The Other Model Prayer | Dr Daniel Kong

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church. We hope this message

will light up your day. We're gonna go through the Book of Daniel chapter

nine. And for those of you who has journey with first or as part

of this family, you know that we've covered almost book by book, sorry,

covered to cover chapter by chapter all the way from Daniel one all the

way to Daniel eight. And today we're gonna cover Daniel nine. So one

chapter per month. Okay, So, and but before you even go there,

all right, I put up something on the screen second slide. And

of course you know this year we're going to this team of Heaven rules looking

at how God's sovereignty or Heaven in short, rules over not just up there,

but down here on earth as well. But sometimes when we know of

the plan or God's plan or Heaven's plan, we may take a back seat

or say, okay, maybe it doesn't involve me. But this is where

the question is. If God is sovereign, can we just sit back,

let go or let God do it all? Or do we also play a

role in this? Okay, so foot for thought before I even begin the

message. But of course, short answer to that question, I'll answer myself

right now, is Heaven rules. Yes, But it doesn't matter. It

doesn't mean that we do not do anything or we just sit still, okay,

because God moves through and responds to to to our prayers, and the

prayer has to come from a perspective of humility. And this Daniel chapter nine,

not not me, but the Daniel in that day talks about his prayer

and chapter nine is all about his prayer and it comes from a place of

humility. And then also there's some repentance in there in his prayer. It's

very heartfelt. It's a super of the longer prayers that's been recorded in the

Bible that is written by of course He himself. And of course by understanding

this, God's will or Heaven's plan is accomplished true the prayers of his people.

And this is definitely a godly man, right and we're gonna go through

this. But the question to ponder, additional question to ponder is do we

pray with that sort of passion? Do we? And it's something I've been

asking myself as well. Do we just go to God with some petitions to

pray for maybe things that needed to be addressed, or do we or do

we come with the kind of faith that Daniel has, right, or do

we do it as a routine? Sometimes even for us prayer there is a

routine. It's almost like a road kind of approach. Right when we community

called, do we do it that way? Or even with your spouse,

do we do it that way? Or your friend? Does it become so

monotonous, so normal, so and ordered, not so ordinary that we forget

that it is all about passion, you know, it's all about being wholehearted,

like what Daniel has done in the Bible over here, all right,

that fervent prayer and that humility that comes with it. So just some food

for thought because he has faced through some difficulties when he said that prayer.

Okay, and before I before we begin, let's pray, all right,

let's pray, Father, God, we gather here today. Uh. And

with humility, Father, we come into your presence, Lord, open up

our heart's Lord, let us have this opportunity lot to just delve into your

word. Uh, you know, speak to us, speak to our hearts.

And let us explore Father, the lessons from Daniel nine. Uh.

And and and let us have an open mind. And also uh, let

your spirit guide us today, Lord and Jesus need me pray amen now because

for the interests of those who has just joined us like today, Like I

said, I covet. We've covered, you know, chapter one all the

way to chapter eight. I thought I'll just play a short video. It's

supposed to be eight minutes long, but I run it at one point two

speeds, so maybe it's a bit faster than eight minutes. Okay, this

is how we go, all right, and now I'll come back in a

little while. They just summarize this Daniel chapter one all the way to where

we are. It is some good hit the Book of Daniel. The story

is set right after Babylon's first attack on Jerusalem, and they had plundered the

city in its temple and taken away of Israelites into exile. Among them were

four men from the royal family of David. Daniel who's later named Belta Shassar

and his three friends who you probably know by their Babylonian names, Shadrack,

Mishak, and a Beddinggo. This book tells of their struggles to maintain hope

in the land of their conquerors. The book's design seems pretty simple at first

chapters one through six contains stories about Daniel and his friends in Babylon, while

chapter seven through twelve contained the visions of Daniel about the future. But this

two part shape is made even more interesting by another design feature, and that's

the book's language. It begins in Hebrew, the language of the Israelites,

but chapters two through seven are written in Aramic, a cousin language to Hebrew

spoken widely among the ancient Empires. But then in chapters eight through twelve,

it goes back to Hebrew. This design shows how chapters two through seven are

a coherent section, but it also highlights the importance of chapters two and seven

for understanding the later chapters of the book. Let's just dive in. Chapter

one introduces the basic tension of the first half of the book. Daniel and

his friends. They're really wise and capable, and they're recruited to serve in

the Royal Palace of Babylon. But they're pressure to give up their Jewish identity

by living and eating like Babylonians and violating the Jewish food laws found in the

Torah. So they refuse and they choose faithfulness to the Torah, and it

puts them in danger, but God delivers them and they end up being elevated

by the King of Babylon. After this begins the arameic section, which you'll

see has this really cool symmetrical design. So at first, the King of

Babylon has a dream that it turns out only Daniel is able to interpret.

It's about a huge statue made of four types of metal, and it symbolizes

a sequence of kingdoms, and the head is Babylon. But then a huge

rock comes flying in and shatters the statue and it becomes this huge mountain.

Now, this dream is the first of many symbolic visions in the book,

and this one introduces the basic storyline of them all. Daniel says that the

statue represents a train of human kingdoms following from Babylon, and they will all

fill God's world with violence. But one day God's Kingdom will come and will

confront and humble the arrogant kingdoms of this world and fill the world with the

healing justice of God's reign and rule. After this, chapter three tells the

famous story of Daniel's three friends who refuse to bow down and worship a huge

idol statue which like the statue in chapter two, represents the king and his

imperial power. So the friends are persecuted. They're thrown into a fiery furnace,

but God delivers them from death and they're exalted by the King, who

now acknowledges their God as the true one. After this come a pair of

stories about two Babylonian kings, the father Nebuconezzer and then his son Belshazzar.

