So thankful for the grace of God.
Amen.
Turn if your Bibles, if you would, to Daniel Daniel Chapter 9.
And those of you who are student of the word, know that Daniel
chapter nine contains Daniel's 70 weeks, the prophecy of Daniel
70 weeks.
And you're anticipating that's going to happen tonight.
It's not.
It is amazing though, how that chapter nine Daniel begins again,
pondering what's going on and then, but then he has a prayer.
So I think it's appropriate that we, like Daniel tonight, pause
before we get into the prophecy of Daniel's 70 weeks and
take time to go back to the basics and to hear and to read a
model prayer of Daniel.
There's many model prayers in the Bible, Nehemiah, many others
who prayed, prayers that we can go back and we can read and help
us understand and know how we might better pray and how we might
come to the Lord in a more biblical fashion, a more biblical
way.
And this is a great one.
So I hope tonight that some of you this will be very elementary.
And then some of you said, hey, it's been a while.
I need a refresher course on praying.
And again, prayer is the muscle that moves the arm of God.
And we need.
Prayer is so neglected and we need to be people of prayer.
So Daniel chapter nine, we'll read verses one through 19.
And so let's begin in verse one.
In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed
of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans,
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books
the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah
the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations
of Jerusalem.
Verse 3.
And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication,
with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession and said,
O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy
to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments.
We have sinned and have committed iniquity, and have done
wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts
and from thy judgments.
Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants, the prophets, which
spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, our fathers,
and to all the people of the land.
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee.
Be unto us confusion of faces, as at this day to the men of Judah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And unto all Israel that are near and that are far off, through
all the countries whither thou hast driven them because of their
trespass, that they have trespassed against thee, O Lord.
To us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes,
and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
To the Lord our God belongs mercies and forgivenesses.
Though we have rebelled against him, neither have we obeyed
the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set
before us by his servants the prophets.
Verse 11.
Yea, all Israel have trespassed thy law, even by departing
that they might not obey thy voice.
Therefore the curse is poured out upon him and the oath that was
written in the law of Moses, the servant of God.
Anybody remember the message from this morning?
Maybe three of you.
That verse is referring back to what we talked about this morning.
Alright, to the law of Moses.
There in Deuteronomy we read in two different three or two or
three.
Deuteronomy 11, Deuteronomy 27 and 28, talking about the blessings
and the cursings.
This is what it's speaking about.
Because we have sinned against him.
Verse 12 and he that hath confirmed his words, which he spake
against us and against our judges that judged us, by bringing
upon us a great evil.
For under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done
upon Jerusalem, as it is written in the law of Moses.
All this evil has come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before
the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and
understand thy truth.
Therefore we didn't turn.
Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought
it upon us.
For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which
he doeth, for we obeyed not his voice.
Daniel hasn't said that at all in this entire prayer, has he?
And now, O Lord our God, thou hast brought thy people forth out
of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and hast gotten thee
renowned as it is this day.
By the way, just side note, he is saying even in that day people
are still talking about the children of Israel coming out of
Egypt and how God performed the great miracles.
It's amazing, isn't it?
We have sinned.
We have done wickedly.
Verse 16.
O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, I
beg the let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy
city, Jerusalem, thy holy mountain.
Because for our sins and for the iniquity of our fathers, Jerusalem
and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us
now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his
supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary
that is desolate.
For the Lord's sake, O my God, incline thine ear and hear, open
thine eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is
called by thy name.
Talking about Jerusalem.
For we do not present our supplications before thee for our
righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
In other words, we have nothing within us worthy of you answering
our prayer or hearing our prayer, but for your sake, your great
mercies.
Verse 19.
O Lord, hear.
O Lord, forgive.
O Lord, hearken and do defer not for thine own sake, O my God.
For thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, as we look at the prayer of Daniel, may we follow
his example.
May we see this model prayer as a pattern by which we can come
to the throne of grace.
We thank you for your love for us.
