David Macdonald - September 2, 2018

Morning everyone. Sorry I thought there was going to be another song so I'm distracted. I know. There we go.

The sketchy clicker. I learned something yesterday, I read in the Babylon Bee, that if anything goes wrong, you always blame the guys in the sound booth. They responded, I think Matt responded with a heart, so he loved it. There we go.

It's good to have you here this morning. It's still summer. September is mostly still summer, so you know what? September is actually probably one of my favorite months because the weather is sleepable and it's just a, it's more comfortable.

So let's take a minute and we'll look to the Lord in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us here this morning. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. This time we've had the sing His praises and earlier this morning to remember Him.

And I just pray, Lord, that you would help us as we look into this important passage of scripture to examine our own lives. And if we need to change in any way to become more like Him, that we would do so. We also would ask, Lord, that you would speak to the children downstairs to their teacher. They may learn the word of God and that it may have fruit in their lives, in salvation or in growth.

And I pray for any who may be here this morning, if there's anybody who has never come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, that through just a simple message, and as we look at this, that they may put their trust in Him. I pray for the outreach today in Digby. I pray as these men go on the streets in Digby and seek to spread the gospel with these bikers that you would help them. You give them safety and you would give them utterance so they may speak the word of God.

I pray for Janice that she has been in, that you would protect her and that her supplies and luggage will arrive soon. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Turn to your Bibles, please, to Daniel, chapter 9. Daniel, chapter 9, we're going to do this in a couple of messages actually.

And I'll do them both this morning. I'm just kidding. Nobody laughed. Daniel, chapter 9.

Now Daniel, chapter 9, we're going to be coming into a new little section, actually. This, most of the book of Daniel, to this point, is in the language of Aramaic, and this part is in Hebrew. So it's one of the greatest prophecies concerning times, purposes, the coming, and the death of the Messiah are found in Daniel, chapter 9. A gentleman named Edward Denny, I don't know who he is, but I got this great quote this week, Edward Denny calls Daniel, chapter 9, the backbone of prophecy.

There are three parts to Daniel, chapter 9. Verses 1 to 3 are the preparation, Daniel preparing for what's coming ahead. The second part is Daniel's prayer. And that is verses 3 to 19.

I will spend the time today on those first two. Oh, I know. They didn't put a red dot on here, so I wouldn't get it mixed up. But there we go.

I'm not using the pushing down for up. So we'll spend the time today on preparation and prayer. And the next time, we'll look at the prophecy. It talks about, in the prophecy, it talks about the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, the nation, and really there's no prophecy anywhere in scripture that equals what you find in Daniel, chapter 9.

I'm actually looking forward to when we get to do that part. So I'm going to jump right in here. Run away again. I'll turn it this way, see if that helps.

And Matt gave me the old one, which I said, that works rock solid. There we go. Now we're into the preparation. Let's read chapter 9 verses 1 to 3.

In the first year of Darius, son of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books of the number of the years, specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer, supplication, fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. So I don't have time ready to go into all the history and all of the things about who Darius is and so on.

There's a lot of great information on that. But Daniel, at this point in time, is in his late 70s. Daniel, as you remember, was taken as a captive out of Jerusalem and he was brought to Babylon as a teenager. So now, 67 years have passed.

So Daniel has been there for 67 years and he's a businessman in Babylon. He's working for the king. He's been working and serving under many kings. And so this day, Daniel is sitting down and he's reading the scripture.

Specifically, he's reading the book of Jeremiah. He has the scrolls. Now, I don't know how Daniel ever got the scrolls because they were taken captive. Their temple was destroyed, all of this stuff.

Everything was stolen from Israel. And I'm looking at it and thinking, maybe because of Daniel's position, he was given possession of the scrolls. Maybe he was able to ask for them because he had a more senior position. He was in the government.

Anyway, he has the scrolls and he's reading probably specifically 25 to 29. He's doing his devotions. He's sitting there and reading the scriptures. And then he comes and says, he comes to the understanding, the end of this is nearing.

There's about three more years to go. He's moved by the fact that time is short. Our time here in Babylon is now short. It's running out.

We've got three years. And he's thinking, probably reflecting back on what has happened. And so it moves him, it says, then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplication with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I think what Daniel's thinking here, and I don't know.

I mean, how can I say what Daniel's thinking, but I'm going to take a guess. I think he's reading this and he's realizing, you know what? We're going back there soon. And I don't know if we've changed any from the time we left.

