{"id":18406,"date":"2017-07-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-031-a-personal-relationship-with-god\/"},"modified":"2017-07-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T05:00:00","slug":"daniel-031-a-personal-relationship-with-god","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-031-a-personal-relationship-with-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 031: A Personal Relationship with God"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18406","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 031: A Personal Relationship with God","sermon_date":"20170730","sermon_month":"7","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4822,"sermon_slides":4821,"sermon_mp3":4824,"sermon_id":"73017102847","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"9:1-3","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nA Personal Relationship with God\n\n7-30-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 9:1-3 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 31\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 I hope you\u2019re enjoying this last Sunday in July.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Book of Daniel, chapter 9, and beginning at verse 1.\u00a0\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is A Personal Relationship with God.\u00a0 As you know, as we\u2019ve been working our way through the Book of Daniel, how this is a difficult time for the nation, having been evicted from their comfort zone of 800 years in their own land and being transported 300 miles to the east in a place called Babylon, modern day Iraq if you were to look at on the map, a modern day map.\n\nSo what is the plan and program of God during this time of captivity and beyond? \u00a0And beyond that how is a person living outside of what they\u2019re familiar with, in foreign territory, where their lives are on the line in many cases, how is that person supposed to live for God in that environment? \u00a0And that becomes the point of the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 Daniel is raised up by God to give prophecies covering this time period and his life, particularly his devotional live as we\u2019ll begin to study it today, is sort of a role model, if you will, for how to live for God in difficult times.\n\nWe have worked our way through chapters 1-7 which is the historical section. \u00a0Chapter 1 sets the stage for the book; it describes the deportation of Daniel into Babylon when he was but teenager.\u00a0 Then chapters 2-7, as we have talked about, is organized like a literary pattern and we\u2019ve gone through that in great detail.\u00a0 And you say well I don\u2019t like this pattern stuff, give me some pictures.\u00a0 Well, here are some pictures and if you were to associate a picture with each chapter you could think your way through the whole Book of Daniel.\u00a0\u00a0 Chapter 2 just think of a giant statue because that\u2019s what Daniel saw in chapter 2.\u00a0 Chapter 3, think of fire because that\u2019s the three youth, Daniel\u2019s three friends thrown into the fiery furnace.\u00a0 Chapter 4, think of a tree being cut down because that was used as an analogy for Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s humiliation and restoration.\u00a0 Chapter 5 just think of some handwriting on the wall, a giant hand appears, because that was the contents of chapter 4 spelling the end of the Babylonian Empire.\u00a0 Chapter 6 think of Daniel in the lion\u2019s den, you already know that chapter, that\u2019s probably the most familiar chapter in the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 Chapter 7 think of four ferocious beasts because that\u2019s another picture, or another portrait, if you will, of Gentile history given to Daniel.\n\nYou move into chapters 8-12 and everything is different; this is a section no longer written in Aramaic, the way chapters 2-7 were written in Aramaic; now the language shifts to Hebrew because in those prior chapters God was sending a message to the Gentile world and now what He appears to be doing is speaking directly to His people as they are in captivity.\u00a0 We have dealt with, over the last few Sundays, the ram and the goat vision, chapter 8, just think there of a giant ram and a goat and the prophecies connected to those two animals.\u00a0 And now, and I\u2019m very excited about this because I\u2019ve felt the rapture might happen before we got to this chapter.\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nBut I\u2019m really happy we\u2019re finally making our way into chapter 9.\u00a0 There is so much in chapter 9 for us, and here is sort of an outline, if you will, which we are going to begin today. You have the setting, verses 1-2.\u00a0 And then what follows in verses 3-19 is a prayer; it\u2019s one of the greatest prayers of the Bible and so as we begin to move into that section we\u2019re going to be talking a lot about prophecy but we\u2019re also going to be talking about the power of prayer.\u00a0\u00a0 And then you go down to verses 20-23 and you get an answer to Daniel\u2019s prayer.\u00a0 Did you all know that God answers prayer?\u00a0 Did you all know that prayer changes things.\u00a0 Daniel prays and he gets an answer to the prayer, verses 20-23, through the arrival of Gabriel who gives to Daniel, verses 24-27, the Seventy Weeks Prophecy, a prophecy that if you don\u2019t understand it you cannot understand God\u2019s blueprint for the future.\u00a0 So my goal once we get there is not to spend seventy weeks studying the prophecy but we will be unpacking it slowly for you over the course of maybe two or three Sundays.\u00a0 So that is the direction that we\u2019re moving in as we move into Daniel chapter 9.\n\nNotice if you will the setting, verses 1 and 2.\u00a0 We have the historical setting, verse 1 and then the prophetic setting, verse 2.\u00a0 Notice if you will verse 1, Daniel 9.\u00a0 \u201cIn the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans\u2014\u201d you\u2019ll notice here it mentions this man, Darius \u201cof Median descent.\u201d\u00a0 He is connected to an empire that we have studied called Media-Persia, and so by the time we get into Daniel chapter 9 Media-Persia is the background for this prophecy that Daniel received.\n\nThis chart sort of helps you understand what empire is in power at different times in the Book of Daniel, in terms of the setting.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little bit frustrating because chapters 7 and 8 are out of order because the book is structured, chapters 2-7 not chronologically but chiastically.\u00a0 So this chart is sort of a sanity chart, it\u2019ll keep you sane as you go through the book and as we move into chapter 9, Darius, of Medo-Persia is in power when the events of chapter 9 take place.\u00a0 This is the same Persia, Medo-Persia, that came to power in chapter 5, the handwriting on the wall chapter.\u00a0 This is the political power that deposed Babylon, Daniel chapter 5.\u00a0 It\u2019s also the same Medo-Persia power that has thrown Daniel into the lion\u2019s den, chapter 6.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s the same Darius that threw Daniel into the lion\u2019s den, against really his own will as a trick was played on him, as we have studied, chapter 6; it\u2019s the same guy.