And though we are unworthy to come before the throne, we're so
thankful that you hear our prayers in Jesus name.
Amen.
The theme of the Book of Daniel is again, God rules in the
affairs of man.
God is the one who sets kings up.
He's the one who takes them down.
And we need to be reminded of that every day here in America, that
God's in control, and he's the one who is putting kings in place,
presidents in place, and he's the one who determines to take them
down.
In chapter seven and eight, we again saw the visions and the prophecies
concerning the Gentile powers and also the Antichrist.
And we spent time talking about these beasts that were coming
again, these beasts representing the Gentile powers that
are going to come after the Babylonian empire, and so much so
that it names the Medo Persian Empire and even names the Grecian
Empire.
Then it specifically, in an amazing way, talks about Antiochus
Epiphanes, though it doesn't use his name.
There's zero doubt that's who it is, because of the prophecy and
the time that it gives tells the exact day in which he would offer
up a pig in the sanctuary.
It's an amazing thing.
And really chapter eight is the reason why the liberals and the
modernists date Daniel to the 2nd century instead of the 6th century
where it belongs, because they believe that that prophecy is just
too real.
It's a prophecy.
And so if you date the Daniel's writings to the second century.
Then none of the prophecies are really prophecies.
It's just history.
And that's what the modernists would want because they don't believe
that the Bible is true.
It's amazing, isn't it?
God used Daniel to prophesy concerning these future powers, gentile
powers, even down to anticus epiphanies.
It's an amazing thing, the description of the Antichrist in
those two chapters.
And we know that one day he'll come on the scene.
So that's where we have been at.
So now we're back in the first year of the Medo Persian Empire.
So we're back in the timeframe of chapter six.
Remember, the first six chapters are dealing primarily with
Daniel and his friends.
And about them though we do know Daniel, chapter two is a prophetical
chapter, but primarily dealing with Daniel, the three Hebrew children.
And then the last chapter 7 through 12 dealing primarily with
prophecy.
That's how it's divided.
So the prophetical sections chapters go back and plug in to the
first few chapters as far as it is chronologically speaking.
So chronologically speaking, chapter nine is happening where chapter
six was at.
Anybody care?
Everybody okay?
It's just good to know.
Hey, in your mind.
That's the way my mind works.
So now we're in the first year of the Medo Persian Empire.
Darius is on the throne in Babylon.
Now he's not the main king, he's a co regent.
He's simply over the king over Babylon, whereas Cyrus is ultimately
the king.
Here we also see the record of a model prayer given by Daniel.
And then tonight we'll cover this next Sunday night.
This is the key chapter.
Chapter nine is the key chapter of understanding the big
picture of God's program or God's prophetic calendar.
Daniel chapter nine and Daniel's 70 weeks are giving you
the broad outline of God's prophetical calendar.
And it is emphatic, it is dogmatic, it is the greatest proof
text of why we are pre tribulationists.
And it is no doubt.
There is zero doubt.
Jesus is coming and he's coming before the great Tribulation.
We are not appointed into wrath.
We will not go through the tribulation, we won't go through
the first half of the tribulation and we won't go through
the second half of the tribulation.
We'll be in heaven at the marriage supper of the lamb, eating
roasted mashed potatoes, picking fruit off the trees of the
stream that flows out of the throne room of God.
But Daniel 70 weeks is amazing.
So we will have next Sunday night some charts and yeah, most
of them will be brother Stewart's charts.
And we certainly want you to get your head wrapped around the
prophecy.
It's an amazing, amazing prophecy.
As we think about this chapter, we see that Daniel again
is pondering.
He is a student of prophecy.
By the way, look at that.
I mean verse 2.
In the first year of the reign, I, Daniel understood by what
books, the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came
to Jeremiah the prophet.
Listen, he is studying, he is reading the book of Jeremiah.
He's studying, he's learning, he's preparing, he's pondering.
Daniel was a student of prophecy.