I don't know if we're prepared to go back to Holy Jerusalem. I don't know if we're prepared to go back to our own land. We really need to pray about this, because there's an awful lot of stuff that has happened to let us to where we are in captivity. And I'm not so sure we fixed all that with God.

Because when you read the nature of the prayer, you're going to look at it and think, he is really pointing his heart out about what has happened in the past. And I think Daniel's looking at it saying, what's the difference? If we are here in captivity in Babylon, again, these are my own words. These are not the angels' words, but I'm trying to put myself at that table reading the scroll.

What's the difference if we go back if we're just the same old people? If we haven't changed, if we haven't learned anything from this, what's the difference? How's that going to help us? So now here's the prayer.

Now I put it up here, hoping you have your own Bible, because that's the best font I can get to fill the whole page. And I left my Bible down by my seat. Okay. I'll stand here and read it.

That's okay. That's okay. First floor. So I'm not standing in front of it, so you can't see it.

I'm going to do this right here. Thanks. And I pray to the Lord, my God, make confession and say, O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and mercy to those who love him and with those who keep his commandments. We have sinned and committed iniquity.

We have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heed it your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes and our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us, shame of face, as it is this day, to men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel. Those near and those far off in all the countries which you have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you.

O Lord, to us, be long, shame of face, to our kings or princes or fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord, our God, be long, mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us, his servants at the prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed your law and departed, so as not to obey your voice.

Therefore, the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us. Because we have sinned against him against God, that is, and has confirmed his words, which he spoke to us and spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing upon us this great disaster. For under the whole of heaven, such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. It is as written in the law of Moses, 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, understand your truth.

Therefore, the Lord has kept the disaster in mind and 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. And now, O Lord, our God, who brought us out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made yourself a name, as it is this day, we have sinned, and we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to your righteousness, I pray, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city, Jerusalem, your holy mountain, because of our sins, for the iniquities of our fathers.

Jerusalem and your people are approached through those around us. Now, therefore, our God, hear the prayer of your servant and his supplications, for the Lord's sake, cause your face to shine on your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations in the city, which is called by your name, for we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies.

O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act. Do not delay for your own sake, my God, and for your city and your people who are called by your name.

It's actually hard to read on a big white screen like that. But here's this prayer. Daniel is known as a man of prayer. If you look back in the life of Daniel, you'll see that he prayed several times when he prayed.

When the fiery furnace was coming about, it wasn't Daniel wasn't putting in, but his friends were. But that was a time when he rallied him together to pray. When King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, he says, you know what, if you don't tell me what the dream is, tell me what the dream is about, I'm going to kill everybody. And what does Daniel do?

He goes into prayer. And then we all know the story of the lion's den. The lion's den is prayer is what got him thrown into the lion's den. Prayer can be a controversial thing to get involved in.

I'm going to speak about prayer today, about us and prayer. You know, schools or government, if you, I mean, prayer is removed from schools now, virtually. I was at a graduation where they did an invocation at the first of the, at the open, they had somebody come in and do an invocation. I don't know what you were invoking and who you were asking to invoke upon you, but it was an invocation.

There was nothing about the name of the Lord Jesus. It's just not going to happen in public. It's controversial. If you were to attend some public events, say there's something in Dartmouth, and I said, yeah, okay, I'll come and say a few words and I'll open in prayer.

I would probably be asked to, can you put that prayer into us so we can have a look at it and scan it before you do it? I mean, that's happened in places like England and in the US. But if it's a public prayer, they want to scan it. Make sure, wait a second, there's one word, one name we don't want to see in here.

And I remember the fuhrer, this is not with the current US president if he's still in there today, I don't know. But the previous one, I remember Franklin Graham, I think it was, I think it might have been even Bush. He was asked to pray and he prayed in the strong name of Jesus. And there was a fuhrer.

Why would he do that? There's other people other than Christians here. Well, you know, why don't you want the prayer to be effective? You might want to pray in the name of Jesus.

And if you're a Christian, that's who you're going to pray to. So it can bring about persecution. And see, Daniel faced nothing different from that. In fact, Daniel, he prayed and he ended up being thrown in the lion's den.

At 80 years old, an old man in the lion's den. Because he prayed. Satan hates prayer. And there's a couple of reasons for it.

