerning these truths. I pray that you would open the eyes of our heart, the eyes of our understanding, that we would discern what your Spirit desires to teach us. We thank you and we praise you for your Word and for your Holy Spirit who leads us into a deeper revelation of Christ. May he be increased as everything else is decreased. We bless you and we thank you. We praise you in the mighty name of Amen. Let's return back to 1st Timothy, 1st Timothy chapter 2. I want to go back to a scripture that we covered previously to dig down into this a little bit more deeply with respect to what it means to pray for kings. So you could call this message, Pray for Kings, and we'll begin reading in 1st Timothy chapter 2 here very shortly. It's been in my heart for some time, a burden of the Lord, to share with you some spiritual truths concerning intercession, not personal intercession for personal needs but intercession on the level of praying for the nations and for the purposes of God to be fulfilled in the earth. That has been the motivation behind the messages previously concerning God's heart and his desire, his will, his purpose, his intention that all men would be saved and would come to the full knowledge of the truth. Then we saw that God's promise is to pour out his spirit upon all flesh on believers for the purpose of equipping them, of strengthening them, of empowering them with spiritual gifts, and also on unbelievers to pour out his spirit upon all flesh would include unbelievers as well but for the purpose of convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, Jesus said. But we go back to 1st Timothy chapter 2 now as we consider that aspect of that verse that talks about praying for kings. I want to present to you a point of view that has to do with our calling to pray and to intercede on a daily basis for the kingdom of God and for the will of God to be fulfilled, accomplished, manifest in the earth. Jesus says to pray your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now we don't pray for things that are already accomplished. Scripture says that we don't hope for something that we have, we hope for something that we don't have, so in that sense, we understand that the kingdom of God is yet to come, even though we have certainly received the essence of the kingdom of God when we received Christ. I believe that the kingdom of God exists wherever Christ has the preeminence, and so if he has the preeminence in you, if you've made Jesus your Lord and your Savior, you've acknowledged his lordship and his saviorship over you personally, then you can say to one extent that the kingdom of God has come, it's come in you, but in another extent, certainly we can't say that the kingdom of God has come in its fullness, and that's why Jesus had us to pray on a daily basis, your kingdom come. In the same way, we see that many things exist in the world contrary to God's will. We've already covered how God wills, God desires that all men would be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He's not willing, it says in 1st Peter, that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and yet we see that apparently not everybody comes to repentance, at least not in a way that we can see or acknowledge. So again, we are praying your kingdom come, your will be done precisely because the kingdom has not come in its fullness. There's still a revelation, a fuller revelation of the kingdom that must come, and Scripture says that in the meantime, the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain, waiting for this manifestation of the sons of God. We ourselves, it says, are groaning within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of our body, waiting for a new body. So my point is that there are still things that must be fulfilled in the future tense to be able to say that the kingdom of God has fully come. In the same way, there are still some things yet undone that need to be accomplished and need to be fulfilled before we can say that the will of God has been perfectly done, has been perfectly accomplished. Why is that important? Because there are two views of the world, and I want to share both of those views with you and get you to think about which view of the world do you have. There's one view called deism that believes that God or some deity created the earth many millennia ago, and after the Creator created the earth and essentially got the ball running or got the ball rolling, that he then abandoned his creation, or to state it differently, is standing back and watching what he created, but essentially lets it run and do whatever it wants to do. This is the view that says that God pretty much lets things run its own course, and the best I can grasp of this view is that it's primarily held by those who are struggling with the idea of why evil exists. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the wicked prosper? And so deism sounds very attractive if you're trying to answer the question, why does evil exist? If God is good, why do the wicked prosper? Why do bad things happen to good people? And if you take the view that God created all things, but then he stood back he gave everything over to man, and now man is free to do whatever he chooses to do with it, and God is not actively involved in world affairs, he's not actively involved in history, that would answer the question of why does evil exist. From this point of view of deism, evil exists because God has abandoned the world and it's up to man. He's left everything totally in the realm of men for better or for worse. So essentially we are on our own in the universe, that's the way deism approaches it. Well it sounds attractive to a certain degree in the sense that it at least answers the question of why does evil exist? Why do bad things happen to good people? But there's another view of the world that's a little more scriptural. In fact, deism is not scriptural at all, because we see in Scripture evidence that God did not just act to create the world, and then he just let the world kind of go on its own course and he took no further action, no further intervention on his part, no further assistance or help or aid or direction or guidance. God simply wound up the clock, if you will, and then left it to tick all by itself. He just set everything into perpetual motion and it's running without him. That's not scriptural. The scriptural view, I believe, is best categorized under the viewpoint of theism, which states that God created the world and that God is actively participating. He is personally involved in what's going on in the world, and so that still does not satisfactorily answer the question as to evil exists, but Scripture does answer that question for us with other Scripture. So if you're holding to the view that God set everything in motion and then he took a big step back and that's why evil exists, there are better ways of answering the problem of why evil exists than to believe that God's not actively involved in the earth anymore, that he's not actively involved in history, because actually in Scripture we see quite the opposite. We see that God is active, he does intervene, he does respond, he does act, he answers prayer, and that's the facet of God's intervention into human history and into the world that I want to explore with you in this message. On June 28, 1787, a man by the name of Benjamin Franklin arose at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia when the United States was just a young country and had only recently won its independence from Britain. And Benjamin Franklin didn't claim to be a real spiritual person. In fact, a lot of people believe that he was agnostic at best, didn't claim to be a very religious person, but perhaps that changed later on as he grew older and even more wiser. But he made this statement to the delegates there in that Constitutional Convention in 1787. He says, in the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. He says, our prayers, sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us were engaged in the struggle. