Prayer in Exile (Daniel 10:1-21)

The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.

Well, good morning. If you have your Bibles, go and grab them. Turn to Daniel chapter 10. Daniel chapter 10, using one of the black pew Bibles, it’ll be page 729, for you this morning. Back in high school, I had a friend who was an actress, and she would regularly act at Drury Lane, and so she invited some of our group of friends to go and see her in a few different plays. And one of the plays, she actually invited us afterward to come backstage. Not sure that was allowed. Nobody yelled at us to leave. So we ended up just going back with her. And it was pretty amazing to see all the different rooms that are back there, these kind of small rooms, bigger rooms, people with headsets on. You’ve got costumes, you’ve got props, you’ve got a bunch of different actors and actresses back there, not to mention the sound crew and the lighting and the tech and all of that that’s going on too. And for a few moments there, the curtain was kind of pulled back for me to see something that I didn’t really know anything about, that’s not the world that I lived in or grew up in. And so it was amazing to see that kind of backstage presence. And then it makes you think, as you’re sitting there watching these actors, how much is happening behind them, to make sure all this happens that we see. And so it’s fascinating, because now, once you see behind the curtain, you can never unsee it like now that I go, I kind of know what’s happening. I remember the rooms, I remember where people are, and so it’s just a different experience when you know everything that’s going on behind Well, this morning, Daniel gets a peek behind the curtain, and in a way, he’s already gotten a peek. We’ve seen him have quite a few visions already throughout this book, but most of those are really looking forward to the future, and in the next couple weeks, we’re going to see he gets more of that. But today, he actually gets a peek to something that’s happening right now and right then. That is that peak behind the curtain that very few people ever get a chance to see, because he’s going to see something that’s impacting history, the things we do see by things that are happening in the unseen world. And once he sees it, once we see it, there’s no going back. So let me tell you where we’re going this morning, because we’re going to do things a little bit different than we’ve done in the last number of weeks. One reason for that is we’re entering this last unit of Daniel. So this last unit is actually Daniel’s 10 through 12. So think of this kind of as one big sermon spread over three weeks, because we’re taking it by chapter. So today is really the introduction to this vision that Daniel is going to have. Next week is going to be the content, what the vision actually is. And then chapter 12, in two weeks, we’re going to look at God’s instructions to Daniel. So one big unit. So that’s one reason why we’re going to break things down a little bit different today. But also I want us to kind of look just at verse one, because verse one is really an introduction and really a summary of the three chapters. So it kind of acts as that summary right at the beginning, kind of saying, Hey, this is where we’re going. And so what I want to do is I want to do is I want to read that first, and then we’re actually going to read the rest of chapter 10 all at once. And then you can see in your outline, we’re going to pull some truths out of chapter 10 and talk through them. And these things that we’re going to see that are in your outline, there are really around the two major themes that we’ve seen in Daniel so if you’ve been with us, Brandon mentioned it last week, God’s sovereignty and worship, especially prayer, are two major themes that we’ve seen in every single chapter of Daniel, and we’re gonna see that again today. So we’re gonna pull out some truths that we see, especially in Daniel 10 this morning. But let’s go ahead and look at verse one so we can get some of the context, some of the background here that will help us, not only this week, but in the next couple weeks too. So chapter 10, verse one, in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel, who was called Belteshazzar. Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. So we’re going to stop there in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia. Now, when it says the third year, it’s not really referring to his whole reign over Persia, but specifically when they took over Babylon. So now they’ve been in charge in Babylon for three years, and this is a very significant marker in the life of the Israelite people, because two years before this, Cyrus had issued an edict, a decree saying that exiles like the Israelites, could start returning to their homes. They could go back. They could start rebuilding. They can start rebuilding their temples, their places of worship. And so he sends them back, and the people go, it’s a very small group, but some people go back and they start rebuilding, they start rebuilding the temple. And yet, very quickly, there’s some opposition that comes up. There are some