4 Questions About Life-Changing Prayer - Daniel 9:1-19

D and then there's post-millennialists and you're just sitting there you're like come on Cody get to the preaching this is way over it's important to know these theological things you know if you can remember if you can remember the word trigonometry and maybe remember a little bit of algebra or you know the difference between comma and Oxford comma and all that kind of stuff you can probably push yourself a little bit to know some theological terms they believe the reason why I do all I'm going through all of this is because all of these views have wonderful godly people who are informed by Scripture who hold to them and if you're like myself I find that I like kind of bits and pieces of all of them yeah I believe that Jesus rules and Reigns right now yes I believe in a future kingdom yes I believe that Jesus will return physically and there are some parts that I look at and I go I don't know if I fight with that view here's what I encourage you to do I encourage you to just be informed by God's word and have gracious understanding towards others who maybe

Hold two different views and so as we start this work today please stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Daniel chapter 9 verses 20-27. God's word says this while I was speaking and praying confessing my sin and the sin of my people is real and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the Holy Hill of my God while I was speaking in prayer the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at first came to me in Swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice he made me understand speaking with me and saying oh Daniel I have now come out to give you insight and understanding at the beginning of your pleas for Mercy a word went out and I've come to tell it to you for you are greatly loved therefore consider the word and understand the vision 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your Holy City to finish the transgression to put an end to sin and to atone for iniquity to bring in Everlasting righteousness to seal both vision and profit and to anoint a Most Holy place know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and re and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one a prince there shall be seven weeks then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat but in a troubled time excuse me and after the 62 weeks an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary it's in shall come with a flood and to the end there shall be War desolations are decreed and he shall make a strong Covenant with many for one week and for half of the week he shall put an

End to sacrifice and offering and on the wing of Abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator and so God we do thank you for your word we do thank you for how it can apply to us even here today of how to live for you God equip us with your spirit we thank you for your presence here among us we know that you are with and we just ask that you would grant us and as you granted to Daniel here understanding and insight and we pray that you would just watch over us in Jesus precious name amen all right well good y'all got the slides awesome well our passage begins with this phrase while I was speaking remember last week Daniel he was praying he was fasting he was confessing he was repenting you see that's exactly what prayer is prayer is simply this sharing your heart before the Lord it's at least that it's talking to him Daniel he had been praying for a while and he had been focusing on two things here confession and pleading confession of sin and expressing his desires so that's that's what our prayers should look like confessing of sin telling the Lord forgive me help me to live for you help me to repent God I need you confession and then pleading pouring out your heart your needs your wants your desires before the Lord gosh I don't know what's going on it's like I'm breathing and you know it's just going down the wrong pipe talented right there and Daniel he has been praying for the people of God the city of God he's been praying for an

End to this Exile God I am at my end now and we learned a little bit about Daniel's character here because we remember that he never forgot the city of God in Psalm chapter 137 it's a Psalm that was written much later in the nation of Israel's history I've got a copy of it up on the board for you it's Psalm 137 verses 1-6 it says By the Waters of Babylon there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion that's the city of God Jerusalem on the Willows there we hung up our Liars for there are captors required of us songs and our tormentors mirth sings sing us one of the songs of Zion how shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land if I forget you o Jerusalem I'll let my right hand forget its skill that think about what that means like if I forget your holy city God let me forget the talent of my dominant hand let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you let me forget how to speak God let me become unable to speak if I forget Jerusalem if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest Joy and one of the things that we learned about Daniel here is that he never forgot as Daniel was praying there was a this heavenly being his name is Gabriel and Gabriel this is the second time that Daniel has had a an encounter with him this is the same Gabriel that was sent to Zechariah in the New Testament to Proclaim hey Zechariah your son is going to be the Forerunner of the Savior this is the same Gabriel who was sent to Mary to tell her that she was blessed that she was highly favored that was she was chosen to Bear the Savior into the world this is the second time that Daniel has seen Gabriel the first time was in

Chapter eight when we saw that wonderful prophecy fulfilled there in chapter 8 about Antiochus epiphanes IV and you guys might remember might be able to recall that important vision and Gabriel is sent to him quickly and what does Gabriel do he explains to Daniel what God's plan for Israel is look at verse 22 he made me understand this is what Gabriel did back in chapter eight this is what Gabriel did when he came around in the New Testament to help people understand he made people understand and if I might this is not in your notes but I think that it's it's very important for us to understand that he gave Daniel insight and understanding and from the beginning of the prayer that Daniel had made to when Gabriel arrives it might be a couple of minutes we don't know but I want to point out this important Truth for you write this down that God hears your prayers God hears your prayers he hears the prayers of his people this leads to of course a wonderful conversation on does God hear the prayers of all people you guys can debate that next week in your community groups speaking of which if you're not involved in a community group all right if we look around here we probably have about 200 in here today we're a little down than we were last week but we've got like 80 88 in our community groups and you know it would be nice if we had at least half of our people actively involved in community groups amen all right another the other half of you kind of went get involved in a community group because it's good and it's right to be a part of I digress but God he hears these prayers the Bible says that before one word is