They're both filled with pride because of their imperial power, and so like in

chapter two, God warns them both through dreams and then visions, which,

also like chapter two, only Daniel can interpret. He says that both kings

are to humble themselves before God, and both kings ragon resist. So Nebukedezar

is stricken with madness. He becomes like a beast in the field, but

then he humbles himself before God and his humanity returns to him. He's restored

as king. This is in contrast with his son Belshazzar, who doesn't humble

himself before God, and he's assassinated that very night. Now, these two

stories draw this imagery from Genesis chapters one and two and Psalm eight, where

humans are depicted as the royal image of God. He's given them authority to

rule over the beasts of the field and the birds of the air on behalf

of God, who is the world's true king. But when human kingdoms forget

that, when they rebel and make themselves and their power into a God,

they become less than human, like violent beasts who will face God's justice,

which brings us to chapter six, the pair of chapter three, and this

time it's Daniel who's being persecuted because he refuses to pray and worship the king

as a God, and so, like the Friends, he's sentenced to death

and he's thrown into a lion's den, but God delivers him from the beasts,

and like the Friends, the King exalts Daniel and praises as God,

which brings us to chapter seven. It's the pair of chapter two and the

center of the book, where all its themes come together. Another dream,

but it's Daniels this time, and ironically he can't understand the dream until an

angelic messenger explains it to him. He sees a series of four beasts,

one like a lion, then like a bear, than one like a winged

leopard. Each of these symbolizing an arrogant kingdom. And last of all is

a super beast identified as a really evil empire, and it has lots of

horns, a common symbol for kings in the Old Testament, and there's one

specific horn who is an image of an arrogant king who exalts himself above God

and persecutes God's people. Now they are symbolized by a figure called the Son

of Man, who's an image for both God's covenant people but also for their

king from the line of David. But then all of a sudden, God,

who's called the Ancient of Days, comes and he sets up its throne.

He destroys the super beast, and he exalts the Son of Man on

the clouds, where he comes up to sit at God's right hand and share

in God's rule over the nations. We can look back now and see how

all of these stories in the first half fit together, the three stories of

faithfulness despite persecution. These are meant to offer hope to God's suffering people among

the nations, but they suffer because human kingdoms have rebelled against God and become

beasts. And so these visions encourage patience that God's people are to wait for

him to bring his kingdom and rule over our world and vindicate his suffering people.

But it raises the question about when God is going to do that,

and that's what these final three visions set out to explore. In chapter eight,

Daniel has another vision about the final two beasts of chapter seven, but

this time they're symbolized by a ram who were told as the image of the

empire of the Medes and Persians, and then by a goat who's an image

of ancient Greece. And out of the goat come a whole bunch of horns,

one of which symbolizes the evil king from chapter seven, and we're told

more about him that he will attack Jerusalem and exalt himself above God and defile

the temple with idols. However, in the end he will be destroyed by

God, who will exalt his people and his kingdom. Now by chapter nine,

Daniel is very puzzled, especially as to when all of this is going

to take place, and so he consults the scroll of the prophet Jeremiah,

where God said that Israel's exile would only last seventy years. So for Daniel,

the seventy years is almost up, and so he asked God to fulfill

his promise soon. But an angel comes and informs him that Israel's sin and

rebellion has continued, and so their time of exile and oppression will continue on

seven times longer than Jeremiah. In vision, Daniel is deeply disturbed by this,

and he has one final vision. We're shown the same sequence of kingdoms

Persia, then Greece and Alexander the Great, followed by lesser kings, all

leading up to this final king of the North, who will invade Jerusalem,

set up idols in the Temple, and exalt himself above God. But then

all of a sudden, this king comes to ruin. Now there's been endless

debate about what all of these visions refer to. Many see a clear connection

to the exploits of the Syrian king Antiochus in the one sixties PC he killed

many faithful Jews in Jerusalem and set up idols in the temple. Others think

it points forward to the Roman Empire's role in the execution of Jesus and the

destruction of Jerusalem in the Temple in eight seventy, and still others think it

will be fulfilled in future events that have yet to happen when Jesus will return.

Now, the problem is that the symbols and the numbers, they don't

quite match any of these views perfectly, but it opens up the possibility that

in a sense, they are all right. The Book of Daniel has been

designed to offer hope to all future generations of God's people. It did so

in the days of Antichus's empire, and it has ever since. This is

why Jesus could use imagery from Daniel to describe and confront the oppressive leaders he

confronted in Jerusalem. This is why John, the visionary who wrote the Revelation,

could adapt Daniel's visions and apply them to Rome of his day and also

all future oppressive empires. And so the point of Daniel is that all generations

of readers can find here a pattern and a promise. It's a pattern that

human beings and their kingdoms become violent beasts when they glorify their own power,

when they redefine right and wrong and don't acknowledge God as their true king.

But Daniel also holds out a promise that one day God will confront the beast.

He will rescue his world and his people by bringing his kingdom over all

nations, and so for every generation, this book speaks a message of hope

that should motivate faithfulness. And that's what the Book of Daniel is all about.

All right, Brillain could have done it better, because you know,

as I mentioned, this is a very long series. I think we spend

quite a lot of time in going a bit deeper as well. And I

couldn't talk that fast for sure. I think you read at one point five

SPEEDI inste at one point two. I believe that's why it's even quicker.

