WEBVTT 00:00:01.160 --> 00:00:03.140 The book of Daniel is where we are together. 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:05.500 If you're with us for the first time in this series, welcome. 00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:06.600 We're nine weeks into this. 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:12.760 I want to tell you my original intentions in going through Daniel is I planned the sermon series way out in advance. 00:00:13.180 --> 00:00:17.840 I could tell you where we're going to be in the months ahead, but with Daniel my original plan was to go through this pretty quickly. 00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:23.600 And then I realized, as I got into this, just how much this section of Scripture is abused. 00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:32.200 And I looked around at some other churches in teaching this and quite honestly was shocked when I looked around churches 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:34.540 throughout let's say America. 00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:39.580 And just looking at how they taught through Daniel and found out a lot of the churches don't approach this book. 00:00:39.900 --> 00:00:42.650 And one of the reasons they don't approach it is because it's a controversial book. 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:43.780 It is a difficult book. 00:00:44.580 --> 00:00:48.100 And I don't think that's what God wants us to do. 00:00:48.180 --> 00:00:53.180 I think he wrote Daniel for a reason and I'm not afraid to approach Scripture. 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:57.960 So we're approaching this and we're looking at some difficult passages of Scripture. 00:00:57.980 --> 00:01:03.220 In fact, I will tell you, next week we're going to look at the most difficult passage within the book of Daniel. 00:01:03.220 --> 00:01:06.960 It's a prophetic passage, Daniel 9:24-27. 00:01:07.260 --> 00:01:09.940 Today we're going to look at Daniel chapter nine, all the way up to verse 24. 00:01:09.940 --> 00:01:17.200 We're going to stop just before verse 24 because I believe today's passage tempers the attitude that we should carry in next week's 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:17.620 passage. 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:25.440 Next week's passage is the prophetic section of Scripture that theologians refer to as the backbone of prophecy in the 00:01:25.440 --> 00:01:26.520 Old Testament. 00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:33.680 And there are, in these short verses we're going to look at, there are more theological views on this passage of Scripture than I think anywhere 00:01:33.900 --> 00:01:34.700 else in all of the Bible. 00:01:35.300 --> 00:01:42.240 And so we're going to just tackle it all and you're going to come out the smartest Christians ever related to that passage. 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:44.930 But more importantly, I hope it's worshipful. 00:01:46.300 --> 00:01:49.500 I'm not interested in just pumping you up full of intellect. 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:51.880 At the end of the day that's not going to get you anywhere. 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:53.530 I care about your relationship with Jesus. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:00.320 Now I think truth is the catalyst for life change but ultimately if it's divorce of relationship, I don't care how smart you are when it comes to Scripture. 00:02:00.860 --> 00:02:02.240 I would rather you have a relationship with Jesus. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.910 But truth is important because that lays the foundation for us. 00:02:06.360 --> 00:02:11.260 Daniel's an important book of the Bible because of where we find this in historical context and how it relates to us today. 00:02:11.880 --> 00:02:16.690 This event takes place starting in 605 and lasts about 70 years, the book of Daniel does. 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:22.280 And Daniel is one who is uprooted from his culture and thrown into another culture. 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:25.260 And that culture tries to influence him to walk contrary to God. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:27.840 But Daniel wants to walk consistently with the Lord. 00:02:28.160 --> 00:02:35.180 And so when you read the book of Daniel and see those challenges, the first six chapters, it was the narrative of Daniel in dealing with that and the circumstances he faced. 00:02:35.500 --> 00:02:42.020 The last six chapters are prophetic, where Daniel's looking forward into how God's people can continue to walk with the Lord. 00:02:42.340 --> 00:02:49.360 And so we're in that part of prophecy now where Daniel's looking forward and seeking God's face on what's going to transpire for his people in the 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:49.740 future. 00:02:50.420 --> 00:02:57.290 The reason this book is so relevant for us today is because when you get to the New Testament, the writers in the New Testament continue to refer back to the story of Babylon. 00:02:57.740 --> 00:03:00.880 And they refer to the time in which they live as Babylon. 00:03:01.420 --> 00:03:03.440 And so Peter does that, John does that. 00:03:03.540 --> 00:03:10.540 They want people to really see Daniel's story as their story, how we continue even today as God's people, we live as aliens in 00:03:10.540 --> 00:03:16.200 this world in a culture that conflicts with the nature of God and how he desires for us to live in this live. 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:23.680 And so when we look at Daniel's story, we ask the question of how when we collide with our culture can we live for God's 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:24.720 glory in this world? 00:03:24.720 --> 00:03:29.850 When we face adversity, how do we endure, and not just simply endure, how do we thrive? 00:03:31.440 --> 00:03:38.460 And in chapter nine you really see two answers to Daniel's life in this question now because Daniel's still 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:39.080 praying. 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:46.080 At this point in the story, he's in his 80's and he's saying to God, "God, our people are still in captivity and we're trying to figure out how we 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:48.760 can live for your glory but we're not in the Promise Land to see that happen. 00:03:49.780 --> 00:03:53.550 And God, you've promised things in your Promise Land, so how can this transpire? 00:03:53.660 --> 00:03:55.120 I mean the Messiah's supposed to come from there. 00:03:55.940 --> 00:04:03.220 And so how is this going to work?" And so Daniel needs, in order to endure in this culture, there's two things in chapter nine we're going to find. 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:06.610 He needs strength for today and he needs hope for tomorrow. 00:04:07.060 --> 00:04:11.810 In verse one of chapter nine to verse 23, you really find him seeking that strength for today. 00:04:11.940 --> 00:04:15.450 And in verse 24, then God supplies for them the hope for tomorrow. 00:04:15.920 --> 00:04:23.720 It's kind of sort of punting the question when you face trials in life like you ever have someone pass away? 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:31.280 It's sort of diminishes their feelings in that circumstance to say, "Well, there's always heaven, you know?" 00:04:31.320 --> 00:04:38.820 It kind of ignores how they feel now when you just start talking about what's ahead without just being 00:04:38.820 --> 00:04:40.940 honest with their suffering. 00:04:40.980 --> 00:04:48.160 As the Bible says, "Weep when they weep." So when it comes to enduring hardship in our lives, we need strength for today and we need hope for tomorrow. 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:49.160 We need both of those things. 00:04:49.860 --> 00:04:57.220 But I think in the moment of the difficulty, we need strength in that moment and so we can take our eyes beyond 00:04:57.220 --> 00:04:58.680 that moment and look forward. 00:04:58.760 --> 00:05:01.000 And so you see that with Daniel in this story. 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:07.160 And Daniel helps us to experience that strength that he's finding in this moment through prayer. 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:12.060 Daniel starts praying to God and seeking God's face. 00:05:12.080 --> 00:05:19.140 And I want to look at this context of the story in order to relate it to ask that question, how we can experience God 00:05:19.140 --> 00:05:20.640 in our struggles? 