Daniel's Incredible Prayer

So, the title of our sermon today is Daniel's Incredible Prayer. Just simply stated, Daniel's Incredible Prayer. Did you know that Daniel had an incredible prayer recorded for us? It's found in Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. So, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to open them there. We're going to begin in verse 1 in just a moment. Daniel 9 verse 1. But, you know, again, we as God's called out ones, I think I can confidently say that, of course, we strive every day to grow in our relationship with God, to fulfill His purposes, to make the most of our lives for Him.

And with that, there is one primary ultimate activity that we must draw upon and that we must put into action. And it is simply prayer. Foundational to our relationship with God, foundational to fulfilling His purpose. But again, in a quite remarkable and unified way for the Christian, for the man or woman called by God, often it is prayer that is the activity that they will say they need the most help with. Prayer for the Christian can be one of the most challenging activities to engage in successfully and continually and consistently.

And as we fully acknowledge, though, the critical nature of its importance, I'd like to give you a quote. This quote is from an English preacher in the 1800s. I think he said it well with regards to prayer. His name was Samuel Chadwick, and he, speaking on the topic of prayer and the importance of it, spoke these words. Quote, Satan dreads nothing but prayer.

His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, or prayerless work, or prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil. He mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray. Unquote. Quite a powerful quote. If that is true, why? Why would Satan, quote, tremble when we pray? Well, it's because of what prayer is for the true Christian. You know, prayer to God is not some kind of activity where we're looking at God as some cosmic genie, you know, there just to grant our wishes, you know. No, prayer, and why Satan trembles at it, prayer is our activity, our attempt to develop intimacy with God. And it is our activity that we put forth to align our will with His. There's the power in it.

Simply stated, prayer is our attempt, our activity. We could say even our struggle to align our will to God's will. Now you can begin to think, oh, now I see where the trembling of Satan can come into play as one of God's children is in that mode and in that struggle.

So often, it is a struggle, a real struggle, and we learn as when we look at Scripture, that it is in that realm where the individual, the son or daughter of God, is in that struggle with prayer to do just that, to align their will with God's. And God, I'll tell you, always answers our prayers. God answers every prayer that we utter to Him.

Now, the answer comes in different forms. Sometimes God answers no to our prayer. No, that is not according to my will. It's not best in this circumstance. So sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is slow, slow, slow down. The timing of what you're praying for is not yet.

Sometimes the answer is grow. You're praying according to my will. I am pleased with that.

But my answer is to you at this moment is grow. I need you to grow a little bit. Before I would, as a loving Father, grant that prayer, that request, in those circumstances, I'm going to need you to grow a little bit.

And then the fourth answer from God may be go. Go. And when you look at Daniel and his life, you see those four aspects, those four answers, really come into his experience. No, slow, grow, and go. I didn't invent that. I found that in my studies, but I thought it was pretty good and helpful. And I always love a good turn of a phrase, especially if it rhymes. That's always helpful for me. But for Daniel, at this moment in his life, here in chapter 9, he's at a moment where it is going to be go. Go for Daniel. And up to this point, it had been the first three in many ways. No, slow, grow. But here, Daniel, as he now comes to give this prayer to God, he's at this moment in his life where God is going to answer, go. And so we, as students of the Bible, as followers of God as well, we need help in this area and the struggle to align our will with God's. And so there's no better place to come than what I believe is one of the greatest prayers in all the Bible here that Daniel is about to utter. And I'll tell you, Daniel is the perfect individual to come to because prayer was essential in his life. Prayer was absolutely essential in helping him persevere through it all, to understand what was going on, to have the strength to move forward.

It says a little bit of a build-up here, but let me just give you a little bit of background before we now read in chapter 9. They're still in captivity. Daniel and his people are still in captivity. Babylon had taken them into captivity.

Daniel, at this point in chapter 9, understands that there's going to be no rescue, no return to his home for himself and his people, unless there is redemption through personal and national repentance.

Daniel was understanding of that, and as he surveyed God's people, he realizes that, unfortunately, despite all that they had experienced in the besieging and the captivity, they had yet not humbled themselves in repentant prayer. Daniel resolves now to intercede on behalf of the nation through prayer and fasting, and he's going to ask God to act without delay to restore the sanctuary, restore his city, restore his people in this way. So could there be an opportunity for God to rescue Daniel and his people from captivity? Was that still a possibility?

