The Anatomy of Answered Prayer: Six Principles from Daniel

• Prayer [00:20:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor establishes Daniel as a 'man of prayer' who navigated life's storms through prayer, emphasizing that prayer is vital and should undergird all actions.
• Scripture Study [00:26:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor highlights that Daniel's prayer was motivated by studying the Word of God (Jeremiah), noting that Daniel believed Jeremiah's prophecy was the 'Word of the Lord.'
• Perseverance in Prayer [00:24:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the feeling of 'talking to a wall' with the reality of Daniel's 'interrupted prayer' which was answered by God before it was finished, encouraging believers to emulate this persistence.
• Biblical Interpretation and Prophecy [00:26:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains Daniel's literal interpretation of Jeremiah's prophecy regarding the 70-year captivity, contrasting it with spiritualization.
• The Purpose of Fasting and Sabbath [00:29:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > An explanation of why the 70-year captivity occurred (stolen sabbatical years) and the true biblical purpose of fasting as a means to concentrate on God, not to impress Him.
• The Relationship Between Scripture and Prayer [00:32:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The argument that reading God's Word should generate and direct prayer, using analogies like 'liquid metal' and 'homing pigeons' to illustrate how Scripture molds our petitions.
• Humility and Fervency in Prayer [00:37:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analysis of Daniel's prayer posture (sackcloth, ashes, fasting, setting his face) as evidence of true spiritual humility and passion, citing John Owen.
• Passionate Prayer [00:38:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that Daniel prayed out loud and loudly, using sackcloth and fasting not to impress God, but to concentrate on Him, setting an example for humble and fervent prayer.
• Worship and Magnifying God [00:43:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies the third trait of Daniel's prayer as magnifying the Lord, noting that prayer is primarily about God's attributes and honor rather than human needs.
• Corporate Confession of Sin [00:45:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor highlights that the fourth feature is confession, emphasizing Daniel's use of 'we' and 'us' to include himself and the nation in sin, avoiding self-justification.
• Confession of Sin [00:50:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that we must 'undeceive' ourselves by reading the Bible and confessing sin, using Daniel as an example of a godly man who still confessed national and personal sin.
• Awareness of Sinfulness [00:51:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > Explains the paradox that those closest to God are most conscious of their own sinfulness, illustrated by the story of Alexander White.
• Definition of Sin [00:52:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > Breaks down Hebrew terms for sin (sinned, iniquities, wickedly, rebelled, etc.) to show the progression from missing the target to outright revolt.
• God's Mercy and Forgiveness [00:53:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > Emphasizes that despite sin, God is gracious and merciful, citing 1 John 1:9 and defining confession as agreeing with God about our sin.
• Overcoming Shame [00:55:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > Addresses the shame associated with sin and encourages believers to bring their shame to Jesus, who washes it away through His mercy.
• Prayer as Request [00:57:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > Defines prayer as asking God for something, moving from confession to making requests, illustrated by the metaphor of prayer as a 'slender nerve' moving God's hand.
• Prayer for God's Glory [00:59:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > Argues that the ultimate motive for prayer and living is to vindicate God's reputation and bring Him glory, not for human merit.
• Divine Response to Prayer [01:01:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > Notes that God responds quickly to prayer, citing Daniel's interrupted prayer and Gabriel's immediate arrival, illustrating that heaven is near.
• Divine Immediacy in Prayer [01:01:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that God answers prayers immediately, citing Daniel's experience where Gabriel arrived while Daniel was still praying, illustrating that heaven is not far away.
• Faith Building through Interrupted Prayer [01:02:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about buying a house, where God answered his prayer for a specific price via a phone call from the builder, serving as a lasting faith builder.
• The Priority and Nature of Prayer [01:05:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that prayer is the most important activity, stating that one cannot do more than pray until they have prayed, and calls for passionate, humble, and Word-motivated prayer.
• Corporate and Personal Spiritual Progress [01:06:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the metaphor 'going forward on our knees,' the pastor applies the necessity of prayer to marriage, family, business, church, and the nation.

• Sermon Illustration [00:19:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > A seasoned mariner navigated a perilous storm and noted that the Lord heard the voices of many strangers that night, which the pastor uses to suggest God is hearing the prayers of people in the current chaotic climate.
• Sermon Illustration [00:23:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > A young reporter in Israel interviewed an old man who had prayed at the Wailing Wall for 50 years for peace between Jews and Arabs; when asked how he felt, he replied, 'like I'm talking to a wall,' illustrating the feeling of unanswered prayer.
• Sermon Illustration [00:36:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a personal experience from the previous morning during men's Bible study where he prayed 2 Chronicles 16:9, asking God to help him be someone whose heart is completely His so God could 'strongly support' him.
• Sermon Illustration [00:33:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of God's promises being like 'molds' into which we pour our prayers like 'liquid metal' to shape them.
• Sermon Illustration [00:33:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor quotes John MacArthur summarizing how the Word of God generates specific types of prayer (communion, praise, confession, etc.) based on what the text speaks of.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor quotes Charles Spurgeon describing prayer as a 'homing pigeon' that begins in God's heart, goes to the believer, and returns to God's heart.
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote from his early 20s visiting a small church in San Francisco where older men prayed loudly and fervently on their knees, which arrested his attention and demonstrated serious, passionate prayer.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a cartoon of Dennis the Menace kneeling by his bed saying, 'Lord, I'm here to turn myself in,' illustrating the concept of Daniel turning himself in to God through confession.
• Sermon Illustration [00:50:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a story about Scottish pastor Alexander White, who whispered to a congregation that the most sinful man in Edinburgh was himself, illustrating the paradox that those closest to God's holiness are most conscious of their own sinfulness.
• Sermon Illustration [00:50:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells the story of Scottish pastor Alexander White, who revealed to his congregation that the most sinful man in Edinburgh was himself, illustrating that closeness to God increases awareness of one's own sin.
• Sermon Illustration [00:53:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > A humorous anecdote about Mel Trotter, who told a man who didn't know his sins to 'get down on your knees and guess at them,' and the man guessed them right the first time.
• Sermon Illustration [00:56:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > A story about John G. Padden, a missionary among cannibals in the South Pacific, and a former cannibal named Esau who, after converting, admitted to eating human flesh but expressed joy in being forgiven by a 'good-hearted' God.
• Sermon Illustration [01:02:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about being interrupted by God during prayer while buying a house with his wife Cheryl before their marriage, though the story is cut off.
• Sermon Illustration [01:02:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a personal story from his early 20s when he and his fiancée were buying a house. While praying for a specific financial amount, the builder called with an offer for that exact amount, which the pastor viewed as God interrupting his prayer to build his faith.
• Sermon Illustration [01:05:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a story about Dr. Walvoord, a prophecy scholar, who recounted meeting another seminary president who described their progress as 'going forward on our knees.' This story was used to illustrate the necessity of prayer for spiritual advancement.

• Pastoral Charge [00:19:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > Physically turn to the book of Daniel, chapter 9 in their Bibles.
• Pastoral Charge [00:43:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pray passionately, humbly, and fervently before God.
• Pastoral Charge [00:45:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > Go to the Bible to find what is said about God and speak it back to Him in prayer.
• Pastoral Charge [00:50:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Read the Bible and confess sin to God to undeceive oneself.