But it's okay. I think we got the idea. And of course today

we're going to be covering nine and this is on Daniel's prayer. But the

reason why I ran through all that in just eight minutes, it's so that

you get a context of where Daniel has gone through and what he has gone

through from a very early age of being a teenager all the way till about

now he's probably about eighty or ninety years old. Okay, So that that

is the history. And of course the Book of Daniel Hims itself is actually

written by the guy himself, so I think it's his own account. But

today even before going there chapters one to eight, right, if you look

at the context of it, right, it's mainly for the gentile nation or

basically not his people, talking about the different earthly kings that has done all

those things that the you know, the summary has shown you. But nine

and nine to twelve actually focuses on his own people or the people of God.

Okay, So there's a little bit of a shift. So just through

some everything in the plan for the gentiles and also the plan for them from

one to eight and nine, ten to twelve is actually on his own people.

The focus is on God's people. So this is where we're going to

pick up today from chapter nine. Hopefully everybody's okay, But what even before

you go there, we know this for all the chapters that we've gone through.

Daniel is a man of prayer in short, okay. He he does

everything true prayer, and he takes things on of course with courage, but

also with prayer more than courage. And he's we've known his tray to record

right his interpreted dreams, you know, even shared dreams that he didn't even

see, the King asking, you know, if you don't tell me my

dream right now, I'll kill you. In short, I mean, I

kind of remember my dream yesterday. Imagine interpreting somebody else's dream that he didn

even see. And this is Daniel. And of course he approached this true

prayer all the time. And the reason why he approached challenges and all that

true prayer first than anything else is because I think he understands this simple concept

that Heaven rules, God rules, as in, even though he served many

earthly kings, there is still the acknowledgement that, hey, the bigger king

up there from teenager all the way to about nineteen right now is still in

control. So he lifts up his eyes up and to Heaven rather than looking

at the problem itself. And this is how he's quote unquote heartwired. He's

always hardwhited to pray. And I've got this slide up there. Daniel is

really hardwired to pray all the time, even in terms of crisis. We've

seen it in the you know the other king right who made it illegal to

pray, remember that story, chapter six made it illegal to pray? What

do you do? He still prayed. In fact, he still continued his

routine of praying three times a day. Left the window open because that's his

routine. And he still pray. Not because he's praying just gets out of

trouble, of course, that's part of it. But that's part of his

routine. It's hardwired to pray, so it's part of his custom that he

needs to pray, all right, and this is of course king, the

king that signed the executive order. And then we know the story that he's

still alive today, which is good. So I'm trying to say here in

a very short summarize that day in, day out, regardless or whatever is

going on around Daniel, he prays. Okay, even when it's busy,

he prays. Can't say that about ourselves. Sometimes we get busy. First

thing that maybe God the window is maybe we don't pray as long, or

we don't pray at all, or we say we're gonna pray later, but

we don't because we fall asleep. Right, regardless of threats he prayed chapter

one to eight. You see all these threats, regardless of problems, challenges.

He was a man of prayer in short, and I think we've already

seen this consistently throughout the first eight chapters. Okay, so when Daniel chapter

nine kicks in, it's not too unusual that he talks about the actual prayer

that he's going through every Okay, so far, yep so, And to

give you a general breakdown, because we really cannot go to all the verses,

the first nineteen verses is really about his prayer, and sometimes it's called

the model intercessary prayer. That's why I call it the other model prayer,

because we know the Lord's prayers, their model prayer, so this is the

other one, and it includes this few contexts or concepts. All right.

There's always a praise portion just like the Lord's prayer. There is a confession

which will read about later on. There's an intercession, and then there's also

supplication okay, the four parts, which is again very similar to the Lord's

prayer. Okay, that's the first nineteen verses, okay, and then verses

twenty all the way to twenty seven. It focuses on Heaven's answer to Daniel's

prayer. So basically the response is so recorded in that particular uh, twenty

seven verses, so very cool, right, you get the final outcome straight

away. Many of us probably have prayed, and then sometimes you don't get

answer straight away. This one is all encompassed into one chapter. And let's

just go through this, okay, every Okay, so far, how do

you get the answer? Gabriel not this gaybril, the angel Gabriel, which

also appeared the last chapter. Right, he came into a vision uh and

and and and and uh and and showed him again what this answer is because

he was perplexed, right, he needed to know. So this is the

and I put up okay, good one to one to three to just start

off verst Okay, so this one, let's just read. Okay, in

the first year of there is son of Zixies the meet by then this is

the one that we read in the previous chapter. Okay, who was a

ruler of the kingdom. Now imagine this, right, they start off like

this, right is simply making almost like the making announcement. Okay, this

is the king or making haitlines. You know, King Charles stepped into his

position I think September of last year. It's like the similar hitlines would be

you know, new King crown or King Charles crown and God saved the king

equivalent or in this case various rules. Okay, this is what is being

published at the very start but you know this, Daniel, as he has

always practiced from a teen all the way. And that's sometimes when our teens

go through, you know, whatever their journey, right, I always believe

that there is something that has to happen in the younger years, not just

when they're much older. So we really had to believe in our young kids.

Right. Anyway, back to this young teens, all the way to

eighty, he still didn't put his eyes on the administration to the next tent.

He doesn't really care who is in control, which political party is in

control. He served many kings, he still set his eyes on God.

Why. Simple fact, I think he understood the heaven rules all right,

God is in control, So he fixed his eyes on the Most High God

and his kingdom. That is what mattered to him more than the reason you

know, the reason king that was in stock okay, and what was God

saying is probably more important to him than what was the world saying. Now,

how many of us are like that whenever a political party steps into power.

