A Prayer for Restoration

Daniel 9 shows us how to pray with humility and hope. Daniel confesses sin honestly, trusts God’s faithfulness, and pleads for restoration not because his people are righteous, but because God is merciful. In Jesus, the divide caused by sin is bridged, and we can come boldly before God as redeemed people.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Ashes. 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. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame. The people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us, because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our kings, our princes, and our ancestors are covered with shame. Lord, because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving. Even though we have rebelled against him, we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. Therefore, the curses and sworn judgments written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does, yet we have not obeyed him. Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant for your sake, Lord. Look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear, open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 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. Here ends the reading.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Thanks, Mary. Good morning, Elmwood. Good to be back with you to see so many familiar faces and a joy to see some new faces. If I haven't met you before, uh, my name's Matt. And a number of years ago, I used to serve as one of the pastors here. And so it's just so awesome to come and just be in a familiar place and see all of the awesome stuff that the Lord has been doing in the time since I have been gone. Uh back in 2023, uh Elmwood and another partner church uh sent me and my family and some others out to plant a church that was called Grafted, uh, with the heart of engaging, in particular, uh the Jewish community, kind of in the western metro of Minneapolis, and seeing them engage the gospel and come to know their Messiah, Jesus, uh, and experience that faith in Jesus within the context of the broader body of Jesus. And uh since then, the Lord has been uh just doing an amazing work. I'm gonna tell you an interesting story. Uh, at one point in our church planting kind of process, we discerned uh that we we had been meeting in a dynah, which is near St. Louis Park. Now, St. Louis Park uh is the highest concentration of Jewish people in all of Minnesota. And so we wanted to get there. That's where we ended up wanting to kind of settle down. And so me and a friend of mine in our church planting journey, we started eyeing up this one building. And we were looking at it, interestingly, because it looked like a synagogue. It was a little abstract, and we're like, hey, that'd be a cool place for our church to meet. So me and a friend of mine go out uh to lunch or breakfast, I guess it was, uh, in the following months after that. And we kind of didn't really track down that building too much. We kind of saw it and we're like, that would be a cool pipe dream if that happened. And so we're sitting there one day at breakfast, and he gets up to leave, and I'm sitting there, and eventually I took off. And as I'm standing up, there's this little old lady who's sitting next to me at a table, and she says, Hey, what have you been reading? And it turned out to be my Bible, and so we struck up this conversation, and she had her Bible sitting there on the table. She was visiting with, I think it was her niece at the time, and she I shared kind of what I do in the ministry that we do, and she goes, Hey, uh, my husband was a pastor. She was a widow at the time. And I said, Oh, that's interesting. Where was he the pastor of? And it just so happened that he was the pastor of that church that we had been eyeing up. And I'm like, All right, Lord. And so I took that as maybe uh indicator of we should maybe track this thing down a little bit. And so, long story short, is they were kind of in a transitional season. I I use the term maybe sustaining and not sustainable. They were kind of coming near maybe the end of a church's life cycle, and they were looking in humility to pass the baton. And so I started building this relationship with them that went on for about the better part of a year, until at some point in that process I said, Hey, what do you think if we do ministry together? You guys need to pass the baton, and we want to help, and we want to get into St. Louis Park, and we could benefit from your stability and your wisdom in the Lord. Uh, to that, one of the elders starts tearing up and uh getting quite moved by the opportunity. Long story short, we began what we called kind of a courting process with them that was uh not easy, but very meaningful. And as of January of this past year, the vote was unanimous to merge together. And so almost overnight, God provided a permanent space for our church plant. Uh, he doubled the size of our church, and he created more than that, more than any of that, wonderful opportunities to continue to engage the Jewish people. And so we renamed our church uh Heritage Fellowship, representing the Jewish heritage that informs all of our faith in Jesus, and our desire to honor the legacy of that church that had been there since the 60s. And so for the past number of months, you know, if anyone asks me, hey, how long have you been pastoring this church? Well, it depends which church you're