• Pastoral Charge [00:53:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > Go to God frequently to confess sins.
• Pastoral Charge [00:53:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > Guess at sins to identify them for confession.
• Pastoral Charge [00:57:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > Bring specific sins and shame to Jesus for forgiveness.
• Pastoral Charge [00:58:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > Ask God for needs without fear.
• Pastoral Charge [01:07:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > Seek God and ask for the Holy Spirit to ignite their prayer lives, committing to a posture of kneeling prayer in the coming year.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Your way in, just be courteous and helpful to one another as you try to find a seat.
[00:00:04] If you're a first-time guest with us today, we're so happy that you've joined us.
[00:00:08] We have a welcome center that's out in the lobby back here.
[00:00:10] If you might stop by there on your way out this morning, that would be, I think, a great help to you.
[00:00:15] If you're asking questions or wondering more about the ministry of Faith Bible Church, there'll be someone there to visit with you, answer any questions you might have, tell you about some next steps you can take to get involved in the life of our church.
[00:00:26] If you're joining us online, man, we thank you for joining us in that way.
[00:00:29] There's probably a comment section, given the platform that you're watching us on, Facebook or some other platform.
[00:00:34] You might make a comment there.
[00:00:35] Let us know where you're watching from and how today's services are blessing you and your family as you tune in online.
[00:00:41] Before I offer our call to worship, I want to give you guys just some news that I think will be a tremendous blessing to you.
[00:00:48] You can start, kind of give you a head start on that news by looking at the back of your bulletin.
[00:00:52] On the back of your bulletin, we track the remaining loan amount that we have on our capital campaign.
[00:00:58] And if you were tuning in Last week it was a little bit higher A lot a bit higher than it is this week So at current we owe 1.6 million dollars On our loan We started last year
[00:01:11] 2020 Owing over 3.2 million So we've cut that number in half In this last year We actually paid it down a million dollars Just in the last four weeks So that is incredible Yeah please clap for that
[00:01:24] Along with that I need to tell you that 2020 2020, inexplicably to me, was our largest giving year ever at Faith Bible Church.
[00:01:35] December was our largest, this last December was our largest December ever in terms of year-end giving. So our giving rose almost 10% last year in 2020. Our number of givers, here's an interesting statistic, our number of givers rose 11%. I can't really economically explain a lot of that,
[00:01:55] but I am so grateful for it. I thank God for your generosity as we close out last year and as we head in to this next year. We're heading into it with a full head of steam. Ministry is still being
[00:02:06] somewhat held back and programming is held back a little bit by some of the COVID restrictions and the cautionary things that are going on with that and people's return to ministry life and church life. That's still ongoing, but we're excited about the head of steam that we have going into
[00:02:22] this year and just ask you just to continue to pray for church leadership and pray for your involvement as we move into another year of ministry of Faith Bible Church. We're grateful to God for his constant provision, care, and blessing to us as a church. So with that, let's
[00:02:39] go to the Lord in prayer. Bow with me if you will. I'm going to read a few verses out of Psalm 24.
[00:02:45] Just meditate on these words. It starts with a question. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place?
[00:02:54] The answer is he who has clean hands and a pure heart and who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
[00:03:02] He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
[00:03:07] Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
[00:03:13] Father, as we come into this place this morning, we acknowledge each of us that we're sinners.
[00:03:21] We confess before you our deep need of salvation, our need of a pure heart, our hands need to be cleaned. And so as we confess that to you, we acknowledge alongside that you provided righteousness for us in your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. So today we look to him. Today we want to
[00:03:42] exalt him. Today we want to honor and receive the blessing that comes from knowing and having our sins forgiven through the work of Jesus Christ. So Father, exalt your name as we desire to praise
[00:03:56] you in this place today. We give this all to you in the name of Jesus. Amen. Would you stand? Let's

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:04:02] worship our King together this morning.
[00:07:18] worship our shield and our defender in the ancient of days together as we went through a tumultuous week in our country my heart turned to Psalm 63 and I just want to read verse 1 of that to us this morning Oh God you are my God and I
[00:07:36] shall seek you earnestly my soul thirsts for you my flesh yearns for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I was also reminded of a great hymn that we sang when I was
[00:07:50] growing up. I need thee every hour. I need thee, Lord, I need thee every hour. I need thee. And that hymn was written by a young mother named Annie Sherwood in 1872 in Brooklyn, New York. And later in her
[00:08:05] life, she said this. One day as a young wife and mother of 37 years of age, I was busy with my regular household tasks. Suddenly I became so filled with the sense of the nearness of my master
[00:08:18] that wondering how one could live without him, either in joy or in pain, these words were ushered into my mind. So as we sing this hymn together this morning, let's let us turn our hearts to
[00:08:32] the only one that we rely upon. Let's tell the Lord how much we need him today.

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:08:57] Jesus, my Savior.
[00:09:18] Jim Hendrickson is going to come and lead us in prayer today.

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:11:39] As we continue this spirit of prayer and confession and expressing our need to God for his help today, please join me in prayer.
[00:11:49] Father, it's to your matchless name we come today and give you praise and honor and glory.
[00:11:57] You are above all else.
[00:11:59] There is no name like your name.
[00:12:02] Father, we ask that you would hear and answer our prayer today as your church body.
[00:12:07] Father, we confess our sins to you corporately.
[00:12:11] We know that none of us is exempt.
[00:12:13] We confess our sins that we have committed both willfully and those that we are ignorant of.
[00:12:22] Today, we acknowledge that we even violate your clear commands in your word, and also that we lack the diligence to seek you above all else.
[00:12:33] Father, even today, show us the consequences of our sins so that we could understand the greatness of your mercy.
[00:12:43] Let our repentance be complete today.
[00:12:46] Let the light of your truth shine in every corner of our lives and to reveal every bit of our sin to us.
[00:12:56] Now, Father, in our repentance, we lean upon our advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest.
[00:13:03] and based upon His finished work on the cross, we hope and trust in Your cleansing and forgiveness for us as a church today.
[00:13:16] Father, renew a right spirit in us today so that we may continue in worship and to worship You with our whole heart and receive Your truth as it is given to us today.
[00:13:28] We pray these things in Christ's matchless name.
[00:13:32] Amen.

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:14:11] God, we long to seek you above anything else today.

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:18:02] May you be in first place in all things, in our heart, soul, and mind.
[00:18:09] May we be completely focused on you.
[00:18:11] And God, may our worship be a fragrant offering to you today.
[00:18:16] Not because of the way that we bring it.
[00:18:18] Not because of anything that we have done or any merit that is on our own behalf.
[00:18:22] but God solely based on the blood of Jesus Christ and we bow our hearts before you today we're privileged to get to do that as a church body we pray that you would change us as we
[00:18:36] worship you it's in Jesus name amen amen well it's great to see everyone here this morning on

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:18:44] this beautiful Lord's day that God's given to us thank you so much for those of you here here in person and those of you joining us online as well we're so grateful for your presence and I hope you
[00:18:55] all know how much presence means. It means a great deal. And so thank you for being here with us. We're in a study of Daniel right now. If you're just joining us, we're studying the book of Daniel. And we've titled this series, The End Time and the Meantime. And
[00:19:07] we've made our way to Daniel chapter 9. So if you'll take your Bible and turn there with me to the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel. I like the story of the seasoned mariner who
[00:19:18] navigated his ship through surging stormy seas over a career of many years. And he told of one particularly perilous storm that was so dangerous he didn't know if he would survive or his crew would survive. And the old mariner sighed and he said, yes, he says, the Lord heard the voices of
[00:19:36] many strangers that night. Now, I like that because I believe that God is hearing the voices of a lot of strangers probably in recent days as things are kind of spiraling out of control in our
[00:19:47] country. And maybe one of those voices is yours. Perhaps in the midst of the confusion and the chaos in today's climate, you're turning to the Lord more often in prayer than ever before.