00:05:20.920 --> 00:05:26.860 You think 2017, maybe for you there's some remorse, maybe there's some reasons to celebrate, the whole gamut. 00:05:26.860 --> 00:05:28.450 You could go through today and just perspective. 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:30.280 You think about next year. 00:05:30.520 --> 00:05:36.210 But in all of that, what I prefer is to put the past in the past and look forward to what God has called me to in the future. 00:05:36.420 --> 00:05:39.720 And I want to know as I go through this circumstance, how can I walk with God in it? 00:05:40.520 --> 00:05:41.780 How can I experience him? 00:05:42.140 --> 00:05:46.760 And I want to teach us that fight in the idea of Daniel's prayer here. 00:05:46.760 --> 00:05:54.060 And so to add the context to it today, Daniel 9:1 starts this way, "In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, 00:05:55.220 --> 00:06:02.320 of Midian descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, observed in the books the 00:06:02.320 --> 00:06:09.480 number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, for the completion of the desolation of Jerusalem, 00:06:09.740 --> 00:06:13.120 namely 70 years." So let me tell you what's happening here. 00:06:14.300 --> 00:06:18.620 Daniel is saying, "Okay, I was under Babylonian captivity. 00:06:18.620 --> 00:06:20.220 That captivity lasted 70 years. 00:06:20.220 --> 00:06:27.440 Now I'm under a new king, Darius, who's a part of the Medo-Persians." And so Daniel's praying to God in this season of life. 00:06:27.460 --> 00:06:30.540 He's in mid-80s now, offering this prayer to God. 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:32.880 And he's saying what drives him to this prayer. 00:06:32.900 --> 00:06:37.160 And what's driving Daniel to this prayer is the concern for his people and the truth of God's word. 00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:40.860 Because what Daniel's done is he's started to seek God's face in God's word. 00:06:40.960 --> 00:06:43.300 He's in a circumstance he does not enjoy. 00:06:43.780 --> 00:06:45.540 I got this question last week. 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:47.220 I did answer it over the holiday season. 00:06:47.220 --> 00:06:48.480 We'll make a blog post out of it. 00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:52.840 But someone asked, "All this bad stuff happening in the world, where is God in this? 00:06:53.380 --> 00:07:00.420 If there's a good God but bad things, how do those fit together?" And Daniel's really in that same 00:07:00.420 --> 00:07:00.920 prayer. 00:07:01.820 --> 00:07:04.310 "This bad stuff's happening God, I'm looking at your promises. 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:11.860 God, I'm trying to see how you and your goodness are working here." And so Daniel was driven to Scripture to see the character of 00:07:11.860 --> 00:07:15.660 God and the promises of God laying out in God's word. 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:18.060 And one of the things that he had turned to is the prophet Jeremiah. 00:07:19.320 --> 00:07:26.500 And in Jeremiah 25:11-14, Jeremiah said to the people before they were taken captive, "You're going to be taken captive by the Babylonians 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:33.940 and that captivity is going to last 70 years." And so now Daniel's looking at the scope of this captivity and he's realizing, "Hey, I've been in captivity 00:07:33.940 --> 00:07:41.200 for about 70 years." And so now he's taking God's truth and he's holding to the promises and he's saying, "God, show yourself faithful." 00:07:42.460 --> 00:07:48.820 And so Daniel's doing this during the Medo-Persian reign having read the prophet Jeremiah. 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:53.090 And it tells us at the end of this passage, if I were just to... 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:54.460 Well, let me read these next verses. 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:56.420 It starts to lead into his prayers. 00:07:56.420 --> 00:08:01.480 It says, "I gave my attention to the Lord", so Daniel's taking the truth of God and he's now praying before God. 00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:09.780 "Jeremiah chapter 25, God, verse 11 says this, 70 years." And so Daniel's praying this to God. 00:08:10.100 --> 00:08:11.100 He's holding to the truth. 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:15.240 When you look at the captivity, it started in 605. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:21.840 And Cyrus actually delivers the decree to tell the Jews they could go back to their promise land in 536. 00:08:22.520 --> 00:08:26.520 So 70 years transpire in that as God's prophecy had fulfilled in Jeremiah. 00:08:26.980 --> 00:08:30.640 And in 586 the last wave of captivity started. 00:08:30.640 --> 00:08:36.980 So when you study historically, captivity started in 605 and the Babylonians went against Jerusalem on three separate occasions. 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:40.140 586, the last captors are brought into Babylon. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:46.300 And if you look at the 586 captivity, in 515 the temple in Jerusalem's finally rebuilt. 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:51.330 So however you look at the scope, 70 years transpired until this prophecy is fulfilled. 00:08:51.540 --> 00:08:58.700 And so Daniel was warning God, though he doesn't know this yet, exactly how God's going to work, so he's coming to God claiming this prophetic statement 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:01.700 from Jeremiah before God had ultimately fulfilled it. 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:03.580 And then look at his attitude in prayer. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:12.160 "He came to God seeking him by prayer and supplication with fasting in sackcloth and ashes." This is the Jewish traditional way of saying in 00:09:12.160 --> 00:09:12.580 repentance. 00:09:13.640 --> 00:09:16.780 The sackcloth and ashes is an attitude of humility before God. 00:09:17.800 --> 00:09:21.600 And the reason he's telling us he's coming in repentance is because of what Jeremiah's taught him. 00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:23.320 Let me read on and I'll explain that to you. 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:30.800 He said, "I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, 'Alas, oh Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and 00:09:30.800 --> 00:09:38.040 loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.'" The 00:09:38.040 --> 00:09:45.560 reason he's praying this pray is because Jeremiah when he said Israel would be in captivity for 70 years was because of their disobedience 00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:48.240 to what is called the Sabbatical year. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:56.160 God told the Jews when they went into the Promise Land that they could plant seed and harvest for six years, and on the seventh year they were supposed 00:09:56.160 --> 00:09:57.490 to leave the ground empty. 00:09:57.820 --> 00:10:00.060 They weren't supposed to lay any harvest to it. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:01.020 There were to let the ground rest. 00:10:02.020 --> 00:10:03.280 And they were disobedient to that. 00:10:03.780 --> 00:10:05.380 And they were supposed to do it every seventh year. 00:10:05.420 --> 00:10:07.800 And on the 50th year, the jubilee year, they were supposed to do that. 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:12.020 And so God accumulates every year they were disobedient to him and it equaled 70 years. 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:15.580 And so they went 70 years into captivity because of this. 00:10:15.620 --> 00:10:22.820 And so Daniel now, in seeing Jeremiah's prophecy, is coming to God repentantly knowing that they have broken God's law 00:10:22.820 --> 00:10:24.760 or God's rule to the Jewish people. 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:28.940 And then you see his attitude he's carrying in all of this as well. 00:10:28.940 --> 00:10:31.540 You see his attitude in the humility with sackcloth and ashes. 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:32.800 And then it tell us this. 00:10:34.200 --> 00:10:41.360 At the very end of the book, in verse 21 he says, "While I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:47.160 the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. 00:10:47.980 --> 00:10:53.680 He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, 'Oh Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. 00:10:54.020 --> 00:11:00.250 At the beginning of your supplications, the command was issued and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. 