talking about, somewhere between three years and three months. Uh, but God has just been really, really wonderful in the midst of that. I'm excited to just be back and diving into Daniel chapter nine with you today. I love the idea for this sermon series on the heart. And as I was going through, I was kind of perusing some previous sermons. And uh uh two years ago, I had this great idea. I thought it was great, at least at the time, that I was going to preach through uh the whole book of Daniel in one summer. And uh, and so it was uh a little bit of a challenge. And uh, if you're familiar with the book of Daniel, it's not a simple book, uh, but God really used it. It was one of those things you get to the end and you don't realize actually how tired you are uh just from all of the study and all of the investment, but it was really, really rich. And I just think it's good for us, especially even as John's coming back and and then you guys are you know thinking about how do we transition even into the fall. One of the things that we always want to be as followers of Jesus is a prayerful people. And in the book of Daniel, there is this section that you heard read, uh, maybe not the most uplifting section that you've heard read in all of this sermon series, but one where Daniel really hones in, and I think there's a lot we can learn from his prayer. So we're gonna dive into that text today. Let me pray for us, and then I have a few questions for you as we begin. So let's pray. God, we are grateful for your word. God, that you are just, you've revealed yourself to us. You are just so wonderful, and that we get to hear from you today. We get to see what it is that you have shown us. And God, I just pray that by your spirit that you would nourish our souls, that you would encourage us, that you would lead us into all truth, and that you might use this word to continue to form us into the image of your Son to help us be the people that you desire us to be, uh, not only for one another in our church families, but also for those who need to hear your gospel and who need to know Jesus in our communities. So, God, have your way in this place as it is in heaven. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So I have some questions for you. Okay, I want to start off just a little bit differently. We're gonna be thinking about prayer today, and so I want you to take a minute to just honestly reflect on your own prayer life. So I've got a few questions, and I want you to just rate yourself in your head. You don't need to tell anyone around you what you're thinking and what you're feeling, but one is going to mean I never do this, and ten is going to mean I always do this, and I do this perfectly. Okay, so just listen to these questions and rate yourself just to get our juices flowing. Okay. Number one, when you come to the Lord in prayer, do you do it as one seeking his mercy and as one in genuine need? One, you always come with that posture. Or excuse me, you never come with that posture. Ten is you always do it. Number two, when you pray, do you actively consider the very one whom you are talking to? Do you consider who the Lord is? Number three, when you pray, are there any ways that you hold back from being transparent with the Lord? Number four, when you pray, are you more focused on your personal wants and needs or on God's will being done in your life and in the lives of those around you? One, you never do that. Ten, you always do that. As we get into Daniel today, we're picking up near the end of this book. And Daniel recounts a really interesting time in Israel's history, a time sometimes that we overlook, where God, in his discipline, according to his promises that he had gave through Moses, had sent his people into exile. It was very it was the climactic portion of his punishment for them if they continue to push off obedience to him. And he had called them time and time again through his prophets, and they didn't listen. And so through Assyria and then through Babylon, he sent them into exile for 70 years. And Daniel is a book recounting this story of this at that point, young man getting taken off and trying to be faithful to God in the midst of everything going on around him. And it's a time where God worked uniquely in supernatural and prophetic ways. If you're familiar with this book, there's lots of visions, and you can really go to town making your Bible charts if you're into some of that stuff. And while those visions are wonderful and amazing and sometimes very challenging, I want us to turn to this prayer instead. Because this prayer recounts actually something going on that's very meaningful to Daniel, that the exile seems like it's about to come to an end. And in light of what he says, I think there's a lot we can learn. I want us to pull our own hearts as to what we can see compared to what he's doing. Okay, looking at does our heart reflect a heart for God like we see with Daniel himself. Don't just look at what he says. I want us to consider why he says it, the actual heart posture and affections that he has as we look at this text. So let's dive into it here a little bit. I have this broken down into four parts. Okay, the first thing that we see in this text is that there is a coming restoration. So the text picks up in chapter nine, but in chapter nine, it actually rewinds to what was happening in chapter five, where there was one final king or co-regent of Babylon, and he kind of threw