Prophecy is one of the proofs that the Bible is true, that the
Bible indeed is the word of God.
As I said, Daniel chapter 8 describing Antiochus epiphanies,
even the very date in which he would come.
It's an amazing thing.
It's what proves it's one of the proofs again, the Bible is indeed
the word of God.
In First Peter chapter one.
We won't turn there.
You can look it up if you would like.
1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 10 through 12.
Peter references the prophets and when he references the prophets
in these three particular scripture, he references the prophets
as they are also students of prophecy.
He says the prophets have studied the prophets.
And then he also alludes to that the prophets would study their
own writings to try to get a clearer understanding of what they
meant.
Daniel did that.
We know that there was delay in Daniel of revealing the prophecies
that he was getting.
There was delay in that and more than likely at least in verse,
that he was studying them his own prophecies.
Pretty cool.
I received this from the Lord, but I need a better understanding
of what's going on.
And studies his own prophecy.
So Daniel's a student of prophecy, a student of the writings
of Jeremiah and no doubt Isaiah.
Daniel read Jeremiah, turn to Jeremiah chapter 29, just a few books
over Jeremiah 29.
So the 70 years was prophesied by Jeremiah, also prophesied by Isaiah
that the children of Israel would be in captivity.
If you remember when Jeremiah is prophesying there in Jerusalem
that there were other prophets there that were saying Jeremiah is
wrong.
The captivity will be a short time.
It will not be, it will not be a long time and we'll be back in
the land and just a bunch of losers, people pretending to be prophets
who wasn't really getting a word from the Lord.
They were just trying to please men and not the Lord.
And trying to tickle the ears of their hearers.
And therefore they said, oh, you know this captivity.
And Jeremiah kept preaching.
70 years, 70 years.
And guess what?
They didn't like Jeremiah.
Because he preached the truth.
They put him in prison.
They put him down in a hole.
Tradition says he was put inside of a log at some point and
may have been sawn asunder.
Just they ill treated him because he spoke the truth.
So in Jeremiah, chapter 29, look with me in verse 4.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that
are carried away in captives, whom I have caused to be carried
away from Jerusalem unto Babylon, build ye houses and dwell
in them.
In other words, you don't need to stay in tents.
Build your house, plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
Take ye wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for
your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they
may bear sons and daughters, that ye may be increased there and
not diminished.
And seek the peace of the city.
Whether I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray
unto the Lord for it.
For in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Let not
your prophets or your diviners that be in the midst of you, deceive
you.
Neither hearken to your dreams, which ye cause to be dreamed.
For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name I have not sent them,
saith the Lord.
For thus saith the lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at
Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word toward you and
causing you to return to this place.
So you better stop listening to the false prophets, stop living
in 10, build your houses, go ahead and have your children get
married, because you're going to be in Babylon a while.
70 years.
And so Daniel, it says there in verse two, said he understood
by books the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came
to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the
desolation of Jerusalem.
So here is Daniel pondering, thinking, praying about this 70 years
of Daniel that Jeremiah had spoken of.
And he understood the times.
So he understood that that captivity was about to end, or may
had just ended, because Daniel lives through it, the return.
And so he, I have no doubt, was getting excited about what God
was about to do to allow the children of Israel to return from
captivity and go back to Jerusalem.
The children of Israel had been carried into Babylon because
of their apostasy, and God had chastened them, chastening of the
Lord, I quoted this verse this morning.
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 6 says, whom the Lord loveth.
What?
He chasteneth.
God loves his people.
And God was very.
And I mentioned this morning and understand, yes, God in the Old
Testament dealt with his people in such a way.
Again, there was cursing and there was blessing.
You either keep the law and I'll bless you.
You don't keep the law, I'll curse you.
But understand that grace was still a major part of how God dealt
with the children of Israel.
Think about it.
How long suffering he was with them.
Think how long suffering he was for those who dwelt in Canaan.
He said, the fullness of the Canaanites are not yet.
He wouldn't allow the Canaanites and all the AIT people
to be destroyed.