One, it's fellas demise. We come together and we pray, Satan's in trouble because we're calling on God to act, to work, to do. It's powerful. And you know, the thing is, it doesn't matter whether there's 30 people up to the prayer meeting or three people at the prayer meeting.

It's a powerful thing. I'm thankful we're actually growing in our prayer meeting on Thursday night. Come and see. Just come and check it out.

Just see if you think it's growing from the last time you were here. But it is. We're getting together. And we don't do anything more than come together for one thing to pray.

That's it. We don't come to be taught. We don't come to be anything else. We come to encourage one another and to pray for our needs.

You know, the problem for a lot of us, and I put myself in this as well, that sometimes we, when it comes time for prayer, we wait until the bombs are falling. I can't get out of this one. I need to go to God. I'm in crisis mode.

I think I should pray now. You know, you probably should have prayed before that because the problem is once the bombs are falling, they're already on their way. And there's going to be something blow up. Not to say that God's not going to deliver you from that, but sometimes you just left it so long and you try to handle it by yourself.

And then all of a sudden in desperation, it's too little too late. We need to be praying all the time. We need to be praying. I like how Daniel's praying in preparation before they go back.

He's not saying, oh Lord, we've gone back to Jerusalem. I can't believe it. We're no different than when we got here. He prayed before they went back.

He prayed in preparation. Are you praying in preparation for what you're going to face? Are you praying in preparation for going back to work on Tuesday? Are you praying in preparation for your child that's not yet born?

Are you praying in preparation for your children who are small that are going to grow up? You know, when they're 16 and you start to pray for them, they're probably so deep into the woods by then that I'll tell you what, you got to wear your knees out, man, trying to get them back. Pray for them before they're even born. Pray for them while they're young.

Pray with them. Teach them to pray. There's a little frog that's what I put in the corner. It's called the Madagascar tomato frog.

This is the whole too little too late thing. The Madagascar tomato frog is very interesting. It oozes out this kind of white poison. So when its enemy comes and munch is down on it in its mouth, then all of a sudden it's a little trouble.

And it squirts out this white waxy gooey poison stuff. It blinds the predator and it makes his mouth taste awful. And then he spits it out. Or she spits it out.

Whatever. The predator spits it out. The problem is, it's too little too late. That little frog has been damaged by the first crunch.

And then he's oozed out his poison. And now the poor frog is just off left to die somewhere in the present, but not in the jaws of a predator. Because he's been damaged. His bones are broken.

Sometimes we approach prayer like that. Okay, I got to pray right now, but you don't want all ready to bomb and fall in all over you. And you're in big trouble. And it's very difficult to get out of it.

Pray ahead of time. I really think that that's what Daniel was doing here. You know, Jesus taught us kind of a model prayer. How to pray?

It's often called the Lord's Prayer. I don't like to call it that, but I might go to that because everybody calls it that. And I remember we used to say every single day in school for years and years and years. So when people say, ah, prayer is not in school anymore, you don't want that kind of prayer in school.

Just saying the same words over and over and over again. They're not going anywhere in the blackboard. They really aren't. If you say our father would have a hell of a gun and you say it over and over again every day in school.

And you have no clue you're just saying it because it's something you do here. I mean, they've taken it out of the schools. I do remember a teacher though. I had in grade three.

Her name was Mrs. Mick Ficker. Why do I remember her because she used to tell my aunt that I was her favorite student? And you know, in 13 years of school, she's the only one that ever said that I was her favorite student.

So I love that lady. But I remember this lady would start her classes off. She was an old lady. Boy, if you looked at her, you'd say, you'd probably look at her picture and say, she had to be probably the grumpiest teacher you ever had, the groutiest one.

Some days. But she just looked at that demeanor about her. She had the little eyebrow going and all that stuff. So she would be up in front of the class.

The first thing she would do, she would open up her Bible and she would read something. I don't remember anything she read. I just don't remember. I just remember as a kid, I have a teacher that opens up a Bible every single morning and reads something really quick.

And then she would fold her hands and ask the students to bow their heads. And we would say our father because she was made to say our father. And then she would pray. She would pray for the class.

I remember a little guy named Michael that had somebody in his family died. I don't remember. I remember praying for Michael. He sat right across the aisle from me.

I remember looking at him. He's crying. And that's prayer in school. Repeating our father over and over again every day with just, again, for nothing.