Honest, honestly, I'm not like that as well. I probably will

not pray the kind of prayer to ask God to tell me why or how

or you know, what's what's what's the interpretation of that? Right? But

he does that. Sometimes we look at the earthly news, social media.

I don't know, the newspapers of the the modern day or now there's nobody

news online. But he what did he do? Chapter two, sorry,

verse two, Rather in the first year of his reign. This is the

Darius reign. I Daniel understand from the scriptures, according to the word of

the Lord given to Jeremi the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem was last

seventy years. Okay, So again, when he didn't receive he he looked.

He didn't look at the newspaper. He looked at newspaper from heaven.

He went back to scriptures, not social media. And he got his perspective

from there. All right, he got his hope, he's got the direction.

In fact, he studied or he verified some of the information that's coming

through in the early sense by looking back at some of the records that was

left to him. Again, how many of ways actually go to the Bible

and do that straight away when something like that happens, I don't know.

I mean, it's full for thought, right, So he learned from this

reading or the study of scripture that the Babyllonian captivity and the dissolution of Jerusalem

was actually something that has been fetald It's been said before. He remembered in

scripture. That's why he went back and checked as well, right, because

it's a prophecy that is actually coming to is happening in front of him.

So he stirred his soul and he wanted to get a glimpse from God what

is happening, and that's the motivation of his prayer. What's next? Of

course, Verse three says, so I turned to the Lord, pleaded with

him in prayer and petition, in fasting in sackcloth, and also ashes.

So not just any prayer. It says here, I pleaded with him.

Now pleaded with him. Right. In the Hebrew word, the word pleaded

actually means to wrestle, So not just a verbal communication, not just a

call like how sometimes we casually call somebody and say, oh, you know,

what do you think? No, he pleaded you wrestle? Right,

There is not a dull dear God, why blah blah blah. It is

really and you see some of the some of the texts, so some of

the context they used to word oh my, oh, God, oh Lord,

and usually the word oh something something right is there's a lot of angst

in it, right, there's a lot of groaning, as they say,

in that prayer. Okay, and of course if you read the last part

there there's fast thing, and we know what fast thing is at all about

when we come to pray. The thing that struck me is the ashes part

ever thought about that? Sometimes you just read it true like that right,

ashes right actually is put on his hip, or rather it is a symbolism

of like guilt and dirtiness or uncleanness. Okay, this is the part right

that represents all that is lost. And that's why he covered himself with that

kind of suit. He wants to feel unclean because he's, I guess,

to an extent, trying to internalize, you know, the whole pain and

agony of what's happening. So, like I said, his prayer is not

just a normal dear God kind of prayer. It is really the full package

of really feeling it. The ans is there, and that's why sometimes I

mean, the reason why I'm pointing out all these things is because sometimes you

just read it just one glance. It's a very short four or five words,

and then we just don't even realize what's happening. Are okay so far?

So Daniel study, He studied the word. Right. Then he get

on his knees. He looked to God. And we've talked about this a

few times, you know, in the previous chapters. Right, he looked

to God first, eyes on the Lord, eyes on Heaven. Right.

And what that's looking to God actually means, right, is that we do

not let the distractions around us affect us. Right, not even the recent

promotion of the king. Not don't let it affect you, or sometimes called

distractions a right, don't let distract you. Let us study, Let our

study and meditation of God's word move us in prayer or motivate is to pray.

Many are times when we are multivated to pray. It's not because uh,

you know, God's word motivated to pray. We pray because we are

in need of something, perhaps, we need some direction perhaps, and then

we go to prayer or we are lost, we go to prayer, not

because we study, we meditate, and we all moved into prayer. This

is where Daniel motivation is. It's moved into prayer because of the study of

the scrolls. So the prayer here is very, very different. The prayer

here is very biblical. The prayer here is very grounded to the extent.

Okay, it's grounded by God's word before even begin. Okay, That's why

I call it the other model prayer and work. So far, I only

just started. I haven't gone through the details yet. Every Okay, all

right, all right, So I have some of those there. Yeah,

let it be. Let God's work move us in prayer. And that's why

he says, I turned to the Lord, I pleaded with him, I

wrestled with him. So all this means, right, the tension has gone

away from the surroundings. I just fixed my eyes. I have. You

know, the horses are right what already call those blinkers, right, Joe,

we're talking about this, right, blinkers and all that. Basically,

his eyes are fixed, just like how the horses they have these blinkers on

the side so that they don't get distracted by the surroundings, because we know

what will happened when they're distracted, right, they will actually go bonkers.

Right, So his eyes are fixed on him. And this is what I

will call effective prayer, because you take away all the distractions and you fix

your eyes on him, and definitely there'll be a more effective prayer. Just

like how sometimes when we go on dates, we say put it on the

phone. We don't get too distracted because otherwise are you talking to me or

you talking to somebody else? Effective effective prayer? All right, So turn

your attention away for other things and really seek God, setting aside any unecessary

distractions and really just focus on this. And that's for me sometimes the hardest

thing, right, even when I go to devotion, sometimes the phone vibrates

on the table and be like you have that feeling ever you know, doing

something. That's why somethime, let's say, just leave the phone in the

next room or whatever, right, because that could be a distraction. So

turn take away all distractions and just focus on him. Now, don't get

me wrong. Stuff around you especially sometimes good, but we should always make

sure that our eyes are really fixed on him and all other things. Okay,

now, now the other thing that I could quickly mention, you know,

fix the eyes on his word is important. But sometimes as we've started

with a question, right, do we just sit back and wait because reading

the it's one thing. Sometimes we read the Bible or these things are going

to happen. Do we just leave it as surface value or do we actually

go and pray? How does that revelation stuff? How does it affect us?