400 years earlier God was long suffering.
I'm thankful for a long suffering God.
Aren't you a gracious and grace God of grace?
But whom he loveth, he chasteneth.
I just kind of want to stick this in here.
It says Proverbs 13:24.
Just as by way of illustration.
He that spareth his rod hateth his son.
But he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes.
Just remind you parents, we got a lot of young couples and raising
these kids do it the Bible way.
The Bible says.
And Solomon, the wisest man who's ever lived, said, if you do
not spank your child, you hate them.
You say, well, that's just.
That's not what it's saying.
That's exactly what it says.
And it says that a parent chasteneth them betimes.
You got to look that one up.
Here's what it means.
It means they chasten them promptly.
I just throw in some parental doesn't say, you count to 1, 2 and
3.
I know a lot of parents use that and if you use it, that's between
you and the Lord.
But all you're doing is teaching them to disobey 1, 2 and
3.
So betimes means promptly.
Betimes means without delay.
It means early.
It also means earnestly.
I like that one.
Chasteneth your child earnestly.
You guys are okay.
Amen.
Just timeout thing.
Whatever, go ahead.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
By the way, the Bible does teach grace.
And I'm thankful we can show our children grace at times.
There was times in our kids would disobey that.
We would say, hey, you know, this is what you deserve, but we're
going to show you grace.
And we did that from time to time.
It's a good thing to do.
But whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.
And a dad and a mom who truly love their children will chasten
them.
It takes a lot of effort and time.
Train up a child in the way they should go.
I used this the other day and I'll use it again.
Train.
Not a choo choo train.
Train.
Training takes time, takes effort.
What we have in this world today, and I don't believe this would
be the testimony of anybody in the room, but we have a lot of parents
who are lazy.
You've got to betimes promptly.
Yes, yes.
Lovingly and kindly.
Should I move on?
It's parked there.
Yeah.
Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.
And God's so gracious with Israel.
But again, like I said this morning and this evening, again,
you can fall on the grace of God.
You can humble yourself before God and God will show you grace.
But Daniel makes it very clear in here, Israel did not humble themselves.
They did not pray, they did not seek God's face, and God chastened
them.
Why 70 years?
That's kind of an arbitrary number.
It's really not.
The 70 years is to make up for the Sabbath years.
You see, the law had been given by Moses that every seventh
year Israel was to let the land rest.
So that means every seventh year they were not to harvest and
plant and any of those things.
They were to let the land rest.
And this had more to do.
And I thought, well, maybe that's, you know, an agricultural
thing.
Well, really it has more to do with the spiritual in that God gave
them that law that they would be dependent upon him that seventh
year.
That meant in the sixth year that God had to come through and
make sure that there was plenty of food and things to store
up for the next year.
So it was God giving them a test to allow them to find out if
they truly would have faith in him and trust him and be dependent
upon Him.
But they did not.
We know they didn't let the land rest on the seventh year.
And of course it would have an agricultural impact.
We know that now scientifically, to let the land rest
for a whole year.
But they did not.
And God warned them that they did not do that, that he would chasten
them.
And so that 70 years is the number of years that they did not
allow that land to rest.
So it rested for exactly the number of Sabbath years Israel failed
to observe.
By the way, the number seven is a cool number in the Bible.
It Speaks of completion.
Seven appears many times in the Bible.
We know that the seven days of creation.
Again, speaking of completion, number seven always speaks of the
divine work of God.
The completion of the divine work of God.
Numbers do play a role in the Bible.
I don't preach on that much and talk about that much because
people have a tendency to carry it way, way, way too far.
But number seven, the number 40, there's other numbers in the
Bible that do have some metaphoric and symbolism with them.
And number seven absolutely does.
Seventy years, Jeremiah prophesied, but we know it says it's
plural.
Books.
It means he read books.
And so no doubt he read Isaiah as well.
In Isaiah, chapter 44 and chapter 45, Isaiah, 100 years before
Cyrus came to power named Cyrus.
