The most priceless and precious commodity that we have in this life is that of truth. Truth is what we're called to walk in and live in. Truth is what we're called to deal in, we're to deal in it, live in it, speak in it. But tonight, what I want us to think about as we look into the ninth chapter of Daniel is that we are to pray in truth. And that's the title of the message, Praying In Truth. Because truth should not only characterize our words to each other and our actions and behaviors as we interact and conduct our daily lives, but truth is a requirement for getting in the presence of God and talking to God. Our prayers should be rooted in truth. And that's what I want us to think about as we look in this ninth chapter of the prophecy of Daniel. In 605 BC, Daniel was taken from his homeland, the Holy Land, it is collectively called Israel, but in particular where he lived was the land of Judah. And it is now 539 BC. So roughly 66 years, almost 70 years have passed since he was taken as a teenager into Babylon along with his fellow Jews to live as captives in exile. And what I wanna do before we really delve into the focus of tonight's message is I wanna give you this three point outline for really the first three verses. It's really through verse 19. But I want you to write this down one at a time. Starting in verse number one, Daniel looked out at current events. And for each one of these points, the emphasis is on the preposition because in verse number one, we looked at that particular verse last week. He said, okay, I realized there's a change of power. The nation that plundered our homeland and exiled us as captives for these almost 70 years, they have been conquered by Persia. So there is a takeover of Babylon and the Medo Persian Empire is now ruling. He was looking out around him at current events, things that were going on in his world. But here's the second thing that he did. He not only looked out at current events, he looked in to the Scriptures. And I want you to write that down. In verse number two, it tells us that he looked into the prophecy that Jeremiah had written, the writings of Jeremiah the prophet. and we believe that the particular prophecy that he was reading had been a letter Jeremiah had sent to the exiles who were living in Babylon. So follow the preposition. Jeremiah in verse number one, he says, I looked out at what was going on around me and then my second thing was to look in to what the Bible said. And he certainly attributed to the writings of Jeremiah, the quality of being inspired by God. We now know it to be Scripture. But we're gonna look beginning in verse three and go all the way to verse 19 tonight and that is where we get this third point. Daniel looked up to God in prayer. He looked up. So think about these three prepositions as you look at it on the screen, that he looked out at current events, he looked in to see what the Bible said about current events and he looked finally up to God in prayer. So he realizes things are changing. Someone else is in control and yet we are still exiled in this strange and foreign land with foreign gods among people who are not sympathetic with us and who do not appreciate us and worship our God. And so beginning in the third verse, he turns to God in this state of contrition and humility. Now I wanna ask you, could there be a better model to follow than those three points? So think about this, let's look at what's going on all around us today. And who would have thought that this calendar year would have presented so many challenges? But let's not focus on what's going on out there around us. Let's look in to Scripture. Let's find our point of reference, our ground zero, our foundation. And then finally, in light of what's going on out there around us and what God says in His Word, let's look up to heaven and pray. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna look at Daniel's prayer tonight, beginning in the third verse. Now I don't want you to necessarily write this down, but this is just a summary of this prayer. By the way, one of the most powerful prayers recorded in all of Scripture, this prayer that Daniel makes to God, to Jehovah God in response to looking at the circumstances, reading his Bible, and then asking God to take action. He's saying this, oh, Lord God, you promised that you would scatter us if we disobeyed you. And we read where God promised that in the law of Moses. Then he says, we deserve to be conquered and exiled. He's not arguing with what God did by allowing them to be scattered. He said, you promised you would but we disobey you so we deserve to be conquered in exile. And now his prayer is going to say, please show mercy and let us return home to Jerusalem. And then this final summary point that I have provided says, Lord, don't do any of this for us, but do it all for Your glory. May this be about You Lord and not about us. So again, that's just a summary of the prayer that we're going to analyze tonight, we're going to look at it. Powerful, powerful prayer that Daniel prayed. So let's look beginning in the third verse, it says, I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplication with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, oh, Lord, great and awesome God