00:11:00.780 --> 00:11:07.860 So give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision.'" Now what the angel's saying here is 00:11:07.860 --> 00:11:08.420 what I want. 00:11:09.860 --> 00:11:10.660 God hears. 00:11:11.780 --> 00:11:15.310 The Lord is esteeming him or honoring this prayer before him. 00:11:15.500 --> 00:11:17.990 And so how can I pray like Daniel in this section? 00:11:18.880 --> 00:11:22.120 How do I know in my struggles that God hears me in the conflict? 00:11:22.140 --> 00:11:27.380 You can think in this year coming forward for your life, you think of all the influences you have around you. 00:11:27.380 --> 00:11:32.940 Maybe on your heart, like Daniel, on his heart was the people, God's people, and Jerusalem. 00:11:32.940 --> 00:11:35.180 And he prayed for that and saw the need. 00:11:35.180 --> 00:11:39.420 And maybe on your heart, your marriage or your family or this valley. 00:11:41.640 --> 00:11:43.020 How do you know God can hear that prayer? 00:11:44.620 --> 00:11:45.840 What can you learn from Daniel's prayer? 00:11:47.760 --> 00:11:49.480 A couple of things it tells us in verse 21. 00:11:49.540 --> 00:11:51.540 I love this picture it paints of Daniel. 00:11:51.560 --> 00:11:54.050 He's doing this at the evening offering in extreme weariness. 00:11:54.880 --> 00:11:59.870 Way back, Daniel 6:10, the Bible told us that Daniel prayed three times a day, and he did so regularly. 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:02.400 He did it at specific times. 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:05.630 And one of those times it's telling us was at the evening offering. 00:12:06.020 --> 00:12:12.920 In Jewish history they had specific times they would go to the temple and they would offer a prayer at the temple as they would make a sacrifice. 00:12:14.360 --> 00:12:21.180 And Daniel, in those time periods of prayer that they would do in Jerusalem, Daniel continued that on into Babylon. 00:12:22.180 --> 00:12:22.780 He was faithful. 00:12:24.060 --> 00:12:31.120 Three times a day he would pray towards Jerusalem seeking God's face as a way to honor the Lord just as they had done 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:32.080 back in their land. 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:34.850 And it tells us he does it with extreme weariness. 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:35.900 Now I want you to see this. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:43.020 If you have any translation probably, other than the NASB, if you have the ESV, the NIV, KJV, the blah, blah, 00:12:43.040 --> 00:12:50.100 blah, blah, whatever translation you might have, you might see if you read that verse, verse 21, rather than say in extreme weariness it's going to 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:53.230 say in swift flight or some sort of traveling. 00:12:53.820 --> 00:12:56.880 And I want you to know, it doesn't mean that we don't know what the test says here, okay? 00:12:57.280 --> 00:13:00.220 The Hebrew in this passage is not in question at all. 00:13:00.660 --> 00:13:02.500 There's a translational difficulty. 00:13:02.500 --> 00:13:04.160 And I think the NASB has it right. 00:13:04.280 --> 00:13:07.300 So if you've got swift flight, your Bible's wrong. 00:13:07.320 --> 00:13:09.220 Let me just tell you why. 00:13:11.110 --> 00:13:18.200 By the way, I think this is subject to seeing the argument and figuring out what way is the best way 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:18.700 to translate. 00:13:20.020 --> 00:13:27.240 When translators translate text of Scripture, sometimes they are given these adjectives and nouns that modify certain 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:28.480 words within a text. 00:13:28.500 --> 00:13:35.580 And so what's happening here is there's two words being used, [foreign language 00:13:33] and [foreign 00:13:35.660 --> 00:13:35.660 language 00:13:33]. 00:13:35.660 --> 00:13:37.340 And one's an adjective and one's a noun. 00:13:37.420 --> 00:13:41.260 And those words modify the subject of verse 21. 00:13:41.680 --> 00:13:44.400 Now the problem is, in verse 21 there's two subjects at hand here. 00:13:44.700 --> 00:13:46.020 Gabriel and Daniel. 00:13:46.880 --> 00:13:52.040 And so if they look at these words, the traditional usage of these words are fatigue and weary. 00:13:53.020 --> 00:14:00.020 Every other time it's translated in Scripture it's translated as fatigued or weary, except for in this passage some translators use swift 00:14:00.020 --> 00:14:00.920 flight. 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:04.150 And they use this word to modify Gabriel's actions. 00:14:04.800 --> 00:14:09.570 And I don't think that's what's happening here at all because the subject, I think, more focuses on Daniel and his prayer. 00:14:09.760 --> 00:14:16.480 And so what it's trying to get us to understand is rather than swift flight, which is the minor translation of this word, the major translation is extreme weariness. 00:14:16.880 --> 00:14:24.180 And the modification then, and the angel's not going to be tired, the modification then is up on Daniel because he's praying into the evening about 00:14:24.180 --> 00:14:25.180 this need. 00:14:26.100 --> 00:14:32.580 And so Daniel's carrying this weight on him of wanting to see God free his people. 00:14:33.740 --> 00:14:40.960 And so if Daniel's approaching God in prayer in this way, faithfully seeking God's face, wearing the weight 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:43.820 of his people, wanting to see God move. 00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:49.780 And Daniel then receives an answer from the Lord. 00:14:49.780 --> 00:14:56.780 And the answer is, Gabriel starts to reveal it, and the answer then later becomes hope also for the future, that God is 00:14:56.780 --> 00:15:02.340 still working, God's going to fulfill this as Jeremiah said and God is still working into the future. 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:07.320 So Daniel seeks God's face, he gets strength for the moment in his weariness. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:09.260 He gets hope for the future. 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:11.940 And how in the world can I pray this way? 00:15:14.040 --> 00:15:14.980 How can you pray this way? 00:15:16.100 --> 00:15:18.060 When you pray, how do you know God can hear? 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:23.980 I like 1st John five, and I want this to be true in my life. 00:15:24.020 --> 00:15:31.140 It says, "This is the confidence that you and I have, which we have before God, that if we ask anything, 00:15:31.180 --> 00:15:38.290 according to his will, he hears us." Do you feel that confident? 00:15:40.840 --> 00:15:41.920 How can you feel that confident? 00:15:42.940 --> 00:15:50.160 I think Daniel's story helps us to find God and the comfort 00:15:50.160 --> 00:15:51.010 of his strength. 00:15:51.140 --> 00:15:54.550 In the midst of this circumstance, Daniel begins to pray. 00:15:54.640 --> 00:15:57.420 Chapter nine, verse three, sackcloth and ashes. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:04.520 And then verse four, it says this, "I prayed to the Lord, my God, and confessed and said, 'Alas, 00:16:04.580 --> 00:16:11.720 oh Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:14.130 those who love him and keep his commandments. 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:21.260 We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. 00:16:21.540 --> 00:16:28.540 Moreover, we have not listened to your servants, the prophets, whom spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people 00:16:28.540 --> 00:16:35.680 of the land.'" I want to talk about the word covenant in just a moment because Daniel's tapping into some language here 00:16:35.680 --> 00:16:40.120 that is rich in history in such a beautiful way, and I want you to see how that unfolds. 00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:43.200 But I like what he does in verse five. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:49.180 He says, "We have sinned." Now when you read the story of Daniel, Daniel looks like Mr. 00:16:49.180 --> 00:16:50.880 Perfect in compared to everybody else, right? 00:16:50.880 --> 00:16:55.660 I mean the guy stands in the face of adversity, even to the point that he's facing the lion's den. 00:16:55.660 --> 00:16:56.530 He's like, "So what? 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:00.980 I won't face that lion." Daniel goes into the lion's... 