I know we've mentioned this from the pulpit many times, but go
look this up.
This is amazing.
Again, this is one of the proofs in which we know that the
Bible is true.
That it wasn't just some arbitrary, you know, very, you know,
vague prophecy concerning the Medo Persian king.
It didn't just say the Medo Persian king would allow the children
of Israel to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.
No, it didn't say that.
In that vague statement.
Literally, Isaiah says, Cyrus.
Over 100 years before Cyrus comes to the throne.
I still believe, and I can't wait to get to heaven and ask Daniel.
Did Daniel go in and show Cyrus?
Hey, look, over 100 years ago, our prophets prophesied about you
that you would allow our people to return to Jerusalem.
It's amazing, isn't it?
It's an amazing thought.
Cyrus, it mentions his name twice there in Isaiah 44.
To Cyrus it says that saith of Cyrus.
And it says to Cyrus, whose right hand.
It's an amazing thing, by the way, Babylon was barely a blip on
the screen and certainly the Medo Persian empire was not anything
but a blip on the screen at the time that Isaiah prophesied.
What a book we have that you hold in your lap or you have on your
phone.
What an amazing book.
What a miraculous book.
1600 years written over a period of 1600 years and 40 different
authors, and yet without error.
It's an amazing book.
It's a miraculous book.
And then we see Daniel's Prayer.
I've already read it.
And so therefore I'm just going to kind of give you the high
points of it and give you again the outline here of this model
prayer.
He prayed for his people.
And we see in verse 5, he identified with his people.
He didn't just say, I'm praying for Israel's sins.
No, he said, I'm praying for my sins as well.
Daniel identified with his people.
Daniel identified and made very clear that he wasn't sinless
as well.
He had sinned in his own life.
He prayed there.
In that very verse three, it talks about supplication to make
supplication before God.
What is supplication?
Supplication is that of being serious and humble.
It has to do with pleading a request before God, a heartfelt request,
a passionate approach to God, a true desire to have your prayer
answered.
So we see.
Before Daniel receives this great prophecy of the 70 weeks he
prays.
I wonder if the prayer had anything to do with God giving him
the blessing of the prophecy.
I believe it did.
As Daniel humbled himself before God.
There are three acronyms that you can use.
Two of them, actually, that I want to speak of.
I always use the word pray.
Pray.
P R A Y.
Praise God for who and what he is.
Repent of your sins.
Ask.
Because prayer means to ask.
Ask for others and then yourself, and then yield to whatever
God will is.
And so that's an easy one.
Another one is Acts.
It means acknowledgment of God and His attributes.
It means confession.
It means thanksgiving and supplication.
And again along that same lines, we see this model of Daniel
as he prays to God.
It's coming to the Lord.
There, in verses 4, 5 and 6, Daniel said he prayed to the Lord.
That means Jehovah.
It means Jehovah, my Elohim.
What does that mean?
Well, it means the God of all creation.
He acknowledged who he's praying to, the God who created everything.
We did not evolve.
God created everything.
God created everything in six days.
On the seventh day he rested.
It was complete.
God, the Creator, the Jehovah, the self existent One, the God of
the universe, who created the universe and everything.
They're in I love.
In Isaiah 40, he talks about the stars, putting all the stars
in place and hanging them like a curtain.
It was no big deal.
Sometimes a curtain hanging a curtain's a big deal.
But he acknowledges the attributes of God.
He praises God for who he is.
He speaks about his majesty.
He calls him the Great and dreadful One.
That means the Omnipotent One.
He is almighty.
He is all powerful.
By the way, the word Almighty there is never used of anyone but
God in the Bible.
And it's used 56 times.
It means he's without limitations.
It means he has endless strength.
He is the omnipotent one.
He is the all powerful one.
And therefore we can rely on him.
We can trust him.
I don't know about you, but when I expend, when I.
When I work, and especially when I do manual labor, I get tired.