\n\nDaniel is giving us, through his various prophecies a panorama of world history for Israel up until the return of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 There\u2019s probably about six kingdoms that he mentions in his various prophecies and we are focused here on Medo-Persia; at least that\u2019s the empire in place when these events take place.\u00a0 Persia continued on as a nation in modern day Iran, around 1935 the name was changed from Persia to Iran.\u00a0 Iran became Islamized, as you know, in 1979.\u00a0 But the Iranians themselves owe their culture and their heritage to this longstanding empire called Persia, the empire in place when Daniel had these prophecies in Daniel chapter 9.\n\nSo we are dealing with the backdrop, the chest and arms of silver; or if you like animals we\u2019re dealing with the bear in the background.\u00a0 This was the two horned ram that Daniel saw in chapter 8.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice if you look at Daniel 9:1 it says, \u201cIn the first year of Darius\u2026\u201d the Persian Empire overthrew the Babylonian\u2019s in chapter 5 in the\u00a0 year 539 B.C. and chapter 9 therefore takes place one year later.\u00a0 So the year would be about 538 B.C., the first year of Darius, which would mean that Daniel is in his early 80\u2019s when this chapter unfolds.\u00a0 Daniel is going to receive his greatest insights and his greatest revelations from God as an older man.\n\nAnd I just say that as a way of encouragement to those of you, and myself a little bit down the road, becoming older.\u00a0 You know, becoming older in God is sort of like becoming older because that\u2019s the time that God is really wanting to use your life.\u00a0 We have a tendency to put ourselves on the shelf because we\u2019re too old or too young or too fat or too thin or whatever and God doesn\u2019t think that way.\u00a0 God is outside of time.\u00a0 He\u2019ll use you as a\u00a0 young person; He\u2019ll use you as an older person and that\u2019s what we see in Daniel 9-12, and older man that\u2019s walked with God many years is now on the precipice of receiving, I think perhaps his greatest insights in revelations to record for our benefit.\n\nSo Persia is in power and this event takes place 67 years after Daniel had been deported to Babylon as a mere teenager.\u00a0 Those events take place in chapter 1; almost seven decades have transpired.\u00a0 The only thing Daniel knew of the land of Israel were perhaps some memories that he had of it from his youth but he spends his entire ministry outside of the land of Israel in captivity continuing to walk with God.\n\nWell, if 67 years have transpired and the captivity will last for how long?\u00a0 Seventy years, that means there\u2019s 3 years left on the clock.\u00a0 So this is 3 years before the decree of Cyrus, a Persian king who will allow the Jews to go back into their ancient homeland.\u00a0 In fact, you might be startled to discover that Cyrus\u2019s name is called out as the one who will allow the Jews to go back into their land by the prophet Isaiah, 200 years before the man was born.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see Cyrus\u2019 name at the end of Isaiah 44 into Isaiah 45.\n\nWhy is all of this information given to us?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s showing us that these things are real history.\u00a0 These things actually happened! \u00a0This is not a fictitious story, this is not some kind of Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale; these things are anchored in actual historical events, as is the entire Scripture.\n\nAs we move from Daniel, chapter 9 verse 1 into Daniel chapter 9 verse 2 we not only see the historical setting, verse 1, but now the prophetic setting.\u00a0 Look, if you will, at Daniel 9 and verse\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2, it says, \u201cin the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as<\/em> the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely,<\/em> seventy years.\u201d\n\nYou\u2019ll notice first of all it says there in chapter 9, verse 2, \u201cI Daniel\u201d.\u00a0 Who actually wrote this chapter?\u00a0 Daniel did.\u00a0 Who saw these visions?\u00a0 Daniel did.\u00a0 Contrary to what you\u2019ll hear on the Mysteries of the Bible, The History Channel, A & E, they\u2019ll try to talk you into this idea that well, we all know the true Daniel couldn\u2019t have written these chapters because how could he know things in advance?\u00a0 So somebody other than Daniel wrote this 400 years later, and that\u2019s what they call scholarship today.\u00a0 I call it apostasy and rejection of the truth.\u00a0 To believe that you have to say well, this right here is not true, \u201cI Daniel\u201d did not see these things, but the text says he did see these things in advance; not in the 2nd<\/sup> century B.C. but in the 6th<\/sup> century B.C.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice that Daniel had been doing some studying.\u00a0 What was he studying here?\u00a0 How\u00a0 To Win Friends and Influence People<\/em>?\u00a0 He\u2019s studying the prophet Jeremiah.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice there in verse 2 it says, \u201cI Daniel, observed in the books,\u201d now \u201cthe books\u201d is later defined as the writing of Jeremiah the prophet, and as he read Jeremiah the prophet he understood that the captivity would last seventy years.\u00a0 He would never have known that any other way; he could figure out from a calendar how many years they had been in captivity.\u00a0 He knew there were basically 3 years left.\u00a0 So he understood that God was wrapping up the captivity and he begins to seek God concerning the future of the nation of Israel.\n\nNow what parts of Jeremiah was Daniel reading?\u00a0 He was, no doubt, reading chapter 25, verses 11 and 12, and chapter 29 and verse 10 of Jeremiah because those are the only two passages where Jeremiah explained that the captivity that the nation was going into would last seventy years.\n\nJeremiah 25:11-12, says, \u201cThis whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.\u201d\u00a0 Not 65 years, not 83 years, specifically seventy years.\u00a0 [12] \u201cThen it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,\u2019 declares the LORD, \u2018for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 No doubt Daniel that particular morning or that particular day was reading that passage.\u00a0 He was also reading chapter Jeremiah 29:10 which says, \u201cFor thus says the LORD,\u2019 When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.\u201d\u00a0 What place?\u00a0 The land of Israel, after the seventy years were over.\n\nJeremiah is a prophet of God who prophesied probably from about 627 B.C.\u00a0 Most of his prophecies take place before the captivity happened but his prophecies go on all the way till about 580 B.C.\u00a0 The Book of Daniel stretches from about 605 to around 538, 537, 536, so there\u2019s a little bit of overlap between the prophets but Daniel is seeing these prophecies written by Jeremiah, probably about 50 years, give or take, when Jeremiah happened.