who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him and with those who keep His commandments. And I want us to stop there and what we'll do is we're just gonna walk through and look at these different verses tonight. But as Daniel prepares to make his petition to God, he puts on sackcloth, which was a covering that Jewish people would put on as a symbol of their brokenness before God, of their contrition and humility before God. And he puts ashes on his body as a symbol of the judgment of sin and how sorry he is not only for his sin, but for the sins of the nation of Israel. But as he goes into God's presence in prayer, he describes God in these majestic ways. He says, oh, God, in verse number four, You are the great and awesome God and with your Bible open underline that. He calls God, great and awesome. And then he not only refers to God as great and awesome, but he says, You are the God who keeps His covenant, which means you're the God who when He makes a promise, He keeps a promise. He's a faithful covenant keeping God. Now it's interesting that when Daniel refers to God as being a covenant keeping God, that it's in this very chapter that Daniel introduces the use of God's covenant name. He first mentions it in verse two, where he wrote about looking into what Jeremiah had written concerning the years that were specified by the Word of the Lord. And just so you know, in most English translations of the Bible, when you see the word Lord in all caps, in English, it is translating the Hebrew word, Yahweh. And the name Yahweh is the name that God introduced to Moses when Moses was at the burning bush. And Moses said, ''Who shall I say has sent me ''when I stand before the people of Israel?'' And God said, ''Tell them I AM that I AM.'' And the Hebrew word for I AM is the word Yahweh. So whenever you see it spelled in all caps, capital L-O-R-D, that is the English way of the translators letting you know that it is communicating the Hebrew word, Yahweh. Of course there are other names for God like Elohim and Adonai. But Yahweh is His covenant name as revealed to Moses through whom He made His covenant with His people Israel. So it's introduced for the first time in the book of Daniel in verse two. But it's also used again in verse number four where we're looking right now. And he spoke directly to God using that covenant name of Yahweh. Yahweh being the most literal way to pronounce it, although years ago it was anglicized to make it more of an English name by calling it Jehovah. So whenever you hear the reference to Jehovah, that is an anglicized version of the Hebrew, Yahweh. They technically refer to the same covenant name of God, which means literally I AM. And so Daniel is using that Yahweh name for God for the first time in his book here in chapter nine. He refers to God this way and you'll see it in verse eight. You'll find it all caps, LORD, verse 10, verse 13, and verse 14. And he says, You are a great and awesome God, You are a covenant keeping God. But then he says about God, You show mercy. It's important because he is letting God know, I know who You are and I know how You work and as much of a God who is righteous, holy and will judge sin, I also know You are equally merciful. And You will show compassion on Your people when they turn to You and when they agree to keep Your commandments. So already he's introducing in the first words of his prayer, God, You have judged us and we've been banished in this state of exile in Babylon for 70 years, just about, but I know in Your heart, You are a merciful God. And so Daniel is setting the stage in his prayer with God to say, I know how you are and I know who you are. And I just want you to know, I'm making this prayer on the basis of the fact that I know You're a merciful God and You will not cause us to be forgotten forever. So it's a beautiful reminder of how familiar Daniel is with the character of God. So let's look in verse number five. As Daniel continues to pray, he says to God, oh, I hope you'll notice the importance of what I've underlined here. He says, God, we have sinned and we have committed iniquity, underlined. We have done wickedly and we have rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. So he's confessed the sins of the covenant people of Israel. He describes the aspects of their sin, iniquity. What does that mean? It means doing wrong in God's sight. He says, we've done wickedly, that word wickedly, means a godless way of life, godless. Then he says, we have been guilty of rebelling. Do you see that underlined? To rebel means we have willingly and blatantly defied You God. God, You've given us Your commands, but we've looked up to You and said, we don't care what You command, we're gonna do what we wanna do. And then he says, we have departed from God's precepts and judgments, and the word precepts and judgments refer to God's written Word. And just so you know when he says, we have departed from Your Word, departing does not just mean we've slipped away or we've fallen away from God's precepts, departing means we have willfully turned away. So, just put a little star beside verse number five because verse number five is where Daniel really catalogues the things of which the people of Israel were guilty before God. He says, what you did