this great feast, and it was during that feast that Daniel had told him the Babylonian Empire is going to come to an end. And it did. That night, the Persian forces came in. In 539 BC, this guy, Belshazzar, the co-regent, was put to death, and like that, this superpower ended and national power transitioned. And during this text in chapter 9, Daniel is about 80 years old. So to put that in perspective, he had left Israel to come to Babylon when he was probably a teenager. Okay, so he's not a young buck. He has experienced a whole lot of what is going on around him. He has learned what it means to live faithfully to the Lord in exile, and he has overcome a whole lot of challenges by the power of God's Spirit. But he has seen this national turnover take place. And what the text tells us is that he opens up his Hebrew scriptures. Now it's at this point a scroll, it's not a book, right? And he opens up the scroll and he's reading Jeremiah, and here is what he sees. He sees this take place. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, talking about Israel, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I'll punish the king of Babylon and his nation, something that he just saw take place, right? I'll punish him, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt, declares the Lord, and will make it desolate forever. And then he reads this This is what the Lord says when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I'll come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. And so Daniel is reading the scroll, and he's like, Holy moly, I think that this thing that I've been experiencing almost all of my adult life, and that land and that relationship with God through the law that I've been seeking to experience and hoping for that we would be returned, I think that that's actually going to happen, maybe in my lifetime. In fact, we know it did take place within a year of that evening in 539 BC, where Persia, Cyrus the Great, was the king of Persia at the time, put an edict out where waves began to go back to the land. The exiles began to go and set up life again. Can we just observe something just for a minute in light of this text? Daniel has the utmost confidence that the Lord is able to communicate himself with clarity and with specificity. He doesn't just talk in vagaries, like he doesn't just talk, maybe this thing's gonna happen over here. The Lord says, 70 years are gonna go by, I will punish you for that long for your sin, and I will return you after that time. See, this is important, I think, for us, in part because it's not just about like, oh, we see the prophecy prophesied and then it takes place, the Bible's reliable and it's inspired and all of those things. Those are all true. These are all evidences of that, that we can trust God's word. But it's very practically important for us because the way that God navigates history on a big level, the way that he moved in this situation speaks to the fact that his sovereignty does not just move in the big picture. God does not only care about the big picture affairs of men and nations. God cares about the people of those nations. God cares about you personally. And the way that he is able to navigate all of these things speaks to the very fact that he is able to navigate your life. I don't know about you, but when I look at my life, sometimes, actually, I won't say sometimes, I'll say all the time. I'll be transparent with you. All the time, I need God to navigate my life for me. Because when Matt tries to navigate his life, here's what happened: I begin digging the ditch for myself to jump into. Right? It doesn't go well, but when I look to the Lord, I know because of who he is, and we're gonna get into who he is in a minute, because of who he is, he is always working for his glory, which is for my good at the end of the day. And when he moves in sovereignty, it is not just with regard to these nations, but with regard to every one of our lives as well. So do we pray, understanding that, that God not only hears our prayers, but that he's actually interested in your life and he wants to move in your life. And it is to our best interest that we align ourselves with that and that we swallow that pill. Because when we do, we we kind of come into this place where we're aligning ourselves with what we see with in the Word of God, especially with Daniel's prayer prayer here, and it is for the very best. As the text keeps going, we see that Daniel, in light of what's going to happen, in light of this promise that God says, I'm gonna bring you guys back from exile, he could do all sorts of things, right? He could throw a party, he could go around telling everybody, he could do whatever he wants at this point, but what does he do? Daniel prays. Daniel decides that prayer is the first and foremost response. And that prayer begins with what I've labeled a humble acknowledgement. We see that it the text says in verse 3 that he fasted. He sought the Lord with his petition in sackcloth and ashes. Okay, this signals to us that he is taking on a humble posture. Okay, he's not coming and boasting in himself, like, God, I'm I'm so glad we've been so good, and now you're gonna let us go back. That's not what happens. Daniel steps into this under God's sovereignty, under God's judgment, and takes the humble seat. I think uh local pastor David Mathis put it well in one of his books on spiritual disciplines, when he says, When we come to God in prayer, we