The answer is yes, there was, but it was only going to be ushered in through this incredible prayer of Daniel's. So without further delay, Daniel chapter 9 verse 1, let's give ourselves to this prayer. Daniel 9 verse 1, recorded here, in the first year of Darius, the son of a Hazaros, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldean, Darius was, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he, God, would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. So Daniel's reading Jeremiah, the scroll, and he's now understanding what God was going to accomplish in the 70 years of desolation. Verse 3, then Daniel says, I set my face toward Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes, and I pray to the Lord my God, and made confession and said, O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments. We have sinned and committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heeded your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers, and all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us shame of face, as it is this day to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those near and those afar off in countries to which you have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you. O Lord, to us belong shame of face to our kings, our princes, our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy, forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws, which he has set before his servants the prophets. Verse 11, Yes, all Israel transgressed your law and has departed so as to not obey your voice. Therefore, the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we've sinned against him. And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing upon us great disaster. For under the whole heaven, such has not been done as was done to Jerusalem. Verse 13, As it is written in the law of Moses, he continues to pray, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth.

Therefore, the Lord has kept the disaster in mind and brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all works, which he does, though we have not obeyed his voice. And now our Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and made yourself a name as it is this day, those same people, we have sinned and we've done wickedly. Oh Lord, according to your righteousness, I pray let your anger and your fury be turned away from the city Jerusalem, your holy mountain, because of our sins and for our iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people, are a reproach to all those around us. Now therefore, O God, hear the prayer of your servant and his supplications, his request. And for the Lord's sake, cause your face to shine on your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations, the city which is called by your name. For we do not present our requests, our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies.

O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act. Do not delay. For your own sake, my God, for your city and your people are called by your name. Let's stop there. Ooh! What a prayer! And again, if you've never, maybe, if you're being reminded of this prayer, I, again, I propose this is one of the greatest prayers in all the Bible here. You know, it's so interesting when this prayer comes. Of course, I'll remind you, chapter six, we won't turn there, but in chapter six, it was a as a result of Daniel's unwillingness to stop praying to God, his unwillingness to not succumb to the overreaching state which prevented prayer to his God. It was because of that he found himself in the lion's den. You'll remember. Again, that's in chapter six. Despite the government saying, you cannot pray to your God, Daniel still opened up his windows and prayed three times a day, as was his custom. And so chapter nine, and this prayer we find is in the first year of Darius, which incidentally is the same year that the the lion's den incident occurred. So the you cannot pray and Daniel's saying, I'm praying, and he's throwing in the lion's den. All that is happening the same year as this prayer. Isn't that remarkable to think about? Now, commentary after commentary, we don't know which happened first. Was Daniel delivered from the lion's den and that thrust him into this prayer?

Or was he getting so close and intimate with God and aligning his will with God that he was able to stand up to the government and the lions? We don't know which happened first, but it's remarkable either way. So just so you know, Daniel had to fight for prayer.

He had to fight for his right to pray to God. So you know how important prayer was to Daniel. It was everything to him. Again, everything. It was his very life's breath, if you will. And so he's the perfect one to teach us. We're now in modern Babylon, and we can examine Daniel in this activity that meant so much to him that he fought for and really pull from and glean from his prayer so much to help us today in the very thing that will help us persevere, you see. So incredible prayer. Let's analyze it. Let's get right to it. We're going to unpack this, and we're going to notice five aspects of this prayer, and we're going to go through it pretty quickly to help us in our prayer so that we can accomplish great things like Daniel. Great things like Daniel. So they all begin with A for our help. It was a little difficult to navigate the words I had to get the the the thesaurus thesaurus out online and help me with this. But first aspect of the five to notice from this prayer is to notice from where Daniel's prayer arises. So that's the first A. To notice from where Daniel's prayer, number one, arises. And you'll notice Daniel's prayer arises from his reading of God's Word. Very important principle for us in our prayer life. We notice that again here there in chapter in verse two. In verse two, he says, I understood by the books. And he was reading Jeremiah from Jeremiah, the prophet, and he was reading what God would accomplish in the 70 years of the desolations of Jerusalem. And then verse three, he says, after reading from the prophet Jeremiah, I set my face toward the Lord. And this prayer arises from him his reading of the Word here.

By this time here in chapter nine, Daniel was some 80 years old, we estimate.

