Daniel's Prayer

Well, the title of our main message today, Daniel's Prayer. Daniel's Prayer.

So let's open our Bibles together, if you will, to Daniel chapter 9. And we're going to begin in verse 1 as we are back to our studies here in Daniel. As you know, we've been going through the book of Daniel. We're going to come now to the first half of Daniel chapter 9. And in doing so, we come to one of the greatest prayers in all of the Old Testament. And really, it could be said, it's one of the greatest prayers in all of the Bible.

Daniel, in leading up to this prayer, was in just so many years of service, had been through so many years also of trial and overcoming. So many years. And so now when we look at this prayer, there's so much for us to learn from it. I think you'll see. So let's read through this prayer. I think it's important for us to take a moment just to read through it. These verses. Take all this in.

Daniel chapter 9. Let's read verses 1 through 19. Daniel 9 verse 1. In the first year of Darius, the son of a hazardous, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, 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 seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed 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 will keep his commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, and we have done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heeded your servants, the prophets, who spoken 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 a face.

As it is this day to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all of Israel, those near and those far off, and all the countries to which you have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which we have committed against you.

O Lord, to us belong shame a face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and 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 us by his servants, the prophets. Verse 11, Yes, all of Israel has transgressed your law and has departed, so as not to 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 have 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 a great disaster. For under the whole heaven such has never been done as has been done in Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, 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 his works which he does, though we have not obeyed his voice. And now, O Lord, O God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made yourself a name, as it is this day we have sinned. We have done wickedly. Verse 16, O Lord, according to all your righteousness, I pray, let your anger, your fury, to be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain, because for our sins and for iniquities of our fathers Jerusalem and your people are a reproach to all those around us.

And therefore, O God, hear the prayer of your servant and his supplications and for the Lord's sake cause your face to shine on your sanctuary which is desolate. Oh my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations in the city which is called by your name. For we do not present 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 and do not delay for your own sake, my God, and for your city and your people are called by your name.

Let's stop there. Ah, what a prayer, isn't it? And we are back in these studies and like I mentioned, essentially here we come to this one of the greatest prayers in all of the Bible. And we have seen Daniel, we have seen him stand head and shoulders above so many in his generation and he stood tall as a servant of God.

And I think it could be readily said that he was able to stand tall because of the role that prayer played in his life. Prayer for him was not supplemental. It was foundational. Prayer was foundational to preserving him through all of the years and all the things that he had to overcome. We know the history of this, of Daniel from a very young age, perhaps as young as 14 years old. Daniel resolved to stand against the tide of an evil world, of an evil dictatorship, an evil empire that had overtaken, crushed all that he had known. And I believe that the key to this was that Daniel prayed and he prayed often.

Prayer was constant from Daniel. It was consistent even in the face of death. You remember from chapter 6 that as a result of his unwillingness to submit to the overreaching of the state at that time, he found himself in the lion's den. And in that chapter, despite the government forbidding it, Daniel still prayed three times that day, it says, when the decree came out and forbid him from praying to his God, our God. But he still prayed. And so as chapter 9 unfolds, we actually find him here in the first year of Darius, which actually, incidentally, is where we found him in chapter 6 in the lion's den. So chapter 6 opened with Darius's rule as well. So it's parallel here. So therefore, it's not a surprise that we find him praying once again. Prayer was at the heart of his life. It was at the heart of his perseverance. Prayer served for him as a lifeline to the one who would get him through all that he faced in Babylon.

And I believe today that his prayer will come to us and teach us and give us insight as we are living in modern Babylon today. So I've broken this prayer down into five A's, if you will. Five A's that I think will help us in the study of this incredible prayer.

So the first A, the first A to notice here is from where Daniel's prayer arises.

The first A from where his prayer arises. So where does prayer, where does his prayer arise, you think? It arises from God's Word. His prayer arises from him first being in God's Word. That's what we discover here as we look at these opening verses here. We find him with his spending time with God in Scripture. Look at this. So his prayer arises from this. Verse 2 and 3. Verse 2 and 3 again. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, get this, understood by the books the number of years specified by the Word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. A brief historical context here. This refers to the first year of Darius. This is probably somewhere around 539 to 536 BC, somewhere in there, 500 years before Christ was born. This incident takes place. So Daniel at this time is probably around 80 years old.