never come on the same playing field. Okay, we always come under what he is doing. And so let's just glean a couple things from this prayer. The first thing is that Daniel is very clear that there is a distinction to be made between God's people and God. Okay, look at verses four and seven. Look, he says, uh, Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps his commandments and loves those who love him and keeps his commandments, right? Or keeps his covenant, excuse me, and and who uh and who excuse me, covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Look at verse five then with me. We have sinned and done wrong. So look at the distinction, right? In verse four, God, you keep your covenant, you you keep with your people who keep your commandments. Verse five, we have sinned and done wrong. This continues throughout the entirety of the prayer. That whatever the situation is, Daniel is clear that his people are not in a place to approach God. If you can imagine this visually, imagine there's two columns. There's the righteous column and there is the unrighteous column over here. Okay, what Daniel is acknowledging through his prayer is there's only one in this column. Everyone and everything else is in this one. God's in that one. Okay, and if Daniel is going to talk to God, it is with the acknowledgement that there needs to be some gap that is bridged because God is merciful. If they are going to be restored, it is only in God's grace. Unless anyone look at this text, or maybe you you think to yourself of like, well, that's good. They were in a really tough situation, but maybe not everyone was that bad. Maybe, you know, maybe there's people that are not kind of of needing the same type of grace or mercy. Look at what he says in verses uh six and seven and following. Look at verse six. We've 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. Verse 7 Lord, you are righteous, but this day we're covered with shame, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us, because of our unfaithfulness to you. Look at the universal language. This is not just a certain group of people. This is Daniel saying, From the top of the food chain. To the bottom of the social ladder. All of us need mercy. All of us need your grace, Lord. Daniel's an interesting kind of character study because in the text itself, Daniel's kind of the beacon of faithfulness. He's the beacon of what we might say is quote unquote good behavior. We don't have a record of Daniel sinning, but look at how Daniel talks. He talks in what maybe if you're a grammar nerd, we'd call the first person plural. He doesn't say, they've done this, but I've been faithful. He says, We've sinned. We have all sinned against you, Lord. He recognizes even his own shortcomings. What comes through, of course, is that Daniel is just really willing to acknowledge the reality of his situation. He doesn't sidestep it, he doesn't avoid it. He recognizes that God is righteous, that God is faithful, and he has even taken steps to try and call them back. Okay, there's a whole section of prophets in the Hebrew Bible that we call the pre-exilic prophets, that they were saying, guys, come back to the Lord. Align yourself with God's heart through the law. Come under his grace, come under the love that he has for you. And what does Daniel say? You tried to tell us, but we weren't willing. We were not willing to do it. And so we see that they were driven away not because God is mean, but because they deserved it. Because God was just. To put it really simply, we'll say it like this: Daniel acknowledges that they have done wrong before the God who does only right. Daniel acknowledges that they've done wrong before the God who does only right. Before I got into ministry, some of you know this, some of you don't, but I was at the University of Minnesota and then seminary after that. But when I was at the U, um I was an athlete there, I was a gymnast for the University of Minnesota. And one of the things you learn in kind of athletics programs is it's really important that you buy into the program that you're in. Okay, there's no use in going off to a program and kind of bucking against the system and pushing back on kind of the conditioning program or the schedule. Or if you don't participate in what you're supposed to be doing, it's it's not that it's not gonna work out for the program, it's that it's not gonna work out for you. You are not gonna reach the pinnacle of your potential. You're not gonna step into who you are maybe made to be as an athlete. And I think Daniel is recognizing the very same thing here. He says, God, you set up this covenant with us. And we said, we'll be a part of this program. We're in. In fact, when you go all the way back to the book of Exodus, even before they knew the stipulations of the relationship, they said, God, we're in. We want this. You set us free from exit uh in the Exodus, you set us free from Egypt. We want to be a part of it. But Daniel's recognizing now that as they bought into this program, they brought on themselves, because of their sin the very thing that they deserved. That there is a discrepancy between them and God. The same is true for us, of course. There is a divide there, a divide that needs to be restored and a divide that needs to be healed. When we think about our prayer life, one of the hardest things to do, I think, is to be honest with God, which is very ironic, I think, in some shape or form. The