[00:19:59] And if so, I can assure you, you're not alone. And I can also assure you that God loves you and God hears you. In recent days, I'm sure we've all sensed a need to take a knee in prayer,
[00:20:10] probably like never before. But in the book of Daniel, we meet a man who's no stranger to God.
[00:20:16] We meet a man who's no stranger to prayer, the great prophet Daniel.
[00:20:20] Daniel was a man who navigated the storms of life through prayer.
[00:20:26] God heard from Daniel often.
[00:20:28] You remember in Daniel chapter 6 that Daniel prayed to God three times a day on his knees before God.
[00:20:35] Daniel was a man who turned his problems and his panic into prayer.
[00:20:39] Daniel was a man of prayer.
[00:20:41] He was a praying prophet.
[00:20:42] it. Daniel, I believe, would have agreed with the words of John Bunyan. John Bunyan, of course, is the author of Pilgrim's Progress. But Bunyan once said this, you can do more than pray after you've prayed, but you can't do more than pray until you've prayed. That's a great statement.
[00:21:00] You can do more than pray after you've prayed, but you can't do more than pray until you've prayed.
[00:21:06] And that's true. Prayer is vital to all that we do. The importance of prayer really can't be overemphasized. And I think there's nothing more important than any of us will do in this coming year in 2021 than pray. Prayer needs to undergird and underwrite all that we do. And Daniel the
[00:21:26] prophet serves as a model for us of a perpetual prevailing life of prayer. Remember back in Daniel chapter 2 when Nebuchadnezzar has his dream and can't remember it and is going to put all the
[00:21:38] wise men to death because they're unable to tell him the dream. Daniel gathers his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they have a prayer meeting, and they call out to the God of heaven, and God reveals in a dream the vision or the dream to Daniel. Remember over in chapter 6
[00:21:57] and verse 10, the chapter about Daniel in the lion's den. It says, Daniel entered his house, and in his roof chamber he had windows open to Jerusalem. He continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God as he had been doing previously.
[00:22:16] And then here in chapter 9, we have a long, lengthy prayer that Daniel pours out to God.
[00:22:23] Now, there's three significant ninth chapters in the Old Testament. In fact, if you go read Ezra 9 and Nehemiah 9 and Daniel 9, those chapters are all long prayers. They're all very similar to one another. So this is one of these significant ninth chapters in Scripture where we find the
[00:22:42] prayer of Daniel. Now let me, just to get us started, let me read verses 1 to 5. We'll actually look at verses 1 to 23, so we have a lot of ground to cover this morning. Let me just read these first
[00:22:54] five verses. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books
[00:23:06] the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years. So I gave my attention to the Lord God
[00:23:18] to seek Him by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments. We have sinned,
[00:23:36] committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and ordinances. Oh, may the Lord write His eternal word on our hearts this morning.
[00:23:47] there was a young reporter years ago in Israel who was looking for a human interest story and as she heard about an old man who'd been going to the wailing wall and praying every day
[00:23:57] twice a day long prayers for 50 years so she found this man and she said sir how long have you been coming to the wailing wall and praying and he said for 50 years and she said well what
[00:24:10] do you pray for and he said I pray for peace between the Jews and the Arabs and she said well how do you feel after 50 years? And he said, like I'm talking to a wall. Now, some of you may feel
[00:24:22] like that in your prayer life today. You may feel like you're praying to a wall or talking to a wall. Maybe you're seeking God for something, some desperate need in your life or the life of
[00:24:33] someone else you know, and you feel like you're talking to a wall. Well, we're going to read this morning about a prayer. We're going to read through a prayer that was a prayer that was
[00:24:42] answered. In fact, this prayer was answered before Daniel got finished praying. It's an interrupted prayer. Now, most of our prayers won't be like that, but it's a great encouragement to us that God heard his prayer, and God answers him before he's even finished. And so this is a prayer that's
[00:24:59] worth emulating. It's a prayer that's worth examining this morning. Now, Daniel 9 opens with a historical marker. It's a time of transition. It's the first year of Darius.
[00:25:10] It's the first year when the Persians have taken over and conquered the Babylonians.
[00:25:15] So it's 539 B.C., that's the year.
[00:25:19] And I think that's interesting because that year, 539 B.C., when Daniel prays this long prayer, that's the same year of the events that Daniel's thrown into the lion's den for praying three times a day,
[00:25:31] and he won't stop doing it, even though an edict's given he's going to be thrown to the lion's den if he keeps it up.
[00:25:37] so to me that must have been an exciting year in daniel's life as he's praying to god every day three times a day gets thrown into the lion's den god delivers him and sometime that same year
[00:25:48] he prays this prayer and pours out his heart to god so daniel's between 80 and 85 years of age here in this chapter but he's still passionate about prayer daniel's still a man whose life is
[00:26:03] on fire with his desire to know and to serve the true and the living God. And he pours out his heart in prayer. And what I want to do this morning in this long chapter is distill down for us six
[00:26:15] principles of prevailing prayer. I want to look at six practices that should shape and form your prayer life and my prayer life in 2021. So let's get into these six points here. The first one is
[00:26:28] your prayer and my prayer should be motivated by the Word of God, should be motivated by Scripture.
[00:26:35] Notice verse 2. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the Word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet. So what we find here,
[00:26:48] now this is fascinating to me, the prophet Daniel is reading the prophet's prophecy of Jeremiah.
[00:26:55] so jeremiah and daniel and ezekiel were all contemporaries and so he refers to the book of jeremiah as the book so literally it's the scrolls and notice daniel believes that the book of jeremiah is the word of god he says it was revealed as the word of the lord to jeremiah the
[00:27:17] prophet so jeremiah or daniel believes and considers the book of jeremiah to be the very word of god And so here Daniel is studying Bible prophecy, reading the words of other prophets.
[00:27:32] Now Daniel, as he was growing up in Jerusalem, before he was taken away into captivity, probably around the age of 15 or 16, he would have certainly heard Jeremiah preach many, many times.
[00:27:45] So he would have been familiar with his ministry.
[00:27:49] Now, he says, I was reading in the prophet Jeremiah about the desolation of Jerusalem for 70 years.
[00:27:56] Now, we can pinpoint exactly where Daniel was reading in the book of Jeremiah, because there's only two places in the book of Jeremiah that mention a 70-year captivity or a 70-year exile.
[00:28:08] So if you go back with me to Jeremiah, if you have your Bible there, and we'll turn back there, Jeremiah 25, 11.
[00:28:16] Jeremiah 25, 11, the Lord says this, This whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years.
[00:28:27] So there it is.
[00:28:28] Daniel's reading this, that they're going to be in captivity 70 years.
[00:28:32] And then over in chapter 29 and verse 10.
[00:28:36] Now, a lot of us know verse 11.