On our tongue God knows it completely and he has come to bring understanding but Gabriel he clarifies something for Daniel and it's important he says that Daniel is greatly loved God he hears the prayers of his people and he greatly loves you this is a tremendous message that God the creator of the universe the most Sovereign and supreme would condescend to send a message to tell this person you are greatly loved and listen because because God has heard you Daniel because God loves you greatly and the same way for us because God has made you because God loves you he loves you greatly we should seek to understand this vision the first connection that I think that we should make is the connection between prayer and understanding connection between prayer and understanding Daniel he was moved to Prayer by the reading of the word his prayers were characterized by humility repentance proclaiming the promises that are found in God's word being open with the Lord confessing sin and it is precisely because of his prayers that Daniel receives this heavenly visitor but in Christ we don't have a Heavenly visitor we have a Heavenly resident that resides in our hearts we now have the Holy Spirit of God who has given us a new mind and a new heart and so now when we study God's word we have understanding and insight that was hidden before not that they're secret things but that the word of God becomes alive and we oh I can draw those conclusions and so we don't need a Gabriel to give us understanding the Mormons they believe that the angel Moroni gave understanding to Joseph Smith the Bible teaches that God sent

His Holy Spirit which now gives us understanding now remember the context Daniel he was reading the letter the book The Prophecy of Jeremiah and he may have read the whole book through last week we talked about how it could have been Daniel 25 it could have been chapter 29. Daniel chapter or in Jeremiah 29 verses 1 through 14 it's a letter from Jeremiah to the Exiles and here's what it says in verses 10 through 14. You guys will remember this for thus says the Lord when 70 years are completed for Babylon I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you here's a VBS Bible verse you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart I will be found by you declares the Lord and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you declares the Lord and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile would that move you to seek the Lord right then and there if you were reading that wouldn't that prompt you to pray and to pray the promises of God because that's that's exactly what happens here in Daniel and we know that Israel was in Babylon for nearly 70 years at this point and as we talked about last week we see that number 70 as a symbol of God bringing something about to completion and then Daniel he receives that it's 70 weeks now imagine for a moment that you're sitting there and you're thinking 70 years 70 years 70 years and then all of a sudden this Angel goes by the

Way this is just a part of God's plan it's not just 70. It's like 70 times 7. That's got to make your heart sink a little bit kind of reminds me of hiking in the mountains I've took some guys up to Calgary a few years ago from our church and we did a mission trip and one of our days we got to go up to Banff in Canada and we decided to go hiking in the Colorado or in the Canadian Rockies and we drove out to Lake Louise it's beautiful it was gorgeous we said we're going to do this hike and it was it was it was quite the hike I had to stop often times because I felt like I was gonna die you know and I didn't want to just be like I wanted to you know take pictures that way they didn't know I was dying and so we get up to this there's a lake on top of the mountain but it's really not the top of the mountain here's the thing is that like you think that you see the summit you're getting up there it's kind of covered by trees for a little bit and then you come across and you're you think that you're there the Trail's done but actually it's not because what do you see more of you see more mountains at the top of the mountain hey you're just kind of going wow it's still going and you got to think that's how Daniel felt at this point in time wait God I thought that it was 70 years well yes but that's not that's not the whole plan Daniel my plan for you is for you to finish the course that I have laid out for you but I have a better Plan of Redemption that I'm working towards as well we have to keep that in mind as we're interpreting this passage that it's about the Covenant that God has made it's about the promises that he also