scriptures would talk about God as the one who knows hearts and minds. Okay, Jesus is very clear that we don't pray to God because God lacks information. The scriptures are clear that we pray to God oftentimes for our own sake, so that we can recalibrate ourselves with him, so that we can cultivate that relationship that is for our flourishing with him, right? And sometimes, though, we come to prayer and there are just things I don't want God to know. Can I can I tell you something? He knows. He already knows, right? You're not hiding anything from the Lord. Think about Adam and Eve back in the garden. The Lord's walking through it in the cool of the day, and he says, Adam, where are you? He's not trying to get Adam to reveal himself because he's bad at hide and seek. Okay? The Lord is calling to him because he's beckoning Adam to be transparent. When we look throughout Scripture, God desires us to be transparent with him. So when we come to him, and there's hard things going on, maybe sin in our life, can I challenge you to be transparent? Can I can I challenge you not to make excuses or to try and justify yourself or play down your sin, but can I challenge you to be real, to be honest with him? Like I said, he knows it's not actually him who's getting the short end of the stick, it's you and I who are selling ourselves short when we are not honest with the Lord. Daniel continues his prayer into this section of sowing and reaping. Okay, as we go through this, he reiterates their sin that they have fallen into. But Daniel builds upon this exile idea that they were sent off so many years ago. And I love how he talks about it. He talks about it in the sense that God sent them into exile. Like I said, not because he's mean, not because he's just belligerent and just can't control emotions or something like that. He's not fickle like we can often be. Daniel says God did it because he's faithful. Have you ever thought about that? God's discipline in your life is because he's faithful, because he follows through on his promises. His faithfulness and his loyalty here to his people were not just extended to the blessings that he promised them for obedience. They were extended to what we call the curses or the consequences for their disobedience. When they entered into covenant with him, God said, if you do this, then I will do that. And if you do this, then I will do that. And one of those things was if you rebel against me, and this continues, I will send you into exile. It's kind of this great reset, if we're gonna use that language, around their covenant life. And he says, and eventually I'll call you back, but you need to be kicked out of the land. You need to see that there's something wrong going on. And so when God sent them into exile, here's what Daniel sees. He did exactly what he promised he was gonna do. He followed through to the uttermost on exactly what he said he would do. Daniel does not even think of, in light of his hard situation, accusing God. It doesn't even come into his mind. He doesn't think about questioning God in his motives. He acknowledges exactly what God said would happen. In fact, here's what I think Daniel is doing. He's recognizing in the moment that the exile, while painful, is actually a confirmation to him that God is trustworthy. Whatever season we're in, whether it's a good season or a bad season, you live long enough, you experience both of them, of course. No matter how God is involved, this text teaches us that God is always in the right. Okay, when I come into conflict with God or a disagreement with God, here's a pro tip, right? If it's God or if it's you, right, he wins 100% of the time. Okay, if I find that I'm in disagreement with him, there's never a point where I can say, you know what? I think I got this one right, Lord. No, that never happens, okay? He is always the one who is in the right. It is in fact impossible, if we're gonna be theological, it is impossible for God to do anything other than is right, okay? Because he is the definition of good. He is the definition of right, he is the standard of it, and it is an overflow of who he is in his character. And he always acts with consistency of character. See, we betray ourselves. If I ever like sit and talk to you, here's what might happen. I hope it doesn't happen, but it might happen. I think you've probably experienced this too. You say that something's gonna happen, you say you're gonna do something, or you say you're gonna change this, or you're gonna change that, and what happens? Sometimes you do it, but I don't know. Sometimes you really don't. Okay? God is not like that at all. The scriptures tell us, Isaiah tells us, that when God's word goes out, it accomplishes exactly what he says is going to happen. It never returns void. Kind of part and parcel of this would be something we'd see like in Genesis, right? In Genesis, God says, let there be light, and where there was there darkness? No, there was light. Okay? God says it happens and it happens. We're not like that. We like to betray ourselves. We're real good at it because of our brokenness, but God is not like that. And so when we come into different seasons of life, especially when we come before the Lord and our relationship with him in prayer, it is really helpful, I would say, irrespective of what we're going through, whether we're just super happy, sunshine, and rainbows, or we feel like we are in the worst situation we've ever experienced, this