80 years old. He was an older man. Taking into captivity again, you remember at the age of 14. And so this is some 65 years from that time. He had lived a life alienated from all that his childhood, all that he knew from his early childhood, alienated from that. He's growing old.

So what do we find him doing? God had used him in an as an incredible prophetic way. What is he doing? God had used him as a significant vehicle for his revelations. What is he doing?

After all these years, well, he's reading his Bible, if you will. You know, the scriptures, the scrolls at that time, that's what he's doing. These scrolls probably made their way into the exile. Maybe they were copied from early books from that time. Obviously, it contained part of Jeremiah that he references here. So he's reading it and he's thinking about what the prophet Jeremiah spoke about. What he was reading is probably from Jeremiah 25. It might help us to look at that just for a moment. So keep your finger here. We're going to come right back. But turn to Jeremiah 25 so that we can understand what stirred him to this prayer. This is what stirred him. So we'll come back to Daniel 9. Let's look at Jeremiah 25 and verses 11 through 12.

Two verses we're about to read here. This has to do with the exile of Daniel and the captivity of God's people. They would have been wondering how long is this captivity going to take? How long are we going to be in this? So Daniel was reading from the Word of God, the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 25 verse 11. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Verse 12. Then it will come to pass when 70 years are completed that 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 when turning back to Daniel 9, Daniel's reading and now he's realizing that the exile is about to draw to a close, isn't it? He's realizing he's reading God's Word and he knows this is not going to last much longer.

After 70 years, God says they're going to be brought back. He understands the exile is going to end soon. So what does that drive him to do? Does he say, well, that's good. And he sits back and I'm glad we're going to get out of here. No. Daniel 9 verse 2 again, he's reading, he understood by the books the number of years specified by the Word of God through Jeremiah the prophet, what he would accomplish in 70 years. And then his response there in verse 3 verse 3, then I set my face toward the Lord God and made a request by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. So as a result of his study of the Word of God, it stirred him to pray. So his prayer arises from Scripture. Very important. This is a very important biblical principle for us. When the Word of God grips a heart, he grips his heart, he bows and prays. What does this tell us?

Well, it's this. When I read my Bible, when I read my Bible, in all the plethora of depth, maybe I read my Bible on a particular occasion and it tells me on that day that God can be known.

Well, that then it ought to then drive me to my knees after reading that to go to and meet with God. I might be reading one day, for example, and discover that that particular day it speaks of God's glory. What should I do? Well, it should release me then in prayer so that I can verbalize glory to God. Give him glory in that way. I may read, for example, and I'm reading, it speaks about sin. What should it do? It calls me to bend my knees and ask for God to show me my sin. Forgive me. Give me the strength to overcome. See, so in other words, the Word of God plays a significant part in directing our prayer life. Very important. Many people say, and I've been myself, I feel like my prayer is stagnant. Sometimes I don't even know what to pray about, you know? So it's just our prayers all kind of sound the same every day. I can get in that rut. Well, go do this. This is the principle. Go to the Word. Let the Word direct your prayer. You will find it just it'll lead you in such an energized prayer, in a fresh prayer, fresh prayers to God as it was for Daniel. So it stirred him to pray, you see.

So that's the first A. Daniel's prayer arises from his reading, from being in the Scripture.

So the second A, to notice here, the second A is how Daniel approaches God. The second A, how Daniel approaches God. This is given to us in verse three here. Verse three, Daniel says, then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer, supplications with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. We'll stop there. So there's nothing you'll notice casual about this. There's nothing trivial about this. Rather, it's very purposeful. It's very deliberate here, isn't it? I set my face. I turned my face, it says. Some translation says.

If you're a parent, as Jason said in his sermon, I know you've all said these words to your children, look at me when you're talking to me, you know, and sometimes you even grabbed a little face.

And it's because you want them to put their full attention on you, isn't it?

It reminds me of this. And, you know, when you're talking to someone as well, it's always a little bit disturbing if you're talking to someone and you find that their eyes are, you know, looking elsewhere. Well, they're not really, are they really engaged in this conversation? Are they really paying attention? So Daniel's very deliberate setting his face to the Lord. In other words, what that means is you're purposefully turning your attention, you're setting all of your attention onto the Lord at that moment. This is his posture. This is the posture of his heart.