We can estimate that this occurred somewhere around 539 to 536 BC. 539 to 536 BC. That would put him at about 80 years old, and it would place him in captivity in Babylon for about 65 years at this point. He had been in captivity. So if he went in to captivity around 15 years of age, were 65 years into that, he would have been right around 80 years old. We can kind of estimate here that he and his people had been in captivity. So here's an older man, growing older, and what did we find him doing? Well, he's just as zealous about prayer as he was from the beginning. Amazing! And he's reading Jeremiah. Perhaps that part of the scroll had made its way into the exile, maybe a copy of it, where he had access to that. And in reading what he read, we can guesstimate that he was reading from what would be our Jeremiah 25. Jeremiah chapter 25. So if you want to put your marker here, I just want to read a few verses from Jeremiah chapter 25 verses 11 and 12, just to show you this is very likely the portion of the scroll or copy of the scroll that he was reading. It's in our Jeremiah chapter 25 verses 11 and 12.

And he's reading that 70 years would be completed in the desolation of Jerusalem. And this is going to be amazing to him as he reads this. But here it is. This is likely what he was reading at that time. Now we can read it. This is really awesome. Jeremiah 25 verse 11, the prophet Jeremiah says, in this whole land, speaking of Jerusalem, shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon for 70 years. Then verse 12, it will come to pass when 70 years are completed that I, speaking for God, God speaking through Jeremiah, I will punish the king of Babylon in that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, and I will make it a perpetual desolation. So let's stop there. So going back to Daniel 9, this is amazing because Daniel's reading that the desolation will be a period of 70 years, and he starts to think back and think, wow, we are getting right up on that. We're about, here we are, around 65 years. So the desolation is about to end. The captivity is about to end. This is about to all change.

And so as Daniel's reading Jeremiah, how does he respond? Does he say, well, let's just sit back and wait for this to happen. This is great. No, it moves from a guttural, from deep within him, this prayer that emerges from him in recognizing where he is in that prophecy. And so again, Daniel 9, verse 3, well, verse 2, after reading Jeremiah the prophet and what he would accomplish, what God would accomplish in 70 years, he says, verse 3, now then I set my face toward the Lord.

I'm sure he did, and made requests by prayer. And now it's with asking and fasting and sackcloth and ashes. Boy, just he's really being overwhelmed by this moment here. And his prayer arises from his reading of Scripture, and he grips him. So if you're having trouble in your prayer life, one of the most effective techniques you can use is get into your Bible. Let your prayer life be directed from your Bible study.

So when you open your Bible and you're reading how God's glorious, right, maybe you're reading a section, God's all-powerful and glory, set that aside and allow that to then move you to start acknowledging how glorious God is in your prayer. And then come back to it, and then maybe you'll read about how his son died for your sins. Then you set it to the side and you say, God, boy, forgive me. Thank you for your son. So your prayers are being emerging and arising from your Bible study. Such a wonderful technique. So the Word of God played a significant part in Daniel's prayer life.

Great, great point, great item to notice here from the champion of prayer. All right, so that's number one, is to notice from where Daniel's prayer arises. Number two, A, we're going to get through this approach kind of quickly. Number two, A, is to recognize how Daniel approaches God. So that's number two, A. The second, A, is to notice how Daniel approaches God. Verse three, we notice there's nothing casual about how he approaches God. He sets his face toward the Lord God, fasting sackcloth ashes. So this is a very deliberate action that he's taking.

Nothing casual here, nothing trivial. He's setting his focus. It's a little bit like when you're talking to one of your young children and you're giving them some vital information and you need them in the moment and they're looking to the left and the right. And so as a parent or grandparent, you gently grab their little chin and set their face toward you gently.

Now pay attention. I'm telling you something here. I need you to set your face on me. It's the same kind of deliberate action here. You may be in casual conversation, tempted to do that with one of our brothers or sisters. It's always a little disconcerting when you're visiting with someone and they're kind of looking over.

I have such a... I'm so distracted. I can notice everything within my peripheral vision. So I have to really focus on setting my face onto whom I'm talking to. Very important. But that's how Daniel approached God. That's his posture. Very important. So if you're like me, I can start a prayer and then I'm off into 12 other things. And I think, was I praying? What was that? What just happened here? And I asked God to forgive me. But man, so this posture goes somewhere where you can set your face upon him. Maybe not every time. Not every time you have that luxury, but for quality time. Make sure you have this approach.

So that's the second A. The third A to notice emerging from this incredible prayer and the champion of prayer, Daniel, is to notice number three, how Daniel addresses God. So that's the third A to notice how Daniel addresses God. That's given to us in verse four. The second part of verse four. He prayed to the Lord, my God, made confession and said, Oh Lord, great and awesome God.