might be helpful for you to ask. It might be something worth writing down. How has God been showing himself in the midst of this to be true, to be right, to be faithful? How is God's character on display no matter what I'm experiencing? Because I can get wrapped up, I can get kind of uh myopic, I can miss the forest for the trees, for lack of a better term. I can see something difficult going on in my life and totally lose sight of who God is. But it is important for us, especially in those moments, where we're starting to lose sight to say, no, God, I'm gonna magnify you. I love that you guys do uh a prayer reading, a psalm reading every single week and you you pray in light of it. We do the same thing at Heritage as well. And guess where I got the idea? From you guys. Okay? And so we do this every week as well. And the Psalms are a great practical way to do that. Right? If you're ever like God, I don't know what to pray. I don't know how to recognize your character for what it is in light of what I'm experiencing, because I have my own emotions and I don't know how to articulate it. Would you open the book of Psalms? Would you read it and pray it back to God? Final thing we see in the text is that Daniel ends with a God-centered plea. Daniel ends with this pleading with God to bring the restoration that he promised. I just want to read verses 17 through 19, and please listen very carefully to what he says. Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with open favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our Lord, and hear. Open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 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. What word do you hear a lot in that section? What was it? Your. Your. We call that second person singular, right? You and your. Look at how unselfish Daniel is. Look at what he says. His plea with God is not about anything in him. He doesn't come to God and he's like, you need to hear me because I'm really cool, and because I've been really righteous, and because I haven't missed a day of the church gathering in like three months. He doesn't say that. I even go during the summer. That's not what he says, right? What does he say? He says, God, it is because of you. He wants God to act in accordance with what will bring him glory and will build his reputation. Anyone familiar with the story of the golden calf? Raise your hand if you know that story. In the Exodus. Okay, so in the in the story of the golden calf, uh, Israel is beginning to make covenant with God, and pretty much before that covenant really is solidified, it's just barely solidified, they already start worshiping an idol, this golden calf. And the tablets get broken of the covenant, and the Lord goes to Moses and just says, I'm wiping them out. We're starting this thing all over. You're gonna be the new Abraham, Moses, and we're gonna go from there. We're gonna make it through. Do you know what Moses says to God? He says, God, he doesn't say, Don't do that to us. We don't deserve it. What does he say? He says, God, that's not going to reflect well on you. He says, God, the Egyptians and the nations are gonna look in on that. And even though we do deserve it, they're not gonna understand that this is not going to benefit your reputation. Daniel does the exact same thing. He Moses' God, if you want to put it in a verbal form, okay, and he goes to him and he says, God, this is about your reputation. I want you to be lifted up. Now, just as Moses did it back in Exodus, I don't think uh God was being persuaded by Moses. I think God was inviting Moses to intercede for the people. But I think in this context, as we we look at it, Daniel has the heart that Moses has. He wants to see God glorified to the uttermost. Friends, are we as jealous with a righteous and godly jealousy to see God glorified in our prayers and in our lives like Daniel is, like Moses was? We claim as followers of Jesus that the Lord is our greatest love, that he is the one that we would do anything for, that we we would die for him if necessary, we would give up our life because to live is Christ and to die is gain, right? We look at this. Do we want others to see his greatness, though? Do we want others to have that same affection, to be consumed with who he is and with his glory? Does it grieve us and upset us when we or others do things that may taint the reputation of our king? When we look at this text, Daniel's fingerprints are all over it of God. I want this to be about you. We did this, God, but you've promised. We've sinned, you are merciful. And so, God, just as you promised, would you bring us back, not because we deserve it, but because it's for your glory. It'll confirm your promises, it'll show the nations, it'll show the world that yes, you are just, but you are merciful to follow through. We rejoice, of course, if you know the rest of the story of Daniel and the Hebrew Bible, that God did eventually faithfully return his people to the land. The challenge quickly arose after that time where they realized something when they got back to the land, that getting back to Israel did not equal hearts coming back to God. To put it maybe a little bit more technically, I say it like this: that sin is transgeographical. That means it doesn't matter where we are, that doesn't change the amount or the posture of sin that we have. And so, as Jeremiah said, God needed to do a new work in them. He needed to craft a new covenant