I mean I don't honestly. Sometimes sometimes I do, but sometimes I

don't. Most of the time I don't. But this is again, do

we just sit in the side lines? Do we just sit back and wait

for the promise to happen? Right? But he humbled himself and prayed.

He wasn't passive. So what I'm trying to say, Right, he saw

the prophecy and the promise, the seventy years thing. He ran to God

a seventy years Upready, what's happening right now? Is it happening right now?

He wanted to be active. What's going on? God? What's happening

right here? He wants to know? And again, yes, Heaven rules,

okay, but that doesn't mean that we sit around and let Heaven do

his thing. We need to be engaged, We need to be active.

Remember when I said earlier, God responds to prayers and that's why we pray.

So every time we come before service we pray for what reason? Does

God really their prayer to Jalan to sit ne extent. He wants to allow

us to partner with him, right, and that's why he allow us for

that. God really moves in response to our prayers. But not just any

prayer, A prayer that is desperate like what we said earlier, a prayer

with humility, and a prayer of repentance. I will talk about this true,

the actual prayer that is going through all right, so that His purpose

can be accomplished in as well as simple as that. So our prayers do

matter, right, don't ever think that somewhere else can pray. I do

need to pray. God's going to do his thing anyway. I don't need

to pray. Okay, So this is the wrong if you believe in that,

I think the enemy is just lying to you and you bought his lies.

In short, okay, And you know this term prayer warriors, people

that pray all the time. Why do you think they are driven to pray

the way they pray? What do you think? Just a question, general

question. They are not usually the famous people you know, or the one

in a lime like My mom was one of those prayer warriors, and I

am here today because of her prayers on every single day. As I was

growing up and I was sharing a little bit, I was a quite trouble

kid in MBS as well as quite a trouble kid. There's a school that

we used to go to, and I was one of those problematic kids.

But my mom didn't cease praying. Right, And believe me when I see

it, right, the prayer war are the one that actually accomplishes or help

accomplish his purpose here on earth. They are the backbone of the church to

the next ten or the Christians to the next tent, not just the pastor

not just the elders of the church, but really those that fervently praise every

single day, not just on prayer service on Tuesday once a fortnight, but

every single day. Okay, and Daniel is one of those. Okay,

but again I'm trying to encourage you. Let's be on board in Thisla.

Don't just leave it for just a handful of people to do it. I

can. Now let's move on to the model prayer every Okay, so far,

all right? Is this making sense or is this all just rambling on

my side? Let's move on right now. We'll find Daniel's prayer from chapter

sorry Versus four all the way to nineteen, and I will not have time

to go to everything about you know, go through certain bits of it.

But please go and read through it, because there's a lot to digest in

there. Okay. It is very thoughtful. It's also very carefully. It's

not a casual prayer. Just what I'm trying to say. It is not

a hurried prayer as well, right, not the one point five time speed

kind of a prayer. It's a very earnest prayer. So look to it,

and I'll just skip that prayer. I mean that I skip some of

the bits. But let's just look at start from verse four, and then

we will soak in some of the words. Uh in worse four. Okay,

he starts off in Worse four by saying, I prayed to the Lord

my God and confessed. Why we confess? Confess? What? Right?

Okay? He starts off, Lord the Great and Awesome God. Wow,

what a way to start. Man, butter got up a little bit,

you know, make sure he gets his attention. He got yeah, right,

and then when you move on, who keeps his covenant of love with

those who love him? And keep his commandment? So how does he begin

his prayer? True? What we do praise and worship? Right again,

similar to Lord's prayer. Right, it's God with focus, putting God where

he's supposed to be, reminding God that he's a god, you know,

keeping covenant, keeping God all right, writing of his character, okay,

talk about his greatness, his grace, his goodness. And that's not just

to make God feel good, don't get me wrong. It's to remind us

who God is so that we see things or women we pray things differently right

otherwise, right, you don't put the prerequisite there, right, you'll just

again humans are very normally, very sinfully. We will just do what we

want to do first, or say you want to say first. But if

you put God where he's supposed to be, we will see things true God

God's eyes in short, we will see the light to the next tent.

Okay. So Daniel's worship and his awareness, then that's why he prayed these

things, because why by putting God where he's supposed to be, he's aware

of the sin, not just his sin, the sin of his people.

And we will read about his sin of his people in there. And that's

why he started to have this heartfelt confession. Again, who talks about their

own problems before the prayer. It's not normal, right, But because he

puts God first, then he begins to see things true God's perspective, and

that's why he's praying the thing. You see, how sinful we are,

how needy we are of your mercy and your grace. And then he talks

about the things that he's sinned. Okay, now where's five. We have

sin and done wrong? Wow, literally admitted guilty. Right. We have

been wicked and rebelled. We have turned away away from your commandments and laws.

We have not listened to your servants and your prophets who spoke in your

name, to our kings, our princess, Princess princess, your princess,

and our ancestors, and to all people of the land. So throughout fifteen

he confesses, he confesses, and if you look at that right high some

words is we We are wicked, We have sinned, we rebel, we

turn away, we do not listen. We we now again remember the one

point five speed video, right, the first part is all about what others

have done, very naturally right. We will pray, hey, pray for

this other guy. He's so evil my bosses, those of those type prayers.