roadblocks to this work continuing. The city did not have the same glory it once did. The temple certainly was not going to have the same glory it once did. And the walls of the city are broken down. And. If that sounds familiar, any of that you know? I know that you’ve read Ezra and Nehemiah, because that’s where we get a large chunk of this whole back to from exile and kind of what is happening in that time. But that’s the background there. And then we see here that Daniel is called Belteshazzar. It’s that reminder of his Babylonian name that he, while there’s people going back to Jerusalem, he’s still in exile. He’d be in his late 80s, early 90s, at this point, and he did not return with them. Now we’re not sure why Daniel stayed back in Babylon, but it’s probably not. We could probably safely assume it’s kind of because of his age. And I’d also like to think we know enough about Daniel now, ever we followed him most of his life here, that he could probably do more good staying in Babylon and praying and interceding for the people in Jerusalem than it could actually be in a help there. And so he stays in Babylon. He’s praying for God’s people. And in this last unit, we hear that he’s going to get a vision of a great war, and we’re not going to see anything about that great war today that’s next week. Like I said, we’re looking at this as a big unit over these next three weeks. But with that background now, let’s read the rest of chapter 10, starting in verse two. We’re going to read actually, all the way to 11. Chapter 11, verse one, verse two says, At that time I Daniel mourned for three weeks, I ate no choice food, no meat or wine. Touched my lips, and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. On the 24th day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up, and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of fine gold from you Foz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. I Daniel was the only one who saw the vision. Those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone gazing at this great vision. I had no strength. Left. My face turned deathly pale, and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep. My voice, my face to the ground, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you and stand up for I have now been sent to you. And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. Then he continued, do not be afraid, Daniel, since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me. 21 days then Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come. While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless. Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I feel very weak. How can I your servant talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe again. The one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed. He said, peace. Be strong. Now be strong. When he spoke to me, I was strengthened. And said, speak My lord, since you have given me strength. So he said, you know why I come to you. Soon I will return to fight against the Prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come. But first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. No one supports me against them, except Michael, your prince. And in the first year of Darius, the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him. All right, so three truths that we see in chapter 10 teaching us about God’s sovereignty and worship. The first is this, that our posture matters. Okay, our posture matters as we approach God. Something is bothering Daniel. In these first few verses, something is bothering him, and the reason isn’t given to us. It’s not spelled out for us clearly, but there’s a couple hints that we see in verses one through four, plus we need to remember last week chapter nine, Daniel spent a whole lot of time repenting for his and Israel’s sin, and so Daniel is driven by God’s glory, and he’s driven by God’s people, and that’s how he comes to Lord in prayer all the time. Couple other things to consider of why he might be in mourning, why he might be coming to the Lord in prayer for these three weeks, there’s exiles that have returned to Jerusalem, but he has probably gotten reports already that things are not going well. First, the number of people that went back was not large. And now they’re facing opposition. So these things have stalled. The rebuilding of the temple is not happening. And in verse four, we find out that this vision comes in on the 24th day of the month of the first month, which means Daniel would have been praying and mourning and fasting throughout Passover, because that’s when. Passover happens in that first month, and he knows Passover is not what it once was when the temple and the sacrifices could be offered. And so all of this together, his care for God’s people, his love for the Lord drives him to mourning and praying for the people. He takes his prayer life seriously, and he takes God seriously throughout this book, and he fast, it says from certain foods and wine, he he didn’t use lotions, it says which would have been important to use in a dry climate. And so one commentator says Daniel basically, like, just