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:03.160 I don't think he's that confident but he's trusting in God. 00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:05.400 Daniel is a warrior for the Lord. 00:17:05.420 --> 00:17:11.730 But when it comes to acknowledging before God the sin, he doesn't say, "God, what are going to do with those people? 00:17:12.300 --> 00:17:19.480 That is messed up man." He says, "We have sinned." And that's a mark of a great leader. 00:17:21.099 --> 00:17:24.800 It's not about them and me, it's us together. 00:17:26.339 --> 00:17:26.880 We're in this together. 00:17:28.740 --> 00:17:31.740 And Daniel's getting his hands dirty in the struggle with his people. 00:17:33.600 --> 00:17:40.740 And here he is praying before God, and in verse four to six, really I find the theme of humanity since the beginning of history. 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:49.060 Humanity gets this confidence of they are the king of the world, they are God in flesh. 00:17:49.060 --> 00:17:52.440 And so they divorce themselves of God and live life that way. 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:59.580 And I think out of any century that's done that more greatly than any other century, it was the century we just left behind, the 20th century. 00:18:00.860 --> 00:18:08.100 And when you study mankind, they think that we're making these great advancements intellectually and how we've evolved into this superior 00:18:08.100 --> 00:18:09.960 race above all races. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:14.500 You know the last century was the bloodiest century in all of history. 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:18.580 How much greater are we really? 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:26.000 Is separating ourselves from God really paying what we think it will? 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:33.900 Is an atheistic, agnostic framework of approaching life, does that really give the answers for why you exist and where you're going? 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:41.060 And I think Daniel's prayer here in Daniel 9:4-6, just carries the similar theme. 00:18:41.060 --> 00:18:41.910 It's not just the Jews. 00:18:43.780 --> 00:18:50.850 This is the nature within all of us to make war against God and make it about ourselves and live lives for us. 00:18:51.080 --> 00:18:58.100 And if we communicate with God at all, we just leverage him like he's some sort of tool to bless us who rule and reign as kings of our worlds. 00:18:59.540 --> 00:19:02.550 And so this isn't anything distinct, but this is pretty common. 00:19:02.820 --> 00:19:04.240 But I like what Daniel does here. 00:19:04.500 --> 00:19:08.720 He provokes this language of covenantal way of thinking. 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:14.660 He refers to God as the God who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those that love him. 00:19:15.740 --> 00:19:20.440 Now I'm going to read just this next section of Scripture and I want to talk about why Daniel is doing that. 00:19:20.500 --> 00:19:23.820 But Daniel uses this language and he continues to elaborate on the thought. 00:19:23.980 --> 00:19:31.220 In verse seven he says, "Righteousness belongs to you, oh Lord, but to us open shame as it is this day to the men of Juda, the inhabitants 00:19:31.220 --> 00:19:38.380 of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away and all of the countries to which you have driven them because of their 00:19:38.380 --> 00:19:41.080 unfaithful deeds which they have committed against you. 00:19:41.080 --> 00:19:48.740 Open shame belongs to us, oh Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers because we have sinned against you." 00:19:50.780 --> 00:19:51.560 What's happening here? 00:19:53.360 --> 00:19:55.720 Well, Daniel certainly knows the promises God's given. 00:19:56.780 --> 00:20:01.080 Jeremiah 25, verse 11 to 14, right? 00:20:01.180 --> 00:20:08.220 You're going to be in captivity for 70 years because of the disobedience to the law of which I've given you of the Sabbatical year of land where you're 00:20:08.220 --> 00:20:11.520 supposed to let it lie barren to recover. 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:17.920 And 70 times you've approached that and 70 times you've been disobedient so you're going to go into captivity for 70 years. 00:20:18.060 --> 00:20:21.940 Daniel knows the promises of God, that God told them to do this and they had not delivered. 00:20:23.280 --> 00:20:26.660 And so much so that he refers to God as the covenantal God. 00:20:27.940 --> 00:20:35.100 And so when you consider what this word covenant means in Scripture, starting in Genesis chapter 15 00:20:35.100 --> 00:20:37.820 God established a covenant with the Jews. 00:20:37.820 --> 00:20:38.650 It started with Abraham. 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:42.350 And a covenant is much different than the way we think in our culture. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:43.080 We tend to think contractually. 00:20:44.540 --> 00:20:46.940 Covenantally is a way that they painted pictures in the Old Testament. 00:20:46.940 --> 00:20:49.540 There's a distinction there I'll make in just a moment. 00:20:49.560 --> 00:20:54.660 But when you start to read about covenantal language, Genesis 15 is a good chapter to know in Scripture. 00:20:54.660 --> 00:20:58.960 But God comes to Abraham in this chapter and the promise to Abraham is through him all nations would be blessed. 00:21:00.280 --> 00:21:07.360 And God wants to demonstrate his faithfulness to this promise, which depends upon God himself, to Abraham by establishing a 00:21:07.360 --> 00:21:08.260 covenant with Abraham. 00:21:08.280 --> 00:21:12.330 And in the days of Abraham when they would establish a covenant, they would take an animal, they would tear it two. 00:21:13.040 --> 00:21:20.480 And the two people that would make a covenant would pass through this animal and they would say, "If we were to break this covenant, may what happened 00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:24.420 to these animals happen to us." This was a blood covenant. 00:21:25.140 --> 00:21:27.080 And there were only two ways to get out of a covenant. 00:21:27.740 --> 00:21:29.200 You fulfilled it or you died. 00:21:31.140 --> 00:21:34.880 Now when God establishes this covenant with Abraham, something interesting takes place. 00:21:35.580 --> 00:21:40.860 After Abraham sets the platform to establish this covenant with God, God causes Abraham to fall asleep. 00:21:42.560 --> 00:21:44.290 And God alone establishes this covenant. 00:21:46.300 --> 00:21:53.740 God promised Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed and God alone was the one who faithfully will fulfill that promise apart from Abraham. 00:21:55.640 --> 00:21:56.820 But he still works through Abraham. 00:21:58.540 --> 00:22:01.700 What I mean is that becomes a picture for us in thinking about the New Covenant with Jesus. 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:08.960 It's why we even say today, you can do nothing to earn your salvation because it's God himself who establishes 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:13.120 that covenant, by dying for you on the cross. 00:22:15.600 --> 00:22:16.240 He is your substitute. 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:23.200 God establishes this covenant with Abraham, Genesis 15. 00:22:23.620 --> 00:22:26.640 But as that story unfolds, God continues to work through his people. 00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:30.460 And when you get to the book of Exodus, you're introduced to this character known as Moses. 00:22:31.860 --> 00:22:39.210 And Moses is the one that God uses to work through, to set the Israelites free, the Jews free from captivity and slavery in Egypt. 00:22:39.280 --> 00:22:44.280 And when he sets them free he brings them into the wilderness and they wander as they're on their way to the Promise Land. 00:22:44.280 --> 00:22:46.700 And what God does is he establishes the Old Testament law. 00:22:48.420 --> 00:22:50.160 In Exodus 19 that happens. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:52.160 This covenantal law establishment. 00:22:54.290 --> 00:22:56.500 And God repeats it in the book of Leviticus. 00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:58.320 Leviticus is law, right? 00:22:59.320 --> 00:23:01.020 This is the covenant of God. 00:23:01.100 --> 00:23:08.980 And when the book of Leviticus uses the word covenant, it doesn't use it very often, but the predominant place it uses it is in Leviticus 26. 00:23:10.620 --> 00:23:13.260 Now here's the interesting thing, I want you to follow all of this, okay? 00:23:15.140 --> 00:23:17.740 Remember, Daniel's praying based on Jeremiah 25. 00:23:19.140 --> 00:23:23.230 70 years for disobedience to the Sabbatical law. 00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:29.800 And when Daniel knows that in Jeremiah, his mind's going to go all the way back to Leviticus 25. 