The psalmist, Daniel would have known the psalmist, the Psalms. Psalm 27 verse 8, we won't turn there, but Psalm 27 verse 8 says, you have said, seek my face. My heart says to you, I will seek your face. Your face I will seek my heart. So that's the posture of ourselves. That's the posture of our heart as we approach God. We can pray to God in whatever physical position, of course. But this is speaking of a deliberate, he puts his full attention onto God. This is his approach. Very important. So that's the second A. Our approach, give your full attention, turn your heart to God at that moment and in that prayer. And I know some prayers can't, you know, there's different prayers. Sometimes we pray in different occasions and different places and such. But this should be, this should be our pattern. All right, so that's the second A, Daniel's approach. Now the third A, third A to notice here is to notice how Daniel addresses God.

So let's look at that. This is number three, the third A. So notice how Daniel addresses God.

This begins to be shown to us in the first half of verse four. You'll notice the first half of verse four. Daniel says, I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, O Lord, great and awesome God. So we're going to stop there just for a moment. O Lord, great and awesome God. So this is how he addresses God. He addresses God as God, if you will.

It's not very profound, but maybe necessary addressing God as God. And it's important for this to bring out because we don't always address God in this way, God as God. So you see what he does is he starts in this way. This is not a matter of form at all. It's a matter of foundation. In a way, what you see here is Daniel's setting the foundation for all that he's about to say, for all that he's about to say in this prayer. And he begins with these words, O Lord, great and awesome God. He's not giving God a lesson in theology. He's not telling giving God information, of course. Rather, he's coming before God. And I think what he's doing here is essentially he's reminding himself who he's coming before. Very important. He's in all of God. He's in all of his presence. I think sometimes the reason why my prayer is kind of meander, you know, instead of going forward, is because I lose some of this. I have a familiarity, and it can sometimes breed content in my heart. So the fact that we can come before God's throne with boldness, it doesn't mean that we can come then with any undue casualness. Or the fact that we can come before him with great intensity. It doesn't mean that we come before him with anything other than great humility. The fact that we can come through before his throne in this way, we have to remember who we're praying to. So his majesty, it's no barrier for our intimacy with him.

But we must be reminded of who to whom we're coming before, who we're addressing. So Daniel's reminded himself. He's saying, Lord, you're God, you're great, you're awesome. Remember, Daniel had already been seen quite a bit of deliverance at this point. Deliverance with himself, deliverance with his friend, his buddies, in the fiery furnace, in his own personal deliverance. He's about to be thrown into the lion's den at this point, but he'd already seen great deliverances in his life. So when Daniel says, Lord, you are great, he knows what he's talking about. So I don't suspect this prayer said, Oh, Lord, you're great. I think this prayer, I think when he said, is, Oh, Lord, you're great. You know, this is how he's addressing God.

Again, this is not form, you know, this is that he's using these words. It's an acknowledgement from the heart. Oh, Lord, I love you. You know, when he says, when we say, I love you, we need to say, Lord, I love you. You know, I love you. You're great. You're awesome.

It's this perspective that was spoken about in the sermonette. It's a grateful heart. While I was thinking about that sermonette, just almost just about every time I walked through those doors, I think, man, I don't deserve to be here. None of us deserve to be here. None of us deserve to be able to bow our heads and have our words go anywhere beyond this ceiling. None of us deserve to have our words and our prayer breach and break through to reach God. But they do.

God's called us in this way. So when I get down in those ways, or maybe when I even get too up about myself, you think about that. Boy, you go back and you have a grateful perspective, a grateful heart. It resets everything. I think this is what Daniel is doing. Let me just remind myself. Forgive me, Father. I'm going to remind myself for a moment how great you are and how much I love you.