to us we deserve because we're guilty of all those things. That's a lot of stuff he listed. But I want you to understand something as he's confessing these sins to God, it is a reminder for all of us that God is the one who defines what sin is. Please don't miss that. And if God is the one who defines what sin is, our definition of sin must never be determined by those who have no regard for God or God's laws because sin if it is anything, it is first and foremost, a violation of God's written laws, His Holy Word. You see, we're living in a day as I'm speaking to you tonight, we are living in a time when people are creating new social and cultural laws. And when those social and cultural laws are violated, they say that is what sin is, when you violate the laws that we write, when you violate the cultural mandates that we are issuing. And what we're seeing is when you commit the transgression against these cultural and societal and cultural laws, it makes you deserving of culture and society's judgment. It makes you deserving being banished and sent into exile and being isolated from the global village. It is a retaliatory kind of judgment against the commandments and rules that are being written. And here's what they're saying. Here's what they're saying, it's a global kind of new morality. They're saying, here's when you're sinning, you're sinning if you don't do what I expect you to do. You're sinning if you don't say what I expect you to say. You're sinning if you don't think the way I tell you to think. You are sinning if you don't feel the way I tell you you ought to feel. You are sinning if you associate with someone that I don't like. In short, what the new societal laws tell us, the new cultural laws tell us is basically, you're sinning if you disagree with me. It's a sad state of affairs. And what I've come to tell you when I look into verse number five, I'm reminded when I see Daniel's prayer before Holy God, is that sin is defined by the law of God which is recorded in Scripture. We have to be very careful about redefining sin or allowing others to redefine sin based on a changing human standard and prevailing cultural trends in thought. Sin is what God says it is, period. I want to say that again, sin is what God says it is, period. God alone defines what sin is. So in addition to committing the sins of disobedience to God's Word, Daniel moves on to talk about the sins they had committed of not only rejecting the Word of God, but I hope you're listening, and as he moves through this prayer of confession, he says, we've not only rejected Your Word, but we have rejected the messengers You sent to preach Your Word. As he refers to them, he calls them the prophets. Let's look in verse number six of Daniel 9. He says, in addition to everything else we've done or failed to do, he says, neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets. Now he's speaking for all the people of Israel. These are the prophets who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, which means our kings and their sons and other leaders, to our fathers, and all the people in the land. The prophets were the people that God raised up to voice His warning to His people. He used prophets to preach righteousness and to call for repentance. And one of the interesting things to do, we need to do another series on the prophets as a whole. One of the interesting things to do if you have a study Bible, a good study Bible, or one of my favorite references is the Thomas Nelson Book of Charts, but to look at the timeline for when the prophets ministered and to whom they ministered. For instance, when there was the split between the northern and southern tribes and the 10 tribes to the north broke away from the two tribes in the south, God used prophets to preach to the separate kingdoms. Then once the northern kingdom fell, the kingdom of the 10 tribes which were collectively called Israel, once they fell to the Assyrians in 722, from that time of 722 until 586 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar put the final crushing blow of defeat on Jerusalem, God raised up most of the prophets who have books named after them in the Bible. Most of those guys preached to the people of Judah. After the 10 tribes were destroyed by Assyria, most of the prophets that we read about in Scripture like Joel and Isaiah and Micah and Zephaniah and Habakkuk and in Jeremiah, they preached to the southern kingdom. So whether it was the 10 tribes who got blown away in 722, they rejected the prophets or the southern kingdom of Judah, they rejected the prophets. Jeremiah who was one of the prophets, who was the most detested by the inhabitants of the southern kingdom, he said this about them in chapter 25 of his prophecy and verse four. He said, ''And the Lord has sent to you ''all His servants the prophets.'' Of whom he was one as he was preaching this. Rising early God sent them but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. The prophet said what? You're gonna achieve your potential, things are gonna be better. You're okay, everybody's okay, we're all okay. No, that's not what the prophet said. Jeremiah said, the message of a true prophet is repent now every one of his evil way and of his evil doings