Revealed in the book of Jeremiah about bringing about a new covenant and we will get there in a little bit but it's the same way in our sanctification isn't it how much further can I go God I'm really struggling here and God says just follow the path walk that narrow path it's hard okay I the Lord understands how hard that narrow path is to walk but he's called us to walk it he's brought you back to life I shouldn't say back to life he's brought you to life so that you can walk it God when are you going to send Revival to our church or our people or our nation you know what he tells us to do just a little bit further I've got a plan for you've got to keep Christian you got to keep walking that narrow path prior prioritizing the Lord God why is your will so hard to see and discern keep walking that path keep abiding in me keep studying the Scriptures keep coming to me and he will see us through the Lord has decreed this he needed to Circle that word decreed it'll pop up a little bit later at the end of the chapter it's that word in Hebrew hatak which means to determine to ordain to cut out and what Gabriel is describing to Daniel in his prayer okay is we're going to zoom in on a particular time in human history the 70 weeks they are decreed about your people and your Holy Spirit City so it's about the Hebrew people it's about Jerusalem and that's clear so what about it the second connection that we need to make here is between the 70 weeks and Christ excuse me God says that in the first 69 weeks or sevens he is going to accomplish these six things look at him in the passage

With me it says say he's going to finish the transgression we'll finish in the Hebrew word it means complete it means to bring about to an end it means to shut up that word transgression is synonymous with Rebellion was there a time in history when transgressions were finished well yes transgressions were paid for and brought to full completion at the Cross of Christ and we still see transgression occurring in our world in our culture in our time so we've seen it taken care of but not yet fully and so when Christ when he paid for our transgression on the cross he did it once for all so now transgressions may occur but we can rest assured that as the people of God that he will look at our transgressions because of the faith that we have that they have been taken care of by his son did Christ put an end to sin yes remember that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world Jesus he was named Jesus because what did Gabriel say for he shall save his people from their sins now as his children we are set free from the consequences of sin eternally and by the sanctifying power of God we should see growing obedience in our lives but yet this will be more fully realized in the future but it's also a present reality in how God views you and I who trust in Christ as our Savior now this is a big one right dig Christ atone for iniquity that's one that people go well sure of course he did his death was to Pardon us and iniquity it means guilt it means wickedness and so Jesus through his proportionary death

Atoned for our sins and it was done as Christ said on the cross to tell us die it is finished done and so we don't we don't punish ourselves for the sins that we commit personally we don't beat our bodies there's no self-flagellation that we ought to be doing to beat the sin out of us we don't abuse our persons because Christ was beaten and bruised and crushed for us did Christ bring us an everlasting righteous did Christ bring in Everlasting righteousness yes now this one we may not see very clearly right now and you know why it's because we still live in a world and we still have bodies that are filled with sin but when you die it's not like you gain a more righteousness the righteousness that you have now is the righteousness of Christ and it will no longer be hidden by your personal sin your struggles your shortcomings and things like that but it will be fully realized because that sin won't be with you anymore Christian so it remains a hope that we have of having Everlasting righteousness in a very real way because I'll be honest sometimes we don't feel very saved right guess it's just me it's why we never base our Salvation upon our feelings but we have an everlasting righteousness of Christ even in the midst of our temporary battles with sin has Christ sealed the Canon yeah he did that at the end of The Book of Revelation it is sealed up no more Revelations no more prophecies that's why we don't have Apostles and Prophets we always see those people on Facebook you just kind of roll your eyes okay it all ended when Christ said so at the end of Revelation

Has the most holy Place been anointed yes remember Christ he came and he tabernacled Among Us and we see him anointed at his baptism and the sign was the Holy Spirit descending like a dove yeah right there like a dove and the father speaking from Heaven this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased I think bookmark says listen to him and this is why the veil was torn when he gave up his spirit because the most holy place is now accessible to us because of the shedding of Christ's blood we don't need a different priest because we have Christ as our priest this Most Holy Place being anointed is not in reference to a future event because God does not dwell in temples made with human hands and he will not condescend again to dwell in the temple and he will not make it a Most Holy place see what Christ did he all these things he accomplished in his first Advent and now we look forward to his second coming when he establishes his visible kingdom here on Earth and he will bring all these things to a more Fuller and more complete understanding and these promises here for you as Believers as well but if you are not in Christ then the wrath of God remains on you that's why we preach the Gospel that's why we sing the Gospel because it's only by the Gospel that these promises are ours if you know if you are not in Christ and you don't have righteousness you know what you have to offer to the Lord is rags you can't say that your sin has been taken care of when the Lord is still calling you to repent of it if you're not in him and so he calls you if you are here and