It's not prayer in school. But this teacher praying over the class praying for us was an amazing thing. All right. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, he says, Pray them this way.

Our father who was in heaven, how would be your name? Your kingdom come, here will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.

Amen. The reason I don't call the Lord's prayer is he's saying, forgive us our debts. Jesus said no debts. He had no sins.

He had no trespasses. So he's teaching us how we should pray to ask for forgiveness for our sins. This is a model prayer to the disciples as to how they pray. Now, most of the elements of this prayer are also found in the prayer that Daniel prayed.

I guess I meant to do that. So Daniel's prayer is very similar to that model prayer. Charles Scrudgeon said, prayer is the rope that you pulled down below so that the great bell rings up above in the ears of God. Daniel's prayer has four strands.

I have four points this morning and I may board some time with the song. So that's what I'm going to say. So there are four points. One I'm going to take a little bit of time and the rest of it really quickly.

Four strands in that rope that we pull. First of all, the first strand is humble adoration. When you come to pray, Jesus said, what? Our Father who art in heaven.

You are coming to the King of heaven. Daniel's not coming to pray to King Darius. He's not coming to pray to King Nebuchadnezzar. He's coming to the King of heaven.

He's coming to the God, the sovereign God of the universe. And that kind of puts things in perspective. We've got to be careful. Remember the Pharisee in Luke chapter 18.

It says, and he prayed thus to himself. Lord, I thank you. I'm not like other men. I'm not like this.

Not even this. I'll look at this tax collector next to me. But it says he prayed thus to himself. And if we don't recognize that we are coming and praying to the God of heaven, we are not connected.

We are speaking only to ourselves. A young lawyer had just opened up a law practice and he was sitting in his chair behind the executive desk made up story, waiting for his first client to come in. And then when he saw the man walking towards his office, he picked up the phone and began talking to his imaginary assistant. He said, yes, yes.

I'm so busy right now. I'll ask them to call me back. I have so many clients. I just don't have the time.

And then he hung up the phone. Surely he impressed his first visitor. And the guy says, I'm from the phone company. I'm here to connect your phone.

So we don't want to be talking in prayer. And you're only talking to yourself. Bad idea. Eratori writes, we should never utter a syllable of prayer in public or private until we are definitely conscious.

They were coming into the presence of God and actually praying to him. It gives you a perspective. You know, if I look at my troubles and I say, this is my troubles right here. And I take my troubles and I'm doing this.

God, help me. My troubles are huge. I can't see anything but my troubles. That's all I can see.

My troubles. Help me. This is impossible. This is all I can do.

I just need help. Now, I'm going to give this to Yme. I'll be respectful. It's a hymnbook.

Now hold it up Yme. We have a large crowd here. Just like we have a large God, don't we? Our God is huge.

Now, where are my troubles? Where are they? Have they gone away? No.

Are they still here? Where are they? Oh, there they are. You know what?

In light of this big crowd, my troubles are really kind of shrinking down to small because I have a big God and a big God can handle my troubles. But if I hold my troubles up here and I don't look at God and I don't look at my troubles in light of who God is and how big God is and how great my God is, all I'm going to see is my troubles. But if I push them further away and say, God, I'm coming to you in prayer, but I want to, first of all, I need to know. Like, are you bigger than my troubles?

Yes, you are. And then I read about his holiness. I read about his greatness. I read that he's the king of the universe, that he's made all things.

When I get into that zone, huh, wow. Can God handle my troubles? Of course he can. Because I have a big God.

No matter how big the troubles are, no matter how burdensome the troubles are, my God is bigger. He does not use word like impossible or wow or oh. God never says any of those things. He never has a thought in that direction.

He can handle it all. But if I sit with it stuck in front of my face and I leave him out of the whole equation out of the picture, that trouble will overwhelm me. I need to put it where it is in perspective. Now Jewish prayers often begin with this little, I actually, I remember, I used to go to Passover every year.

I need water for this. And they used to begin their prayer. Baruch, Hata, Denoy, Al-Hainu, Malach, Ahlem. And they'd say this at the first of the meal.

And I remember asking, what does that mean? I don't know. Okay. I'd ask the dad.

What does it mean? He says, we come and we say blessed are you, O Lord, our God, King of the universe. When they start thinking about being delivered from Egypt, they put it in perspective. The great God of heaven has done this.