and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever. And Jeremiah goes on to say what God is saying through prophets. The prophets cried out, ''Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them ''and do not provoke Me to anger ''with the works of your hands ''and I won't harm you, I won't punish you.'' And Jeremiah says, here's what God says to you, yet you have not listened to Me, that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. So here in this prayer that Daniel is praying to God, he's saying, dear God, forgive us as a people, because we have rejected not only Your Word, but we have mistreated the prophets who preached Your Word to us. And Jeremiah said the same thing when he was preaching to them. God has sent prophets but you have rejected the cry of the prophets. The writer of 2 Chronicles 36:15 summarized it this way. And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, who were the messengers? The prophets, rising up early and sending them because He had compassion on His people and on his dwelling place. But what did the Jewish people do? They mocked the messengers of God, meaning the prophets, they rejected the preachers. They despised God's Word, they scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people. Notice what is underlined, till there was no remedy. Now, out of everything that I just read, it's that last phrase that troubles me the most. Because you see, in the life of the people of Israel, whether it was the 10 northern tribes who broke away and did their own thing, God raised up prophets to preach against their sins. And finally His patience was exhausted and He used an enemy nation to scatter them throughout the earth and destroy the northern kingdom. And then the prophets in the southern kingdom, they did not receive a favorable reception. They were not welcomed, their message was mocked and ridiculed and they even killed the prophets. And understand this. The writer of Chronicle says there, till there was no remedy, till there was no remedy. I like how the New Living Translation kind of paraphrase or translates it, until the Lord's anger could no longer be restrained and nothing could be done. And nothing could be done. What that means is that in the life of Israel, the people of God got to a place beyond which there was no recourse. Beyond which God would not relent and intervene to spare them. And I wanna make it very clear, while our country is not the nation of Israel and cannot be compared to the nation of Israel, the principle of God's patience is the same. For any group of people in any period of time or history. And that is that you can sin your way beyond remedy, that people can reject God to the point that God's patience is exhausted. None of us knows when that time comes, but there are things that start to appear including the preaching of prophets that bring these things to our awareness. And so what Daniel is saying in his prayer is, I know that we've rejected Your Word, Holy God, even though we are the people of Your covenant and I know that we have mistreated the prophets who tried to get us back on track, these prophets You sent us to preach Your Word to us. But I'm still asking You for mercy. And by the way, speaking of how the Jewish people had historically treated the prophets God sent to them, even Jesus when He was on the earth, in Matthew 23:37, He said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. So I want you to think about this, that not only did Daniel say we've mistreated the prophets, Jeremiah said you've mistreated the prophets, Jesus looked over Jerusalem and said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and threw stones at them until they died. It is a reminder to us that people must be very, very careful how they treat a true prophet of God, a true spokesperson for God. And in our day and time, that would be someone who is carefully expounding on the Scripture. That God takes it very seriously how society and how His own people react to a true called anointed messenger of His Holy Word, of which I submit to you, there are fewer and fewer people, so it seems. So let's continue to just move forward through the prayer. He says in verse number seven. Daniel says, oh, Lord, righteousness belongs to You. But to us, there's shame on our faces, shame of face, as it is this day. And about whom does this refer? To the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all of Israel. Those near and those far off in all the countries to which You, that's God, to which You Lord have driven them and scattered them because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. Well, now, I just wanna say something. Every single one of these verses in this prayer that Daniel was praying, as the light has come on and he realizes the power has changed around me from Babylon to Medo Persia, Jeremiah says 70 years is the appointed time. According to the calendar, we're right there on the money. God is getting ready to do something amazing and powerful and he launches into this prayer with humility and brokenness, and yet with confidence, every single verse in this prayer is packed with truth. In fact, everything we've talked about up until now, this prayer has me the fullest and overflowing tonight. Because I've been studying this for weeks. And