You do not know Christ you are called to repent of those sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to believe that what he did for you on the cross was for you and so this leads to a last connection and arguably the toughest one the connection between the three periods of sevens the connection between the three periods of sevens now every other prophecy in Daniel there is an overview of what it means and then the details follow in the verses and we see this in chapters two four five seven and eight and the vision here in chapter nine follows that same method of Revelation you look at verse 24 it says 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your Holy City to finish finish the transgression to put an end to sin to atone for iniquity to bring in Everlasting righteousness to seal both vision and profit into anoint the most holy place these are all things that we can expect to see happen in 70 weeks indeed as we've seen these things have happened this is why Gabriel tells Daniel the vision of the 70 weeks and he tells them to know therefore and understand this is the vision know therefore and understand and he goes and he explains it and Gabriel came to Daniel to have insight and understanding and also he came from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem from that word and those of you who have studied eschatology you know where I'm going with this that going out of the word is in response to Daniel's prayer to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one The Prince and there shall be how many weeks seven now there's all sorts of different interpretations on this it could be the word from God's decree of Heaven I just like don't agreeing with what God's word says from the

Commission or the command or however you want to phrase it to rebuild Jerusalem we see that found in Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 1 in the 20th year of artist Xerxes Reign and that was in 445 BC so these first seven weeks are from the going out of the word to Bill Jerusalem to the coming of a promised one that promised one that coming of the promised one a prince there shall be seven weeks that phrase is that anointed one is mashiach and that Prince is Nagi so it's the Messiah the prince the coming one and that is a title for Jesus Christ now there's a conjunction in the Hebrew there and this is very important this is what leads to a lot of these different views there's a conjunction there where it has a period and then it says then if you're reading the NIV or the new King James it might say it might just continue on and 62 weeks anybody's Bible kind of go along with that yeah a couple of you good so here's what it says in the new King James I'll just put it there it says know therefore and understand that from the going out going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the prince there shall be seven weeks and 62 the street shall be built again and the wall even in trouble sometimes that's a direct fulfillment of Nehemiah and so we see even the first seven weeks and the second 62 weeks you need to fill that in your notes if you're taking notes as well 62 weeks the first two times of the weeks culminate in the arrival and the departure of the promised one the first one of course the arrival of the promised anointed one is 62 weeks is his departure and the Lord makes it this a distinction between these two and we should as well remember that Daniel here receives a vision and then gives more detail look at verse 26 follow along with me and after the 62 weeks an anointed one

Talking about Jesus shall be cut off and have nothing and this is exactly what happened to Jesus Christ that phrase cut off literally means to kill to put to death to be executioned he was cut off from the land of the living and he died naked on a cross forsaken as the Lamb of God and I think up to this point most people are fairly in agreement there might be some slight changes to what I've said but I think we all agree that we've seen most of these things at least partially fulfilled in Christ knowing that there's a future present hope where we will see them and understand them more fully I think that we know that this passage is at least here we know that's in reference to Christ where Christians get into much disagreement is in the last week and I think it's important to remember that there's Christians who view this verse differently and they all love Jesus they hold to the Gospel now I'm going to share both of these views and then we're going to wrap up here and if you don't mind putting up that next slide for me yeah these are the two views we're going to go through these passages kind of verse by verse and show you the different views and you'll see how drastically different they are and why people believe them because they both have their their their foundation in Scripture and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary man I'm sorry guys its end shall come with a flood and to the end there shall be War desolations are decreed now the first view is that of course this is a future View this is the view that most of you are probably familiar with talking about the Antichrist how he will come he will conquer the rebuilt Temple overwhelm the city of Jerusalem that war will be

Brutal and catastrophic and there's many folks who hold to this view they see it happening in a period of seven years of tribulation with this particular event happening around that three and a half year Mark that's probably where most people understand it there is another view though and that this is a past event which occurred in 70 A.D when Rome sacked Jerusalem and that's why people they consider the pope to be the Antichrist in this verse it seems to be an accurate depiction of Rome attacking Jerusalem and so you see that there's a future depiction and a past depiction depends on how you interpret the verse second thing that we're going to look at and we're just continuing on through the passage and he shall make a strong Covenant with many for one week and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice an offering of course the first view is once again future and the second view is passed view one is that this is a future event where the Antichrist will make political promises you know make all these moves then about halfway through he breaks that Covenant that he makes with people puts it in Temple sacrifices in Jerusalem that's probably you know where most people understand it the second view is that this is fulfilled in Christ that he has made a strong Covenant with his people and he has brought an end to sacrifices and offerings by being the final sacrifice the once and for all sacrifice for man so very different views right and you both kind of see where they get it from and then on the next passage it says and on the wing of Abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator first