for them, a covenant that would transform them from the inside and out. The Bible asserts that the story of Israel is a microcosm of every one of our stories. Okay, when we look at this Bible and we see Israel falling short and we point fingers at them, no, no, no. This is the Bible's way of teaching us that we're just like them. We fall short of God's glory day in and day out, both in motive and in our action. And just like with them, so is true of us that if God does not transform us, if God does not do a work in our heart, Moses would use this language, circumcising our hearts, then we'll continue the same patterns. That we will continue to inherit the justice of God that we deserve. It doesn't matter if we might think we're relatively good people, it doesn't matter if you're sitting next to the person right now, next to you, and you're like, at least I'm better than that one, right? It doesn't matter, okay? Because that's not the standard. Okay? God's standard is not righteous-ish, okay? God's standard is righteous. And when we stand before Him, the Holy God, we have nothing to hold in our hands but as Isaiah says, filthy rags. And yet the scriptures tell us that God is merciful, that he is loving. The question is this though how can God be just and merciful? How can he show a sinful people like us mercy and not compromise his justice? How can he not compromise on who he is and as a result end up as one who is unworthy of our worship? The Bible tells us that the gospel is the answer to that tension. That 500 years after this event took place, the Lord Himself took on flesh in the Messiah, Jesus, and he lived the only life that was not worthy of exile. He lived the only life not worthy of eternal condemnation, a life of perfect righteousness in fulfillment of the law, where we are the covenant breakers. He was the one who is faithful to the covenant on our behalf, and we are invited to stand in his righteousness, to stand in his goodness through nothing of our own merit, through nothing we contribute. Think about Daniel. We've done all the wrong. God is in the right, God has intervened in history to be the one who is right on our behalf, and we're invited to stand through faith, to trust in him, to turn from our sin and to rest in who he is and what he's done, to acknowledge our guilt and his sinlessness, to recognize that he died in our place, and that as he does that, he took upon himself the just wrath of the Father that we deserved, and to believe upon the fact that he rose on the third day, conquering sin and death, and as a validation and affirmation from the Father that what this one did was sufficient. What this one did was enough. We don't need to add to it. We couldn't add to it if we tried. Remember, we dig ditches when we try and work for ourselves, right? The gospel tells us that what Jesus did was enough. And so we rest in him and we believe upon the promises that are made in him that if we turn to him, we are declared righteous, a righteousness that we never deserved. And he took upon himself the justice that we deserve. And not only that, but for those who are in him, we are given the Holy Spirit, the one who not only uh seals us for the day of redemption, but makes us the people that we ought to be. We are declared holy and righteous, and then the Spirit makes us a holy people, so that not only can we experience eternity with God, but so that we might be a witness to those outside of Earls, so we might live as a people who reflect God's goodness to the rest of the world. You ever wonder what being made in the image of God is? It means we reflect who He is. Jesus, the very image of God, came to save us so that we might reflect that image once again. So as we look at this text and we think about just our prayer life, I just want to encourage you, just really fast, to come with two things we see in the book of Daniel. I want us to come humbly before God, seeing who he is, seeing where we are and where we stand in relation to him if we try to stand on our own two feet. But as a people, we have to come humble and hopeful. A people who know that what Jesus has done, that he has bridged that divide, and so we can come boldly before the throne of grace in a reconciled relationship with the one who made us and who were who we were made for. A people who are saved and redeemed by trusting in the promises of God just like Daniel was. Let's pray. God, we uh we thank you for this text. We thank you for just your goodness to us in the light of our sinfulness. God, we are undeserving, but you are just so merciful, Lord. And I just pray for all of us that the truth of the gospel and and the reality of the gospel would sink in not only into our minds, but into our hearts today. And that that would overflow not only into the word that we proclaim to those around us, but that that would permeate our prayer lives. That we would pray as gospel people, that we would pray as a redeemed people, knowing that you have done all of the work and we come before you in grace and and you delight in that, God. We don't come and and you're hesitant, you invite us to come so that we might be made new and experience newness in your presence. God, help us to be those people so that we might be the people that we need to be in the world around us, so that your gospel might go out. God, we thank you for sending Jesus. We thank you for even this testimony in this prayer, God. Help us to pray like that, both humbled and hopeful.