let himself go, like a lot of us did during COVID, right? You just let yourself go. You weren’t going to see people, you weren’t gonna be around. So he’s just but it’s not because he doesn’t care. It’s not because he’s lazy and it’s not because he’s given up. Why does he fast? Why does he not put lotion out? Why does he not care for himself? Because he doesn’t want anything else getting in the way of his focus on prayer, his focus for God’s people and interceding for them, until the Lord answers. He goes all in with his heart for God’s glory and for God’s people. So his heart, his outward actions, are reflecting his heart. He is consumed by God. He is consumed by prayer to his God. And then we see the messenger before Daniel here, in verses 11 and 19, says to him that he is highly esteemed. He’s highly esteemed because of his posture toward God. He takes his prayer life seriously, and so he comes to the Lord in humility. Look at Verse 12, since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them, because you humbled yourself before God. This messenger comes to him, and then when he when he comes, Daniel continues to be humbled throughout this entire encounter. Look at these things. I’m just going to list the verses. You can hopefully see them there in the text. Verses eight, nine, he says he has no strength left. His face is deathly pale, and he fell into a deep sleep when he heard this man speaking. Verses 10 and 11, he is trembling. First he’s trembling on his hands and knees, and then he’s trembling when he stands. Verse 15, he is speechless. Verse 16, he’s overcome with anguish and he’s weak in verse 17, Daniel says, How can I your servant? Talk with you, my Lord, my strength is gone and I can hardly breathe. This leads to more humility. He’s prayed to God, the messenger with the answer has come before him, which doesn’t lead him to think, man, I am super important, like the Lord showed up. He answered my prayer. No, that’s not what happens. It said. It brings him to his knees, trembling, unable to even speak. It reminds me of another prophet named Isaiah. In Isaiah six, Isaiah sees a vision of the Lord on His throne, and he doesn’t say, look how great I am to be in the presence of God. What does he say? Instead, Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips, and a people of unclean lips. He’s saying, I shouldn’t be here. Daniel sees I shouldn’t be getting this message from this messenger. And he’s right. Isaiah is right. And so an angel has to go and dig some coal from the altar and come and cleanse his lips and purify him so that he can stand before the presence of God. And similar to what we see here with Daniel, look at his posture in verses 18 and 19. Again, the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. Do not be afraid. You are who are highly esteemed. He said, peace. Be strong. Now. Be strong. When he spoke to me, I was strengthened. And said, Speak, my lord, since you have given me strength. Daniel experiences the grace of God in this moment, his touch, his words, bringing him strength, only the humble will receive the strength of the Lord. That’s key for us. Remember only the humble will receive the strength of the Lord, the man who is weak because he’s older. He’s fasting. He’s overcome with fear. Now stands boldly before this messenger, not through his own strength, but because he says, because of the strength you gave me, there’s nothing on his own where he can stand before this messenger, Daniel understands then now that he has a role to play in the answer to the his prayers, and he’s finally ready to hear it. All right. So his posture has mattered Throughout all this, and now he stands with the strength of the Lord ready to receive and Cory 10 Boom. Once said this about prayer. We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that he will get us involved in his plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God’s work on behalf of the people for whom we pray. And Daniel is ready, right? Daniel’s ready for what’s coming, not only in this chapter, but 11 and 12 and what God has for him, because he’s going to continue to have a role to play with God’s people as God’s servant. God will start to answer prayers through him. And so when we approach God, we come to him humbly, but at the same time, we come to Him boldly, which seems like can we do both? Can we come to him humbly and boldly. Because humbly we come to Him because we know there’s nothing in ourselves where we can deserve to stand before the God of the universe, to stand in His presence, but boldly, we come because of his grace. We stand in His strength that he’s given to us through His Son and the work he has accomplished for us. So my question in this first section, are you going all in on your prayers and fasting? Does it consume you? We don’t get a whole lot. We can’t get into a whole lot of theology of fasting right now. But let me just make it very practical for us. If you want to go all in on prayer, first, distraction must be minimized. And we think of food and we think of wine. Maybe that’s not the thing for us. Maybe it’s this. This is off, by the way, or else I’d be very distracted up