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

God's word says this in the first year of darius the son of a hiserus by dissent to mead who was made king over the realm of the chaldeans in the first year of his reign I Daniel perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet must pass before the end of the desolations of jerusalem namely 70 years then I turned my face to the Lord God seeking him by prayer and please for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession saying o Lord the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled turning aside from your commandments and rules we have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings our princes and our fathers and to all the people of the land to you o Lord belongs righteousness but to us open shame as at this day to the men of judah to the inhabitants of jerusalem and to all israel those who are near and those who are far away in all the lands to which you have driven them because of the treachery that they have committed against you to us o Lord belongs open shame to our kings to our princes and to our fathers because we have sinned against you to the Lord our God belongs mercy and forgiveness for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws which he set before us by his servants the prophets all israel has transgressed your law and

Turned aside refusing to obey your voice and the curse and oath that were written in the law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us because we have sinned against him he has confirmed his words which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us by bringing upon us a great calamity for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against jerusalem as it is written in the law of Moses all this calamity has come upon us yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought us brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done and we have not obeyed his voice and now o Lord our God who brought your people out of the land of egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for yourself as at this day we ascend and we have done wickedly o Lord according to all your righteous acts let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city jerusalem your holy hill because of our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us now therefore oh our God listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy and for your own sake o Lord make your face shine upon your sanctuary which is desolate oh my God incline and hear incline your ear in here open your eyes and see our desolations in the city that is called by your name for we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness but because of your great mercy o Lord hear o Lord forgive o Lord pay attention and

Act delay not for your own sake oh my God because your city and your people are called by your name and so God help us to learn what you would have for us to according to your word here in this passage let us rightly apply it may it shape us and mold us especially as your people may our lives be transformed by prayer and write prayer before you we love you Lord speak to us this day in Jesus name amen well this testimony of Daniel it takes place in 539 bc so long time ago darius he's the king and Daniel he is taking some time and he is reading the book of Jeremiah Jeremiah's book was finished maybe about 10 years before this time not too much longer than that and the hebrew people considered it to be the word of the Lord they rightly believed that was Scripture in Daniel he was reading in Jeremiah chapter 25 if you have a Bible you can turn there Mark it highlight it I've got it up on the screen for you Jeremiah chapter 25 verses 8 through 11 it says this is probably the section of Scripture that Daniel was reading that moves him to seek the Lord it says therefore thus says the Lord of hosts because you have not obeyed my words behold I will send for all the tribes of the north declares the Lord and for nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon this is before the exile the Lord already knew that nebuchadnezzar was going to come my servant he calls him and I will bring against this land and its inhabitants and

Against all these surrounding nations I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror a hissing and an everlasting desolation moreover I will banish them from the voice of mirth the voice of gladness the voice of the bridegroom and the voices of the bride the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp this whole land shall become a ruin and a waste and these nations shall serve the king of babylon 70 years now Daniel had just gone through quite the season as a hebrew in babylon not just any old hebrew he was Daniel he was part of the king's court he was part of the exiles the first group that was taken out from ba from jerusalem into captivity and he had been raised to know the babylonian ways and their gods and he had been through a really rough season really since the death of nebuchadnezzar when nebuchadnezzar died there was absolute turmoil and there was so much turnover between really a four-year span you had kings rising and kings falling and assassinations and different governments being set up and so Daniel he is there when another government comes places it comes to power this invading force from the medo-persian empire and he's kind of asking himself God what is your plan in all of this you ever ask God that question when there's turmoil and hardships when things don't go according to your plan or your desire you ever felt like that God how can any of this be good you ever felt the cold hand of death coming for a loved one maybe a child wanders from the Lord

If you ever ask God if you're really good if you're really in control then why is any of this happening maybe a loved one has cancer some type of incurable disease God what is your purpose in all of this I believe that Daniel asked a lot of those questions too because he was human it's human of us to ask those questions Daniel had seen his people enslaved oppressed ruled over killed conquered held captive and exiled to a foreign land the first question that we have to ask is what moves you to prayer what moves you to prayer what causes you to seek God's face many times it's a need there's a financial need there's a health need it maybe you realize the need for a family member to know Christ be saved there's all sorts of needs and I remember when I was young my dad it was in january of 1992 my dad hit black eyes going over north mountain he was an 18-wheeler driver and jack knife took out 150 yards of guard rail and he survived he survived that praise the Lord but I remember my dad was out of work for a long time and we lost our car lost her truck you know went without for a long time and I went to a Bible club and we were talking about how God provides for needs and this really well-meaning lovely lady I asked her that question and I don't remember what her response was but I do remember how I felt and I felt angry I felt confused I felt lost I felt hopeless and for many of us as believers and maybe you're hearing you're not a Christian