\u00a0 Jeremiah had his prophecies in the land of Israel primarily; Daniel had his prophecies, or received his prophecies 300 miles to the east in Babylonia.\u00a0 And Daniel simply by studying Jeremiah knew exactly what time it is prophetically.\u00a0 He understands exactly what God is about to do and he has this insight because he gave himself to the prophetic Word of God.\u00a0 If he had been studying some other book or some other part of God\u2019s Word that is not prophetic he would not have the insight that he had.\n\n1 Chronicles 12:32 says this, \u201cOf the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 The men of Issachar were different because they understood the times and they knew exactly what they should do because of the time period they were in.\u00a0 And that is how prophecy functions.\u00a0 Daniel knew exactly what time it was because he gave himself to what Jeremiah had said and he knew exactly what God was about to do and consequently he knows how to pray.\n\nAnd this is the same not just for the prophecies in Daniel\u2019s day, this same principle applies to the prophetic Word today.\u00a0 There are many people that will not study the prophetic Word, they are scared of the prophetic Word.\u00a0 There are many pastors and preachers and teachers that will not aggressively teach the prophetic Word of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s actually Satan, I believe, that convinces them to not preach prophecy because the Book of Revelation spells the end of Satan in the lake of fire.\u00a0 I mean, how would you like a book being promoted around the world that doesn\u2019t end well for you?\n\nSo there has always been throughout church history a great blindness, a great struggle on the whole subject of prophecy.\u00a0 But you see, the Book of Revelation is the only book I know of in the Bible that promises a blessing to those who read and heed its instruction.\u00a0 Now is there anybody in here that does not want to be blessed\u2026 put your hand up please.\u00a0 We all want to be blessed.\u00a0 Revelation 1:3 tells us that when we study the prophetic Word we\u2019re blessed.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:3, \u201cBlessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.\u201d]\n\nDaniel was blessed in terms of insight, in terms of what was happening in his world and in his nation only because he studied prophecy.\u00a0 Prophecy gives you the cutting edge in world events because it tells you those world events before they happen and you can look around the world and see, I\u2019m not setting a date of course but you can see the general season or the general time\u00a0 you\u2019re living in and the urgency of the hour and you only get that perspective through the prophetic Word of God.\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice that Daniel had been in government, first in Babylon, then in Persia when the Persians came to power, all of these years of his life; 67 years, he\u2019s probably in his 80\u2019s now and yet you\u2019ll notice he was never too busy to study the Word of God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not my closing song but\u2026 we\u2019ll play that same one a little later for the closing number.\n\nBut you know, we so many times look at our lives and we say I\u2019m just too busy for the Word of God; I\u2019m just too busy to pray, and yet here is Daniel, serving in government in pagan territory, no doubt a demanding job, all this time and yet he always has time somehow to meditate on the Word of God.\u00a0 Not only does he have time to meditate on the Word of God that he carves out but he has time to pray because beginning in verse 3 all the way through verse 19 is one of the greatest prayers in the entire Bible.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this message A Personal Relationship with God.\n\nWe talk as Christians all of the time about a personal relationship with God through salvation in Christ alone. What does that really mean, \u201ca personal relationship with God\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 Well, if you go to a marriage counsellor because your marriage is having difficulties the marital counsellor, if he or she is worth their salt the first thing they\u2019re going to ask you is what is your level of communication like?\u00a0\u00a0 What do you mean \u201ccommunication\u201d?\u00a0 Talking to each other.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m married to So and So and we haven\u2019t talked in 5 years.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s not much of a marriage as far as I can tell.\u00a0 I have a friendship with so and so but we never talk.\u00a0 That wouldn\u2019t make any sense, would it.\u00a0 The lifeblood of any relationship is communication.\n\nSo once you\u2019re saved how do you grow in your relationship with God; after all, we\u2019re the bride and He is the groom.\u00a0 You grow through communication.\u00a0 He, number 1, communicates with you.\u00a0 Well, how does He communicate with you?\u00a0 A lot of different ways, He communicates through nature Paul tells us in Romans 1.\u00a0 He communicates through conscience Paul tells us in Romans 2.\u00a0 But the primary way God communicates to you is through this Book.\u00a0 If a person simply has no real discipline in this Book, if this Book is nothing more than an ornament on a coffee table that collects dust then the communication is shut off.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the advantages of coming to a church like this that labors in seeking to teach the Bible verse by verse; as we are teaching the Bible verse by verse it is an opportunity for God to speak to you through the preaching and teaching of His Word.\n\nWell, if God communicates to us through this Book how do we communicate to God, because conversation is two ways, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Have you been around people all they do is talk but never listen?\u00a0 Have you been around people all they do is listen but never talk?\u00a0 That\u2019s not a conversation, is it?\u00a0 A conversation by definition entails two directions.\u00a0 How exactly do we communicate to God?\u00a0 We communicate to God via prayer.\u00a0 God is talking to us primarily through His Word; we are talking to God primarily through prayer and if that\u2019s not a regular practice in your life you can\u2019t grow in your relationship with Christ any more than you could develop a marriage with no communication.\n\nAnd so it is interesting to me that Daniel, despite the strains and stresses and pressures of his life, whether it be government, whether it be aging, whether it being thrown into the lion\u2019s den, think about that, all the problems the man had there\u2019s always a place in his life for prayer and the Word of God because as you pray we communicate to God; as the Word of God is read or taught God is talking to us.\u00a0 This is the lifeblood of who Daniel was.\u00a0 Daniel is role modeling how Israel is to live in pagan territory and maintain a devotional life.\u00a0 It\u2019s a role model for us because life can be very stressful; life can be very pressured.