[00:28:39] For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.
[00:28:45] Well, the verse right before that says, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you and bring you back to this place.
[00:28:58] So God's telling them that it's going to be 70 years that they're going to be in captivity.
[00:29:03] Now, why 70 years?
[00:29:04] Why did they go into captivity for 70 years?
[00:29:07] Well, in 2 Chronicles 36, 21, God tells the Jewish people they're going to go into captivity for 70 years because they've stolen or robbed 70 sabbatical years from God. Now that requires us to understand a little bit about the Sabbaths. You all know that every seventh day was a Sabbath
[00:29:26] day, right? No work. Every seventh year was a sabbatical year, a Sabbath year. They were to plant no crops and they were to prune, not prune their vines. God promised in the years before that
[00:29:39] He would give them enough to sustain them through that time. And then after seven of those Sabbath years, after 49 years, there was a year of Jubilee, where slaves were released and deaths were forgiven. And these Sabbaths and these Jubilees were given by God to Israel to remind the people
[00:29:58] that their lives and their land belonged to God. They belonged to Yahweh. Now what had happened is, evidently over a period of 490 years because it was every seventh year the jewish people had stolen
[00:30:12] that sabbatical year from god and they'd planted crops and proved their vineyards so you can imagine yet a bumper crop year in that sixth year and you're thinking man this is no time to you
[00:30:22] know to leave the the ground fallow and so we're going to go out and plow the fields and they did that year after year decade after decade century after century and they stole those 70 sabbatical
[00:30:33] years from God. And so God sent them into captivity for 70 years to give the land its rest.
[00:30:42] And by the way, there's a good spiritual principle here that I've thought of in my life many, many times. You and I want to make sure that we give God His due, because if we don't, God will come
[00:30:51] and take it from you. And I'd rather give God what He desires for me than make God have to come and take it from me. He had to come and take those 70 years from them and send them into captivity and
[00:31:03] exile into Babylon. Now something that's very important here is, notice that Daniel believed in the literal interpretation of prophecy. To him, 70 years meant 70 literal years. He didn't spiritualize or symbolize these 70 years away. Daniel expected the exile to end soon within the
[00:31:25] literal number of years that Jeremiah predicted. Now at this time in 539 BC, Daniel now has been in Babylon for about 67 years. So he's reading in Jeremiah that the captivity is going to last 70
[00:31:39] years, and old Daniel, maybe 85 years of age, gets excited. This thing's about to end. God is about to bring his people back to the land, what he had desired for so long. So Daniel now, based on that
[00:31:54] prophecy that he's read, begins to pray to God for God to restore his people to the land.
[00:32:01] He asked God to do what God has already promised to do.
[00:32:06] Now, we often wonder about that and say, well, look, if God had already promised He was going to restore him in 70 years, God was going to do it, so why should Daniel pray and ask God to do
[00:32:15] what God's already said He's going to do?
[00:32:17] In fact, some people often wonder this.
[00:32:20] I'm sure this thought has crept into all of us and to our minds at one time or another.
[00:32:25] If God is sovereign, why pray?
[00:32:29] God's sovereign. He knows what He's going to do. Why pray?
[00:32:32] Well, I think Daniel's answer to us this morning would be, it's because God is sovereign that I pray.
[00:32:39] It's because God's sovereign, and He has a plan, and He has a purpose for this world.
[00:32:43] It's because of that that I pray.
[00:32:45] So Daniel pours out his heart in prayer because he was confident that his sovereign God would do exactly what he promised.
[00:32:55] But I think what we learn here about prayer is, is that reading God's Word should motivate and instruct our prayer life.
[00:33:03] We have to read the Word of God and know the Scriptures to know God's plans and to know God's promises.
[00:33:09] And as we read the Scriptures, our reading of the Scripture then turns into prayer.
[00:33:15] So really the Bible becomes our prayer book.
[00:33:18] Our prayers are nourished and guided and directed by the truth of God that we read in Scripture.
[00:33:25] One person said it like this.
[00:33:27] this is a beautiful mental image. The promises of God are like molds into which we pour our prayers like liquid metal. Isn't that beautiful? The promises of God are like molds, and we pour our prayers into those molds like liquid metal. We claim God's promises when we find them in
[00:33:46] Scripture. John MacArthur kind of summarizes this really well. He puts it like this. The Word of God generates prayer. When it speaks of God, we long to commune with Him. When it speaks of blessing, we long to praise God. When it speaks of glory, we long to receive it. When it speaks
[00:34:02] of promise, we long to realize it. When it speaks of sin, we long to confess it. When it speaks of judgment, we long to avoid it. When it speaks of hell, we pray for the lost. So the Word of God
[00:34:14] is the cause of our prayer. I like that. When you read in the Bible a promise of God, what do you begin to pray immediately in your mind, God, make that real in my life. When you read about something
[00:34:25] in the Bible that you're doing that you shouldn't be doing that the Bible calls sin, what should you do? You should go to God and confess it. When you read about how holy God is, what should that lead
[00:34:35] you to pray? God, help me to be holy like you're holy. I don't want to offend your glory. So prayer isn't asking God to change what he's going to do. It's identifying myself with God's plans and
[00:34:47] promises. It's not getting God to adjust His program to what I want. It's me adjusting my life and my desires to God's revealed will. That's what prayer is. Prayer is not about me trying to
[00:35:01] get God to do what I want Him to do. It's about me doing what God wants me to do. Spurgeon put it like this years ago. He says, prayer is like a homing pigeon. Begins in the heart of God. It's
[00:35:14] sent out and lands in the heart of God's people who send it back to the heart of God.
[00:35:20] That's a beautiful picture there. Prayers really begin in God's heart, and God has revealed Himself to us in the Scripture, and when we read the Scripture, it comes into our heart, and then we send it back to the heart of God in prayer. So our prayer must be moved and motivated by the Word of
[00:35:39] God. In fact, I would say this about myself, and you'll probably find this to be true in your own life, our best prayers should be prayed with an open Bible in front of us. As we read the Word of
[00:35:50] God, as we read the Scripture, we should just immediately be moved to pray and to claim and to confess and whatever we see in Scripture, for that to become part of our life and experience.
[00:36:01] I'll just give you an example of this. It's just from yesterday. Yesterday morning, we had our men's Bible study down in the chapel, and I spoke about King Asa. And that great verse in 2 Corinthians,
[00:36:12] 2 Chronicles 16 verse 9, the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth in order that He can strongly support those whose heart is completely His. We talked about that and to have your heart be completely His means to rely upon Him, to trust in God. And yesterday,
[00:36:31] several times, but especially last night before I went to sleep, I was praying that verse and saying, Lord, I know that your eyes are going to and fro throughout the earth this year.
[00:36:41] God's eagerly looking for people to strongly support.
[00:36:45] And I was praying, God, help me to be one who's relying upon you, one that you can strongly support in what I do because I trust in you and rely upon you.
[00:36:53] So it's just taking what we read in the Bible, and the Bible becomes our prayer book.
[00:36:58] So the first thing I want us to see here in this passage is that our prayers should be motivated, and that'll be molded through our time spent in God's Word.
[00:37:09] The second element of this prayer is that it's manifested in humility and fervency.
[00:37:14] Look at verse 3.
[00:37:16] So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
[00:37:25] You know, how we pray says a great deal about us.