You might be dealing with some of those same feelings as you have sought the Lord I want to encourage you that the Lord has a plan and we're going to discover what some of those plans are you see Daniel he was moved to seek answers about what God was up to and so he picked up the Scriptures picked up the book of Jeremiah and lo and behold there's the answer right there this is God's plan in it that there was rebellion and there was a 70-year time period and now as we talked about in Scripture when we see like numbers like 7 70 all those different kind of things those can be understood to be symbolic of complete and things like that and that's how we understand this portion of Scripture the 70 years what moved Daniel to prayer is the word of God that is what moves Daniel to prayer Daniel's circumstances haven't changed they were still oppressed they were still in exile they still had this tremendous need and he's been in that need for decades at this point it wasn't until he opened God's word that he is moved to prayer the word of God is not just a book full of instruction although it is at least that it's a book that calls you and I to action how would you respond to exile if you had been in it for almost 70 years what might the condition of your heart be what if you learned that God's word said that this judgment would last for 70 years I think many of us you know what we would do is we put a countdown on our phones you know and say you know what it's 70 years I'm going to start

Counting down that's that's what I'm going to do but that's not how Daniel responds what does he do he read the text and then immediately he turns his face to the Lord God that term turn your face is the understanding of repentance to turn your face not just away from sin but to turn it to God to turn it to Christ and he's repenting what sin do we know that Daniel had committed is that is that a sin no he's one of the very few old testament characters that we know of that had he was we know that he wasn't perfect but we can't accuse him of anything because we don't have we don't know his heart we don't know his mind or anything like that but he is repenting he is interceding on behalf of the nation of israel and so he's praying he's pleading for mercy he's he's fasting he's dressing in sackcloth he's putting ashes on his head and all these things he did as a visible sign of repentance seeking the Lord and we don't do those visible signs of fasting anymore we don't put ashes in our hair and dress in sackcloth because Christ he told us to wash our face and anoint our heads but let's ask this question second question what informs your prayers I was sitting with a local pastor and you know we were talking about churches like pastors do and he came across a really strange teaching he said this teacher told this pastor you know God he already knows what's going to happen he is sovereign after all therefore why should we pray I don't think that we should pray

Anymore listen that teaching is unbiblical it's satanic it's demonic and it's useless for building up the people of God amen God he calls us to pray he commands us to pray not lazy heartless prayers either but prayers characterized by as austin was talking about being a living sacrifice sacrificial prayer seeking out his will and oftentimes it is born out of prayer that we see the hand of God moving in the people that are around us and sometimes God he is waiting for us just simply to come to him God's characteristic of being sovereign is not an excuse for spiritual laziness you can't say amen you better say ouch so how did Daniel pray informed prayers firstly he was he was praying the promises of God he was praying the promises of God some of the promises of God that we see here are his attributes look at how Daniel he pairs up who God is in these verses he says Lord the great and awesome God he is great and he is awesome you should circle those words he keeps covenant and steadfast love verse 7 it says to you belongs righteousness God that is yours in verse 9 it says to you to the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness and you contrast that with what the people you and I what do we bring to the table what does Daniel highlight for you and I verse five we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly we've rebelled verse six we have not listened verse eight we have sinned against you verse 11 all israel has transgressed your law and turned aside

What did the people of israel deserve they deserve to be a desolate sanctuary to be a byword among the people they deserve to be destroyed forgotten and discarded into the dustbin of history that's what they deserved that's what we deserved when God I should say this but God he brought hope when he brought the nation of israel out of the land of egypt he forever tied his good and holy name to the people of God and he made a covenant with him at mount sinai in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 23 through 31 it goes through this covenant and he even gives them a warning here he says take care lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you make carved image the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you for the Lord your God is a consuming fire a jealous God when you father children and children's children have grown old in the land if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke him to anger I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you were going over the jordan to possess you will not live long in it but will be utterly destroyed and the Lord will scatter you among the peoples you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you excuse me and there you will serve gods of wood and stone the work of human hands that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell

But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul when you're in tribulation all these things come upon you in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice for the Lord your God is a merciful God he will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them Daniel he knew the promises of God he knew about them from being raised in them and he knew them from God's law he knew the covenant he knew the character of God in the same way that God led israel out of egypt listen to me Christian God he has led you out of that spiritual egypt and he has forever joined his name Christian on you and he will never leave you nor forsake you and in the same way that his name and his faithfulness is tied to israel his name and his faithfulness is tied to you as a believer in Christ do you think that God will forsake his promises to you no because he loves you secondly I want you to notice the conviction of the spirit here over and over again Daniel he talks about how God has kept his promises but israel has broken theirs and if you are a believer in Christ you've come to God by faith alone in Jesus Christ then you are under what we call the new covenant in the Lord and so your salvation is no longer contingent upon your obedience and your faithfulness but it's upon what Christ did for you and I on the cross and if you're not saved then you are still under the condemnation of the old

Law and the old covenant the old law it condemns and it does not make alive and it does not bring hope or peace only Christ can bring you hope and peace that's the only place that can be found is at the feet of Christ and Daniel he has broken at the state of his own people and where they have fallen from I mean he looks back and he remembers the blessings of God he remembers the temple and the sacrificial system he remembers being raised up reciting the first five books of the Bible and he remembers just the blessing of God this is why Daniel pleads in verse 16 let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city jerusalem your holy hill because of our sins Daniel he was convicted and he was pleading for forgiveness which God readily forgives when those who are convicted by the spirit ask for so let's ask a third question here how should we pray how should we pray we see a couple of characteristics here first one is we should pray with humility we should pray with humility the fact that Daniel was an israelite did not lead to him boasting at all actually twice in the passage in verses seven and eight he says to us belongs open shame that's what we what we have that's what we bring to the table God there's no source of boasting on behalf of Daniel it's all dependent upon the grace and the mercy and the character of God that's why we should bring when we are coming to God in prayer that's why we don't come boasting and telling the Lord how wonderful we are and all the great

Things that we've done we come to God with humility and when I when I'm opening up my time in prayer oftentimes I just pray God just show me my heart show me where I'm at help me come bring things to mind that maybe I've you know maybe I was short with someone or maybe I had that really bad thought or perhaps I've got this sin that's you know rising up in my life God help me to deal with those things and convict those things and then I have to wait what happens is that God like every time brings something to my mind that I have to ask the Lord forgive me for and I'll be honest with y'all many times I don't want to deal with those things I just want to pray and I want to do my stuff and I just want to move on anybody else there with me a couple of honest people all right thank you thank praise the Lord so and I want to keep praying and I want I want to just get through it and the spirit he just brings me back cody I love you but I want you to deal with this first and he won't let me go so the spirit he coaxes us that's why we can't just do it in a rush prayer on the way to work or a sleepy bedtime prayer we should pray at those times we pray all the time but we should have a time of prayer if you don't have one get one secondly and we covered this a bit already we pray according to the promises of God that's an informed prayer

And so how does this look let's go over to second Peter real quick go to go over to second Peter chapter one verses three through four this is our vbs theme verse I can't I like always singing it when we get to this point but it says his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and goodness or excellence sorry game on by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire so we know that the promises of God are now ours through Jesus Christ one of the promises that we've already touched on and it's one that a lot of believers cling to I will never leave you nor forsake you and why is it that promise resonates with so many of us I think it's because a lot of us know what it's like to feel alone to be alone so how does it look to pray that promise maybe to admit and tell God I do feel alone God why do I feel alone there might be an unconfessed sin there might be something that's standing between you in that unhindered intimacy and this is especially true I will never leave you nor forsake you it's especially true for those of you who struggle with your eternal security to remember that verse to remember that promise and cling to it that he will not let you go because he has you and you are his beloved remember that he has bought you at a high price