here. This might need to be put aside for a while, because this is distracting us. This is getting us off of what we should be doing. John Piper famously wrote one of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the last day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time. Substitute whatever you wanted for Facebook and Twitter, because this was from a while ago. Substitute whatever it is for you. But at the last day, we cannot say, I did not have time to pray. We can’t so maybe this is what we need to fast from. Maybe this is what we need to put aside so that we can go all in and have our minds and our hearts consumed with God’s glory and his people, and bring all of that to Him in prayer. Because God’s glory matters. God’s people matter, and it needs to consume our prayer life as it does Daniel. So Daniel and his humility approach God in prayer often, and God answered his prayers, showing that he was working through him. So first, posture matters. Let’s continue then on that second point. What else can we pull from this? That prayer works. Prayer works. Daniel has been fasting and praying for three weeks, and now along the bank of the Tigris River, he has a vision of a man, and we get the description of this man, which clearly makes an impact on Daniel. Daniel has not described any other messenger in this way. He has not had the response to this messenger like he has with other messengers throughout the book. So there’s something different about him. And the description we get of this man is very similar, strikingly similar to what we read about when the apostle John sees the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation one. So you’re going to see Revelation one up on the screen, I hope. And you can glance over at Daniel 10 and kind of see the similarities, but I’ll read similarities, but I’ll read from Revelation, and among the lamp stands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white, like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. And so in this moment, my belief is that this appearance here that Daniel sees is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus, that the second person of the Trinity appears to him in this vision, not only because of what we see here with Revelation and Daniel, but this messenger is not named. In chapters eight and nine, the messenger is named it’s Gabriel. We also read here about Michael, but we don’t get a name for this messenger that’s talking to Daniel. And then we also get the reaction of the other men who are with Daniel. Look at verse seven in chapter 10, I Daniel was the only one who saw the vision. Those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. This sounds a lot like Apostle Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus, where, as he’s going to persecute Christians, Jesus shows up. A flash of light happens, and Paul hits the ground, and he sees Jesus, and Jesus talks to him and says, Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? And look at what it says in Acts nine, verse seven, the men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound, but did not see anyone. So in both of these accounts, Daniel sees the vision, right? Paul. The vision, and everybody else around them knows there’s some sort of presence there in front of them, and it causes terror. They hear it. They can’t see it. They run and hide in fear. Now, I could be wrong. This might not be the pre incarnate Jesus appearing here in this moment. Many people think it is Gabriel. Others think it’s a different Angel. But here’s what all of us agree on, and that is the message is from God, and it’s for Daniel. So whoever’s bringing it, it is God’s words to Daniel in this moment as a response to his prayers. And that matters, because the message that he receives is that Daniel’s prayers have worked. Look at verse 12 again, since the first day that you’ve set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard and I’ve come in response to them. It’s not a coincidence that when the messenger speaks to Daniel, he tells them in verse 12 that he set out to bring the message the message the very first day, Daniel started praying. And then how long did it take for him to get that message there? Three weeks, because he was resisted for 21 days. I’m not very good at math, pretty sure that’s three weeks. 21 days. Three weeks, Daniel continues to pray. Daniel’s prayers have an effect on this message getting to him. The message was sent the first day. The answer was sent the first day, and it’s held up, but Daniel continues to pray until he hears that message. Not only does God answer his prayer here, he’s going to reveal to him the future, pulling back the curtain, but he also pulls back the curtain in a very unique way, because it’s not just about the future. He also pulls it back and says, Let me show you why the message was held up for three weeks. The peak behind the curtain is this, there is a cosmic battle going on that we cannot see unless the Lord chooses to reveal it to us. In the spiritual realm, there are things happening that have a direct impact on what happens here in the seeing world. God sent the message. It was