so what he says there in verse number seven, underline it, righteousness belongs to You. God is righteous. And in the same way that we said God alone defines what is sinful, so God who is righteous alone defines what is righteous. Righteousness is not defined by socially constructed obligations that are imposed upon us. Righteousness is not defined by arbitrarily formed standards. Righteousness cannot be defined by unrighteous people. Righteousness is not defined by the intimidating pressures of ever evolving group think especially by the digital mobs on social media, I want you to know something, righteousness is what God says it is, period. It's what's given to us in the Bible. And what we see happening today is we have an artificial substitute for true religion in the gospel of wokeness, of being woke. It is a false religion because it redefines what righteousness is and what sin is. And Daniel said in his prayer, oh God, You alone define what sin is and righteousness belongs to You. So You alone tell us what the rules are and what constitutes divine righteousness by which we are to live our lives. No human authority, no peer group, no culture, no country, no authority of man defines sin or righteousness, only God does. And He's already done it in the pages of His Word. And Daniel was acknowledging that in his prayer and he said, shame, shame, shame to the men of Judah, shame to those of Israel who were destroyed before Judah fell to Babylon. Shame to everyone in the history of Israel who rejected the Word of God, who rejected the prophets of God. And he says, shame is not just on our faces as exiles here in Babylon, but wherever there are children of the covenant with the Jewish people, he says, wherever we have been scattered, shame on us oh God, because our forefathers were blessed by being drawn into a covenant of blessing with Jehovah Yahweh God and we got entrusted to us were the written commandments and principles and Word of God and we willingly forsook it all. Shame on all of us. And Lord, we're scattered because You told us You would. Leviticus 26:33, God had already warned them through Moses, I will scatter you among the nations if you persist in disobeying Me and Daniel understood, God, we're right where we deserve to be, scattered, exiled, captives, because we've rejected You. And what Daniel was saying in this prayer, oh God, you are a just God. You know, we talk a lot about justice and we should talk about it and we should work towards it. But what Daniel was saying is, oh, God, I push aside everything going on planet Earth and I want You to know, I recognize that You are a just God. And it harkens back, it reminded me of what Moses broke out in a song. It's recorded for us in Deuteronomy 32:3, Moses sang out to God, I proclaim the name of the Lord, I ascribe greatness to our God, He is The Rock, for His work is perfect. And look at what Moses said about God. All His ways are just, He is a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He. And what a wonderful reminder for all of us, is that when man gets this wrong, God remains just and there is not one ounce of injustice in the character of all mighty, holy, righteous, omniscient God. He is fully just and is holy without injustice. Daniel said, oh, God, we deserve what You allowed to happen to us. And when you think about God's justice, divine justice, I want you to understand with me tonight, Social justice and Divine justice are not the same. They're not the same. Social justice rests on the shifting sands of human will, human emotion and changing moral norms. But Divine justice rests on the unchanging, immutable, perfect, righteous, holy character of Almighty God. They are two different things. And I'm gonna tell you, every Christian needs to keep that in mind. Proverbs 28:5 says this, evil people don't understand justice, but those who follow the Lord, they understand it completely. So what I want us to do next is I want us to look at Daniel's framework for praying. And as Daniel moves through his prayer, what we see, we see him using throughout this prayer, words that are synonyms for Scripture. For instance, if you're interested, when David penned Psalm 19, he used words that were interchangeable, all of which mean the Word of God in Scripture. Psalm 119 as well, those two Psalms. You know, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and every verse of it is about the Bible. But in those two Psalms in particular and here in Daniel 9. I'll just give you a little chart. You don't need to write all these down. But these are synonyms for Scripture found in these particular passages. Whenever it reverts to God's commandments or His law or His word or His statute to His testimonies, His ordinances, His precepts, His judgments, His covenant, His truth, His voice, His prophets, all of those words are synonyms for what we refer to as the Bible. It was written progressively until which time the book of Revelation rounded it out and frosted the cake. And we have all 66 books. They are the commandments, ordinances, testimonies, precepts, judgments. They're the Word of God. And so I want us to walk through some of these verses and see how Daniel ties his prayer to Scripture. For instance, in verse number four, he says, I prayed to the