The great God has delivered us from Egypt. We have a great God who has delivered us. Our troubles are small to him. They may seem big to us.

But let's put them in perspective of who he is. Throughout this prayer of Daniel, we see the things that he talks about God being great in magnitude, great in importance. He's righteous. He's merciful.

He's forgiving. Daniel uses terms of adoration in his prayer. Two little time is spent in adoration when we come to God in prayer. Sometimes we just come and say, okay, God, I've got to talk to you.

I need more money. I need new car. I don't have to do. This job is killing me.

I need a new job. I need a new brother. I need a new sister. I need two new sisters.

We come to God and we just rush right in. Now, I've got to tell you, if I walk through the door at the end of the day coming home, and my young, and I walk through and I say, hey, how is everybody? I need to back for school. How is everybody?

I just say, no, hi, dad. Nothing. I need that. I need my diaper change.

I need whatever. Sam. I'm so. I'm not here.

I'll pick on it. I mean, really, seriously, there's no recognition of who I am. There's no recognition. And see, sometimes we just come to God and just dump our knee.

Boom. Here you go. God, truckload. And I haven't even recognized who you are.

I haven't thanked you for anything. I haven't recognized anything about you. But here you go. Here's my problems.

Fix it. Now, I mean, I work on the boss and people will come in and say, boom. Here's my problem. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Now you should look at them and say, so how was your weekend? Like, really, like, recognize who God is. Adoration. If you start with that, see, for some people, prayer is like an aspirin.

They just do it ritualistically. I'll take two of these every day. I'll pray twice a day. You know what, they're just kind of ritual sort of things.

I'll give thanks to the table. And then when I have a problem, I'm just going to go to God with this big headache. Or an emergency room. Like they get to the point where they say, yikes.

I'm in huge trouble here. 911. God, I got a problem. Fix it.

It doesn't work that way. For others, it's like a first-class hotel. They think, huh, I have God. Yes.

I've been taught that he will meet all my needs. And I have nothing but prosperity to look forward to. Ding, ding, God. You're the bell's hop.

Come and fix my needs. Come and give me. Bless me. It doesn't work that way.

We come and we look at God for who he is. We recognize who he is. He is the king of the universe. He is the greatest person you will ever know.

If he's the greatest person and the greatest God and the greatest that ever existed, isn't it worth getting some time to get to know him? It really is. I mean, if Wayne Gretzky said, I'm going to come and stay at the greatest hockey player of all time. I'm going to stay at your place for a couple of days.

You know what? I'm not going to leave him. Every meal. Hey, Wayne, coffee, tea.

All that stuff's right there. Fix your own breakfast. I'm going to go out and play with my other room. No, no, no, no.

I'm going to sit and chat with him. Boy, I want to get to know him. So here we have the God of heaven. The one who made you, the one who made you, the one who made you, the one who sent his son to die for you.

Shouldn't we get to know him? Should we spend some time with him before we go and just dump our needs? The thing is, the longer we are in the Christian life, we should be growing. I have a grandson.

Anybody else? I don't know if you knew that. I have a grandson. But I remember, how would he ask for something?

He's getting better. Not much better. But how does he ask for something? Okay, what's he want?

Food, water, clothing, shelter, whatever. Then you go and get it. At some point in time, Eric is going to say, Camden, use your words. Apple, water, fettuccine, whatever.

He's going to learn to use his words. And he'll speak. But it'll always be for a while. Water, apple, strawberry, I want, I want, I want.

And notice it's always food. You just see him. So as you grow and you start losing your words, when you get older, you ever notice how you communicate differently? I really like an apple.

But let's just chat for a minute. And then as you get older, I don't call my mother and say, hi, mom. I really want to biscuit and a cup of tea. No.

I call and say, mom, is there anything I can do for you? Is there anything, just how are you doing? How's your life going? How are things with you?

As you mature, your focus moves away from your own needs to understanding and loving the person that you're talking to. Dwight Moody said, tells a story of his eight-year-old son came into his room one time, he was preparing for a message. Dwight Moody was a great preacher. And his little eight-year-old son came in and he sat down and Moody looked up from his study and said, hi son, what do you want?

And the little boy said, Daddy, I don't want anything. I just want to be where you are. No, I'm a sweet story. But you know what?

I come to the Lord's Supper Run at 9.30. Again, another thing to check out if you have a comment. But I come to the Lord's Supper at 9.30. And I sit there and I think, I don't want anything.