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend or do we imagine we no longer need his assistance? Benjamin Franklin goes on to say, I have lived, sir, a long time and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our partial local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and byword down to future ages. Franklin concludes by saying this, I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service. Well that's just a little history from the United States and also quite prophetic as Franklin perceived that without the assistance of heaven that our country would quickly be torn apart by local interest and by politics and that's exactly what we see happening in this country today as well as in countries around the world. So Benjamin Franklin made a good point that God governs in the affairs of men. God governs in the affairs of men. So the question is if God does govern in the affairs of men and that's the view of the world that we hold to and that is the scriptural perspective, why does evil exist? Why does evil exist if God is governing in the affairs of men? Some would say he isn't doing a very good job of it and it's almost as if they believe that for if God were totally in charge of the world and God was really governing in the affairs of men then we would have peace on earth and heaven on earth. So why is it that evil exists if God governs the affairs of men and the short answer to that we've already alluded to by looking at the Lord's Prayer. Many things contrary to God's will are allowed to exist temporarily. That's the key. Many things contrary to God's will are allowed to exist temporarily but that does not mean that God has abandoned us to evil. It doesn't mean that he has given up on his creation. It doesn't mean that his arm is too short to save. It doesn't mean that his eyes do not see or that his ears do not hear. Nor does it mean that evil is more powerful than God and I believe also it does not mean that man is more powerful than God. It simply means that there is a gap. There is a distance, a gap, a gulf between what God wants and how things are. What God wants is his will and so we are praying your will be done specifically because his will is not always done. Ultimately I believe his will will be done but in the short term, in the meantime, in the dimension of time and space that you and I live in, the place that we occupy here on the earth, we do not yet see all things submitted to him. It says in Hebrews chapter 2, we do not yet see the key word there being yet which is so amazing because that word yet implies that one day we will see all things submitted to him. But the point is that Jesus is Lord whether all things are submitted to him now or not, because we are coming to the end of the age when Scripture says that every knee will bow of things in heaven, earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Yet we do not see all things submitted to him in the present moment. So there is a gap between what God wants and what is allowed to exist right now temporarily. Now the question is, how do we bridge that gap? How can we close that space between what God wants and what actually is going on in the earth? And the answer I believe is that that gap is bridged by the prayers and intercessions of the saints. It's up to you and it's up to me to close that gap, to stand in the gap, to bridge the distance between what God wants, his will, and the reality that you and I are confronted with in the world that we live in where we do not yet see all things submitted to him. I believe that gap is bridged by the prayers of the saints. And this is what I wrote in one of my articles online, that God has decided that he will not act apart from the prayers of the saints. We know that apart from him we can do nothing. We also need to know that apart from us, God will do nothing. So he bids us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God is concerned for the earth and he calls upon us to join together with him in bringing his will to pass. Towards what end are we praying? We're praying that God's kingdom and God's will would be manifest in the earth. In heaven, God's will and God's kingdom are already established. It says in Psalms 119.89 that forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. But you see, it's not quite settled here on the earth yet. That's where you and I come in. Even though God has placed everything beneath the feet of Jesus Christ here on in the earth, we do not yet see all things submitted to him. Hebrews 2.8. So there is a chasm that exists between God's stated purpose of gathering together in one all things in Christ and life on earth as it is today where many things are unsubmitted to Christ and they have yet to be gathered together in one in Christ. And that's why I believe that prayer is so important. Watchman Nee said, if anyone will rise up and devote himself to the work of prayer exclusively, how excellent that will be. God is waiting for such ones to work together with him so as to enable him to finish his work. Some Christians may ask why the Lord does not save more sinners, why he does not cause every believer to overcome. I sincerely believe that he would undoubtedly do such works if people would only pray. That's one of my favorite quotes from Watchman Nee on the power of prayer. He calls it the executive privilege of the church to be able to join together with God to pray for his kingdom and for his will to be accomplished here in the earth. Now we could get into why does he want us to cooperate with him, why doesn't he just do what he wants to do, but that's a topic for another message. The fact of the matter is that God has decided to limit himself to the extent that we will cooperate with him, join together, and pray for his will to be done and for his kingdom to come, his purpose to be fulfilled in the earth. You've been listening to Crosswind, featuring the teaching ministry of Jeff Brogdon. We hope you enjoyed today's broadcast and found it challenging and encouraging. If you'd like to find out more about the School of Christ and how to get additional teachings, audio recordings, books, and other Christ-centered resources to help you grow spiritually, visit us online at www.theschoolofchrist.org