And Daniel points out more about God here right at the beginning of his prayer. Look at the second half of verse four. We address a God who keeps his covenant. Look at the middle part of verse four, who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him. So when God makes a promise to his people, he keeps it. This is important for Daniel to remind himself of this and all the trials that he was facing. Let me remind myself of this. We see that in the prophet Jeremiah that we heard in the sermonette. Jeremiah, if you read that portion of Scripture that he read before that, all these things are all going to horribly long. He reminds him of himself, of God's mercies and his compassion. Sometimes we have to stop and do that. It's the perfect way to do when you begin your prayer is to start off your prayer that way. It'll just set your heart in the right posture. Oh God, you're great. I love you. Oh, and by the way, let me remind myself that you're a covenant-keeping God. So despite all that's going on around me, all my trials, all my suffering, you keep your promise to me. This is the God we address in our prayers. It's actually a good reason why before we pray to God, and even in a public setting like this, when we come before God, and if you're given a prayer, sometimes it's important just to take just the shortest moment, just a nanosecond of a moment. And when you come up here, just to pause. Pause just a moment of silence. Not a long time, just a nanosecond. Just to collect yourself before you are now about to pray on behalf of all these men and women to God.

Because this might be merely a building, but when we bow our heads in unison to God, we're taken to... at that moment, we're in a place and a time like no other.

We sing praises to God. We listen to His Word. We pray in unison, and we must remind ourselves who we're addressing. We're bowing before a great, awesome, covenant-keeping God. And as a side note, look at what Daniel also brings forth here. The second half of verse four. Second half of verse four. O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments. So as a side note, this is the ultimate way we are to address Him. What did Jesus say? If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

So it's very straightforward. Obedience is ultimately how we address Him.

When we're expressing our covenant love with Him, that's the nature of covenant love. God has entered into a covenant with His people.

Morgan Greene entered into a covenant this morning with God, a personal covenant, through baptism. And God told through Moses, I will be your God, and you will be My people.

And at that time, laid out the relationship guidelines, if you will. There at Mount Sinai, He organized them together. He says, I want a relationship with you, My people, Israel.

So here's the relationship guidelines.

Hey, I'll keep My promises to you. Keep your promises to Me.

This is how we can live together. My commands, My these rules will live happily. But of course, they broke many of the relationship rules, those commandments.

But you know, it's exactly, and from a physical point of view, those of you who are married, it's along those same lines. When we speak about obedience, covenant-keeping love is expressed in obedience. Like in our physical marriage, the real issue is not that you woke up this morning and you necessarily felt a great surge of emotion for your spouse.

You may have, and if you do often, that's great. I do often. But that's actually not the real issue. The real issue when you get down to it is the fact that you made vows to that person next to you. You made a covenant in love with that person, whether you feel like it or not on that particular day. That's the real issue.

And it is your commitment to the vows, to those relationship vows, that's the indication of the nature of your love. Love without obedience to the vows is just sentimentality. Sentimentality will never be the love of God's true people.

We come to Him and show our love, not only verbally, but in how we live within that relationship.

We love you, God. You're awesome. So help us to address you in love and reverence and obedience That's the prayer here. So that's the third A. Daniel shows us how to address God. He ultimately addresses God as God. So let's move on to the fourth A. The fourth A as we move into Daniel's admission. His admission. It's really confession, we could say, but confession doesn't start with an A. So it's admission. So fourthly is Daniel's prayer.

He shows us his admission or confession. So where does he go from? God, you are awesome.

Well, verse five and six. This is where he goes. Look at this, verse five and six. He says, Yes, we have sinned. We have committed an 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 to all the people of the land. So this is where Daniel goes next here. So thus far, we've been in God's Word. We've moved and set our full attention onto him. We've addressed him by reminding ourselves who we're addressing. And now is admission or confession.

And notice that Daniel's relationship here with God, it's personal and it's collective in this admission. So he prays, My Lord, My God, there in verse four. I pray to the Lord, My God. But now in verse five, he moves to, you'll notice, we have sinned. We have sinned.

It's just a reminder of the fact that we're all in this journey together. We're all in this family together. We have responsibilities to one another. We were in this calling with one another. And this is not a vague admission of guilt. It's not a general discourse. There's no excuses. We have sinned, he says. Verse five, and look at how many times he says this. He says, verse five, we have sinned. End of verse eight. The end of verse eight, we have sinned against you.

End of verse 11. There, end of verse 11, we have sinned against him.

End of verse 15. There, in verse 15, we have sinned and done wickedly.