\u00a0 We, like Daniel, to some extent, are living in pagan territory, living in the devil\u2019s world.\u00a0 The last time I checked Satan is still the god of this world.\u00a0 That\u2019s not going to change until the Second Advent.\n\nSo how do we grow in a hostile environment.\u00a0 It has to be communication\u2014the Word of God and prayer.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have the Word of God and prayer in your life consistently you have almost nothing because when you study the early church what you discover is the Word of God and prayer is always a priority.\u00a0 In fact, this is how the first deacons arose over in the Book of Acts, chapter 6 and verse 4.\u00a0 Everybody came to the apostles with this problem or that problem and they said you know, if we get invested into all these problems we\u2019re not going to have time for our priorities.\u00a0 And if we don\u2019t have time for our priorities the church will lose direction, the church will lose power.\u00a0 And so they appointed these other tasks to be governed by a new office that God raised up in Acts 6 called deacons.\u00a0 For what purpose?\u00a0 So the apostles, being quoted here, will devote themselves, Acts 6:4, to prayer and the ministry of the Word.\u00a0 [Acts 6:4, \u201cBut we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.\u201d]\u00a0 Had the church not devoted itself to prayer and the ministry of the Word the church would have been emptied of its power and Satan tried to get the church busy in Acts 6, too busy for the lifeblood of the relationship, communication, the vitality of communication.\n\nAnd as the pastor-teacher here at Sugar Land Bible Church I\u2019ll tell you the exact same thing.\u00a0 This church has nothing going for it if we don\u2019t have those two things happening: the Word of God and prayer!\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how many people come, it doesn\u2019t matter how big the budget becomes or whatever.\u00a0 And it\u2019s always the plan of Satan to get a church distracted from those priorities because if they become distracted from those priorities the devil knows that the church is emptied of its power.\u00a0 Now the Word of God is taught here every Sunday morning and as we start up Wednesday nights at the end of August it will be taught on Wednesday night.\u00a0 And in every cell group the Word of God is going to be taught, and in every Sunday School class the Word of God is going to be taught.\u00a0 This is not an environment for people to come and dispense their own personal opinion about whatever; this is a place where the Word of God is taught.\n\nBeyond that this is a place of prayer.\u00a0 One of the things our elders do is, most of the meeting quite frankly, is spent praying for the needs of this flock.\u00a0 The church staff on Friday, from 12:30 till whenever gives itself to prayer.\u00a0 As the leader of the staff I don\u2019t a lot of harsh rules and regulations except one; we have a mandatory prayer meeting on Fridays at 12:30 and when I first announced that you should have seen the reaction of the staff; it was like I was pulling out teeth or something.\u00a0 But you know what happens?\u00a0 As the staff gathers and prays and you know what?\u00a0 God answers, what starts to happen?\u00a0 Gosh, I\u2019m looking forward to prayer meeting.\u00a0 And so you see these priorities here in the life of Daniel.\u00a0 What a role model to the Jews in captivity; what a role model to us.\n\nNow you\u2019ll notice that the captivity, based on what Daniel had seen in the Book of Jeremiah, would last exactly seventy years.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t God allow the captivity to last seventy years.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t God allow the captivity to last sixty-five years or eighty-three years?\u00a0 Why exactly seventy?\u00a0 And there\u2019s a reason for that because God deals in mathematical precision.\u00a0 When you go back to the Book of Leviticus, actually before that, when you go back to the Book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 8-11, it says this.\u00a0 \u201cRemember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] Six days you shall labor and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it<\/em> you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, [your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.]\u00a0 And it goes on and it says, \u201cFor in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; [therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.]\n\nPeople say well, you don\u2019t really believe that God created the world in six days do you?\u00a0 I mean, scientists tell us it would take billions of years, you don\u2019t believe God did it that fast\u2026 six 24 hour days?\u00a0 My question is why did it take God so long when He could speak and the heavens and the earth would come into existence.\u00a0 He deliberately stretched it out to six 24 hour days and no activity on the seventh day as a pattern for the Jewish work week.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 So the Jew was to work six days and rest on the seventh; that\u2019s the weekly sabbath.\n\nNow when you go to Leviticus 25:1-5 you\u2019ll discover that that\u2019s the same pattern that God had for the land, not in terms of a week but in terms of a seven year increment.\u00a0 In Leviticus 25:1-5, it says this: \u00a0\u201cThe LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, [2] Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, \u2018When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD. [3] Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, [4] but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. [5] Your harvest\u2019s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year.\u201d\n\nSo just as you work six days and rest on the seventh do the same thing with the land, work the land six years (not six days but six years) and let the land have a year off, called the land sabbath.\u00a0 So the nation of Israel basically said ah, we\u2019re going to do it our own way.\u00a0 We\u2019re just going to work the land when we want to, we\u2019re not going to pay attention to what God said.\u00a0 And God said okay, you want to play that way, the land is going to get its rest whether you want it to or not.\u00a0 Every year you do not follow My sabbath principle is a year I\u2019m going to kick you out of your land and once you\u2019re out of your land guess what?\u00a0 The land is going to get its rest.\u00a0 So you can either let the land have its rest on the seventh year or you can just do what you want and I\u2019ve got a calculator, God says, I\u2019ll add up the numbers and every sabbath year you reject I will kick you out of your land so the land can have its rest.\u00a0 He said it\u2019s going to get its rest one way or the other.\n\nLeviticus 26:33-35 says this: \u201cYou, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.\u00a0 [34] Then the land\u201d once I kick you\u00a0 out, \u201cwill enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies\u2019 land; then\u201d while you\u2019re in your enemy\u2019s land, \u201cthe land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. [35]All the days of its<\/em> desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.