You know, it's not never about we have sin. We are,

we are in this, we deserve this to the next tent. That kind

of posture. And this is what Daniel did, all right. The posture

of confession is an inward looking posture. It's not focus on the enemy's sin.

It's another way to put it. He focuses on his and his people's

sin. And this is also very lengthy, because we all know we're all

sinners, right, very very lengthy. But not a single mention if you

look at it, Rick, if you're not a single mention of the sins

of the Babylonians. Amazing, right, Not a single mention of the means

and the Persians that we've read about in the last eight versus us last eight

chapters. Rather plenty of sins, don't get me wrong. But he choose

to focus on we have sin. And if you'll skip forward to verse twenty,

all right, he talks about confessing my sin and the sin of my

people is real, so definitely not mistaken. It's definitely talking about his himself

and his people. And this guy is a very godly guy, by the

way, just in case it's one of those cool pastors. But he's talking,

he's airing his dirty low just basically in this prayer. Amazing, right,

So he identify himself with sins of his God's people. He didn't make

any excuses. He didn't he didn't blame, he didn't defend. How many

of us sometimes against civil people are like me, I'll defend us. He

deserves to be you know, how can I be wronged? You know,

he humbly confessed humidities there we have sinned. Sometimes most of us are better

at making excuses for the things that we do rather than just saying, hey

I think I've sinned. Confess. But we're also very quick to point out

people's mistakes. Right, I went and looked and checked online. Okay for

this thing. Some excerpts about insurance company and the things that people put into

insurance. True story, what they put through? Are they miss they get

into accident, they put excuses why they had the accident. Just the humor,

you're okay? Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided

with a tree that I don't own. So you see claiming insurance. Yes,

but it's not my fault. It's probably trying to say it's the tree's

fault or basically, it's not my fault. Life's not familiar or wrong house.

But these are true truth, truly recorded things. You know, are

you a lot more about I'm not gonna go to everything. Uh. The

famous one, you know, the lamp post appeared in front of me kind

of a thing, is also in their true story there she wrote it down

in the West. Most of the time here, I don't know what we

pull up, but it doesn't matter. I pulled. This is the finances

I read. I pulled away from the side of road because I glance at

my mother in law and drove into an embankment. But anyway, again,

this is all meant to be humans just funny. But it's very natural for

us to always blame or look at other people's flaws or other things first before

we say it's actually my fault. Hopefully the insurance company will still pay me

even though it's my fault. It's always let's just blame someone else first and

hopefully things will be okay. And that sometimes how we approach God as well.

We hope that God will come in save the day or settle the repair

bills. But It's not my fault. God, it's his fault. But

hopefully you still help me with this. Okay, But you see, Daniel

takes the blame to the next time. He didn't blame. He confessed humbly

or in other words, he took ownership of the sin, not just his

own sin, but the sin of his people. Right, he took the

blame. That's the contrast. Okay, he went on further. As I

said, I cannot read everything. He ran further, talk about all the

things that they've gone through, that can lamities that they've gone through, the

disasters that the people experienced you read through all the additional verses. Is because

not because of the people that you know created those problems, but it's because

God is the one that did it. Wow. Let me just say because

of our sins, God has punishes. This is pretty much his perspective.

All Right, you bring disaster to us God, because we have been wicked,

we have rebelled, we have not listened, we have turned away,

we have sin. In other words, we deserve everything. We're in exile

now because we deserve everything. You are righteous, You are disciplining us,

and yet we still refuse to to to to follow you. We turned away

and we're going further and further away. And that's his prayer. So amazing,

right, his prayer. Can you feel the angst right now? I

don't know if I feel to prayer. I don't know how I will feel.

You know, I've probably be very broken and probably crying, you know,

even before I can start my petitions. But that's the character. But

he also does this because he understands the character of God. Of course,

we know when a character of God is that he's full of compassion, he's

very forgiving, he's for mercy, and he uses that as well. Okay,

right, when he comes to verse sixteen, he says, Lord,

in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and you're wrath

from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hell. So he bought it a

bit, you know, or rather he's using God's character and say, because

you are like this, you are worry forgiving, You're a merciful Yes we

deserve it, but still we hope and pray that you would have compassion on

us. So again, amazing, right. There is praise, then confession,

then only the petition comes in, and of course application will come in

the Lord's pray if you look at it and mett your nine same thing.

Praise, petition, provision, pardon, power, praise again at the end

when dignes the kingdom forever that praise at the end. But let's go back

to verse sixteen. Turn away the anger and a wrath. I'm gonna read

some points only seventeen. Hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. Okay,

for your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate century.

Open your eyes and see the desolation of the city. We do not make

requests of you because we are righteous, the means saying we are unrighteous,

but because of your mercy or in other words, your abandoned compassion. Lord,

listen, Lord, forgive. Lord, hear and act for your sake,

My God, do not delay because your city and your people bear your

name keeps pleading. Here is asking God, please act in alignment with your

character, which we understand, or we know very well. We humbly come

before you and appeal for mercy to come in, knowing we don't deserve it,

but we still want to pray for mercy. And again, it's not

about us, It's about your great name and your people. Here. That's

how He's coming. How many men and women pray like that? Easy to

read? But there aren't many, you know. I found myself and I

was reading this right like, well, man, are we even that desperate

to pray like this? And sometimes wonder why God doesn't answer in that sense?

Are we that desperate for God's people? This is God's people and a

missa your fellow people in fellow believers of Christ? Are you praying for their

sins as well? It's one way to put it and then come before God

and say you're amazing, You're gracious. Your promise will still be kept.