So we have sinned. We've acted wickedly. We're guilty. We've rebelled. You know, this is not a pleasant reminder to us this afternoon, is it?

And think of your pitfalls. I can think of my pitfall in this. Sometimes I will just give this a brief passing thought in my prayers. You know, bother I've sinned. Now let me get on with the rest of my prayer. You know, got to get going. Not Daniel. Lord, I'm rebellious. I see your word and I don't want to do it. Several times we have shame on our faces. He says that to us, belongs shame on our face.

This is when we think of rebellion. Sometimes we have to really spend time with God. And this is what's important because spending time with God and asking God to show us where we are in rebellion. Very important. Often He'll only show me areas I need to work on, specific areas, when I take the time in this way. And I begin to talk about it, my sin, I begin to think about it. And then often He'll reveal something to me. I'll be like, yeah, boy, I need to work on that. That's horrible.

And this is what's happening. So sometimes this sin is deep down inside and you almost have to you need God's help to reveal it. And you ask Him to reveal it in mercy. Of course. It reminds me of the story back before there were seat belts. The child is standing in the middle of the bench seat and the mother's driving. She keeps telling him to sit down. He keeps popping up, sit down, pops up, sit down, pops up. Finally, he pins, you know, she pins his little bottom to the seat, you know, sit down and he stays down. But under his breath, you know, I may be sitting on the outside, but I'm standing on the inside, you know, I do that. I wonder if you can relate to that.

You know, it's the inside. Man, when I have just something hit my heart, a certain thought. And I've asked God to make things clear to me, you know, and He will. And I just think, wow, who am I? Who am I to have that thought? It's always a thought where just seemingly we seem to have thoughts of elevating ourselves, you know, in some way and not recognizing that we are old, clay pots. Everything is God's glory. Everything. And I think back to the time in which God really performed a rescue in my life. Absolute rescue. I was out for the count, bottom of the bottom. And I think back to that time and it resets my mind. And then I think, how is this sin that has entered into my heart, you know, how is that honoring this relationship that I've entered into Him? You know, and I have that rebellion in my heart. So we need to put forth this admission, confess our sins individually as a church, lay it all out. That's the pattern. I think this is the right pattern. Don't just say, Lord, you know, I don't think I'm quite going the right way here. You know, it's very specific. It's very heartfelt, this admission. And this really is coming from Daniel's understanding that he's thinking back to the time that they went into exile. And he knows the reason why God turned them over to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar back in Chapter One is because of their rebellion. They didn't pay attention to God's word. They transgressed against His law. He refused to obey His voice. He speaks about that understanding in verses 11 and 12. Let's look at this. Why they were where they are. So sometimes it's important to think back.

Verse 11 and 12, he's thinking back, yes, all Israel has transgressed your law. So he's thinking about when they went into the exile and has departed so as to not obey your voice. We could say, justifiably so. Therefore, a curse, the curse in 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, against our judges who judged us by bringing us a great disaster. Again, this is some 65 years before. He's thinking back to that time. For under the whole heaven, such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. But He's saying it's understandable, Father. We've sinned against you. You rescued us from death, from certain death in Egypt, and we broke those relationship rules. We weren't grateful from the heart. So sometimes think back, and it helps put into proper balance that sin in your life, and it will give you an extra encouragement to overcome it. God, so it is people, you shall worship Me and worship Me only. They said, no, we want to worship all these other gods, little gee gods, you know, all these other things that seem much more exciting. Why do we have to do it your way, Father? Well, God says, I want to make sure that you live in holiness individually and as a collective group. They said, no, we want to live on the fringes. We want to violate these things. So He's acknowledging there was consequences to the disobedience. He understands why they're in the predicament that they're in. They didn't operate within the relationship rules. Again, it's the challenge of a parent.