I just want to be here and hear about Jesus. I just want to hear about what he's done for me, week after week. I just want to be here in his presence. That's all.

I just want to sit there with him. And that's the way it should be. Now, I told you it's been a lot of time on the first point. Now I'm going to zip through the next couple points.

Strand number two, Daniel confesses again over and over again how they blew it. How the Jewish people just blew it over and over again. He goes right back to the time of Moses. And he goes through all the prophets.

And he goes through the history of how, you know what God, this captivity that's on us? Well deserved. We blew it. We sinned.

We were wrong. I'm going to be honest. This is my fault. There's a Psalm, Psalm 51 where David after his sin with, not only his sin with Bathsheba, but sent Bathsheba's husband out to be murdered in battle.

And all the stuff that went on. And then he pours out his heart in Psalm 51. It's probably one of the greatest confessions of all the Scriptures in your read through that. And there's been times when I know I've blown into my own life.

And I think, what do I do? And I'll pick up my Bible. I'll open it up to Psalm 51. And I'll read it through against you and you only have I sinned.

It says, it puts it in perspective. My sin is against the God of heaven. Again, it's against the loving God who made me. It's against the God who loved me and sent it to die for me.

I read that and I have to use those words that are the hardest to say, the six most important words in our language. I admit that I was wrong. We blew it. There's nothing wrong with that.

There's nothing wrong with coming into a prayer reading and saying, look, I've got to tell you, I need prayer. I blew it this week. This is what I did. Or go to one, a friend and say, you know what, it wasn't against you, but I blew it against somebody else.

And here's what I did. Or I blew it against God. Or my life's a mess because of this. Confessing your sins one to another, the Bible says, but most of all, when you get into prayer, you need to know, you're coming before God who knows everything.

Confess. You know what, you're saying, well, doesn't he know I'm a sinner? Doesn't he know that I've sinned against him? Yeah, but sometimes he wants to hear it from you.

If I offend my wife, do you think she knows it? Absolutely. But sometimes she wants to hear me come and say, you know what, honey? I messed up.

I never called her honey. You know what, sweetheart? I messed up. I really blew it.

Here's what I did. And I'm sorry that I hurt you. She knows that, but she wants to hear it from me. That's part of getting right with her.

And part of getting right with God is on his confession to him. Jesus said, forgive us our deaths or transgressions. Forgive us God when we pray. Also, what's interesting is Daniel understood that he was part of a bigger thing.

He didn't say they blew it. The sinners blew it. Your priests blew it. The guys in the sound booth blew it.

He didn't say any of that stuff, although they're supposed to bring the sound booth. He's saying we blew it. He uses we 16 times, hour 17 times, us nine times. He's putting himself right in there with the rest of the sinners.

We blew it, God. We blew it. There's no comfort in that, but it's the truth. Isaiah, chapter six, when we see the holiness of God, Isaiah comes, whoa is me, for I am undone.

I am a man of unclean, clean lips. And I live among people of unclean lips. He recognizes I am a sinner and I'm coming before a holy God. It's part of our prayer.

It should be part of every prayer. We're sinners, but we've been forgiven if you're a believer. Leonard Ravenhill writes this. He says, he's a preacher again from down the south.

He says, the self-sufficient do not pray. The self-satisfied will not pray. And the self-righteous cannot pray. So why does Daniel need to pray?

Because God wants to hear from him what the people have done. He knows what they've done, but he wants to hear it. Daniel uses words like shame, meaning embarrassment or guilt. There's a word that we don't use anywhere in our day.

Guilt. Whoa, can't use that. Nobody's guilty of anything. Come on.

You've got to be kidding me. But guilt is true. We've offended God. We've offended others.

We are guilty. There's two kinds of guilt. There's bad guilt. That's the insecure person who just feels guilty about everything all the time.

That's not good. You need to deal with that. But there's good guilt. Good guilt is when people feel guilty because they are guilty.

They have done something and they've sinned against God. And they recognize that. And they come to a Savior and they repent and they're forgiven. That's good guilt.

Bad guilt is just going around all the time saying, oh, I'm guilty of everything all the time. So Daniel stops. He prays in his prayers. He goes upward.

He looks to God. He prays inward. He looks to his own sin. And now he's going to pray outwards.