View future second view past this is a future act where the Antichrist will make the newly rebuilt Temple functionally desolate he will commit atrocities to great for us to imagine there and it shall be a truly awful time for the people here on Earth foreign course the second view is that the Abomination was when Christ the son of God was killed by his creation that's pretty vile and wicked and of itself and because of Israel's constant rejection he would cause them to become desolate now everyone holds to some part of these views that we've talked about and it depends on where you stand that is until we get to the final half of the week and if you're taking notes you need to write that down half because there is a distinction in time there and so you see regardless of your two primary views there's still that half a week to deal with so some people say that's the tribulation some people say it's a mystery regardless here's what we believe about the future as a church as found in the Baptist faith and message of 2000. Says God in his own time and in his own way will bring the world to its appropriate end according to his promise Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the Earth the dead will be raised and Christ will judge all men in righteousness the unrighteous will be consigned to Hell the place of everlasting punishment the righteous and the resurrecting glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in heaven with the Lord and so regardless of your position regardless of what your view is that is where we stand and it's pretty

Open-handed and so where do we land on this I land with just love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself seek to be informed by God's word share the Gospel love people be kind and if the Lord comes back in a minute awesome if he delays for another Thousand Years awesome I won't be alive in a thousand years but it's a mystery and the secret things belong to the Lord and so let's seek to honor him in the best way possible head hand heart head I want you to know this is something that we can know we know that God hears our prayers right he hears your prayers he hears you he loves to hear you pray and he loves giving answers too and sometimes it's yes with healing and great surgeries like we saw with our sister Arla this week praise the Lord for that amen sometimes it's no and that's it he just closes the door he doesn't open up a window just no other times it's weight that seems to be God's response to Daniel here God hears your prayers hand I want you to take time to look forward to the coming of Christ we all know that he's coming back we all know they will establish an Earthly kingdom here on in a new Heaven and a new Earth and so let's take time and let's look forward to his coming heart I want you to believe that we should be charitable in other views of the 70 weeks of Daniel so I think that's what we're called to do is to be charitable if you would just please bow your head and close your eyes with me as we enter into a time of communion one of the wonderful things about

Communion is that Believers we don't have to agree on every single little issue you know what we do have to agree about is that Jesus Christ is Lord that he died for me they died for you and so the way that we handle Communion here at our church if you're a guest is that we do allow for you to participate you don't have to be a member but you do have to be a member of the big church Christ Church that you know if you were to die right now that you would spend an eternity in heaven with him so now would be a great time for you to spend some time reflecting upon his tremendous sacrifice for you I want you to take a moment and pray foreign Bible it teaches us not to take communion in an unworthy manner that if a brother or sister has something against you to leave your offering and to go and settle that with them if there's a secret we're hidden sin perhaps maybe don't partic partaking communion today but resolving our heart to just let it pass by that you might not drink judgment upon yourself and so God we do thank you so much for this day we thank you that you have called us into a right relationship with you that we no longer have to depend upon our own righteousness or our own Works our own Deeds God they're they're not good enough for heaven but you sent your son you didn't just send him to die you also sent him to be raised again to life to give us a new and eternal hope and so we thank you for that God we asked today that as we partaking communion as Brothers and Sisters in

Christ Lord we Proclaim this until you return God so help us to do so with cheerful Hearts glad Hearts joyful looking forward to you coming back may we be found doing your work when you return in Jesus name the Scripture says in First Corinthians for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed he took bread when he had given things he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of Me Take and Eat Church foreign God we are so thankful so thankful for your body your body that was beaten and bruised pierced the chastisement that brought us peace was upon you and by your wounds we are healed God I just pray that you would continue to draw us into a deeper relationship knowing you more and more foreign help us God to live for you to love you did God let these symbols be a reminder of what you've done for us maybe we never forget let a right hand forget what we do if we forget what you've done let our tongues stick to the roof of our mouths if we forget your great sacrifice God in Jesus name amen the Scripture goes on to say in verse 25 in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me take and drink for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup proclaim the Lord's death until we come until he comes

You know got a song to sing for my friend let's all stand and let's Worship the Lord together [Music] hold again nothing but the blood of Jesus [Music] is the flow that makes me wide as no other found dinos nothing but the blood of [Applause] foreign [Music] foreign this is All My Hope and peace this is All My Hope and peace nothing but the blood of Jesus is all my righteousness nothing but the blood of Jesus us oh precious is the flow that makes me wide as snow no water found dinos [Music] nothing but the blood of Jesus [Music] Heavenly Father we thank you today for this opportunity once again to be reminded of the great sacrifice that you made for each one of us but we also realize that even though that gift was offered to everybody that some may be here today that haven't received a gift and we pray that they'd take that real serious and they would seek you and because we know that you already seeked us out whenever we whenever you gave your life so we just pray that there's anybody today than that situation that they'd think about it

And we pray that you'd give us a good day the rest of the day and we'd be a good witness for you in Jesus name amen