resisted for three weeks, until it finally got to Daniel, and God wants him to see why that is. And so what do we see here? There’s a reference to the Prince of Persia that is resisting this messenger and this message from getting to Daniel. This is another reason why some people think this is not the pre incarnate Jesus could, because Could he really be resisted? And all I’ll say about that is Jesus was killed on the cross, and Satan thought he won, he lost, right? So I don’t know why this might happen in this way, why God would have these 21 days, but the Lord can do that and still bring the message for his purposes, and he’s done that many times throughout Scripture, in His providence. But the reference here to the Prince of Persia is most likely referring to a evil spirit, a demon who has some sort of effect on the king of Persia, and he is resisting this message from getting to Daniel. And so we need to ask the question I’m sure you’re asking. This is some demonology and angelology. Here? Are there demons and angels over certain areas, over certain countries, over certain regimes? And this past week, I’m sure many of you saw way too much red and blue on your screen, and we saw a lot of lines drawn states and districts, we start to realize, all right, there’s different people who are responsible for those districts and those states who are being elected. Is that how it works in the heavenly realms? Is there an angel over here and an angel over there and a demon doing this? I don’t know. I don’t really know what this all means, what this all looks like, but what I do know is that there’s some sort of organization, right? There’s some sort of organization going on, right, but it’s something we cannot see unless the Lord chooses to reveal it to us. But I think when you look at world history, there are some governments, some leaders and some people that have done things so evil, there had to be something else going on beyond just what we saw, right like the evil that has existed in this country and around the world and still exists. There has to be something beyond what we see. There’s just some mystery for us. What does this look like? What does this mean? How does this impact us? There’s always going to be mystery there, but he’s resisted. We don’t know how this resistance happens, but whatever is happening, it requires the help of Michael, who we read about again later in Daniel, but also in Revelation. He’s referred to as the archangel, or the chief Angel. Only Michael and Gabriel are given names. He is important in verse 21 look at Daniel 10. Verse 21 what do we see? See that Michael is your prince. It says, and probably not referring to Daniel’s Prince, but more so the the people of Israel, right? It’s plural. It’s your prince. It’s the people of Israel’s Prince, like Michael, has some sort of responsibility for the people of Israel. It, and we don’t know what Michael did, but somehow what Michael did allowed this messenger to get to Daniel, to bring this message at this time. And we’re going to come back to Michael, like I said in later weeks in Daniel. So that’s all we’re going to kind of say for now. But what Daniel sees here is made clear in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that peel back curtain that Daniel saw. We get a glimpse of it too. Look at Ephesians six, verse 12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Scripture is clear that there is a spiritual batter battle being waged right now. It’s been going on. It’s going on right now. And it’s important to know, because prayer matters and prayer works. The prayers we pray now don’t just have an impact on the physical world, the seen, but they can have an impact on the unseen world, the things that we don’t see. Daniel’s prayers helped get this answer to him, which is why this messenger pulls back the curtain so he can see why Jesus lived with this understanding of what’s behind the curtain. He saw it. He knew it. He knew there was something bigger going on in every interaction with people, in everything he saw. He knew when there was spiritual warfare happening. So a few examples from Jesus’ ministry, where prayer and spiritual warfare, where we see these two things in Jesus’ ministry. First, in Mark nine, there’s an impure spirit that the disciples cannot drive out. This is after the transfiguration. He comes down. Disciples cannot get this demon out. He comes and he drives the demon out. And then disciples asked, why couldn’t we do that? And Jesus’s answer is pretty simple. This kind can only come out by prayer. Like Jesus knew there was something bigger going on. He knew who this demon was. He knew what was going to it was going to take was prayer to get that demon from this person, John 17. Jesus is praying for His disciples, and He says, My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, he’s praying to His Father, but that you protect them from the evil one. Jesus saying, don’t take them out of the world, but protect them from the spiritual attacks of the evil one. He’s praying protection over his disciples. He’s praying protection over us from the things that we cannot see that might impact what we do, see