Oh Lord, great and awesome God. So he is addressing God as God. That's not necessarily profound, right? You're addressing God as God. But if you really think about it, it is really crucial to address God as God. This is not a matter of form, but it's foundational. It's a foundation aspect to how you address God. It's not form. It's not merely form. It's foundation.

Oh Lord, great and awesome God. If you think about this, Daniel is not giving God a lesson on himself. That's not what's being accomplished here. Rather, Daniel is essentially reminding himself of whom he's coming before. So by verbalizing who he's addressing, you're great. You're awesome. He's setting himself in the right posture here. You're great. You're awesome.

What else can I address you? What else do I want to remind myself of?

Second part of verse 4. You're a God who keeps his covenant. You're a God who's merciful with those who love you. You love those who keep your commandments.

So you see how we address God so important. Again, it's not for God. It's really for our own heart.

He's reading Jeremiah. He's reading about the prophecy of how the exile is going to come to an end. 70 years. If God says 70 years, it's going to be 70 years. Daniel is like, oh yes, you're great. You're awesome. You keep your covenants. You keep your promises. This is sure as the sun's going to rise. You're going to end this exile. Wow, you're great and awesome. You're so merciful to us. You love those who love you and keep your commandments. How we address God is so important here. Reminding himself of God's character and who he is. This is an awesome prayer. Awesome prayer here. The fourth A—I had to use a little liberty on this one— the fourth A that emerges from this incredible prayer is to notice Daniel's admission. That's the fourth A—Daniel's admission. Maybe more accurately, we could put it as Daniel's confession. His confession. His admission to God. His confession to God. So he goes from great and awesome God to verse 5. Here's the admission. Verse 5, We have sinned, committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled. We've departed from your precepts and your judgments. We didn't heed your servants, your prophets, who spoke to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people, he says. So this is the admission. This is what comes next. So he's been in God's word. He has set his face upon God. He's addressed God properly. And now he confesses. He admits their shortcomings, where they're missing the mark.

It's personal. Verse 4 says, My Lord, my God. There's a personal admission.

And then there's a communal admission. Verse 5, We, he then moves in. We have sinned.

So add that to your prayers. Don't get stuck in a rut of only praying for your perspective or your family. Pray we. This is your family here. This is the we. Pray for your London family. Pray for your broader family, God's people around the world. Pray for the home office.

Add a communal dimension to your prayers. Think about where you've sinned and missed the mark individually. Think about where we've missed the mark locally. Pray about helping that way. Pray about where maybe we're missing the mark in the home office. You know, we're all in this space of trying to get back on target, get back on the path always. And we're struggling in that way. It's a good struggle. We can pray these things. We can pray I, and we can pray we as well.

And this is what Daniel says. And just so you know, with this fourth A, this admission, I want to empower you to be unfiltered in your admission. I want to empower you to tell it like it is to God. Because God knows it, knows what it is. He knows what it is. So tell him. Tell him like it is. Don't hold back. Man, you will find release from just saying, this is me.

Wow, here I am again in all my ugliness, in my spiritual ugliness, in my spiritual fantasy. This is, I want to talk about, God, why I'm drawn to sin. Why am I drawn away from your way of life? That's such a peculiar thing. I don't like it. I don't want it. But I find myself pulled away from you. Why is that? Can you help me with that? Well, when I think back to my childhood, when I think back to some of the things I've done, I know there's spiritual scars that I need healing from, and just really dig in and admit, confess, bring it to God. It will bring you low at first, but God will lift you from that. You know, the purpose of this is not to stay heavy and as you're thinking about where you're missing the mark. The purpose is then to leave it with God and remind yourself, oh, you are a forgiving God, and you're merciful. Oh, you're great and awesome and merciful. Thank you. I leave it with you. It'll allow you to stand up straight in your shoulders and move forward. A new man, a new woman, forgiven, cleansed. It's awesome. What a wonderful aspect of God's plan for us that he gives us this ability to be cleansed from our sins and to move on and to, with his strength, do better. Get back on the mark here. Some of our trials, while not all, some we have wrought upon ourselves because of consequences of not following God's way. That's what he expresses here as he's being unfiltered. You know, there at the end of verse 12, God, you have brought this great disaster upon us, which has not been done under all of heaven. There at the end of verse 12, and what's been done to Jerusalem. But, Father, I want to take ownership of it. I'm not going to step back from it. I have sinned. We have sinned as a nation. But thank you for hearing our prayers, and we're ready to get back on target again. Oh, and I just read about Jeremiah and how the 70 years and, oh, this is so exciting. What an exciting time to move forward and to turn the page. So when we hear President Shabie speaking of difficulties to come, it's exciting to me. It's so exciting. Yes, it's heavy, but this is the time in which God's people are going to shine.