00:23:31.320 --> 00:23:37.280 Because Leviticus 25 is where God told his people to obey the Sabbatical law on the land. 00:23:38.820 --> 00:23:45.890 And then in chapter 26 of Leviticus God says people will be disobedient, my people will be disobedient and I will take then into captivity. 00:23:47.100 --> 00:23:52.430 But if they obey me, if they turn to me, I will set them free. 00:23:54.980 --> 00:23:56.200 And so Daniel knows this. 00:23:58.120 --> 00:24:05.320 This is the covenant of God, the one who gave the promise to bless all nations through his people, the one who continued 00:24:05.320 --> 00:24:09.180 to establish that covenant with Moses and gave them the Law. 00:24:09.180 --> 00:24:13.220 And so when Daniel's praying here, he's not just praying random words. 00:24:14.700 --> 00:24:16.420 He's praying the truth of God's word. 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:21.420 He's praying, holding to the promises of Jeremiah 25. 00:24:21.500 --> 00:24:28.620 He's praying holding to the promises of Leviticus 26, that if my people would repent and turn for me I will heal them, I will bring 00:24:28.620 --> 00:24:29.800 them back into the land. 00:24:30.060 --> 00:24:37.060 And if you read Leviticus 26, listen to this, verse 40, "But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their faithfulness in 00:24:37.060 --> 00:24:44.240 which they were unfaithful to me and that they also have walked contrary to me, then I will remember my covenant with 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:48.000 Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham. 00:24:48.100 --> 00:24:55.660 I will remember, I will remember the land." That same promise, Leviticus 26, 00:24:55.680 --> 00:24:59.060 that was the same prayer Moses prayed in 1st Kings eight. 00:24:59.360 --> 00:25:06.840 Or not Moses, when Solomon in 1st Kings eight, when Solomon's dedicating the first temple in Israel's 00:25:06.840 --> 00:25:07.180 history. 00:25:08.520 --> 00:25:14.620 He prays this same prayer of covenantal faithfulness to God, of turning to him and God bless. 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:24.360 And so he's holding, Daniel when he's praying, he's holding to the truth of God and he's holding to the promises of God as God delivered himself 00:25:24.360 --> 00:25:29.160 and God reveals himself in this Old Covenant to Israel. 00:25:31.180 --> 00:25:32.480 It makes me think. 00:25:33.800 --> 00:25:40.600 When we talk about praying powerfully like Daniel, where are your promises in God's word? 00:25:42.800 --> 00:25:44.340 And what do you hold to? 00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:52.140 The Bible tells us that for us it's the New Covenant. 00:25:53.820 --> 00:25:55.820 Covenant's different than contractual language. 00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:04.000 Contractual language in our culture, we establish those between two parties and if one person breaks the contractual agreement then both parties, somebody 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:06.740 might be obligated to something, but the contract is over, right? 00:26:07.580 --> 00:26:10.660 And then I think in our culture we sometimes try to treat marriage that way. 00:26:10.660 --> 00:26:11.760 But marriage is a covenant. 00:26:12.800 --> 00:26:17.880 And when you establish a covenant, that means that you leverage who you are for the benefit of someone else. 00:26:19.580 --> 00:26:26.940 And in God's case, when he established this covenant with Abraham, he uses his grace and leverages in our sin who he is 00:26:26.940 --> 00:26:28.000 for our benefit. 00:26:30.300 --> 00:26:32.400 And so when we pray, what it is that you pray? 00:26:33.900 --> 00:26:35.320 I mean what promises do you hold to? 00:26:35.360 --> 00:26:42.540 You see in the Bible, Daniel praying according to the Old Covenant, in Jewish history that would be the Tanakh. 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:46.360 For us today, we're New Covenant people or New Testament. 00:26:46.380 --> 00:26:49.120 Your Bible in fact is divided for that reason. 00:26:49.160 --> 00:26:52.480 We talk about Old Testament, New Testament and it's really Old Covenant and New Covenant. 00:26:53.120 --> 00:26:54.160 But what is that a picture of? 00:26:54.160 --> 00:26:57.220 Well, for us it's a picture of the sufficiency of Jesus. 00:27:02.040 --> 00:27:03.800 Jesus brought the New Covenant. 00:27:04.020 --> 00:27:04.880 And what's that mean? 00:27:06.580 --> 00:27:14.060 When you think about this in scope and perspective for us to hold to the promises and truth of God, in the Old Covenant it saying to us Jesus 00:27:14.060 --> 00:27:18.500 did the two things that are required to see a covenant end. 00:27:19.740 --> 00:27:21.700 Remember, there's only two ways to get out of a covenant. 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:23.820 You die or you fulfill. 00:27:25.080 --> 00:27:26.140 Jesus did both. 00:27:27.180 --> 00:27:34.120 Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant and he died in your place fulfilling the Old Covenant to bring about the New Covenant for you in a relationship with him. 00:27:35.060 --> 00:27:41.940 And so when you look at the Old Testament, beautiful picture of God proclaiming himself of what would ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus. 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:50.240 And so when you think Old Covenant, we see pictures of Old Testament lamb at Passover being sacrificed, which is ultimately a picture of 00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:54.520 Jesus who was called the sacrificial lamb who came to take away the sins of the world that John the Baptist proclaimed. 00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:57.860 In Revelation, he's pictured as the lamb for that reason. 00:27:58.900 --> 00:28:01.460 Old Testament, you see this picture of a temple being built. 00:28:01.780 --> 00:28:08.900 And in the New Testament, Jesus says, "Destroy the temple, in three days I will build it again." Old Testament, 00:28:08.900 --> 00:28:12.780 you had the priest, New Testament, Hebrews 4, Jesus is called the high priest. 00:28:13.820 --> 00:28:17.940 Old testament, you have the Law, and in the New Testament Jesus fulfills the Law. 00:28:20.100 --> 00:28:23.900 Old Testament, you had the Sabbath day, New Testament, Jesus is called the Sabbath. 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:31.220 Everything in the Old Testament was an ultimate picture of everything Jesus would fulfill for you, that you could walk in a relationship with God. 00:28:31.300 --> 00:28:36.840 So when you claim, when you hold to these promises of God, everything rests in Christ. 00:28:36.860 --> 00:28:40.840 That New Covenant, that approaching God, is all on the basis of Jesus. 00:28:42.860 --> 00:28:48.430 By the way, if you want to read a chapter on Old Covenant/New Covenant picture, I would tell you Hebrews 8 does that beautifully. 00:28:51.180 --> 00:28:53.980 So when you pray, what promises do you hold to? 00:28:56.080 --> 00:29:03.360 And Daniel's mind is dipping into Jewish history, holding to the truth and the promises of God and telling 00:29:03.360 --> 00:29:09.980 God, "God, we want to see you fulfill this." How about this? 00:29:11.480 --> 00:29:18.660 John 1:12, "As many as received him, to them are the children of God." If you've embraced Christ in your life, 00:29:20.120 --> 00:29:22.730 what he's done for you belong to him. 00:29:24.080 --> 00:29:31.740 Or how about this, Hebrews four, verse 14 to 16, "That you come boldly to the throne of grace." Or how about 2nd Corinthians 5:17, "Anyone 00:29:31.740 --> 00:29:36.720 that's in Christ is a new creation. 00:29:36.780 --> 00:29:44.120 All things have passed, behold, all things have become new." And the same story line in 2nd Corinthians 5:21, "He became sin, 00:29:44.120 --> 00:29:51.140 who knew no sin, that you might become the righteousness of God in him." So what it's saying is when God the Father looks up on you he sees the beauty of 00:29:51.140 --> 00:29:52.460 Jesus covering you. 00:29:55.260 --> 00:30:01.740 In John 14:16 is in a beautiful section of Scripture where Jesus is spending the last six hours on earth with his disciples. 00:30:02.100 --> 00:30:09.420 And in John 14, John 15 and John 16 he repeatedly says this to the disciples, "When you pray, pray in 00:30:09.420 --> 00:30:16.840 my name." It's not that his name is magical, it's that his name represents authority, 00:30:18.100 --> 00:30:25.260 that you're praying under Christ and in Christ and on behalf of Christ because Jesus has covered you in a New Covenant. 00:30:26.780 --> 00:30:28.000 So what promises do you cling to? 00:30:28.040 --> 00:30:29.860 You would cling to the identity that you have in Christ. 