And now he's going to pray outwards. Heart felt petition. He looks outward. He prays when he sees what's happening around him.

He prays for others. He prays specifically. He asks God to listen, to look, to act, to do it. The word amen means so be it or do it.

He says in verse, oh, I'll put it there. Good. He says it. If you look at it in verse 18 says, oh, my God, incline your ear and hear.

Open your eyes and see our desolation. The city which is called by your name for we do not present our supplications before you because of our righteous deeds, but because of your great mercies. Oh Lord, here, forgive. Oh Lord, listen and act.

Do not delay for your own. Say God for your city, for your people who are called by your name. He's calling on God. Please for these people, for everybody.

Please act. When we come to prayer meeting, it is to pray for others. It's work. It's labor.

Paul talks of a man named a paphras in Colossians chapter 4 verse 12. And he's thankful for his labor in prayer. Prayer is hard work. We don't call them prayer warriors because it's easy.

Prayer warriors. They're working hard. They're on the front lines. You know, the thing is we got to get intercessory prayer into our lives where we're praying for others.

If all of the time we go to God and we're praying and it's only for ourselves, it's only for our needs. And we're praying for others. And we're praying for ourselves. And we're praying for ourselves.

It's only for our needs. You become a spiritual couch potato. Do you know what a couch potato is? Do you guys know what a couch potato is?

I know you just... I knew it. You don't have couch potatoes in the... Maybe the coaching amps.

I don't know. But a couch potato in North America is a person who sits around on their couch, actually they stretch out on their sofa all day long watching TV, eating potato chips. And they're no more used than a potato. They just lie there and get bigger and bigger and bigger.

And they're a couch potato. Oh Lord, I'm gonna cut potato. But that's what a couch potato does. They just sit around and you know what?

We can be spiritual couch potatoes. I'm thinking only about myself. I just feed me. Just somebody bring me more.

Feed me more. I'm gonna think about myself. Think about myself. And you know what?

I'm just getting fatter and fatter in my own soul. And I'm gonna forget about everybody else. And you're a spiritual couch potato. And you know what you end up turning to?

You turn to criticism instead of prayer. If I'm not praying for Ken, I'm criticizing you. If I'm not praying for you folks, I'm criticizing you. And then you get into criticism and then you get into slander and then you get into gossip.

Hey, did you hear about Kathy Draper? Blah, blah, blah. And you start gossiping all around. You haven't done a good thing at all.

You're not praying for them. You've not got into the... So yesterday my neighbor comes over. I'm cutting the lawn and I'm back and forth.

And I get it all done and I put the thing away and I can see out of the corner of my eye and I think I don't want to talk to this guy. I just want to get inside. I got a message to work on. Like, oh no.

And it's always a long talk with Stewart. He's coming across. He's coming this way. And boom.

We meet at the end of the hedge. And I'm thinking, oh hi Stewart. Hi, David. How are you?

And I said, I'm fine. How are you? He said, I've had better days. I said, oh, okay.

He's not well. He's not well. He's not well. I just found out I have lung cancer.

I've been praying for him ever since. And you know, there are a lot of people with a lot of troubles. But if I only get my mind on my own stuff that's going on, if I'm just in my own funk all the time and I don't pray for them, how cold and how cold is that? Here's a man who needs the Lord.

Here's the man who's facing the biggest challenge of fight of his life. I need to pray for him. I need to be in tune with that. I need to automatically need to default.

Okay, I need to pray for you. When you come to me and say something, I don't need to go away and say, Esther, you got to hear this. But this is what Kathy Drapers is to pick on her. This is what Kathy Drapers has to me today.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, gossop criticism. Blah, blah, blah. No. The default.

If you're mature, I'm walking with the Lord. She'd be to pray for them. I mean, I got to really got to move. Pray for me.

Get to my final point here. Lastly, it's holy motivation. When you look at what Daniel was saying here, he's praying, Lord, this is for your sake. It's your city.

It's your people. It's your land. It's for you. It's for your reputation.

I highlighted it so you can see it. I won't read it through it again. I just read this a minute ago. Look how many times you see made for yourself a name, your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain, because of your mercies, your name, your name, your own sake.

That's why we pray for the Lord's sake. We want his reputation to ring through the land. We want him to be reflected in our lives. You know, going back to Leonard Ravenhill, I don't know a whole lot about him, but I do know something interesting because I looked him up.