Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

God knows before you utter a word, what you’re about to say!

God knows you, he know what you need.

He knows how many hairs are on your head!

We also know that God has a plan for history.

God is sovereign over this world.

He knows what he is doing, and he is doing it for the benefit of God’s people & His own glory.

So,

If God knows what I need, and he has a plan for our good that is in action, why pray?

Why pray to God?

He knows what I’m thinking.

He knows what we need.

No point in asking right?

Yes!

Yes, there is a point in asking.

As we see here, prayer dispatches angels!

Although God knows what we need, he knows what we will ask, yet, he will use our prayers as mechanisms to bring it about.

To put off prayer is like saying: “God will provide all I need, so I don’t need to go to work today.”

See how it misses the point?

Yes, God will provide you needs, but the mechanism that he uses for most of us is that we will got to work and earn a wage and use the funds to purchase what we need.

Prayer really works.

It is really important.

And it is a mechanism that God uses in your life to achieve His purposes.

We’re looking at Daniel 9 today as we make our way through this prophetic book.

Like most chapters, it’s too big to look at in fine detail, but because it is a complete unit, it’s not ideal to break it into smaller pieces.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!

As always, the invitation is open to discuss the Bible beyond what we cover here - we can chat after the service or you can come round for a coffee and we can get stuck into the text, maybe wheel out a few commentaries or even a lexicon if you’re feeling adventurous!

In Daniel we have been seeing time and time again how God is faithful to His people, despite the fact that things look dire.

They look like they’re done for - overpowered and blown to the wind.

Yet, God has plans for His people and rough circumstances can’t undermine those plans.

For God’s people in Daniel’s day, and for us today this is a great comfort.

We can get caught up in the issues that are right in front of our face, and we can feel helpless as we see events unfold that we have no power to control.

Yet Daniel consistently helps us to step back and see the bigger picture.

We just entrust ourselves to a faithful creator while doing good.

So lets look at four big points from this chapter.

And I will breeze through the first 3 fairly quickly so we can hang out in everybody’s favorite bit - the 70 Weeks!

1. Prayer from the Scriptures

What time are we?

In the 6th Century BC - during the exile of the Jews after the destruction of the temple.

Where are we?

In Babylon city most likely - modern day Iraq, just down the road from Baghdad

Darius, son of Ahasuerus/Xerxes is unknown to external records.

Quite possibly he is either a co-regent of Cyrus who was the leader of the Medo-Persian empire, or Darius is a title/name for Cyrus.

Either way, a lack of extra-biblical evidence should not cast doubt on the authenticity of the text, given how it has been demonstrably historically accurate.

The events of this chapter are in the first year after the Babylonian kingdom has fallen!

Something that is quite important to the story - lets look:

Daniel is reading the scriptures - the word of God that came through Jeremiah and was written down.

Very fresh Scriptures!

The last events described in Jeremiah had only taken place a few decades earlier - and yet those prophetic words were already written down and circulated.

Given Daniel’s position as a powerful, wealthy & educated man, it’s not surprising that he was able to have a copy for his own use.

But he is doing something incredibly important for God’s people - he’s listening to God!

He is taking great care to understand what God has said to his people.

Where do you go when you want to hear from God? It’s not popular in Christian circles to say this, but it is important you know - this is where you go to hear from God!

He has spoken!

Yes, you may have inclinations and dreams and inspiration that seems to come from the Lord, but how do you know it to be true, how do you know it is not your heart deceiving you, or worse, a demon dressed as an angel of light?

There are deceiving prophets and lying tongues, even in the church.

There are wolves among the sheep and tares in the wheat.

So how can I know what I think is God’s plan is the right way to go?

“How can a young man stay on the path of purity?

By living according to God’s word.”

Ps 119:9.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet,

a light on my path.”

Ps 119:105.

So Daniel is looking to what God had said through the prophet Jeremiah - what did it say?

It is the promise of judgment and mercy.

SO, God is punishing Israel for their disobedience, and using the Babylonians to do it.

But here is Daniel, in the first year after Babylon has fallen.

His hope is starting to rise!

The 70 year are over - Babylon is done.

What now?

What good news!!

There is an end in sight!

This man who left his homeland as a young fellow, maybe as old as Sam, has been away from his home all his life.

He has been away from the place where they gathered to worship God.

He has been away from the heartland of God’s people.

He longs for the restoration and For God’s name to be glorified, so he turns in prayer!

He turns to plead for his friands and family, and for himself, that God might hear and answer this prayer:

Daniel took this seriously.

He was not messing about with His prayer.

He knew what God had said, and he knew the state of God’s people, so he was praying with all his might!

So Daniel has shown us a great example of being invested in hearing from God, and then responding to God.

It is conversational - he speaks to us, we speak to Him.

It’s not as though we can’t bring new topics to the table in a conversation, but it’s worth remembering that what God has already spoken should be the primary focus of our conversation!

2. Prayer of Confession

God interacts with his people in what we call covenants.

They’re kind of like relational contracts, like a marriage.

“I’ll commit to you if you commit to me!”

Problem is that God’s people keep being unfaithful to God.

So he is justified in bringing down the hammer.

No one wants to enable an abusive spouse, and so one spouse is well within their rights to kick the other one out of the house when they’re being unfaithful.

Israel wanted the benefits of being in an exclusive relationship with God, but also wanted philander on the side with any passing god that caught their fancy.

Daniel well knew the failure of God’s people on this count, and so he lays it all out to God, acting once again as a mediator, to own up to the failures of Israel and acknowledge how God was in the right at every stage:

Daniel 9:4–6 (NIV)

I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong.

We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.

We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

If you were at one of the evening growth groups this week, this topic will be fresh on your mind.

The idea of confession.

Daniel does a master class in confession - outlining the ways in they had sinned and how God had remained faithful.