That kind of a prayer. It can only happen if he understands really God's

character and God's ways and his mercy. No, you're seeing his mercy is

a newer in morning, right, It's a different kind of perspective, and

that we say this prayer, okay, Erica, is so far too deep.

Actually it's meant to be a very basic, basic sermon on prayer.

But you know, sometimes I get carried away. Anyway, Let's move on.

In verses twenty, all right or twenty, it says here while I

was speaking and praying, confessing my sins and the people sorry, the scene

of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his

holy hell. Now we got to skip to twenty one. While I was

still in prayer, Gabriel, the man or actually the angela Gabriel, the

angel I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in the swift

light about the time of the evening sacrifice. In some of the verses talks

about him being exhausted praying as well. But this is this particular version and

I really doesn't come for that. But you know, Gabriel came. Remember

Gabriel, the one that the previous story about the ram and also the goat,

and Gabriel came and interpret the vision or the dream. Gabriel is back

again. So not basically a familiar face, all right. They're like,

oh, who's this guy? You know, it's actually gave Bro. He

came to answer while he was praying. The mister answer came while he was

praying. You know, talk about efficiency, man. I kind of replied

emails that quickly. To be frank, Usually I tell everybody expect twenty four

hour reply within twenty four hours. That is. Sometimes I see the thing

like I will reply this is instant, you know, as he was praying,

you know, the response is there amazing? Right? Okay? He

instructed me and said, Daniel, I have I now come to give you

insight and understanding. So basically trying to review what that scriptures mean, you

know, and of course we see it saw a little bit in the video

that there was going to be prolonged challenges, not just seventy years. Even

though it's there, it's going to be prolonged. Okay. Now twenty three,

as soon as you began praying, a word went out which I have

come to tell you for you are highly esteem. I highlighted the word highly

esteem. Over there, did I did? Okay? For you a highly

esteem. Other transition used the word highly beloved. Some transition used the word

very precious. Some are transition used the word highly treasured. Okay, highly

esteem. I know that English words, but you know there's no one word

to fit what was the original text. Okay, but let's consider this if

you look at some variations, right, you are treasured by God is another

way to put it. Okay, Now, if you go to Deuteronomy,

I don't think have tuarmy up there all right? Uterineary fourteen right down.

You can look it up later. The Lord has chosen to be you,

to be a people for his treasured possession. In verse two, So this

thing about treasure comes again. So the people of God are treasured by God.

He loves them. And what does he mean by he loves them his

treasure? Right? He loves them. Therefore, that's why he answers them.

And this is exactly what's happened here. Basically, he's giving you an

answer because you are highly esteem or Daniel in this case is highly esteem.

He's treasured, and that's why he choose to answer the prayer. Okay,

so Gabriel said, therefore, consider the word and understand understand the vision twenty

four seventy seven sevens, sorry, seventy sevens, and some Bible scholar things

is seventy seven is seventy multiplied seven. That's why the four ninety number came

out in the video. Just now, Okay, seventy sevens are decreed for

your people, the Jews and your holy city, which is Jerusalem. Now

Jerusalem is his original place. He's not in Jerusalem. That's where he came

out of exiled from. And this is hundreds of kilometers away from where he

is actually located geographically right now, okay, And Jerusalem is in ruins.

Okay, So your holy city to finish, come toa holicity, to finish

the transgression, to put an end to sin, to a tone for wakness,

wickedness, and to bring everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy,

and to annoying the most holy place. So what does this actually mean

is that you think it's going to prolong a bit longer, to be exact,

four hundred and ninety years. And this differs from the period or his

timeline that he got earlier. How many sometimes when you pray, he God,

do you tell me one year? How come now? Two years?

How come now? In this case seven times seven years later? Right?

Yeah, So this is exactly what's happened. Timeline has changed, Okay,

seventeen weeks are decreed to bring the rebellent to end. But the good news

is, don't focus on the time, focus on the heart that there is

an end. Okay. Well, of course I mentioned earlier God answers as

he was praying fantastic uh and and and and I lost my thought here.

So those black moments you'll come back to me in about Okay, now I

ah, okay, So let's let's look at what what what Dannia has been

praying. Okay, you say, God hear me, forget my sins.

That's why I say, right. Uh So what does God say before he

finished praying? Right, he said, I've heard your prayers. Uh.

And over this period of time, the rebellion will end sooner little end in

short, and he talks about the what the end looks like, the atonement.

Uh So, the tone attone, the iniquity, uh, the stop

stopping on all the sins. And that's the answer to Daniel's prayer to to

to with Daniels player correct at the particular point in time. And then he

ends by saying to bring in everlasting righteousness. Now that is a very big

thing to say. You know. That means to say no other sin will

exists after that. Now, if you look at this very carefully, right,

this is not talking about something that is within Daniel's lifetime. This is

all those what I call very long term eternity kind of prophecy that's being fulfilled.

Essentially, it means that the end of the world kind of a prophecy.

Okay, but it will end, it will seal up that vision and

the prophecy. He's not just gonna put away sin. He's gonna make the

whole whole world a better place. He Michael Jackson anyway where there is no

sin anymore. Okay, And as we read in the last verse, to

annoying the most holy place, because that is what God's intention is now.

Of course, if you read the rest of the chapter, which I may

not go through, this is twenty five to twenty seven, it talks a

lot of the details, and this is the part where sometimes it gets a

bit over a hits. It's a bit like the revelation kind of stuff.

Okay. It isn't very long, but it's very complex. And sometimes I

also pray on God, why don't you send a gay Briel they can't talk

to me later ah, and helped me interpret this because it's very complex.