So Friday I decided to do a few things around the Crawford farm.
We have about 40 chickens and about 40 goats.
One of our goats had babies today.
And so I was building a mulch pile deal to hold some mulch.
I want to, I want to get that going.
And I did some other things and you know, and that's why this
morning I said, cold front, really?
No, I was dying.
It was hot.
I drank two or three Gatorades, I drank water.
But I expended energy and I was tired.
Understand, God never gets tired.
His power is limitless.
And our finite minds cannot comprehend that because we just attribute
that if I expend energy, then I'm going to be tired.
I'm going to be even exhausted.
But God never gets tired.
He can do all things and still have the same amount of power.
Again, we can't wrap our minds around that.
He has all knowledge and we can't wrap our hands around that
either.
That he knows everything effortlessly.
Because man, we have to try so hard to learn.
You know, man learn computers, right?
Some of us.
God, the great and dreadful one, the omnipotent one who is merciful.
He speaks about God's mercy.
That again, actively compassionate God goodness, by the
way.
God's goodness in confronting human suffering and guilt.
God is merciful.
Patience, especially with Israel, verses 5 through 6.
He describes this in words.
He's trying to say, well, here's what Israel's done.
And he uses these words, he calls them sinners.
We are sinners.
What does that mean?
Missing the mark.
It means to stumble, it means to fall.
And then he says our iniquity, that talk about that, it means perversity.
It means to be bent or crooked.
And then he talks about Israel's wickedness and they are
wickedly lawlessness and ungodly behavior.
Then he speaks about their rebellion again, revolting against
God, departing from the God's law.
All these things describing the behavior of Israel, why God chastised
them.
All those words would describe us as well.
So when you come to God and when you pray, you ought to come
to him and repent.
We didn't cover it because of lack of time this morning.
But first John, chapter one, seven, eight, nine, you know, verse
seven says that if we walk in the light as he's in the light we
have fellowship one with another.
And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins.
And verse eight says, if you say you have no sin, you're a liar.
But first John 1:9 says, if we confess our sins, He, God is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That we go to God and we praise him and talk about his attributes
and thank Him.
And again, not just thanking for his attributes.
I believe there is a part in there that ought to be about Thanksgiving
and thanking him for all the great things he's done for you.
Thank you, Lord, for what you've done for me and my family
and for our church and supplying our needs.
And you ought to take some time just to praise the Lord.
Lift him up in your prayer.
Acknowledge him, acknowledge him, but then repent.
Because we know that sin is what separates us from God.
And though I am thankful for eternal security, I'm thankful that
once I was saved.
I cannot lose it.
God doesn't kick us out of the family when we sin.
He doesn't boot us out.
But there becomes a split in the fellowship with God.
We are no longer close to God.
He hasn't moved.
We are the one who moved away.
And that fellowship is broken.
And when we come and repent of our sins, that fellowship is restored.
Easy way to illustrate that is in your own family, with your own
kids, how many times have your kids done something and disobeyed?
And just for that brief period of time, hopefully you've taken care
of it promptly.
But if you didn't and you counted to 25 instead.
But no, we want that fellowship restored right with your
children as they get right with you or you get right with your
dad or your mom.
Right, guys?
Right, ladies?
You want that fellowship restored?
The same thing with God.
Our Heavenly Father desires fellowship.
He desires a relationship.
And many times we need to come to him and just simply say, lord,
man, you are so good.
You are such a gracious God who is merciful to me and gracious
to me, and you do not give us what we deserve.
And.
And on and on and on.
But Lord, I'm so sorry.
Lord, forgive me of my sins.
And you ought to.
Those that you know and you know you've done them willfully,
you ought to name them specifically.
Be careful about getting the habit of just saying, lord, forgive
me my sins.
That's what the New Testament teaches.
The New Testament teaches that we go to God and specifically ask
for forgiveness of each sin.
You say, well, I May not remember him well.
The Holy Ghost will help you search me, know my heart.
Try me.
Ask him to help you recall.