00:30:31.860 --> 00:30:35.180 You cling to that truth and you hold to it for life. 00:30:37.340 --> 00:30:44.420 And so not only does Daniel pray in truth and promises, not only should that be our stand, not only should we hold to that and understand where we fit 00:30:44.420 --> 00:30:48.120 in this covenant, Daniel also prays in relationship. 00:30:48.900 --> 00:30:53.380 And Daniel does something in the text of chapter nine he does nowhere else in the book of Daniel. 00:30:54.200 --> 00:30:54.700 I want you to see it. 00:30:56.340 --> 00:31:03.380 Starting in verse two, "The word of the Lord", verse four, "I prayed to the Lord", verse 10, "Nor have we obeyed 00:31:03.380 --> 00:31:07.880 the Lord", and verse 13, "Yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord", and it goes on and on. 00:31:09.800 --> 00:31:16.440 Now Daniel refers to God as Lord throughout the book of Daniel, but when Daniel comes to chapter nine, he uses a specific name for Lord. 00:31:17.320 --> 00:31:23.780 And there's a couple ways your Bible writes the word Lord in English that we don't always understand the Hebrew language. 00:31:23.780 --> 00:31:29.580 But if Lord is written capital L, lower case o-r-d, it's Adonai. 00:31:30.220 --> 00:31:30.900 It's a name for God. 00:31:32.500 --> 00:31:41.120 But if the word lord is written capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's Yahweh, the 00:31:41.140 --> 00:31:43.760 sacred name of God. 00:31:44.700 --> 00:31:46.470 This name is revered by the Jews. 00:31:47.500 --> 00:31:49.800 In fact, they wouldn't even verbally say it out loud. 00:31:51.300 --> 00:31:52.620 And they would sometimes write it. 00:31:53.960 --> 00:32:01.000 And there were sacred traditions they had around even writing the name of God that they would perform before they would even write God's 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:01.320 name. 00:32:03.400 --> 00:32:06.270 In fact, the name of God is what's called a Tetragrammaton. 00:32:07.420 --> 00:32:10.680 It's just four consonant letters, Y-H-W-H. 00:32:10.900 --> 00:32:16.680 And it was so sacred that the Jews in not uttering out loud, truthfully we don't even know how it's pronounced today. 00:32:18.340 --> 00:32:21.000 We just sort of fill in some vowels and think it's most likely Yahweh. 00:32:23.320 --> 00:32:30.540 And some linguistic traditions that don't have Y's and W's, they took the Y and the W and they made it a J and a V, 00:32:30.840 --> 00:32:34.460 and so in some linguistic traditions they translate this as Jehovah. 00:32:35.360 --> 00:32:37.140 Yahweh and Jehovah, it's the same word. 00:32:38.320 --> 00:32:41.240 But what Daniel is doing here is he's provoking the sacred name of God. 00:32:41.240 --> 00:32:45.100 And I think it's important to just recognize this isn't something Daniel's taking lightly. 00:32:47.140 --> 00:32:54.760 So as he's approaching God in his prayer, maybe this says to us just think about how weighty this moment is on Daniel because he doesn't just say God's 00:32:54.760 --> 00:32:58.640 name as if it's a four-letter word he utters out of his mouth, you know? 00:32:58.880 --> 00:32:59.780 It's sacred to him. 00:33:01.840 --> 00:33:06.500 And so this is something that's deeply impacting him and this is something that he considers very sacred. 00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:12.480 And so he is approaching God in a very personal, intimate way. 00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:15.150 This is Yahweh. 00:33:16.900 --> 00:33:20.000 And this name Yahweh comes from the verb form to be. 00:33:20.420 --> 00:33:23.240 And the noun from it literally means I Am Which I Am. 00:33:23.840 --> 00:33:28.200 In Greek it's the ego eimi, it's God's sacred name for himself. 00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:35.640 And the way that the history goes with this word is in Exodus 3:14 Moses sees 00:33:35.640 --> 00:33:41.100 a burning bush and the bush is talking to him, which if that ever happens call me, right? 00:33:41.100 --> 00:33:48.240 But the bush is talking to him and Moses comes, it's the voice of God speaking to him and God wants Moses to go back 00:33:48.240 --> 00:33:54.780 to Egypt before Pharaoh who just tried to kill him recently, or a few decades ago. 00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:01.170 And God wants Moses to go back and tell Pharaoh to let the Jews free. 00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:08.060 And as God's delivering this message to Moses, he does something really unique. 00:34:08.060 --> 00:34:15.420 As Moses gets near this burning bush, he says to Moses, "Take off your shoes for 00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:22.699 you're standing on holy ground." And so not only is God recognizing this moment as sacred but I think the reason God calls 00:34:22.699 --> 00:34:30.120 Moses to take off his shoes is because he wants creature to connect with creation before 00:34:30.120 --> 00:34:30.880 his Creator. 00:34:32.980 --> 00:34:35.719 When God formed man, he formed us from where? 00:34:37.600 --> 00:34:38.880 Dirt, right? 00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:44.580 And I think God is trying to make this distinction between his identity and authority and man. 00:34:45.480 --> 00:34:52.719 And he's saying to Moses, "This is sacred, but Moses you're just creature in the dirt 00:34:54.400 --> 00:35:01.480 having opportunity to connect to your God." And when God tells Moses what he wants him to do, he says, "What am I going to do when I go back? 00:35:01.740 --> 00:35:08.880 Who am I going tell sent me?" And then God delivers his sacred name, "Tell him I Am sent 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:12.850 you." Now I'm going to just be honest and say that is weird man. 00:35:12.980 --> 00:35:16.900 Like out of all the names God picks for himself, I Am. 00:35:17.300 --> 00:35:20.420 Why didn't he pick Mr. 00:35:20.420 --> 00:35:22.560 Amazing or Mr. 00:35:22.680 --> 00:35:24.060 Wonderful or, I don't know? 00:35:24.220 --> 00:35:26.300 Out of all the names, what is I Am? 00:35:26.340 --> 00:35:27.230 Man, what do you do with that? 00:35:28.060 --> 00:35:29.740 It's just odd when you think about it. 00:35:29.780 --> 00:35:32.600 But when you consider the character of God, it makes so much sense. 00:35:33.520 --> 00:35:33.920 To be. 00:35:34.740 --> 00:35:37.960 I'll tell you a definition of God if you ever try to define God. 00:35:37.960 --> 00:35:42.980 Good luck with that, but the best thing I've ever seen as far as definition goes came from Ravi Zacharias. 00:35:43.080 --> 00:35:48.240 But it's this, God is the only being who finds the purpose for his existence within himself. 00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:53.800 Everything else finds the purpose for his existence outside of itself because everything else was created for God's glory. 00:35:54.800 --> 00:36:01.900 And so when God identifies himself as the I Am, his nature's really being represented in that because he sustains all things, he created all things and 00:36:01.900 --> 00:36:03.060 he is everywhere present. 00:36:03.060 --> 00:36:05.260 He is this sovereign, eternal being. 00:36:05.260 --> 00:36:07.210 And so I Am fits him beautifully. 00:36:07.240 --> 00:36:14.310 And so when Daniel is praying in this text, not only is he praying scripturally holding the promises of God, he's praying relationally. 00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:19.700 And remember at Daniel chapter six, verse 10 he sought God's face three times a day. 00:36:22.020 --> 00:36:23.220 He's praying intimately. 00:36:27.420 --> 00:36:32.820 I think it just really begs the question with us, do you know God personally? 00:36:36.240 --> 00:36:38.000 Do you have a relationship with God? 00:36:40.500 --> 00:36:41.940 Has Christ saved you? 00:36:44.200 --> 00:36:45.360 Are you in the New Covenant? 00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:49.960 Do you know what it means that Jesus died for you? 00:36:52.200 --> 00:36:53.760 I mean it's not just something that happened in history. 00:36:55.780 --> 00:37:00.610 It's something Jesus did for you to embrace, that you could approach him personally. 00:37:02.980 --> 00:37:03.950 It's not just some event. 00:37:05.460 --> 00:37:07.160 It's something that should transform your life. 00:37:09.500 --> 00:37:13.040 The king of the universe became flesh and died for you. 00:37:17.160 --> 00:37:24.260 So asking the question and answering within yourself, do you know him personally?, becomes highly significant to eternity 00:37:24.440 --> 00:37:28.740 so that you can enjoy the presence of God all of your life. 00:37:30.300 --> 00:37:31.240 Jesus did that for you. 00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:40.860 And so at some point in your life, if it hasn't happened yet, man please today just 00:37:40.880 --> 00:37:50.740 take an opportunity to look to Jesus and say, "Jesus, I know you've come as my Savior, you've died for my sins, that 00:37:50.740 --> 00:37:57.860 I could be set free, that I can enjoy you for eternity." So 00:37:57.860 --> 00:38:00.290 to pray in this way, I think two things. 