Look, what I'm telling you is for your own good, son or daughter. And the son or daughter is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, you know, dad. But usually, somewhere along the way, the son comes back and says, you know, Father, it was for my own good. I didn't have to go through that if I'd only paid attention to what you said and if the people had only paid attention to God. So here they are in exile. Daniel confesses the sins of the people. There's a mystery in this. And this relates to us today. Look at verse 13. Verse 13. Here's the mystery. And I find this mystery in my heart when I rebel. Verse 13, as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us. Here we go. Yet, yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth. So the disaster had come upon them. Yet we haven't made this prayer. Daniel's saying, all this disaster should have driven us to you. But he says we haven't made this prayer. And I think in a sense, he's saying, let me start making it now, Father. I'm going to start making this prayer not only for myself. I want to make it for your people. I want to make this prayer now. We haven't made it. Let me make it now. The status has come upon us. We have not made this prayer. It's a remarkable thing. But it's really not remarkable because it's the aversion to repentance, isn't it? It's an aversion to change. It's the aversion of acknowledging sin. This is not locked up in 600 BC. It's alive and well today. We know this. It's representative of the nature of humanity.

We're not on a routine basis acknowledging that we've acted wickedly. We've broken His commands.

You don't find many churches in society today focused on that emphasis because people, ourselves included, we don't want to be told that we're a mess and that we need to repent.

So you'll see in society, some of the churches, they've moved so far to the other spectrum that the message coming forth is not that here's the law and it's a mirror to you and you're a mess and that should drive you to God. The message today is you're a masterpiece already. The message today in society is you're the epitome of the dream. On the back page of a book from years ago, a book by one of society's religious professionals, a man by the name of Osteen, maybe you've heard of him, here's the message in his book. And so think of how counter this message is from Daniel's message. Quote, rather than being down on ourselves and discrediting who we are and focusing on all our flaws, I wonder what would happen if we, if all through the day we were to say, I'm amazing, I'm wonderful, I'm valuable. When you talk like that, amazing comes chasing you down. Awesome starts heading in your direction. You won't have that weak, defeated feeling of I'm just average. You'll carry yourself like a king or a queen with a quiet confidence, with the knowledge that you have been handpicked by the creator of the universe.

Unquote.

Boy, you know, I was thinking, I don't know where I would end up with that. If I started there, where would I end up? You know, one of the, one of the things that we talk about in baptism, and one of the most difficult things are one of the most, I won't say difficult, one of the things where our young people have to reach in their understanding is a need to be saved for them to realize they need a savior. That's where you have to start. And so, if the message is, you're great, and you're awesome, and you're already there, well then why would I ever need a sacrificed Christ? Why would I ever need a savior? So, God in his wisdom and his beauty, one of the first things he had to show us is the condition we were in. And he had to show us you're not where, that you're not where I want you to ultimately be. Let me show you where you ought to ultimately be. Here's the law, and it's going to show that you're wretched. It's going to show that you're condemned. It's going to show, in fact, that you're dead.

Then God says, wait, to his called. Let me let you know that there's a way to life.

Before you were even born, I set my son as a sacrifice to take on that condemnation to death. And he lived a life as a model, as an example, to you. And through his power, through the Holy Spirit, through baptism, commitment, that then gives you the power to fulfill the higher level of righteousness, which I'm calling you to. Not only am I going to let you give you the requirements, I'm going to give you the power to achieve it through my son. What a loving, loving God. So often we just have to turn and access that power. And part of accessing that power is really through prayer. And it's really through getting in his word to have that word then direct our prayer. It's an amazing thing. What distinguishes us as God's people, what distinguishes us from that other message that I just read in that quote, is the understanding that admission, that we are wicked, we are rebellious, but that by the grace of God we learn to see our wickedness, we confess our sins, and then we look to the God in turning from that wickedness. And as you go along in this journey, and I told Morgan this, and I'm sure it's true of you today, as I go along in this journey, I become more and more aware of what a sinner I am. So it doesn't diminish. It actually gets more apparent. I hope the sin is diminishing, but it's becoming a much more deeper level. You know, it's thoughts, it's motivations. It's motivations. That's what I'm working on, you know. So when I was a younger man, it was more outward. I'm doing these things physically that are obviously sinful to all around. Now my sin is hidden. Only I really know about it, you know, my motivations, my thoughts, my attitudes. And it just, it convicts me. Now, and, oh, but then, you know, it brings me sorrow, but it's a godly sorrow then. It doesn't keep me defeated. Now I say, well, one thing I do know, the promise of God, I've got the power to overcome any and all temptations. So let me access this power. It's a wonderful message. The gospel is a wonderful message. I hope you see that.