He has paid for you with his very own blood believer Christian child of God and he is not looking to get a refund for you he loves you God has promised that he will never leave you nor forsake you so hold fast to that promise and then you can share with the Lord that intimacy and you can say God I used to feel alone but now I know that I can walk in that freedom and that liberty because there's nothing between you and I except of course your son Jesus Christ and so that's part of how it looks like and for Daniel he knew that these 70 years they were concluding they were finishing up they were wrapping up and he didn't just say just another eight or nine years that's all I got to do is just wait it out now in verses 17-18 what does it say it says now therefore oh Lord my God listen to the prayer of your servant and to the pleas for mercy and for your own sake o Lord make your face to shine upon your sanctuary which is desolate oh my God incline your ear in here open your eyes and see our desolations he's saying that now Lord look upon us the city that is called by your name for we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness but because of your great mercy because you are merciful God have mercy please have mercy because of your covenant promise please God bring favor to your people to your sanctuary because of your righteousness God not because of what we bring to the table but because of who you are God would you please do this and this is what it means to pray the promises of God loves it when

His children come to him and remind him of the promises that he has made in mid-august my family we were just like dealing with sickness in our home like week after week after week every and it was you know but we had already told our kids hey we want to do one last summer activity with you before we before we wrap up summer which speaking of which it's still summer apparently but I remember my daughter lily she said I want my last big summer thing to use our big surf passes to go to big surf one last time now I am not a big water park guy okay like you know just getting out there with my swimming trunks on my shirt off nobody wants to see that you know what I'm saying and yeah pasty pastor now yeah it's a great spot to say amen now we but you know we know that's gonna be closing labor day and labor day weekend kids are sick it was cold labor day y'all remember that it was like 70 like six for the high rainy that morning and so I get up and I'm like honey I just don't think that we can go and you know what my daughter said but you promised and I'll be honest with you I did not like being reminded of that I was not perfect in that moment God loves it because he is perfect to be reminded of his promises though yes we did go to big surf that day okay I suffered and I endured but God loves to be reminded of those promises how else should we pray

Thirdly with great faith we should pray Daniel didn't resign himself to the 70 years because in his mind he had been through it and he had and so he prayed and he didn't just pray this heartless God just let your will be done in this situation amen God you're sovereign you're in control amen that's not heartfelt prayer it's not being honest with the Lord this is what Daniel is doing on behalf of israel there was discipline and fasting he set his face towards the Lord's temple and he prayed you imagine being a disciple of Christ and walking with him for three years he's crucified you're down and then he's resurrected and you're like on that high and he's explaining the great commission to you and he's like all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me and you're like praise the Lord amen you tune out the rest of it you get the gist of it all authority is his so you can just sit back and chill right no it is precisely because he has all authority that he can tell you and I what to do go therefore make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you behold I am with you always to the end of the age and so it is precisely because of his sovereignty precisely because of his gracious authority that he commands his disciples you and I to go and make disciples to pray to do things like that and we joyfully obey

That he would invite you and I to come and partner with him in the work of ministry is astounding and we don't get to disobey and say well we're just practicing faith remember faith without works is dead and fourthly we pray according to his will God had decreed 70 years and as we said this is a symbolic number we know that because in history we look at it wasn't exactly 70 years we see this term 70 used symbolically later as well but God he had made a promise that he would not destroy them that he would not forget them in Daniel he was interceding on behalf of the people for God to remember to put it mildly Daniel was just reminding him of his promises and that's the secret to prayer that we cannot pray apart from his word we pray according to his word so that when we see things in our lives changing and the turmoil we can go to God and we can say you know what this is what you've said now help me to understand that God can you work through this is my desire this is what I want please God according to your will fourth question and then we're going to wrap it up what confidence do we have in prayer what confidence in other words what's the use do our prayers actually affect anything and we'll get into this in much more detail next week but what confidence do we have firstly God he has spoken and this should give us tremendous confidence that God what he has said that he will bring about he will do he has instructed us how we should pray he has taught us why we should pray he has told us what we should pray about he has given us his Holy Spirit to teach us to lead us the Holy Spirit now intercedes for us