\u201d\n\nSee, these are principles that God clearly revealed through Moses at Mount Sinai.\u00a0 Everybody knew the rules and yet the nation of Israel says we just want to follow our own rules.\u00a0 Think how much easier it could have been for Israel if they had just done what God said.\u00a0 And before you point too strong of a finger at Israel look at your own life, and look at my life and look at some of the prices we\u2019ve paid in our own lives that we could have avoided if we had just done things God\u2019s way.\u00a0 See, the Bible teaches the way of the transgressor is hard.\u00a0 [Proverbs 13:515, \u201cGood understanding giveth favor: but the way of transgressors is<\/em> hard.\u201d KJV]\n\nGod is the one who has outlined laws and principles which govern the universe and it is just foolish to live as if those principles don\u2019t exist in any area, whether you\u2019re talking about finances, sexual immorality or morality, work ethic, devotional life, whatever principle you want to talk about God is the one who has ordained the rules and to rebel against those rules is like rebelling against the law of gravity.\u00a0 It\u2019s a foolish endeavor and we end up bringing so much suffering into our own lives because we don\u2019t do things God\u2019s way.\u00a0 And that\u2019s exactly what happened with the nation Israel.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t do things God\u2019s way and so they went into a seventy year captivity.\n\n2 Chronicles 36, eight hundred years later, just prior to the captivity, says this in verses 20-21, \u201cThose who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia,\u201d verse 21 is key, 2 Chronicles 36, \u201cto fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. [All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.]\u201d\u00a0 Jeremiah didn\u2019t just come\u00a0 up with this number, seventy year captivity, it\u2019s related to the fact that Israel rejected the land principle for seventy sabbaths; God kept a note of it and said fine, I\u2019m going to make it up at some point, the land is going to get its rest while you\u2019re in captivity for seventy years.\n\nThat\u2019s where the 70 year captivity comes from.\u00a0 God deals in precise numbers.\u00a0 Did you know, and I can document this, not from the Bible but I can document this from the Talmud and other documents, that the temple was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70 on the exact day that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple back in 586 B.C.\u00a0 In other words, the first temple and the second temple were destroyed on the exact day.\u00a0 Now do you think that\u2019s coincidental?\u00a0 God is a God of mathematics; God is a God of precision.\u00a0 So let\u2019s put our mathematical caps on, shall we?\u00a0 Did you know that being a Bible student requires math?\u00a0 That kind of bummed me out when I heard that the first time, I don\u2019t know how good I did in math.\u00a0 But if the nation of Israel neglected God\u2019s Sabbath principle for seventy sabbaths and the sabbath comes up on the seventh year, how many total years of disobedience are we talking about? Well, let\u2019s just multiply seventy times seven and that gives us the number 490.\u00a0 What I\u2019m trying to get at is simply this: the nation of Israel had come out of 490 years total of disobedience.\n\nYou say well who cares?\u00a0 The seventy weeks prophecy, which we haven\u2019t gotten to yet, Daniel 9:24-27, reveals a time clock for Israel that\u2019s going to last how many years?\u00a0 Just take a wild guess.\u00a0 490.\u00a0 See the symmetry here; you came out of 490 years of disobedience, now I\u2019m going to give you 490 years of your future.\n\n[Daniel 9:24, \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.\u00a0 [25] So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.\u00a0 [26] Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.\u00a0 [27] And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\u201d]\n\nDaniel knew nothing about this future, all he knew was that this captivity is ending, perhaps there was a misconception in the mind of Daniel that the kingdom of God was going to materialize at the end of the seventy years of captivity that he was emerging from.\u00a0 Perhaps he felt that the stone cut without human hands striking the foot of the statue in Daniel 2, that grows and grows and grows until it fills the earth (which is the kingdom of God), perhaps Daniel thought that that kingdom of God was going to materialize at the end of this seventy year period.\u00a0 And God through Gabriel says no, the kingdom is not going to come at the end of the 490 years you\u2019re coming out of.\u00a0 Let me give you another 490 years\u00a0 yet future which is symmetrical to the 490 years you came out of; at the end of that 490 years the kingdom will come.\u00a0 And that becomes the whole symmetrical logic or basis for the 70 weeks prophecy.\n\nSo the prophecy hasn\u2019t been given yet, Daniel knows nothing about the future 490 years, all he knows from the prophet Jeremiah is that the 70\u00a0 years are coming to an end; because he\u2019s a student of the Word of God he knows how to pray.\u00a0 So what follows then, verses 3-19, is Daniel\u2019s prayer. In fact, this prayer, 3-19 of Daniel 9 is one of the three great prayers of the postexilic time period.\u00a0 What do I mean by postexilic?\u00a0 There are three prayers recorded around the same general time period, postexile, the captivity having ended, it\u2019s just getting ready to end here, and it goes on in history and the captivity has ended and the Jews are back in that land; we call that the postexilic era.\u00a0 And there are three great prayers given right during that time period.\n\nYou say well where do we find them?\u00a0 Let\u2019s make it easy on ourselves; can you remember the number 9?\u00a0 They\u2019re all found in a chapter 9.\u00a0 Number 1, Daniel 9, we\u2019re just getting ready to study it.\u00a0 Number 2, Ezra 9.\u00a0 Number 3, Nehemiah 9.\u00a0 If you were to go home beginning today and this week and you were to study Daniel 9, Ezra 9 and Nehemiah 9 you would know how to pray because these are examples furnishing timeless principles regarding exactly how to pray.\u00a0 Ever ask yourself that question\u2026how do we pray exactly?\u00a0 You\u2019re not the first person that asked it.\u00a0 Over in Luke 11:1 it says this: \u201cIt happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished one of His disciples said to Him, \u201cLord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, I noticed this thing about You Jesus, You keep going away from the masses and the crowds and You\u2019re devoting Yourself to prayer and You do it all the time.\n\nWe saw John the Baptist talk about this, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament dispensation, John the Baptist, a man of prayer.\u00a0 And so they had heard John talk about it, they had seen Christ role model it and they asked one day how do we do that?\u00a0 Can You teach us how to pray?\u00a0 Have you ever asked God that?