[00:37:29] John Owen, the great Puritan, said this years ago, what a person is in secret on his knees before God, that he is and nothing more.
[00:37:39] You can think you're something great spiritually.
[00:37:42] You can think whatever you want to think about yourself.
[00:37:44] But here's what I would say the Bible would say to us.
[00:37:47] What we are in secret on our knees before God when we're praying, that's really what we are.
[00:37:53] And we're nothing more.
[00:37:55] And if that's true, then here in Daniel, we learn who Daniel really was.
[00:38:00] We learn that he's a man who was humble and who was passionate and who was fervent in his prayer to God.
[00:38:06] Notice he says, I gave my attention to the Lord.
[00:38:09] literally in the Hebrew there, I set my face toward the Lord God.
[00:38:14] It's Adonai Elohim.
[00:38:17] He's determined.
[00:38:18] He sets his face to the Lord God.
[00:38:20] He knows who he's talking to.
[00:38:22] Kind of like Jesus said in the model prayer, you're to begin with our Father who art in the heavens.
[00:38:28] To know who it is we're addressing.
[00:38:31] He set his face to Adonai Elohim, to his master.
[00:38:36] And I think Daniel, when he prays this whole prayer, as you, hopefully you'll read this chapter this week on your own, but I think Daniel prayed this entire prayer out loud. The reason I say that is you go down to verse 20, he says, now while I was
[00:38:48] speaking and praying, the word speaking there means to speak out loud. So I think Daniel is praying out loud. And I think that Daniel, as he's praying this out loud, is probably praying fairly loudly. It's hard for me to imagine him saying the words of verse 19 kind of quietly. Look at
[00:39:06] verse 19, O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and take action. For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name. So he sets his face to God
[00:39:21] and he's praying out loud, probably loudly, and he puts on sackcloth and ashes, which are an outward sign of his inward condition. The sackcloth speaks of humility, and the ashes speak of his grief as
[00:39:34] he's pouring out his heart to God for what's happened to his people because of their sin.
[00:39:39] And then it says he fasted. Now, it's important to know that in the Bible, fasting is never a means to get God's attention or to impress Him. A lot of people think, well, I'm going to fast,
[00:39:51] and I'm going to really get God's attention. I'm going to really impress God. We don't impress God by what we do. Really, fasting in Scripture was just a practical means of setting aside the time-consuming task of meal preparation in order to concentrate on the Lord. You just set
[00:40:08] aside these other things that would distract you so you can concentrate and focus upon the Lord.
[00:40:14] What I see in this is that Daniel's praying here was humble and passionate. It was not some passive prayer, but it was passionate. It was a prayer that was lit on fire by the Holy Spirit.
[00:40:29] There's a story I'll just share briefly.
[00:40:32] It's from a long time ago, back in my early 20s.
[00:40:34] I had a friend of mine.
[00:40:35] He's my oldest friend that I have.
[00:40:37] We met when we were two years of age.
[00:40:39] My friend Steve Mortensen.
[00:40:41] And Steve and I were...
[00:40:42] He was going at that time to Golden Gate Southern Baptist Seminary in San Francisco.
[00:40:48] When he was out there, I went and visited him and his wife a couple of times.
[00:40:51] And I won't go into the story about how it all happened, but we ended up going and meeting with a group of believers in downtown San Francisco.
[00:40:57] we went to this church we didn't know how big it was but it was either a Wednesday night or a Sunday night and there probably weren't 20 people there and they divided up into groups to pray and it was
[00:41:08] the the church was smaller than this the congregation but there was the the stage here and then on each side there was a little small room back there there was just a few of us and
[00:41:17] the women went on the left side and the men went on the right side and we went in there with these old guys now they're probably about my age maybe 70 I don't know but I was in my early 20s so I
[00:41:25] that they were really old. But we went in there to pray, and these guys went in there, and the first thing they did is these guys got down on their knees. And so, you know, Steve and I were
[00:41:35] there, so we're praying with these guys, so we got down on our knees. And I'll never forget, I mean, the first guy that started praying, he was praying kind of loudly and whatever, but just, I mean,
[00:41:44] fervent and passionate. You know, they're living in San Francisco, and all the needs that are there, and this one guy starts praying, and I mean, he's praying, he's just, he's almost crying, he's crying out to God. It's that loud. And I have to be honest with you, my early 20s,
[00:41:58] it was kind of unsettling. Me and Steve were kind of looking at each other a little bit, but it arrested me. And look, you know, you can yell loudly to God and have a heart that's far
[00:42:09] from God, and you can play quietly and have a heart that's near God. I'm not saying that we have to have antics or a lot of bluster, but with these men, I sensed that these men were serious.
[00:42:19] They were fervent. They were passionate in their praying. It wasn't half-hearted.
[00:42:24] And I've never forgotten that. In fact, there's times now for me when there's something that I want God to do, I'm desperate to see happen, that I'll pray to God and hold my hands up to God
[00:42:37] before Him because I'm seeking God's answer. Or I'll get down on my knees to pray. Or sometimes I'll pray out loud. I usually try to go away where people can't hear you too much. They hear you in
[00:42:47] they're yelling in a room or whatever, but to go and to pray and to call out to God like Daniel is doing here. That's what you and I need to do sometimes. And again, it's not to impress God.
[00:42:59] It's not to try to get God's attention, but it's simply coming from down inside of us that there's a passion inside of our hearts to express our desires to God. And so I pray that God this year
[00:43:11] will light our prayers on fire and that you and I can pray passionately and humbly and fervently before God. That's what Daniel's prayer was like. The third trait of this prayer that you and I
[00:43:24] want to emulate is it magnifies the Lord in worship. Prayer is an expression of what you and I know about God and what we know about ourselves. It's really what prayer is. It's an expression of what I know about God and what I know about myself. And Daniel here clearly knows
[00:43:41] God. This prayer is heavy with honor, and this prayer is piled up with praise. This prayer is thick with the glory of God, and it's a model prayer for us of reverence and honor to God in
[00:43:56] prayer. And you and I need to remember that prayer is primarily about God. It's not primarily about us. If you've never read the writings of E.M. Bounds, he's written some tremendous books on prayer. They're very convicting. But Ian Bowne said this once about prayer. He says, prayer honors
[00:44:16] God and it dishonors self. I like that. Prayer honors God. That's what it's about. It dishonors self. We go before God and we see what we really are before Him. Someone put it like this, one's
[00:44:30] concept of prayer can rise no higher than one's concept of God. The best way to teach about prayer is not to teach about prayer per se, but to teach the doctrine of God. Now, that's a great statement.
[00:44:44] If you really want to teach somebody how to pray, the best way to teach somebody how to pray is just to teach them about God, to teach them who God is. And notice how Daniel here
[00:44:53] accumulates the adoration. Verse 4, he says, God, you're great and awesome. Verse 4, he says, God, you always keep your promises. Verse 7, he says, God, righteousness belongs to you. You're righteous. Verse 9, he says, God, you're forgiving. Verse 15, he says, God, you have a great name.
[00:45:12] Verse 18, he says, God, you are merciful. He's just going through one by one, just cataloging these attributes of God. And if you and I are going to have a prayer life that pleases God
[00:45:24] and it honors God, it needs to be a prayer life that magnifies God in worship. And again, go to the Bible and see what is said about God in the Bible and say that back to him.