We are going to shine in the darkest of days which are yet to come. That's so exciting to me. So this is why, boy, let's get close to God. And it starts with prayer. Really getting our prayers where they need to be here. What an exciting moment for Daniel. What an exciting moment for us.

So then we move on now to the final A. You might find more of these that emerge from this. This is just what I came up with. The final and fifth A that I believe we can glean from this incredible prayer is number five to notice Daniel's appeal or his request. So the fifth A is Daniel's appeal.

And you'll notice it comes way down in the text, way down in the prayer, really beginning in verse 16 here. He begins with his appeal after the admission where he says, verse 16, Oh Lord, according to your righteousness, I pray I appeal to you. Let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city Jerusalem. You know, it's your holy mountain. Have it be turned away because of our sins. Yes, we're taking ownership. But verse 17, Hear the prayer of your servant Daniel. I fought for this prayer, Father. I hope you've seen that. And so I make this supplication, verse 17, this request for your sake. Father, not for us, your sake. Cause your face to shine, to shine once again, we could say, on your sanctuary, which is desolate right now. And climb your ear. There's his appeal. Here, open your eyes. You know, this is the city called by your name. And so we present our supplications, middle of verse 18, for this city and your name. And I present this appeal to you, not because of our righteous deeds, the end of verse 18, but because of your great mercies. What a wonderful perspective there. So forgive, verse 19, O Lord, hear, forgive, listen, act, do not delay.

For your sake, my God, for your people, for your city, are called by your name. Hey, that's just so awesome there. It's really not about Daniel in the end. So the appeal is never about us. It's always for God's glory. Anything we ask for, you want to ask for it so it'll glorify God. So when you start making that the condition, all my appeals, I'm bending myself to his will, and I want all my requests to glorify God. And so what will happen is, as you're praying, you'll think, okay, before I pray for this, let me ask myself, how does this request glorify God? And you might think, well, this, I don't know if I'll pray for that name. Maybe this that I'm asking for is not so important because I can see, if I'm honest with myself, this kind of glorifies me more than it glorifies God. So it'll really start to make your appeals really authentic. It'll make your appeals really quality appeals. You'll make quality requests.

If you're making the standard, be always, this is to glorify you, God.

And it will actually begin to change what you request sometimes.

I don't know if I so desire that as much as I want to adjust my appeal. So it's more in line with your will and more in line with glorifying you.

Here. And as we kind of work to a conclusion here, you'll never go wrong by making this appeal, which David does here in verse 17. You could add these words, these exact words, or tailor them to, personalize them to your speech. But you can always appeal for God to cause His face to shine. That's always an appropriate request here.

And it's really cool to pray that. You're making all these requests. And you know what, God? Just cause your face to shine on it all. You know, and so you've already asked, you've already inclined your face to His, right?

So by Him, by asking His face to shine, well, who is in His purview now? Who's in His focus? Well, you are. And that's the thing. You know, through all of this, we can't ever outgive God. God gives us so much more than we could ever give Him. As we pray for His face to shine, as we pray for verse 19, for His sake, do these things, the by-product will be, God will lift us up because we are His children fulfilling the things which we're asking for, for Him, for Him.

So, ultimately, Father, not my will, but Your will be done. That's what anchors our appeal. And of course, the Son of God gave us that example there in the Garden.

Appeal. Father, would You take this cup from me?

Ah, Father, not my will. Your will be done.

There's the ultimate prayer. That's the best prayer in the whole Bible. And that the Son of God gave us this very anchor that should anchor all of our appeals.

To what a prayer! To quote Samuel Chadwick once again, Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying.

He fears nothing from prayerless studies, or prayerless work, or prayerless religion.

He laughs at our tool and mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray. He trembles when we pray, because we are bringing the great, victorious Son of God and His Father in a line with us as we walk this earth. Well, this prayer brought Daniel through so many things. It achieved all his purposes and perseverance. So may today, may Daniel's prayer be our prayer from this day forward.