\u00a0 If you were to read Daniel 9, Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9 and if\u00a0 you were to extract the timeless principles exemplified in those chapters you would know exactly how to pray.\n\nWhat Daniel is praying here is the covenant; a covenant where God entered into an agreement with Israel going all the way back to Genesis 15, the time of Abraham.\u00a0 We call this the Abrahamic Covenant, where God unconditionally promised to Abram and his descendants three things, land, seed and blessing, which forms the structure of Israel\u2019s whole covenantal system.\u00a0 When Daniel prays he\u2019s praying language in this covenant.\u00a0 The covenant informs him regarding how to pray because God comes along after this covenant was articulated to Moses and He articulates a condition of blessing and cursing.\n\nNow if you were with us on Wednesday nights, as we began our study of the Kingdom and will continue it beginning at the end of August, you know the difference between the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant gives the nation ownership of her blessings which can never be withdrawn.\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant, though, has an if\/then proviso, unlike the Abrahamic Covenant the Mosaic Covenant is conditional;\u00a0 the condition is not for ownership but the condition is for possession or enjoyment because you can own something without possessing it.\u00a0 I could a beach house in the Hampton (but I don\u2019t) but I\u2019m so busy working I never enjoy it because I never possess it or enter into it even though I own it.\u00a0 Do you see the difference?\n\nThe Abrahamic Covenant gives the nation of Israel ownership forever, of her three blessings.\u00a0 But whether a nation enters into these blessings demands a response of obedience as articulated in which covenant?\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 Now the Mosaic Covenant can be very severe because it has principles of blessing and principles of cursing; if you do this here come the curses; if\u00a0 you do that here come the blessings, tangible real blessings.\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant doesn\u2019t cancel the Abrahamic Covenant, it augments it by articulating the principles by which Israel can possess or enjoy what she owns.\n\nAnd Daniel, as you look at this prayer, completely understood the reason that the nation of Israel had gone into captivity, because God in the Mosaic Covenant says if you don\u2019t obey Me here are the curses you can count on.\u00a0 One of those curses is deportation.\u00a0 Daniel understands that the cycle of discipline is ending and what you see all the way through this prayer is an awareness of God\u2019s timeless covenant.\u00a0 The great principle for us is the better you know the Word of God, the better\u00a0 you know the revealed will of God as spoken in the Word of God the better you know how to pray.\n\n1 John 5:14 says, \u201c\u2026 if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.\u201d\u00a0 God is not obligated to answer prayer requests outside of his will.\u00a0 And thank God for that!\u00a0 God, I want to be the richest man in the world.\u00a0 God says well, you know, I know what that\u2019s going to do to you if I let you be that so I won\u2019t answer that one.\u00a0 God, I want to effectively evangelize my neighbor, I have a heart for this person, they\u2019re unsaved, they\u2019re on their way to hell, can you give me the wisdom on how to reach them.\u00a0 Now you\u2019re in the will of God because there\u2019s direct Scripture that tells us to preach the gospel to every creation.\u00a0 [Mark 16:15, \u201cAnd He said to them, \"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.\u201d]\u00a0 Now God starts to answer.\u00a0 See that?\n\nThe better\u00a0 you know the Word of God, the better you know the priorities of God, the better you understand the will of God, the better\u00a0 you understand how to pray within His will the more effective a person\u2019s prayer life is.\u00a0 James talks about prayers amiss, prayers that don\u2019t reach any higher than the ceiling.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because they are outside of His will.\u00a0 If we ask according to His will He hears us. \u00a0[1 John 5:14, \u201cThis is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.\u201d]\n\nWhy was Daniel the man of prayer that he was?\u00a0 Because he understood this covenant.\u00a0 Not only did he understand the writings of the prophet Jeremiah but he\u00a0 understood the revealed will of God as expressed in the covenant for the Jewish people, so he knew what time it was, he knew what to pray, he knew how to pray, and he knew how to petition God.\n\nAnd so this prayer of Daniel has three parts to it.\u00a0 Number 1, a confession of sin, verses 3-10\u00a0 Number 2, an acknowledgement of judgment, maybe better said discipline.\u00a0 In other words, Lord, we\u2019re getting what we deserve here in this captivity, verses 11-14.\u00a0 And then number 3, a request for divine mercy, a request for the future of three things: number 1, the city of Jerusalem, verse 16; number 2, the temple which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, verse 17, and number 3, a petition for the people of Israel.\u00a0 So he\u2019s requesting mercy for these three things.\n\nAnd you know what happens?\u00a0 Gabriel shows up with a prophecy from God to give to Daniel called the Seventy Weeks Prophecy which lasts how many years?\u00a0 490, not a coincidental number.\u00a0 And do you know what\u2019s answered in the Seventy Weeks Prophecy? Just take a wild guess.\u00a0 Information about Jerusalem, information about the temple, information about the people, exactly what Daniel prayed for.\n\nOne of the things that you discover about God is when He honors a prayer and executes a prayer it\u2019s shocking about how you get, many times, exactly what you ask for.\u00a0 You know, a lot of time God doesn\u2019t work on our timetable; have you noticed that?\u00a0 A lot of times there\u2019s sort of a postponement in the answer to a prayer but when He moves His hand and the prayer is answered it\u2019s almost a stunning thing that it actually happened precisely as articulated.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the early church with Peter.\u00a0 They\u2019re in a prayer meeting, Lord, get Peter out of jail.\u00a0 And then someone starts knocking on the door.\u00a0 Don\u2019t listen to the door.\u00a0 Lord, get Peter out of jail\u2026 someone\u2019s knocking on the door.\u00a0 So Rhoda goes out there\u2026 it\u2019s Peter!\u00a0 Oh, you\u2019re seeing his angel, you\u2019re seeing a delusion.\u00a0 It\u2019s all in Acts 12, knocking on the door more, and it was Peter.\u00a0 They kept praying because God had already answered exactly what they asked, they just didn\u2019t have enough faith to understand that God had answered the prayer.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nWhat Daniel is praying for here in terms of, number 1, the city of Jerusalem, number 2 the temple, number 3, the people is exactly what gets answered there at the end of Daniel 9.\u00a0 So the prayer begins with a confession of sin, verses 3-10.