You know. As I mentioned to you, there is a short term part

which is shed in this particular few verses. And the short term isn't even

tomorrow. It's probably at the end of his life or maybe even beyond his

life, and it covers things like a couple hundred years away, including the

coming of Christ. If you read about it all right, that's the prophecy,

okay, But it's very interesting because there's so much detail in there,

so precise in terms of even the timeline okay, talks about God coming to

save the earth, to save the world other and also dying, and then

there's a timeline to it. But the eternal part is more the eternal plan

right when everything comes to an end, but that is God's ultimate final plan

where sin is no longer there, when there's ever lasting righteousness in twenty four

that it's just mentioned. Okay. Now let's read through a little bit of

twenty five, okay, so that we get some context. No, understand

this for the time the word goes out to restore and to rebut Jerusalem until

then one another one is Jesus, just in case you don't know who this

anointer one is. Sometimes some other versions talk about the Messiah also Jesus if

you don't know who that is. And basically the anoint one, will we

be put to death and will have nothing the people of the ruler who will

come, will we will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Of course,

right now we look at it, it's very easy for us to visualize this

because the Messiah Jesus came and died for us. Back then, when Daniel

was receiving this from Gabriel, He's like, what on earth is this guy

talking about? Is in the prophecy, but is it really gonna happen?

Right? And then the end will come like a flood. The war will

continue until the end the dissolution have been decreed, is for total right.

He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven. This talks about the

first block of seven years. Okay, in the middle seven the mister mid

Rachel he was, and the sacrifice and the offering and the temple. He

will set up an abomination that causes dissolution until the end that the decree is

poured out on his I said a lot of things there. I'm just going

to give you the hitlines nine to one is coming. The Messiah is coming.

You'll put to He'll be put to death. And that's if you don't

know what that is, it's a reference to the crucifixion of Chrysler. Okay,

that we all know. Okay, that's that in itself is also an

atonement because ultimate lemma, that's sacrifice right for the forgiveness of our sins.

And that's why we you know, we're gathered here today understanding this concept.

In Verse twenty six talks about evil ruler or evil people, right, that

will destroy the Holy City Jerusalem, the temple. This all the short term

stuff. The long term stuff is, like I said, the end time

stuff. Okay, So don't be surprised that it will happen because all being

foretold right, natural disasters, wars, things that are happening on earth,

hell, Can things like this happen in today's time? Somethmess? We say

things like that, right, but it's all there. Why are we still

going to it's all there? But we see in the passage, like I

said, the silver lining is that there is exact timing. God is in

control. Okay. No matter what happens to God's people, he never for

sex his own and his a promise here those who belong to him will be

saved or will be redeemed. Okay. I've also highlighted some words can go

one slid before. I think four times the word end is is mentioned.

The end, the end or like a storybook, the end, the end

is there. It's reminding us that there will be an end. That means

it will not be pro like eternal eternal. There will be an end before

eternal happens. Okay, So there will be suffering. Unfortunately, guys,

there will be suffering until the end of times. That's been decreed by God.

Okay, So don't be surprised, but notice that we are okay,

because God will restore. God will destroy the wicked, as is mentioned over

here. Okay, the time will come when all will end and God will

destroy all those that are evil because Heaven rules. Okay. And like I

said, it's reminded us several times. So in short, like I said,

don't enny off a dooman gloom, don't be disheartened. It's the summary

here. Yes, we go through difficulties cling onto that promise that there will

be an end, His righteous will prevail, Heaven will still rule. Okay,

all things that we made new again Jesus is just a small glimpse of

what it will look like internity will look like. Okay. It's a promise,

right. He is the answer right to the deepest, longest, the

greatest crisis that we've ever gone through, and also the earnest prayer that sometimes

we pray. We look to Jesus as we end with this, you know,

in Jesus name this power in that name. Okay, So I've come

to an end right, and it's behavior and not supposed to be so heavy,

but I've started to come to the end. So when we pray right,

let your kingdom come. Oh, this is exactly that focus on God,

focus on some of the things that it's not right with us. Talk

about petitions, but petitions are not a very like a very personal driven type

of petitions. Is really that you will be done kind of a prayer,

all right, and then it's a fact or guarantee that the prayers will be

answered. So how do we apply this? As they say last time in

the school, what is bok gone? Of course, there's many applications to

this, and one thing I have to quickly say, I don't look at

the non believers. Was a look at the company believers first, right,

just like how don't look at enemies first. Let's pray for our people.

Let's look at how we've messed up. And we all know we're all messed

up. I messed up as well, Super messed up. And we time

and time again, we've always sinned, and sin right, and this example

here shows that the disobedience has caused them to continue to have prolonged suffering.

But the important thing is that God has never forgotten them, and God has

plans for them, plans to prosper them. Right, but we need to

at least recognize it and confess. Okay, Church, you know this right,

no matter how many times we've sinned, right, there's always a promise

of mercy. That's what you're right earlier as grace and forgiveness in there.

But you need to be humble about titler. This is the next thing you

need to confess your Since so some people ask this question of how far can

you sin before God can no longer forgive you? No one really knows his

answering, by the way, because God has always forgiven most of the time.

Because no one has reconne that fi it. Maybe certain characters historical characteristics

think that you know, maybe don't know fit this bill, but in general,

no one has regne that fire. Because our God is a loving God,

God is compassionate God. We hope you've been blessed by this message.

For more information on our church, please visit as Church Do RG. We

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to be a good week. I hit for you. God bless