00:38:00.680 --> 00:38:08.280 One, you need to cling to the promises of God, pray in his truth and personally in knowing him, relationally 00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:14.350 connect to him as your Savior and Lord, that when you say the name of God it's not just empty words. 00:38:15.140 --> 00:38:22.480 It's this identity of this God who loved you so much he gave his life for you, that you could embrace him and walk with him and enjoy his presence 00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:23.160 for eternity. 00:38:25.640 --> 00:38:30.260 And when you pray personally, and I know people ask how do you pray to God? 00:38:30.260 --> 00:38:34.380 If there's a Trinity, do I pray to the spirit, do I pray to the Son, do I pray to the Father? 00:38:34.720 --> 00:38:36.620 I'll tell you, in the Bible there's actually examples of all. 00:38:36.620 --> 00:38:39.080 There's examples of praying to Jesus, there is examples of praying in the Spirit. 00:38:39.400 --> 00:38:40.410 But that's not the norm. 00:38:41.580 --> 00:38:48.680 In fact, Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:9, "When you pray, pray in this way, our Father who 00:38:48.700 --> 00:38:51.760 art in heaven, sacred be your name. 00:38:53.640 --> 00:39:00.950 Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So Jesus is saying pray to the Father. 00:39:01.700 --> 00:39:08.880 And here's how we do it, we pray to the Father in the power of the Spirit, in the authority of Jesus or in the name of 00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:09.380 Jesus. 00:39:10.160 --> 00:39:12.840 That's how we approach that relationship with God. 00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:16.430 And the last thing I want to say is this, pray in humility. 00:39:18.340 --> 00:39:23.640 And I want to explain what humility means, but I think it's important because Daniel, in verse three, he humbled himself, remember? 00:39:23.740 --> 00:39:24.540 In sackcloth and ashes. 00:39:25.640 --> 00:39:31.040 But throughout the context of this story and remembering of Leviticus 25, 26, Daniel uses... 00:39:31.140 --> 00:39:34.930 It says in verse five he prayed talking about his sin and iniquity. 00:39:35.220 --> 00:39:37.480 He prayed acknowledging his rebellion, verse nine. 00:39:37.480 --> 00:39:38.960 His transgressions, verse 11. 00:39:39.280 --> 00:39:41.040 God's righteousness, verse 14. 00:39:41.040 --> 00:39:43.120 That they had sinned in wickedness, verse 15. 00:39:43.580 --> 00:39:45.180 About their sins, verse 16. 00:39:45.420 --> 00:39:47.240 The righteous acts of God, verse 17. 00:39:47.260 --> 00:39:52.360 And then in verse 19 it says, "Oh God, forgive." That's a prayer of humility. 00:39:53.960 --> 00:39:56.120 There's different ways you're going to pray with God. 00:39:56.200 --> 00:40:01.880 It doesn't just have to be confession, but there's adoration, there's confession, there's thanksgiving, asking God for supplication. 00:40:03.580 --> 00:40:09.450 There's different ways that we pray, but I think in all of it, I think it's essential that we carry an attitude of humility. 00:40:10.520 --> 00:40:11.710 And what do I mean about humility? 00:40:11.940 --> 00:40:18.250 When I talk about humility, I don't think you need to think less of yourself, but rather what I'm saying is think of self less. 00:40:21.200 --> 00:40:28.300 And what that looks like is in our lives when we pray, sometimes I wonder when we approach God if it's rather just to treat ourselves like 00:40:28.300 --> 00:40:29.700 Lord and Jesus like our slave. 00:40:30.640 --> 00:40:33.240 And so the only time God hears from us is just to say, "God, I need this. 00:40:33.520 --> 00:40:34.400 You better serve me. 00:40:34.520 --> 00:40:36.160 Here comes my prayer, that's what you wanted. 00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:42.780 Now take care of what I need so I can continue to live as god of my life." That's not humility, right? 00:40:42.820 --> 00:40:49.900 And sometimes we approach prayer in that way, where God just exists to just leverage or for us to lob to him our concern 00:40:49.900 --> 00:40:53.240 and for him to just immediately to deliver and he lives his life to serve me. 00:40:53.240 --> 00:40:54.920 That's not what walking in humility means. 00:40:55.300 --> 00:40:58.760 Now humility does not mean think less of yourself, but think of yourself less. 00:40:59.000 --> 00:40:59.840 Let me just paint this picture. 00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:08.360 When God made you will find in your life no better place to magnify the worth of who you are than in the presence 00:41:08.360 --> 00:41:08.820 of God. 00:41:08.840 --> 00:41:12.760 Because the only other way you can find worth as a human being is based on what you do. 00:41:13.900 --> 00:41:16.460 And when you compare that to God, that is not impressive. 00:41:17.360 --> 00:41:19.800 Because there is nothing you can ever do that's going to impress God. 00:41:21.260 --> 00:41:27.120 And when you compare it to this world, it's not impressive, because there's always someone in this world that can do better than you. 00:41:28.680 --> 00:41:31.840 And eventually, even if you are the best at it, one day you won't be. 00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:34.200 Beauty, glory, power, it fades. 00:41:34.920 --> 00:41:40.930 And so when you try to find your worth based on the identity of the things that you do, eventually you will find yourself bankrupt. 00:41:41.400 --> 00:41:44.220 That path leads in two ways, pride or despair. 00:41:44.820 --> 00:41:46.780 And pride, God's not going to communicate to that heart anyway. 00:41:47.900 --> 00:41:50.880 And in despair, more than anything what you need is the identity of God in your life. 00:41:51.320 --> 00:41:52.640 So where do you get your worth from? 00:41:54.260 --> 00:41:57.460 It's not in what you do, it's in how you were formed. 00:42:00.300 --> 00:42:01.040 God made you in his image. 00:42:03.640 --> 00:42:08.800 The worth of who you are is already found within you because of the way God has created you. 00:42:09.260 --> 00:42:10.820 His DNA is all over that. 00:42:12.680 --> 00:42:15.940 And it was demonstrated in his sacrifice in giving his life for you. 00:42:17.500 --> 00:42:19.440 It's not in what you do, it's in who you are. 00:42:21.780 --> 00:42:28.940 And so God, in this story, demonstrates or gives you your 00:42:28.940 --> 00:42:30.710 worth in your identity. 00:42:31.080 --> 00:42:34.460 And Daniel recognizing that is able to pray in humility. 00:42:34.460 --> 00:42:41.620 And not because he thinks less of himself, but rather he truly sees his identity in God and he understands the need to think of himself less 00:42:41.620 --> 00:42:48.560 so that he can see the authority of who God is in his life, which is the very person that gives him the worth of his identity in life. 00:42:51.920 --> 00:42:52.580 Pray in humility. 00:42:53.720 --> 00:42:59.460 And so if I just stop from Daniel for a minute and I just said let me just show you some other examples in Scripture. 00:43:00.460 --> 00:43:01.020 Now how about this? 00:43:01.020 --> 00:43:02.760 How about James and Peter, right? 00:43:02.780 --> 00:43:07.080 You think of some pretty staunch leaders in the history of Christianity. 00:43:07.080 --> 00:43:08.920 James, half brother of Jesus. 00:43:09.180 --> 00:43:12.160 I mean if someone's going to know what they're talking about, let it me a half brother. 00:43:12.200 --> 00:43:14.590 And how about Peter, the leader of the first century church? 00:43:15.420 --> 00:43:16.320 And listen what they say. 00:43:16.320 --> 00:43:19.720 James says this, but he gives a greater grace. 00:43:20.200 --> 00:43:27.580 Therefore it says, "God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble." 1st 00:43:27.580 --> 00:43:34.620 Peter 5:5, "You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is 00:43:34.620 --> 00:43:37.560 opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. 00:43:38.700 --> 00:43:43.350 Now look at this, a little bit further in the same chapter, just a couple verses different for James. 