In prayer and he has given us all the things that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of God who's called us for his own glory and goodness God he has spoken to us clearly through his word and so now when we have a friend who is lost we can pray for their heart to be changed because that's Biblical we can pray for their eyes to be uncovered because that's what the Bible says we can pray for them to be good soil for the seed of the Gospel because it's what the Bible says and we can pray for opportunities to love and serve them because that's what the Bible says that's just one example out of literally thousands of how we can pray the promises in the word of God secondly God he will receive glory the whole book of Daniel pushes this point the entire book has been about the glory of God the glory of God the glory he is better his kingdom that he rules has greater authority and he will receive all the glory and we should pray that he would receive glory from you and in verse 19 Daniel he prays for the people to return home not because they're tired of the exile why does he pray in verse 19 for your own sake do this he was praying for his people yes but he was totally God focused in his prayer for your own sake for your for your city for your people for your own good name God please do this and as Christians we want God to be glorified in our lives thirdly what confidence we have in prayer that there is mercy in Christ the israelites they were in babylon for decades exile was kind of a normal thing put yourself in their shoes most of those who have been taken

Captive already dead you've been raised in babylonian culture you kind of used to be in the outcast even the oldest people among you are gone they can't remember what the temple looked like what the city of God looked so you just kind of learned to cope and deal with it right but Daniel's attitude was very different he is saying that open shame is there so this is a great disaster they didn't just learn to deal with it they took it to the Lord and they said your sanctuary is a desolate place God can you do something about it verse 18 it says for we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness but because of your great mercy and that's true about you and I as well we are not righteous because of our goodness but because of the goodness of Christ when we place our faith and trust in him he gives us his righteousness and he extends his mercy to us and fourthly and lastly God cares about you God cares about you Daniel he doesn't make a case about how the people deserve God's grace deserve his mercy deserve his care his care he says we are sinners we have shame we are cursed we are humiliated and God he is not indifferent to those feelings there's a woman that was caught in the act of adultery that was brought before Christ he said the law says that we ought to stone her what do you say Jesus Jesus said he who is among you who has no can no sin cast the first stone the people drop the rocks starting with the oldest down to the youngest until everyone had gone Jesus said woman

Where are they has anyone accused you no one my Lord then neither do I go and sin no more and see Christ he offered forgiveness and then because he has all authority he commands life change because of his power and his care for you and for me what is the basis of God's forgiveness and care if sinners deserve wrath then how can God be gracious he can only do so because of what Jesus did on the cross for us God loved us so much that he sent his only begotten son to die that we might have a saving relationship with the father by faith in Christ's work Christ he's bought us with his own blood and now he tells us to pray to pray with fervency pray with passion seeking the Lord's face seeking his will through the word pleading the promises of God with faith according to his will head hand head I want you to know that God loves it when his children pray he invites you as his adopted child to come to him with all your fears all your burdens all your shame to exchange them for courage for freedom and for righteousness what a blessing that he invites to us in prayer secondly a hand I want you to pray the promises of God in your prayers this week google the promises of God there's like thousands of searches or search the Scriptures go with one that you know and begin praying those promises God you said this you said this you said this and he will prove himself faithful over and over and over and over again heart I want you to believe that God cares about your needs and the needs of others doesn't just want you to pray God do your will he wants to hear your heart too

Your desire might be for God's will and it should be but even Christ prayed my father if it is possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as you God hears our prayers and he uses our prayers for his glory as we will see next week so God we do thank you so much for this great day and we pray that you would just move us to prayer all of our church family and unified and seeking out your once your will informed by your word and your promises of who you are God help us Lord to seek you and your kingdom first expressing the deepest desires of our hearts for your glory God we pray that would be our prayer God you would increase in our lives that we would decrease in our own that people might be able to look at us and see your son within us we love you and we thank you for this great day in Jesus precious name amen let's stand and let's respond and worship [Music] deliver us from evil Lord we sojourn in a broken world though evil hands give rise to war remind us this is not our home we look to you sovereign king of all the earth we look to you in your strength we will endure [Music] deliver us from evil Lord our hearts so quickly run astray temptation crouching at the door to turn us from the narrow way we look to you Christ the conquering son of God we look to you we Lord complete what you've begun

[Music] deliver us from evil Lord the devil seeking to devour with trembling hearts we hear his roar but your strong arm will crush his power we look to you come and end his earthly rain [Music] we look to you Lord deliver us we pray we look to you will come again to rain we look to you all the earth will bow in praise [Music] Lord we look to you this morning help us to go from here continuing to worship your holy name through our words and our deeds Lord help us to apply what we've learned today to our lives so that we might bring your name glory in the earth it's in Jesus name we pray amen just a quick reminder about the missouri missions offering I believe we're putting it right up here so just take your envelopes and bring it right up and put it inside the house right on the roof thank you and have a great day