\n\n[Daniel 9:3-10, \u201cSo I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by<\/em> prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. [4] I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, \u2018Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, [5] we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. [6] Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.\u00a0 [7] Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day\u2014to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You. [8] Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. \u00a0[9] To the Lord our God belong<\/em> compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him; [10] nor have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets.\u201d]\n\nI would suggest to you that\u2019s not a bad way to begin a prayer.\u00a0 When the Lord taught the disciples to pray, which has misnamed \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer,\u201d that can\u2019t be \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer\u201d because it ask for forgiveness for sin.\u00a0 Did Jesus ever sin?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 He was sinless, so He is not offering a prayer regarding how He did it.\u00a0 He\u2019s offering a prayer regarding how they are to do it in terms of a role model.\u00a0 And it\u2019s very interesting to me that part of that prayer, Matthew 6:12 says, \u201cForgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.\u201d\u00a0 Do you start your prayers with a confession of sin.\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about unbelievers who don\u2019t know Christ; I\u2019m talking about people that are saved, that are growing in their relationship with the Lord, you pray to the Lord, do you take a moment to ask for forgiveness and cleansing from sins.\n\n1 John 1:9 says, \u201cIf we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d \u00a0Wait a minute, I thought we were already forgiven and if we\u2019re already forgiven why in the world would I begin a prayer with a confession of sins?\u00a0 Because you need to know the difference between position and practice.\u00a0 The death of Christ permanently bridged the sin gap between you and God and you are positionally holy, HOWEVER, as a Christian, now not this audience, you guys look very spiritual out there with your Bibles and everything, shivering in the cold\u2026 as a Christian you might occasionally sin.\u00a0\u00a0 Amen. I won\u2019t ask for hands for that one.\u00a0 So what does that do?\n\nWhat does unconfessed sin in the life of a believer do?\u00a0 It does not alter\u00a0 your position; it alters your fellowship with God.\u00a0 When I sin against my wife, notice I didn\u2019t say \u201cif\u201d I said \u201cwhen,\u201d I say something out of anger, I say something unkind, I do something stupid, which I fall into that category quite regularly, what does that do exactly?\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t end my marriage; positionally we are still married.\u00a0 What just got injured is my moment by moment enjoyment and fellowship and intimacy with my wife.\u00a0 So if I want fellowship restored I just say you know, I really messed up on that, will you forgive me?\u00a0 Does that make me married any more than I was before?\u00a0 No, what just got restored is broken fellowship with my spouse, my marital partner.\n\nRemember, our relationship with the Lord is analogized to bride\/groom; if\u00a0 you can think about insulting your spouse and saying something unkind or offensive\u00a0 you can think about what that does to your marriage.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t end the marriage, the papers are still there, it\u2019s still a positional reality, it\u2019s just the moment by moment enjoyment and intimacy and fellowship with my marital partner is injured, it is damaged to the extent that unconfessed offense remains.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 That is exactly what unconfessed sin does to your relationship with God.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take away your eternal security, that\u2019s a done deal.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t remove your name from the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life, that is a done deal.\u00a0 What it does is your moment by moment intimacy with the Lord is short-circuited because of unconfessed sin.\n\nYou say well, does the Bible teach that?\u00a0 Psalm 66:18, \u201cIf I regard wickedness in my heart the Lord will not hear.\u201d\u00a0 1 Peter 3:7, \u201cYou husbands, in the same way live with your wives in an under\u00adstanding way as with someone weaker, since she is a woman and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life\u201d notice the end of the verse, \u201cso that your prayers will not be hindered.\u201d\u00a0 Oh my goodness, you mean if I\u2019m not living out Bible based principles in my marriage that damages my prayer life?\u00a0 Are\u00a0 you telling me that tension that I cause in my horizontal relationships causes tension in my vertical relationship with God.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m telling you.\u00a0 That\u2019s why prayer begins with the confession of sin.\u00a0 You\u2019re not trying to get saved again.\n\nAnd there are people that don\u2019t understand the difference between position and practice, position and fellowship and they think they\u2019ve got to get saved all over again.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the issue.\u00a0 The issue is you need fellowship restored.\u00a0 Think about David;\u00a0 is there any doubt that David was saved?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that was ever in question.\u00a0 David, of course, became the second king of the United Kingdom and look at what happened to him through his number 1, adultery, number 2, murder.\u00a0 What did that do to David?\u00a0 It did not take his position away from getting into heaven but as he tried to bury his sin and pretend like it didn\u2019t happen and sort of sweep it under the rug, what he says in the Psalm is the heavens have become like brass.\n\nWhat does that mean exactly?\u00a0 He\u2019s going to hell?\u00a0 NO, it meant his moment by moment intimacy with God, that he once enjoyed, was short\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad-circuited or damaged as long as he tried to hide that sin.\u00a0 That's why David says he who hides his sin will not prosper.\u00a0 [\u201cHe who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.\u201d\u00a0 Proverbs 28:13] Hiding a sin, pretending like it didn\u2019t happen, sweeping it under the rug, which is what David was doing; that\u2019s why Nathan the prophet, 2 Samuel 12, had to have been called into action to confront David over this issue.\u00a0 But that unconfessed sin damaged that moment by moment intimacy with God.\n\nAnd so prayer, if all of that is true, would logically begin, wouldn\u2019t it, with the confession of personal sin.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verse 3, Daniel 9, as how the prayer starts, \u201cSo I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice here that he gave his \u201cattention to the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what prayer is; that\u2019s what a conversation is.