00:43:43.660 --> 00:43:50.860 [inaudible 00:43:43] and Peter, look what James says, "Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and look", hold to this promise, "he 00:43:50.860 --> 00:43:58.040 will exalt you." 1st Peter, "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, 00:43:58.400 --> 00:44:05.140 that he may exalt you at proper time." And here's the beautiful part I think in all of this. 00:44:05.640 --> 00:44:12.780 When you look at James 4:6-10, you look at 1st Peter five and six, the very next verse in 1st Peter and the 00:44:12.780 --> 00:44:18.560 middle of James chapter four, verses six to ten, they specifically begin to talk about prayer. 00:44:19.380 --> 00:44:27.140 He says in verse eight, "Draw near to God", and look at this promise, "He will draw near to you." 00:44:27.640 --> 00:44:36.360 So in the backdrop of humility before the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords, this promise given to you in the New Covenant, he 00:44:36.360 --> 00:44:36.880 will draw near. 00:44:38.720 --> 00:44:47.400 1st Peter 5:7, "Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you." He 00:44:47.480 --> 00:44:48.420 cares for you. 00:44:51.180 --> 00:44:58.200 You think about the weight of Daniel in these moments, his heart just exhausted for 00:44:58.200 --> 00:45:00.400 wanting to see God work in his people. 00:45:02.640 --> 00:45:07.120 Cast all your care because he cares for you. 00:45:09.440 --> 00:45:14.330 You know, one of the things I've loved about this chapter this week for me is that it has been intensely personal. 00:45:16.720 --> 00:45:23.300 I think over the holidays, my stepmother has been on a ventilator fighting for her life. 00:45:23.300 --> 00:45:24.870 I have no clue if she's going to pull through. 00:45:25.740 --> 00:45:27.380 My dad's been with her every day. 00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:30.500 There's nothing I can physically do with my hands to help. 00:45:31.600 --> 00:45:31.940 What do I do? 00:45:34.480 --> 00:45:36.980 How do I know God hears me? 00:45:38.640 --> 00:45:46.700 What do I turn to in a moment when there is no strength within my body to do anything to contribute to that situation? 00:45:47.940 --> 00:45:48.360 I pray. 00:45:50.480 --> 00:45:51.090 How can I be confident? 00:45:51.480 --> 00:45:53.380 How can I experience what Daniel's saying? 00:45:53.680 --> 00:46:00.860 When I take the truth of God and the promises of God and my personal relationship with God and just in humility before that King I just 00:46:00.860 --> 00:46:01.480 pray. 00:46:03.690 --> 00:46:07.020 And God gives the promise that he works all things together for good. 00:46:09.060 --> 00:46:10.020 I live in that... 00:46:10.020 --> 00:46:12.300 Even late last night I had a pastor call me. 00:46:12.300 --> 00:46:15.460 It's a pastor that's been a part of supporting our church and seeing it established. 00:46:15.940 --> 00:46:23.000 And he called me and said they got a lot of snow last night and late last night one of the congregants went to the church and they shoveled the snow for 00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:24.720 the people to be able to get there. 00:46:25.100 --> 00:46:27.060 But unfortunately he had a heart attack and he died. 00:46:28.080 --> 00:46:29.660 And now he's got to speak to the church in the morning. 00:46:29.660 --> 00:46:30.910 And he just calls and he's like, "What do you say? 00:46:34.200 --> 00:46:40.620 What do you do?" Now you better have an opportunity to seek to something greater than you in those moments. 00:46:40.700 --> 00:46:42.260 How can I see the face of God? 00:46:42.440 --> 00:46:43.670 How can I pray in those moments? 00:46:43.720 --> 00:46:45.700 How can I know that God confidently hears me? 00:46:45.860 --> 00:46:47.440 That's what I'm saying to you this morning. 00:46:48.380 --> 00:46:55.480 The value of what you have in this New Covenant, approaching this King, lifting up your voice before this God because 00:46:55.480 --> 00:46:57.160 of the grace that he has brought to you. 00:46:57.400 --> 00:46:58.580 What a privilege it is. 00:46:58.580 --> 00:47:05.720 And here's one of the beautiful things I love is James says this in James 5:16, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and 00:47:05.720 --> 00:47:12.900 effective." What James is saying is, "Listen, everybody doesn't have to be praying it. 00:47:14.860 --> 00:47:21.860 But God wants to work through somebody." And if you look at some of the prayers in the Old Testament, it didn't take the entire nation praying the same thing 00:47:21.860 --> 00:47:23.820 or the entire people group praying the same thing. 00:47:24.180 --> 00:47:25.160 It was just one person. 00:47:27.760 --> 00:47:30.040 And how much more powerful when everyone joins in unison. 00:47:31.780 --> 00:47:36.660 But the beauty of that, the prayer of a righteous man, how effective it is. 00:47:38.620 --> 00:47:41.420 Cling to his promises, seek him personally, pray in humility. 00:47:44.080 --> 00:47:45.100 Now let me close with this. 00:47:48.620 --> 00:47:50.940 Sometimes we wonder in our prayers if they even hit the ceiling. 00:47:51.940 --> 00:47:55.340 But I want to remind you of the story of Jesus in Mark 15:34. 00:47:57.200 --> 00:47:58.240 Jesus is hanging on the cross. 00:48:01.280 --> 00:48:08.340 "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is translated, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus is quoting 00:48:08.340 --> 00:48:09.980 Psalm 22:1 here. 00:48:11.320 --> 00:48:15.300 But I think he's also fulfilling what the Psalm is in this prayer, he's genuinely praying this prayer. 00:48:16.920 --> 00:48:17.740 And why is Jesus praying? 00:48:20.440 --> 00:48:22.000 Jesus is experiencing hell on earth. 00:48:24.340 --> 00:48:31.500 And if you want to know theologically what I believe hell really is, some people talk about, and I think Scripture paints the picture 00:48:31.500 --> 00:48:35.260 of where the worm doesn't quench and the fire does not go out. 00:48:35.700 --> 00:48:39.310 It's allegorized or it's allegorical statements when those are stated. 00:48:40.380 --> 00:48:43.300 But I think there's truth to the statements that Jesus teaches about hell. 00:48:43.340 --> 00:48:44.760 He taught about hell more than he taught about heaven. 00:48:46.630 --> 00:48:52.280 But what makes hell hell is the absence of the gracious presence of God. 00:48:53.040 --> 00:48:55.880 What makes heaven heaven is his presence. 00:48:57.300 --> 00:48:58.520 Wherever Jesus is, that's heaven. 00:49:01.060 --> 00:49:03.730 And what makes hell is the absence of his gracious presence. 00:49:03.840 --> 00:49:11.800 And let me just say it like this, earth, the reason you were allowed to get up today and breath air is 00:49:11.840 --> 00:49:14.360 because God's grace is still sustaining. 00:49:16.200 --> 00:49:23.260 1st Peter five says that, "God is not long-suffering about his promises, not willing that any should perish but all come to repentance." Really all turn to 00:49:23.260 --> 00:49:23.440 him. 00:49:24.160 --> 00:49:31.620 The reason God's delaying judgment on this world is to give us opportunity to turn to that grace that's been merited to us by 00:49:31.620 --> 00:49:38.520 just existing on this planet and God being gracious to us so that we can walk in relationship with him. 00:49:40.240 --> 00:49:44.780 God is being gracious to give you time and God is being gracious to give me time. 00:49:47.620 --> 00:49:50.660 But Jesus, hanging on this cross, experienced what hell was. 00:49:52.280 --> 00:49:56.120 He and the Father to this point have walked in perfect relational harmony. 00:49:57.440 --> 00:50:02.910 But when Jesus took upon sin, his relationship to the Father severed. 00:50:06.940 --> 00:50:12.420 Jesus experienced what I think hell is, it's the separation of the presence of God's grace. 00:50:12.540 --> 00:50:18.280 Yeah, it's the separation of the presence of God's grace because Jesus is taking the wrath of God upon him. 00:50:19.820 --> 00:50:21.120 Jesus is paying for your sin. 00:50:22.600 --> 00:50:28.640 And because of that, Jesus in this passage is praying I think the loneliest prayer ever prayed in all of history. 00:50:30.080 --> 00:50:33.220 And it should forever be the loneliest prayer ever prayed in all of history. 00:50:34.660 --> 00:50:41.440 But I think the big point in all of this is this, Jesus did this so that you wouldn't have to. 00:50:44.600 --> 00:50:52.420 Jesus took this prayer on, Jesus took this moment on for you so that when you prayed God 00:50:52.420 --> 00:50:53.100 hears. 00:50:54.660 --> 00:51:02.560 The beauty of your relationship with God gives you access to him at 00:51:02.560 --> 00:51:03.160 any moment. 00:51:04.900 --> 00:51:11.900 And I think the truth of God's word gives us the foundation of how we pray, clinging to those promises, walking 00:51:11.900 --> 00:51:18.420 in that relationship with humility because of the grace and identity that we have in him. 00:51:21.700 --> 00:51:25.460 When you pray, you can walk with the confidence of Daniel. 00:51:27.400 --> 00:51:30.880 Because what Daniel is doing is living out the truth of God's word in his life.