[00:45:36] Because that's who God has revealed to us that He is.
[00:45:40] The fourth feature of this prayer is it's marked by confession.
[00:45:44] Really, that's the main part of this prayer.
[00:45:45] And again, we won't read it all.
[00:45:47] We'll just kind of selectively mention a few points here.
[00:45:49] But in verses 5 to 15, this prayer is a long confession.
[00:45:54] There's more confession in this prayer than anything else.
[00:45:57] In fact, you could call this prayer a lament.
[00:46:00] Daniel is lamenting the sin of God's people and what it's produced.
[00:46:05] that it's their sin that's driven them away into exile and that god is just in bringing that exile upon them so daniel's here confessing sin reminds me of a cartoon years ago of dennis the menace you
[00:46:19] know the little boy that would always get himself in trouble and there's a and the cartoon one night he's on his knees beside his bed with his hands folded and his eyes turned to heaven he looks up
[00:46:30] to heaven to God and says, Lord, I'm here to turn myself in. And I like that because really, if you think about this chapter in Daniel 9, Daniel's turning himself in. This prayer is crowded with confession. Now, to me, that's interesting because Daniel is one of the few
[00:46:48] men in the Bible that has none of his personal sin revealed. In fact, you might say the only two major characters in the Old Testament that don't have any sin revealed in their lives are
[00:46:59] Joseph and Daniel. Now, we know they were sinners. The Bible tells us that they weren't sinless.
[00:47:05] But it is interesting that there's no personal sin of Daniel that's mentioned in the book of Daniel or anywhere else in Scripture. Yet Daniel here in this passage doesn't put himself on a pedestal. He includes himself in the confession. And he prays one of the greatest prayers of
[00:47:21] confession in the Bible. In verse 5, you see it starts out, we have sinned. Verse 6, we have not listened to thy servants. He literally piles up the plurals here. Thirty-nine times in this prayer,
[00:47:39] you have us and we and our. Daniel's not saying they have sinned, you have sinned. He's saying we have sinned. So this isn't an I prayer, it's a we prayer. And if you read through it again,
[00:47:54] it includes everybody. Kings, princes, our fathers, all the people of Israel, and all the land.
[00:48:01] So Daniel saw himself bound up in the lives of other people. And notice the order down in verse 20. While I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel.
[00:48:15] who's first himself i'm confessing my sin and then i'm confessing the sin of my people israel stewart briscoe's a well-known pastor from up in the milwaukee area he says this he says when our children were small and we were trying to teach them to pray we had three kinds of prayers please
[00:48:37] prayers thank you prayers and sorry prayers that's a pretty good way to teach your kids to pray right But if you think about it in that way, certainly there's a please in this passage, but primarily this is a sorry prayer.
[00:48:50] Daniel is going to God and he's confessing the sins of the people.
[00:48:54] And the prayer is corporate.
[00:48:56] It's we, it's us, it's our, but it's also very comprehensive.
[00:49:01] In the Hebrew language, as you read through this prayer, there are 11 different words, Hebrew words for sin.
[00:49:08] There's eight verbs and three nouns.
[00:49:10] And these different words appear a total of 21 times.
[00:49:16] So as you read through it just constantly, it's, we've sinned, we've acted wickedly, we've transgressed, we've rebelled, we've closed our ears.
[00:49:24] I mean, Daniel just stacks up the Hebrew words for sin.
[00:49:29] And so really in some ways, this chapter is a biblical theology of sin.
[00:49:34] And the overarching theme in many ways of this chapter is God is sovereign and we are sinful.
[00:49:40] And you'll notice in this chapter, there's no words in here like Daniel doesn't say, well, he is my bad.
[00:49:45] People say today, or I messed up, or I blew it, or I made a mistake, or yeah, we've got some shortcomings, or we have some weaknesses.
[00:49:52] There's no finger pointing, no spin, no rationalization, no effort to blame other people or justify it or sugarcoat it.
[00:50:00] He's not afraid to call sin what it is.
[00:50:03] And he's not afraid to own it in his own life.
[00:50:08] I like what St. Augustine said years ago.
[00:50:10] he says, before God can deliver us, we must undeceive ourselves. That's powerful, isn't it?
[00:50:16] Look, before God can deliver us, we have to undeceive ourselves. Let me tell you, the best way to undeceive yourself is to go to the Bible and to read it and to confess your sin to God.
[00:50:29] You're eliminated and diminish the deception in your life, and God can come in and deliver us.
[00:50:34] But here Daniel is, this godly man, this man who none of his personal sin is recounted in Scripture, and that he's the one who's praying this prayer.
[00:50:44] God, we've sinned.
[00:50:45] We've rebelled against you.
[00:50:48] I love the writings of Alexander White.
[00:50:50] He was a great, famous pastor in Scotland many years ago, a tremendous man of God, was really loved by his congregation, by his family.
[00:50:59] There's a story, though, about him.
[00:51:00] One time he was gathered with a large congregation of people in the city of Edinburgh, and during the sermon he said, I have found out the name of the most sinful man in Edinburgh.
[00:51:12] and I've come to tell you who he is.
[00:51:15] Everybody in the church got on the edge of their seat and he bent forward in the pulpit and he whispered his name is Alexander White.
[00:51:23] There's a hush fell over the crowd.
[00:51:25] The man who tells that story says it is a paradox of the Christian life that the closer we get to God, the more conscious we become of our own sinfulness.
[00:51:34] Those who live most fully in the light of God's holiness are the ones who are the most conscious of their own unworthiness.
[00:51:40] alexander white believed and knew that he was the most sinful man in edinburgh and i think if you'd have asked daniel as he's praying this prayer daniel would have said let me tell you who the
[00:51:50] worst sinner is in all of babel and it's daniel daniel understood that because he was close to god and we won't have time to look at this in detail but let me just go through and just
[00:52:00] just mention some of these hebrew words i won't give the hebrew word but just mention that how they're translated in english and what they mean the word sinned is found seven times. It means to miss a target or to wander from the way. The word committed iniquities found
[00:52:15] here means to go astray, to make crooked or to distort. The word acted wickedly means to do a known wrong, an action that puts you in the wrong. To rebel means to defy authority. To turn aside
[00:52:28] means to depart and to turn aside from God's commandments. Not to listen literally means to close the ears. Unfaithful deeds means to act faithlessly and to break covenant with God.
[00:52:41] Transgress means to pass over, move beyond the requirements of a covenant or law. The word transgression means to revolt against the standard. And by the way, you read this long list of words and it reminds us a lot of our nation today. May God have mercy on us. Sinned and acted wickedly
[00:53:00] and rebelled and turned aside and not listened. But you note the progression here. It's they missed the standard, and then they twist it, and then they ultimately revolt against it.
[00:53:13] Daniel's prayer here is marked by this confession and just this long litany here of sin. And our prayers should be marked by confession as well. Hope you go to God often and confess your sins.
[00:53:25] I like the story about Mel Trotter. He was talking to a man one time about confessing his sins.
[00:53:30] And the man said, well, I don't really know what they are.
[00:53:33] And Mel Trotter said, well, get down there on your knees and guess at them.
[00:53:37] And he said, would you believe it?
[00:53:38] He guessed them right the first time.
[00:53:41] I like that.
[00:53:42] If you don't know what your sins are, just start guessing at them.
