Sermon notes from Sunday 12 January 2014
Daniel 9 verses 1 – 19
Some important values of
prayer. Prayer is the very breath we
breathe. Whenever we think of how you
were saved by God’s grace when we get alone with God. When you bow your knees in that attitude of
prayer you are getting into the presence of the thrice holy God. He paved the way for us to come to him
through prayer, through the death of his son, to make us his child. It took his blood to be shed that we might be
adopted into the family of God. “The
wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.” (Romans 6 verse 23) Prayer is n Not just a religious exercise to
make us feel good. The prayer meeting is
not something that we can opt out of. It
is a time when we come together in to the presence of almighty God. Daniel was praying for something special, for
the intervention from God in the life of the nation of Israel. That is what we need today. The intervention from God. Men and women are going fast into a
Christless hell for all eternity. We
need God to come but he doesn’t come to the unsaved in that way. He comes to us as children of God. There is a geat responsibility on us
today. Daniel prayed for God to
intervene in his nation. We need that
same intervention spiritually speaking.
“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow
ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon
you.” (Hosea 10 verse 12) Are you
prepared to do that?
Daniel tells us something of the sacredness of prayer. Prayer is instituted by God, the means by
which we come and lift our voices to God.
To pray to God, speak to God in fellowship with God. Verse 2.
Prayer for Daniel was an exercise based on the word of God. The sacredness of the scriptures brought
Daniel to that place of prayer, showed him his great responsibility and
reliance on God. He was studying the
book of Jeremiah. Perhaps God had
brought that book alive to him. It is
always good to study a book of the Bible.
As we do that God leads us in a very definite pattern, seeing what God
has to teach us. It is a great exercise
as you pray to have the word of God before you as it turns your heart and mind
to God. As you read through some
difficult portion of scripture it means the Lord can shed light on the portion
you are reading. See Daniel here, a
mighty man of God, a prophet taken away from his home town as a boy, kidnapped
as Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem, took him away to Babylon, he was fed the
kings meat but Daniel wouldn’t touch it because he realised he would be
polluted in his heart. Daniel had his
heart open to the things of God. It is
good to take a stand, to let nothing come into our hearts and minds that
desecrate the things of God. Daniel in
the land of Babylon was there for good number of years. God directs him to the book of Jeremiah and
his eyes light on chapter 29. As he read
his own heart lit up. He realised God
was about to do something. It took
Daniel to get to his knees to pray about it.
The God of heaven was now interested in the people carried away from the
land of Judah. God hadn’t forgotten
about them. The devil will try to trick
us up to believe God is not interested in our families, neighbours and friends. He has an interest in them. That is what Daniel was doing here. He was in the word and studying the word. He could see another explanation. Jeremiah 29 verse 10. God was writing to the elders with a special
word. “After 70 years I will return you to Jerusalem.” Daniel realised the time was coming to a
close. He prayed that God would come and
remember his word. It is wonderful to
know God would remind us of his word. He
will answer prayer as he promised. He
knew 70 years were nearly accomplished.
God would reach down into Babylon and bring his people out. Nothing is impossible with God. Daniel was careful as he read through
scripture. He warned them about false
prophets. Verses 21 and 22. Our responsibility. 2 Chronicles 7 verse 14 “if my people which
are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their
sin.”
The sacrifice of prayer – verse 3.
He set his face. Hebrews 4 “let
us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace whereby we might find help in
our time of need.” Chapter 8 tells of a
vision Daniel had for God. Notice the
effects of that vision. Verse 27 “I
fainted and was sick certain days”. It
was a vision about the future end times.
God was showing to him something that would happen in the future. Daniel said “afterwards I rose up and did the
king’s business.” We don’t know the
space of time between that vision and this prayer in chapter 9. He has to set aside some time to prayer. He set his face to pray. He sacrificed time. It is not always easy to set that time
aside. A sacrifice to make time. The disciples as they pondered on the importance
of every day things Jesus said there was a more important task for the follower
of Christ, more important than things to wear and eat. The Lord said “seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” If these other things get into your heart the
cares of this world would hold you up. 1
Timothy 2 verse 1 “I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers,
intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men.” Organise your life around prayer. There is nothing more important than getting
before the God of heaven and praying. If
we don’t pray we will not live long spiritually speaking. The first thing to go in a child of God’s
life is his communication with God. We
need to be careful. Paul said “night and
day I pray for you.” Jesus went out in
to the hills to spend a night in prayer for God’s help. Acts 6 verse 4 “we will give ourselves
continually to pray.” If we want to see
blessing in our families we need to come in to the place of prayer.
The seriousness of prayer.
He set his face to seek the Lord.
Notice how he does it. Verse
4. “With fasting and sackcloth and
ashes.” It comes seriously. The seriousness of who he is, what he has
done, what he can do. Serious about
sin. Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2 God was prevented
from doing mighty work because of the sin in the lives of God’s people. We need to be serious in our sin and confess
our sins as we come before God.
The steadfastness of prayer – Daniel would stay until God answered
prayer.
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