And I'm so thankful God is a gracious God and that the Holy Spirit
will utter prayers that you cannot, you cannot do yourself.
Isn't that amazing?
The Holy Spirit prays for you.
By the way, John 17 says, Jesus prays for us.
Isn't that amazing?
Prayer, repentance coming to him again.
Here Daniel speaks about the patience of God.
He speaks about so many other things and he goes through and he
repents and speaks about the iniquity.
He says in verse 11 that we have transgressed against you.
We have gone beyond the line, we have crossed over the fence.
We ignored no trespass sign.
God forgive us.
In verses 12 through 15, he says to God, our punishment is deserving.
We deserve what you've done.
But I love verses 16 through 19.
Did you see that change in the prayer?
He says, lord, yes, we deserved what has happened to us,
God, we have.
We have sinned against you.
But he says, o Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech
thee, I beg the let not thy anger and thy fury be turned away
from thy city, Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, because of our sins
and iniquities.
He says, lord, don't punish us forever, Lord, forgive us.
And the last verses.
There it's just him pleading and lord, shine your light once again
on the sanctuary.
An amazing thought.
Shine your light once again on the sanctuary, the desolate sanctuary.
He asks.
In verses 16 through 19, he asks, Prayer is asking if you're
praying and you don't ask for nothing, you really haven't prayed.
So some people say, well, I just don't want to ask God.
I don't feel like I can ask God for anything.
Well, that's praying.
Praying is asking.
He wants you to come to him.
He wants to.
He desires to give you what you ask.
And then lastly, yielding.
Yielding to whatever God's plan is or whatever God desires to
do.
That's where we get in trouble many times.
We just don't yield.
We want what we want.
It's kind of like people who come into the pastor for counseling.
When they come to the pastor for counseling, they've already made
up their mind.
They just want me to check the box.
You know, not everybody.
And I'm thankful for that.
They just.
But many times we.
We've already decided when we pray, and we just want God to check
the box.
No, no, Lord, I humble before you, Lord, whatever you want.
That's what I Want, Lord?
I want to do thy will, O Lord.
That's how Jesus prayed.
Let's turn to Matthew 6 and we'll end with that.
Matthew 6.
I know where you're going with this one.
Matthew, chapter six.
Jesus was asked, how do we pray?
And most people call this the Lord's Prayer.
And that's not.
That's not accurate.
That's not what it is.
It's not the Lord's Prayer.
It's the model prayer.
He's teaching us how to pray.
Matthew, chapter six.
What a prayer.
Daniel prayed.
Prayer is so important.
We need to pray.
Prayer is one of those areas in the Christian life that is neglected
teenagers.
Adults take time.
Seek his face.
As Abraham talked face to face with God, so can we, as royal priests,
talk face to face with God.
Thankful I don't have to go through some other mediator or some
other.
No, I can go straight to God and come boldly before the throne
of grace.
If we ask, will he not answer?
How's your prayer life tonight?
Matthew, chapter six.
Let's go to verse seven, just for lack of time.
But when you pray, use not vain repetition as the heathen do.
For they think they shall be heard for their much speaking.
I get a lot of questions about this one.
It's not saying that you can't repeat your prayer.
It's speaking about the chants that some of these religions do where
they're just chanting their prayers.
They're just chanting the same prayer over and over and over again.
But when you're praying for Shaleen, it's no way.
Is it saying here that you shouldn't repeat that prayer?
No, no, absolutely.
We should pray for Chalene every day, Every time her name comes
to mind.
You ought to pray for her.
Amen.
So it's not talking about that.
It's talking about vain repetition.
Just chance chanting.
Be not ye therefore like unto them.
For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before you
ask.
Verse 9.
After this manner, therefore, pray ye.
Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
You think he's acknowledging the attributes of God?
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
He's asking.
No problem with asking.
Lord, put food on the table.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Ask him for forgiveness.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Lord, teach us to pray.
Teach us to pray.
Let's all stand.