But the key is that that awareness of our sinfulness drives us again to His Word. It drives us to set our face on Him. It drives me to address Him as God is God. And it drives me to pour out my and confess my shortcomings. It's a magnificent prayer, isn't it?

Verse 13 again, as it's written in the law of Moses, 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. So, Lord, your wrath is a right response, but we want to begin to make this prayer. So we, as a group today, need to begin to make this prayer. Well, that brings us to our Final A today, the fifth and Final A. And you'll notice that's Daniel's appeal, his appeal or his supplication. The fifth A is Daniel's appeal. That comes to us in verses 16 through 19. Verse 16 through 19 again, O Lord, according to your righteousness, I pray. And so here he goes. It's only at this point that he moves to his appeal. Verse 16, O Lord, according to your righteousness, I pray. Let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city, Jerusalem, your holy mountain, because of our sins and for our iniquities of our Father, Jerusalem and your people are all a reproach to all those around. And therefore, O God, hear the prayer of your servant and his supplication, his appeal, his supplications. And for the Lord's sake, cause your face to shine on your sanctuary. This is his appeal, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations in the city which is called by your name.

For we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies. O Lord, God, 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.

So think about all that's gone before this. He ever gets to the appeal here. So much has gone before before he ever gets to say, O Lord, God, by the way, let me ask you something.

And then he makes his appeal, his final supplication. And you'll notice it's really not about Daniel and the people. It's not about Daniel and the people and their need. It's really about God's mercy, isn't it? Look at verse 18 again. For we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies.

In other words, we're appealing to you in no other posture than acknowledging we need your great mercies. So he says, and I just love this, this is what I would like to ask, Lord.

Please, Lord, will you shine? He says. Will you shine in our desolation of our lives? That's verse 17. And then he goes on to verse 17 here. And therefore, O God, hear the prayer of your servant and his supplications. For the Lord's sake, cause your face to shine on your sanctuary, which is desolate. So you see, Daniel is pointing to the ultimate way in which God deals with our shame. It's on the account of our mercies that were not consumed. It's on account of our compassion. His compassion is we fail not. His son bore our shame, took the penalty in his blood.

So it's simply an appeal for mercy. And then you have this staccato burst. I just, this is amazing here in verse 19 there. Oh, Lord, hear, forgive, listen, act, do not delay. Here.

It's amazing. So with that, we'll begin to conclude as Daniel concludes here with his prayer in verse 20. He's given a visit from an angel. That'll be next time in a few weeks, God willing. But as we work to a conclusion, I want us to just end on noticing lastly here, what is the driving force of his appeal? This should be the driving force of our appeal. Notice this. It's in verse 19. It's in one phrase. I know to see if you pick up on it. He says, Oh, Lord, hear, forgive, listen, act. And he says, do not delay for your own sake, my God, for your city, your people are called by your name, for your own sake, for your own sake. And you see what that does. Those words, write that down, add that in your next prayers, get it into your prayers as often as you can. Because those words, for your own sake, they stop me from thinking that prayer is for me. You know, that God's some magic genie or something, you know, just to fulfill my needs. That's the wrong posture. It's the wrong thoughts. It's the wrong approach.

For your glory, for your sake, Christ said, you know, God, if you're willing, let this cut past for me. Nevertheless, not my will, not what I want, but your will be done. For your sake, if this trial that's upon me, if it's for your glory, for your sake. Take it from me, Father. Please, I ask you, take it from me. That's my appeal. This is very difficult. Whatever it is, ultimately, though, Father, it's for your sake. If you choose to allow this trial to remain with me, just allow your glory to be seen through me by how I respond in it. Your sake, your glory, let me be obedient to you in this. So the appeal is anchored by those words and by these words, do not delay for your own sake, for the plan that you laid out since the foundation, for your righteous deeds, for your mercies, for your glory. Well, what a prayer! What a prayer! And again, this was at the very heart of how Daniel was able to get through all that he got through in the preceding chapters and all that he was about to face in the future. Prayer served for him as to be a lifeline to the one who would preserve him in power and strength, and it needs to be ours as well.

Daniel's people needed to begin to make this prayer. We need to begin to make this prayer today. So assimilate it into your prayer life. Let it be the very essence. Let Daniel's prayer be the very essence of our prayer today.