[00:53:44] And I guarantee you'll get to them pretty quickly.
[00:53:48] But Daniel's prayer here, though, is beautiful because it reminds us that no matter how much we've sinned, there's always the presence of God's mercy and His grace and forgiveness.
[00:53:57] in verse 7 or verse 8 to the lord our god in verse 9 the lord our god belongs compassion and forgiveness down in verse 8 and verse 18 he mentions god is gracious and he's merciful
[00:54:12] and that reminds us of first john 1 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if you'll confess your sin the word confess in the Greek there literally means to say the same thing. When you confess
[00:54:28] your sin to God, what you're really doing is you're going to God and saying, God, I'm going to say the same thing about my sin that you say about it. I'm going to agree with you about it.
[00:54:36] If you go and do that, if you confess your sin and say the same thing about your sin that God says about it, he says he's just and righteous to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all
[00:54:47] unrighteousness. Isn't that wonderful to go to God every day, confess our sins, unburden ourselves, and to know that He'll forgive our sins.
[00:54:56] He mentions twice here, Daniel does.
[00:54:58] He mentions it in verse 7, and he mentions in verse 8, open shame belongs to us, O God.
[00:55:06] Shame.
[00:55:08] You know, I thought about that.
[00:55:09] Maybe that's true of someone here this morning.
[00:55:12] Maybe you've sinned, and maybe you're ashamed of what you've done.
[00:55:15] There may be something in your past that's terrible that you've done, and you're filled with shame constantly about that.
[00:55:21] Maybe it'd be something you've done in fairly recent days.
[00:55:24] and it's made you ashamed of yourself. I want to encourage you today, God is gracious and God is merciful. Yes, they had opened themselves up to open shame here, the people of Judah had, but God
[00:55:37] was willing to come and to forgive them and to wash away all of their sins. God in His grace gives us what we don't deserve, and in His mercy, He gives us, He doesn't give us what we do deserve.
[00:55:49] God will take care of shame and sin. He'll wash it away. I know I've told this story before, but it's one of my favorite ones. John G. Padden was a missionary down in the South Pacific in the
[00:56:00] Hebrides, in that area. And it was an area filled with cannibals. I mean, the stories of his life are harrowing. And Charles Spurgeon called him the king of the cannibals. But there was a man
[00:56:13] down there after Padden had been there many years who became a believer in Christ. And there was a traveler who was going through the area and was talking to this man and was wanting to know if
[00:56:23] he'd been a cannibal, if he'd ever tasted human flesh. And he says to this man, his name is Esau, he says, Esau, have you ever tasted human flesh? He says, Esau's eyes sought the ground and his
[00:56:35] mottled foot toyed with the grass for several minutes. Without raising his eyes, he touched his lips with his finger. It was enough. The man knew that he had eaten and he was ashamed.
[00:56:47] At last, the old uncomely face raised up and there was an expression of sadness on it, tempered with nascent joy. It was far more beautiful, that face, than any of us could have ever judged at first. And then here's what this old native says, this old former cannibal.
[00:57:05] He says, it's true, sir, I've eaten, and I'm full of shame. But sir, it was in the days of darkness before the light came to Fiji. God is good-hearted, and I'm forgiven. How beautiful. God's
[00:57:18] good-hearted, and I'm forgiven. But take your sin and your shame to Jesus, whatever it is. He is good-hearted, and He'll forgive you based upon what He did for you at the cross. I love those
[00:57:30] words in Titus that say, He saved us, not based on the deeds of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration, the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
[00:57:41] He regenerates us. He gives us new life. He washes away all of our sin, washes away all of our shame.
[00:57:48] And that's what Daniel is asking God to do here.
[00:57:53] Well, the fifth mark of this prayer is it makes a request.
[00:57:55] These last two points we'll just cover briefly.
[00:57:59] You know, one of the most important things about prayer, if you want to define prayer, prayer is asking God for something.
[00:58:04] So if somebody ever asks you, what is prayer?
[00:58:07] Prayer is asking God for something.
[00:58:08] That's what prayer is.
[00:58:10] And notice down in verse 17, Daniel begins to finally ask God for something.
[00:58:15] He's been confessing his sins and the sins of his people, but he says, so now our God, listen to the prayer of thy servant. For thy sake, let thy face shine on thy desolate sanctuary. So however we define prayer at the top of the list is prayer is making
[00:58:30] requests to God. So when you go to God, don't be afraid to ask him for what you need. That's what prayer is. God is omnipotent. God is majestic. God is sovereign. And you and I are helpless.
[00:58:43] us, we have nothing. We go to Him. We ask Him to help us. I like the way one man put it. He says, to pray is nothing more involved than to open the door, giving Jesus access to our needs and
[00:58:54] permitting Him to exercise His power in dealing with them. It's letting God know our needs. It's opening the door to Jesus. It's giving Him access to our needs. And as the old Puritans used to say,
[00:59:05] prayer is the slender nerve that moves the omnipotent hand of God. We go to God and prayer moves the omnipotent hand of God. It's that slender nerve when we go and we ask God for what
[00:59:17] we need. The final feature, though, of this prayer is it is moved by God's glory. Daniel is consumed with the glory of God. I love this. Daniel is begging God in this prayer above everything else
[00:59:30] to vindicate his own reputation. Because Daniel knows that all the people in the surrounding nations for 70 years have mocked Yahweh. They've said, you know, the Babylonians came and conquered the Jews and took them away into captivity. So, you know, Marduk and Bel and these gods of the
[00:59:48] Babylonians, they're more powerful than the God of the Jewish people than Yahweh. And what Daniel wants above everything else, he wants God to vindicate his own reputation. He's saying, God, I know who you are, and I know how great you are, and I want people to know how great you are. So
[01:00:05] do this, Father, for your own name. Notice verse 17, Father, do this for thy sake. Father, do it for your own sake. Down in verse 19, he says, do it for thy sake, O God. Do not delay, because thy
[01:00:20] city and thy people are called by thy name. And I love in verse 18 when he says, don't do it, you're not going to do this on account of any merits of our own, but on account of thy great
[01:00:32] compassion. So the great motive for you and me for praying, but also just for living, is to bring honor and glory to God. And you'll notice this prayer begins with the name of God, and it ends
[01:00:45] with God's name. Ola Halsby's written a really well-known classic book on prayer, and he tells how he spent time once with a godly pastor, and his prayers made a deep impression on Ola Halsby.
[01:00:58] And Housby said this, he said, he prayed every day for many people and many things.
[01:01:03] But as I listened to these prayers of his, I had to say to myself, after all that he prays, he only prays really one prayer, namely that the name of God might be glorified.
[01:01:15] I love that.
[01:01:16] This guy prayed all kinds of prayers for all kinds of people and all kinds of things, but really he ultimately just had one prayer.
[01:01:22] And that one prayer is that God would be glorified.
[01:01:26] And I just ask you, is that true of your prayer life?
[01:01:29] Are you consumed with the glory of God and you want God to do what He does for His name and for His glory?
[01:01:38] Now what I love about this prayer of Daniel is Daniel actually never gets to the end of his prayer because God's answer comes while he's still praying.
[01:01:45] Isn't that beautiful?