Lord, my God, and I made confession. I said, oh, Lord, great and awesome God who keeps His covenant, that's a reference to the Scripture. And mercy with those who love Him and with those who keep His commandments, another reference to the Scripture. You go down to verse five, he says, we have sinned and we've committed iniquity. We've done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. That's a reference to the Scripture. You go down to verse 10. He says, we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. How did that come? Through the Word of God, to walk in His laws. What are His laws? The Word of God, which He set before us by His servant the prophets. What did the prophets preach? The Word of God. Verse 11, Daniel says, yes, Lord, all Israel has transgressed Your law. That's God's Word, and has departed so as not to obey your voice. That's God's Word. Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, that's God's Word, have been poured out on us, verse 12, and He has confirmed His words which He spoke against us and against our judges by bringing upon us this disaster. And verse number 13, Daniel says in his prayer, as it is written in the law of Moses, that's God's Word. All this disaster has come upon us yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth and what is His truth? His truth is His Word. Now, what am I saying here tonight? I'm saying that this prayer is chockfull, saturated, filled to the brim and overflowing with continual reverting references to the Scriptures. And how many times are our prayers governed by what we're feeling, governed simply by emotion? How many times do we even allow other people to manipulate us into praying a certain way? When Daniel was praying, he understood, if I want my prayer to be pleasing to God, if I want my prayer to be honoring to God, my prayer needs to reflect who God is and my prayer needs to be baptized in the will of God. And how do you please God and how do you pray in His will? By praying in accordance with His Word. That's exactly right. So I'll give you a few of these summary statements. What does this prayer tell us? Number one, Daniel knew the Scriptures. He knew his Bible. Several people let me know, they said man, you really lowered the boom on us last week. Basically told us we're a bunch of no count shallow Christians. Well, I didn't mean to say that 'cause I'm as no count and shallow as the rest of them. But I hope that my challenge last week to get out your notepad, take notes, watch these again, learn your Bible, because the times in which we live require you to know your Bible. Daniel knew his Bible, and I'm gonna tell you what else. Daniel knew that God's Word reveals God's character. You wanna know how God is and who God is? Look in the Bible. The Bible is the only thing that tells you about the character of God. No one else can teach you that. But what God has revealed Himself, His person, His character, who He is in this Book, in this Book alone, no other book. Not only this, but this prayer proves that Daniel knew that God's Word is the basis for God's actions. God acts consistently with His Word. We call these two points God's character and God's ways, His person and His ways. Daniel knew, we glean from his prayer and this constant reliance on Scripture, even when he's praying to God. Daniel knew that God's Word is the standard by which all human conduct must be guided. Not some cultural norm, not something trending socially, not something society constructs. This prayer proves to me that Daniel got it. He knew that God's the one tells us how to live because he's given us His laws by which we are to govern our decisions and our behavior. Not only this, but Daniel knew that praying in conformity with Scripture, honors and pleases God. It honors and pleases God. You wanna please God when you pray? Pray Scriptural prayers, pray in accordance with the Bible. No doubt about it, Daniel had that down, didn't he? Well, let's keep looking in the prayer. Last part of verse 12, he says, for Lord, under the whole heaven, such as never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. He was referring to what Nebuchadnezzar had done years earlier. And then he says, I get it, as it is written in the law of Moses. All this happened to us and look what he says, yet we've not made our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. Therefore, the Lord has kept the disaster in mind and has brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. There's so much to draw out of this part of his prayer. But the one thing I want you to think about in verse number 13, he says, Lord, you warned us you would do this, we persisted in our rejection, our idol worship, our despising of the prophets, our trampling on Your Holy Word. And yet, even after you judged us and brought us out here, most of the Jewish people living out here still are not seeking You and honoring You. And it's like, Daniel's praying, oh God, if this didn't do it, I don't know what will. Have you ever felt that way by the way? And I'm not talking about unsaved people, but have you ever felt that way about Christians that you know or people who say they're saved? And you see everything that's been happening in our world, not just this year, but in years leading up to