what we do experience here and then in Luke, 22 Jesus is talking to Simon Peter, right before he’s betrayed, and he says, Simon, Simon, Satan is asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. There was a spiritual battle going on for the disciples and for their faith, and it looks like Satan wins. It looks like they’re on his side when they run from Jesus, when he’s taken, when they betray him, when Peter disowns him, it looks like he has won. But Jesus makes it very clear in his prayers that Satan would not win. Makes it very clear because God will win the cosmic battle. When Peter turns back and strengthens his brothers right, Peter is restored, the disciples follow Jesus and continue to proclaim His name, most of them given their lives for him. So you see, Satan had no chance in this cosmic battle. He may have wanted them, but Jesus knew it wasn’t going to happen.
And Ephesians six Paul goes on to list the spiritual armor of God, which I’m sure we’re very familiar with if you’ve been in the church for a while. This is God’s armor used to help us live out our lives, our Christian lives, and defend against the schemes of the devil. So we have a belt and we have a breastplate and we have shoes, we have a shield, we have a helmet, we have a sword. That is the word of God, but then he goes on to give one more weapon that we have. It’s not referred to as a weapon, but I think we could use it that way, and that is prayer. Look at Ephesians, 618, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. This comes right after the armor of God is listed. We have prayer. Prayer matters, prayer works, and we can use it against the schemes of the evil one. For this, what happens here and what happens in the unseen, in the spiritual Now, anytime we talk about spiritual warfare, we talk about demons and angels. You can fall into like kind of two sides. And so we need to be a little bit careful here, because the concern is falling to one and trying to kind of say, alright, let’s bring it back a little bit more to the middle. We don’t want to look at Satan or look for Satan behind every bush. The devil did not make me do everything today. One reason, he’s not omnipresent. He’s not everywhere. The demons are not everywhere. So we can’t blame him for that. We can’t look for him at every little corner, not everything. Evil thing that is done has. Demonic oppression attached to it. In fact, I heard Greg Laurie once say that if the demons and the devil decided to take a month off, we’d still get ourselves into trouble. Yup, like that’s just because that’s the sinful nature that we have, that’s the evil in our hearts that we will choose to rebel against God. So we can’t do that. But on the other side. We can’t ignore the realities that we see here in Daniel we can’t ignore the realities that we see in Jesus’ ministry. We can’t ignore the realities that Paul tells us in Ephesians six, there is something going on that we cannot see. So we got to be careful on falling to one side or the other on the hill at Calvary in Luke 23 we read that Jesus cried out, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And then he breathed his last. He died. And what people saw in that moment, the people that were there in real time, what did they experience a dead man on a cross. That’s what they saw in the seen world. They saw the sky go dark. They saw the earth shake. They saw the curtain of the temple tear in two from top to bottom. That’s what they could see. It’s hard to be there and ignore those things, not notice that they’re taking place around you. But what they didn’t see was the spiritual significance of everything in that moment, they couldn’t see it. They couldn’t see the unseen, which was the decisive blow against Satan, the decisive blow against in this war on evil. When that temple curtain tore in two, it was revealing what was happening in the spiritual realm as well. It wasn’t just a peeled back curtain. It was torn completely. And Caitlin read Colossians two for us earlier, because this is what was happening that people missed on Good Friday, when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned it, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross like they just thought it was just talking about Him as the Messiah, and that’s why he was being killed. No, there was so much more on that it was our sins nailed to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. He triumphed over them by the cross, by his death. It doesn’t say resurrection. This is all confirmed by the resurrection three days later. But in this moment, what looked like defeat to the world, what they could see was that there was a dead man on a cross. And yet in that moment, Satan and the demons and the power of evil and the power of sin knew that this was the beginning of the end, that it was over for them, that they had lost. And when we pray to God, how does this truth? What Daniel sees in chapter 10, what we know from Ephesians six, what we see in Jesus life. How does this change the way we pray. How does this change the way we pray in exile? So here’s the question we need to ask ourselves, are your prayers big enough? Are your prayers