[01:01:46] Verse 20, Now while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, presenting my supplication before the Lord my God on behalf of the holy mountain of my God,
[01:01:56] while i was still speaking in prayer the man gabriel whom i had seen in the vision previously came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering he gave me instruction and
[01:02:08] talked with me and said oh daniel i have come forth to give you insight with understanding the beginning of your supplication the command was issued and i've come to tell you for your highly esteemed to give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision so if you read
[01:02:24] this prayer out loud, it takes about three minutes. And so Gabriel was there within three minutes of the time that Daniel started praying. So that tells us heaven's not very far away, right? And no space and it's no distance for God. And the moment we begin to pray, our voice is immediately
[01:02:42] heard before the throne of God in heaven. And God sends the angel Gabriel to answer Daniel's prayer before Daniel is even finished. It's an interrupted prayer. Now, I don't know if that's ever happened to you or not. There's been one time in my life, one main time when God interrupted my prayer and
[01:02:59] gave me the answer. I think I probably told this story before, but Cheryl and I were about to be married and we were buying a house together and it was a big, big responsibility. I'd never taken
[01:03:09] on any kind of financial responsibility like that before. And I was praying a lot. And so we looked at this house and Cheryl loved it and was convinced it was God's will. And I wanted to pray longer
[01:03:18] about it. And so I prayed, I think longer than she probably wished I would have prayed before we ended up buying it. But I was in my apartment. I'll never forget laying on my bed. I was praying
[01:03:27] to God and saying, God, if you want us to have this house, I pray that you'll work this out.
[01:03:32] And here's the amount that I feel like is the most we could do. And if you'll work it out for this amount, then we'll buy the house. Well, while I'm there praying, the phone rings. Now,
[01:03:39] this was back in the old days. You actually had like a literal phone there by your bed.
[01:03:43] And the phone rings. And so I pick it up. And it's this builder. And he says, hey, I just was calling to check in. Do you see if you've been thinking about that house that you looked at a
[01:03:52] couple of weeks ago. I said, as a matter of fact, I've been thinking about it a lot, just now, just praying about it just now. And so I told him, I said, we'll buy it for X amount. He said, well,
[01:04:01] I won't sell it for that, but I'll sell it to you for this. And the offer he made was the exact amount I just prayed to God about. And I told him right on the spot, I said, we'll take it.
[01:04:10] Now, Cheryl was really excited about that when I told her it was finally, the ordeal was finally over. But you know, here's something that's interesting. That happened 35 years ago.
[01:04:19] And God used that answer to build my faith incredibly because if I ever in my life have ever doubted when I pray that God is really hearing me, oftentimes my mind goes back to that time.
[01:04:31] In my early 20s, laying there on the bed, and God interrupted my prayer to give me the exact answer.
[01:04:37] And to me, isn't that amazing how one act of God's grace can sustain you for a lifetime?
[01:04:43] It's just something you go back to again and again.
[01:04:46] And I hope God interrupts some more of my prayers in the future.
[01:04:50] But if he doesn't, that one time that he did that was an incredible faith builder for me in my life.
[01:04:57] Look, there's nothing more important than any of us will do in 2021 than pray.
[01:05:02] You can do more than pray after you've prayed, but you can't do more than pray until you've prayed.
[01:05:09] Don't be a stranger to God this year.
[01:05:12] Don't be a stranger to prayer.
[01:05:15] Look, our biggest problem is not unanswered prayer, it's unoffered prayer.
[01:05:20] I pray that God will set your prayer life on fire this year.
[01:05:23] We need prayer that's motivated by the Word of God.
[01:05:26] We need prayer that's manifested in humility and fervency.
[01:05:29] You and I don't want to be passive prayers.
[01:05:31] We want to be passionate prayers.
[01:05:33] We need to magnify the Lord in worship.
[01:05:35] Our prayers need to be marked by confession.
[01:05:37] We need to make a request.
[01:05:39] And our prayers ultimately need to be moved by the glory of God.
[01:05:44] I'll close with this this morning.
[01:05:45] Years ago, I've told you all stories like this before, but when I was at Dallas Seminary, I tried to get together with Dr. Walvoord as often as I could because he was the best-known prophecy scholar in the world.
[01:05:55] And I love Bible prophecy, and he was kind enough to take me to his old crown, Victoria.
[01:06:00] We would drive down to this place called the Coach House and have lunch, and I'd ask him Bible prophecy questions endlessly for an hour or two, and he would just sit there and answer them one after another.
[01:06:09] But one of my favorite things is he would sometimes tell stories about his life and his ministry.
[01:06:14] And one time we were driving back to the seminary, and he was talking about prayer, And he told me about a time when he met another president of another seminary.
[01:06:23] And he asked the man, he said, how are things going in your own life?
[01:06:26] And he said, and how are things going with the seminary?
[01:06:29] And he said, the man looked him in the eye, says, we're going forward on our knees.
[01:06:34] And he said, well, that really, really hit me whenever he said that.
[01:06:37] And he said, it kind of convicted me about my own prayer life.
[01:06:41] But to me, that's a great thought for you and for me in this coming year.
[01:06:44] Let's go forward on our knees.
[01:06:46] in your marriage you and I need to go forward and we go forward on our knees with our children and with our grandchildren we go forward on our knees maybe in your business to go forward on your knees
[01:07:00] calling out to God certainly in this church as we go forward in this year we need to go forward on our knees and if there's ever been a time in our nation when we need to go forward on our knees
[01:07:11] God help us it's this time in which we live So I pray that you'll join me in this year in seeking God and asking God to light our prayer lives on fire by the power of His Holy Spirit.
[01:07:25] That we can go forward on our knees and see what God can do in and through us in our lives.
[01:07:32] Well, let's pray together.
[01:07:36] Father, we come before You and we thank You that we can have an audience with You.
[01:07:41] The God who's great and awesome and the God who's righteous.
[01:07:45] God who's filled with mercy and compassion.
[01:07:49] Father, that you even let us come into your presence.
[01:07:53] And Father, we thank you that we can come to you.
[01:07:55] And the only reason we can come is because you're good-hearted and that we can be forgiven through the death and the resurrection of our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
[01:08:06] Father, thank you for him.
[01:08:08] Thank you for Jesus and all he's done for us.
[01:08:12] Father, I pray for myself and for all of us here that you'll light our prayer life on fire by the power of your Spirit in our lives.
[01:08:19] We can go forward on our knees together this coming year.
[01:08:23] and see what you can do. We commit ourselves completely to you. We come in you in humble dependence and fervency, pour out our hearts to you. Oh, God, move us, I pray. I pray that you'll
[01:08:36] take our lives, each one of us, and use us in ways we could never imagine in this coming year.
[01:08:41] Father, we commit ourselves to you now and to your grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

[01:08:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:08:47] Would you stand? Let's praise God for his mercy to us.

[01:08:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:08:50] praise the lord his mercy is more stronger our sins they are his mercy his blood was the payment his life was the cost we stood they are thank you all so much for being here with us this morning i

[01:13:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:13:10] pray that our time and god's word and our fellowship together this morning will enrich our lives spiritually if you're visiting with us if you got these doors a little ways down on the right, there's a welcome center there, and there's some folks who'd love to give you some information
[01:13:22] about our church. I'll be down front after the service. Our elders who are in this service and pastors will be down front. We'd love to greet you. Let's bow our heads now for the benediction
[01:13:32] as we leave here with the Lord's blessing upon us. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. All God's
[01:13:42] people said, amen.