this moment where we are today. And Christians are so casual, Christians are so flippant, Christians are so light hearted, Christians are so disinterested in God and prayer and the Bible and being faithful servants of God. Daniel is saying, oh God, if this didn't get the attention of your people, what in the world will? But he goes on into verse 15. He says, and now oh Lord, our God, Who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand. And look what he says, Daniel says, God, You made Yourself a name, You made Yourself a name. As it is this day, Lord, we have sinned, we have done wickedly. I like the way the New Living Translation puts it. Oh Lord, our God, you brought lasting honor to Your name by rescuing Your people from Egypt in a great display of power. Now, where in the world is he going with this? He's saying, God, I know my Bible. I wasn't there, but I've read what Your Word says in the book of Exodus. You brought Your people, our ancestors, You brought them out with a mighty hand. And when You did it, You proclaimed Your glorious name in all the earth, You are the God who answers the cries of Your children. You brought the Jewish people out. And when Daniel is saying this, he's saying, God, You made a name for Yourself. You brought honor and glory to Your name when you did this. Now why is he doing this? I'm gonna tell you why. Because he's getting ready to get the bolus he's gotten in this prayer. He's saying God, with Your people now living as exiles, scattered as captives, Your name is on the line. Your name oh God is on the line. That's pretty bold, isn't it? And why is God's name on the line? Because Daniel says in his prayer, people who don't know God are mocking Your people. The pagans are mocking the believers. Pagans are mocking us, verse 16. Oh Lord, according to all Your righteousness, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from your city, Jerusalem, turned away from Your holy mountain. Because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and, look at this, Your people are a reproach to all those around us. Do you know what that means? Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all the enemy nations. What they're set... Daniel is reminding God like God needs to be reminded. But this is the encouraging thing that God gives us the ability to be bold in His presence. Daniel says, oh God, You made a name by rescuing Your people from Egypt, but Your name is being reproached by unbelievers because it seems, so it seems oh God, You've abandoned Your people in exile. Where are You oh God while the pagans ridicule Your holy name because of the plight of Your chosen people? Well, let's wrap it up in verse 17. He says, now therefore our God, hear the prayer of your servant. He says, God, I'm your servant, hear my prayer, hear my supplications. And for the Lord's sake, did you see that? Not my sake, not the people's sake, but for Your own sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary. That's the temple that Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed, it's desolate. Oh my God, incline Your ear and hear my prayer. Open Your ears, open Your eyes rather and see our desolation and the city which is called by Your name, for we do not, look at this, we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds but because of Your great mercies. Oh Lord hear, oh Lord, please forgive. Oh Lord, listen and act. Do not delay for Your own sake my God for Your city and Your people are called by Your name. Did you see what Daniel prayed there in verse 18? He said, oh God, we don't deserve to have You answer our prayers based on our righteousness. Our prayers ought to be bouncing off those clouds in the sky. Not according to our righteousness do we make this prayer, but according to Your tender mercies do I plead with You. And he says, answer my prayer not for my sake or our sake, but for Your namesake because Lord, Your name is on the line. And he said, Lord, Your name is on Your house and it was destroyed and lies desolate. Now for almost this entire time of exile, Your house is in ruins. He says, Lord, Your name is on Your holy city and Your holy city is just a heap of rubble. He said, Lord, Your name is on us Your people and here we are abandoned by You in Babylon, now taken over by Persia and so Your name is on Your house is destroyed, Your name is on Your city, it's a heap of ruin. Your name is on Your people and we are the laughingstock of the world. Because they're all looking at those pitiful Jews saying, where is their God now? And Daniel says, please God, please God for Your namesake, let us go back home. Father, thank you for allowing us to walk through this powerful prayer. And I pray that Your Holy Spirit will impress upon us all the rich truth that is here and the impact this prayer should have on us in the day in which we live. And help us Lord, if we don't see anything else, help us to see that truth is Your Word, that sin is defined by Your Word, righteousness is defined by Your Word and our approach to You has already been set by what Your Word teaches. And as we look at our own country, we know that we deserve everything and more that is happening to us right now because we have trampled on Your Word. Please have mercy on us in Jesus name, amen