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it irritating when you\u2019re out to dinner with somebody and they\u2019re not talking with you at all because they\u2019re on their Facebook or their Twitter or whatever they\u2019re on that they\u2019re pushing all these buttons; it\u2019s not a conversation, they\u2019re distracted.\n\nHow do\u00a0 you think God feels when we don\u2019t even give Him proper attention in prayer? Oh yeah Lord, You know, bless this day, make it great but I\u2019ve got the news on here, I\u2019ve got e-mails coming in.\u00a0 Take all that electronic stuff and just shut it down for a while; take a little break from that.\u00a0 You won\u2019t die, trust me.\u00a0 We need to get ourselves into a position where we\u2019re giving God attention and we are, it says here, \u201cseeking God.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what prayer is, you\u2019re seeking His faith, you\u2019re seeking His will.\n\nDidn\u2019t Jesus talk about this, Matthew 7:7-11, \u201cAsk, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You know those are present tense verbs the last time I checked; seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking is a better translation.\u00a0 [8] \u201cFor everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.\u00a0 [9] Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? [10] Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? [11] \u201cIf you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who\u201d what? \u201cask Him!\u201d\n\nThat\u2019s what it means to seek God.\u00a0 You know pagans, unregenerate humans know how to bless their children.\u00a0 How much more does God, who is untainted by the sin nature, desire to bless His children as they petition Him in prayer.\u00a0 I think God wants to bless us more than we want to be blessed.\u00a0 I think this: God wants to use us more than we want to be\u00a0 used.\u00a0 And God can\u2019t wait to listen to you as you seek Him in prayer.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to be kidding me, you mean the Creator of the universe can\u2019t wait to listen to me?\u00a0 It\u2019s all true, it\u2019s what the Bible teaches.\u00a0 But we\u2019re so distracted, there are so many things that have to get done, there\u2019s so many emergencies.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see that happening here in the life of Daniel.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see him becoming so overwhelmed with emergencies.\u00a0 I know people in here who are having a lot of difficulties from time to time as I do but I never see Daniel in his personal devotional life becoming so distracted with emergencies, like being thrown into a lion\u2019s den for example, that he has no time for prayer.\n\nSo \u201cseek the Lord by prayer\u201d what\u2019s the next word, \u201cand supplication\u201d what is a supplication?\u00a0 A supplication is a supply, you are asking God to supply a need.\u00a0 There is a particular prayer in the Bible called the prayer of supplication.\u00a0 Paul says, Philippians 4:6, \u201cBe anxious for nothing,\u201d I don\u2019t know about that Lord, I\u2019m anxious about a lot of things, well, here\u2019s the problem, \u201cBe anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer,\u201d that\u2019s why we\u2019re anxious and worried, because we never get into the presence of the Lord and deposit our needs into His presence.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to always solve it in our own power.\n\n\u201cBe anxious for \u2026\u201d so tell me your anxiety level and I\u2019ll tell you what your prayer life is like.\u00a0 If\u00a0 you\u2019re worried and tense and nervous about every little thing likely what\u2019s happened in your personal life is\u00a0 your prayer life has become dissipated, it\u2019s become superficial.\u00a0 If you want to solve worry and anxiety in your life, prayer then becomes the solution to the human problem of anxiety.\u00a0 By the way, I didn\u2019t mean to get off into all of this, but anxiety is a sin.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it says \u201cBe anxious for nothing,\u201d it\u2019s a command.\u00a0 So when I am anxious for something I\u2019m in sin.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because anxiety is rooted in unbelief; God is not going to come through, I\u2019ve got to fix it.\u00a0 You\u2019re just put a God-sized burden on your shoulders and your anxiety ridden so therefore you\u2019re not walking in faith which makes it sin because \u201cwithout faith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please God.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBe anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.\u201d\u00a0 What is a \u201csupplication\u201d?\u00a0 It is supply; you\u2019re at whatever the need is, whatever the lack is, you\u2019re asking God for supply.\n\nYou mean to tell me God\u2019s going to supply my needs.\u00a0 Philippians 4:19, \u201cAnd my God will supply all your\u201d greeds, oh, it doesn\u2019t say that, \u201cmy God will supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 When Jesus taught us to pray He not only taught us to confess personal sin, He taught us to ask God to supply needs.\u00a0 \u201cGive us this day, our daily bread.\u201d\u00a0 The food need, nourishment.\n\nAnd so what you see here in Daniel is he is seeking God in an undistracted way; he\u2019s giving attention to God in an undistracted way and he is moving into supplication and also intermixed with this is confession, fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.\u00a0 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, \u201cif My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray\u201d how do you humble yourself (in ancient times) and perhaps in modern times, a practice we\u2019ve lost sight of: \u201cfasting, sackcloth and ashes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cif My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face\u201d now I\u2019ve heard many, many politicians quote this verse, one politician if I called his name out you would all know who I\u2019m talking about, no it\u2019s not Rick Miller, when they quote this verse they leave out part of the clause which says \u201cand turn from their wicked ways\u2026.\u201d \u00a0Hey Mr. Politician,\u00a0 you left part of the verse out, how convenient.\u00a0 \u201cAnd if My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.\u201d\n\nDaniel is role modeling this here as he is not just seeking God, not just requesting a supply, but he\u2019s actually role modeling confession through self-abasement, which in this case would be fasting, sackcloth and ashes. \u00a0We made it through verse 3, praise the Lord; we\u2019ll pick it up at verse 4 the next time we\u2019re together.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for the setting of this chapter, the principles of prayer that it teaches us.\u00a0 Make us this week, Father, people of Your Word and people that seek Your face and communicate with You via prayer given the fact that that\u2019s the lifeblood of our relationship with You.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name.\u00a0 And God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t