big enough? I don’t mean, do you pray enough? This is not about quantity. That’s important. Paul says, Pray without ceasing. But what I’m saying is is I’m talking about the big bold, impossible prayers. Are we praying those? Because those are the prayers that God will use to shake heaven the unseen and shake the earth the seen, those big bold, impossible prayers. So here’s the question, how do we know if our prayers are big enough? How do we know? Well, use this thought experiment. If God was to answer all of your prayers from the past week, how different would the world look the world? How would evil be impacted by your prayers last week? Would regimes fall, would wars end, would famine turn to harvest? Would people be freed from slavery? Would persecuted Christians find favor in their countries and be able to worship freely? Those are big, bold and possible prayers. But if he answered all of them, would those things happen? Or if God were to answer your prayers from last week, would it change just your little bubble, your life, your home, your relationships, your nine to five, your finances, your health, all of which we should be praying for, right? We should be praying for those things, but what about those big, bold, impossible prayers? I am ashamed to admit that most of my prayers fall in that second category. I do not pray big enough, I do not pray bold enough, and I do not pray enough impossible prayers. We don’t. Know when God will answer our prayers, how he will answer them, but can we expect anything big to happen if we don’t pray them at all? Like, can we pray? Can we can we expect him to do the impossible if we don’t pray for it? Because that’s what Daniel did. That’s what we see him doing throughout his life. Is that true of our prayer life? This is not on the screen, but I’m just going to read James 517 and I hope it’s an encouragement. It says this, Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Elijah was a man like us, and he prayed a big, bold, impossible prayer to stop rain for three and a half years, and guess what? God did it. He was just like us. So today, here’s my challenge, start with one big prayer. What is one big prayer you can pray today that it makes you uncomfortable even to pray because it should. It should. What is that one big prayer that if God said, I’ll answer it tomorrow. What would you pray for? While we must wait for the whole vision until next week, we can deduce from this encounter something important that we must remember when we pray, and that is that God wins. That’s our last section. It’s a shocker. I know. I’m pretty sure this has been our last point of every message in Daniel, but that’s because he wins. God wins, and that’s what we need to look at when we’re praying, no matter the appearance, no matter the circumstances, God wins. So that’s our third section here. Only a sovereign God who wins knows the future. Look at verse 14, because the messenger comes with confidence in verse 14 and says, Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future. For the vision concerns a time yet to come. Only a God who wins knows that, only a sovereign God who wins can have a book referred to in verse 21 as the Book of Truth. This is the only time we get this. This This Book of Truth in this order, and it’s in this context saying what’s happening in the future. I’m going to tell you, Daniel, in response to your prayer, this is what’s going to happen in the future, and he’s going to get it in detail. And only a God who wins sees generations come and generations go. Because what does the messenger say here at the end in verse 20, he says, soon I will return to fight against the Prince of Persia, and when I go the Prince of Greece will come. And we read that, we’re like, Alright, he’s going to fight the prince for a couple weeks, and then Greece is going to come. No, there’s 200 years before this happens, before Greece takes over from Persia, only a God who wins and is sovereign can say, yeah, it’s just going to be like this much of time. It’s not a bit it’s not a big thing, because he’s over history. None of this phases him. He is the one constant, the one constant. Nations will come and go. He knows what’s going to happen. He knows he’s ruling. He will rule forever. And here, in the scene where we live in a broken world, and there is a cosmic battle going on that does impact what we see and what we experience here, there will be real, physical and spiritual hardship as Christians, because we’re exiles in a foreign land. We are not home yet, and yet, if anyone, if anyone, has seen behind the curtain, it’s us. Daniel didn’t have all of this, like he got a glimpse. Do you understand what we have here? We’re the ones that get to see behind the curtain. It’s not like, oh wow. Look at all Daniel got to see. We see it, and we see it clear and fuller than Daniel ever did. We have more. So this should encourage us to pray. This should encourage us to keep praying. Here’s the big idea that I hope we can all hold on to today, you’re going to face physical and spiritual hardship, so don’t stop praying. It’s going to happen. We are exiles, living in a foreign land. We will face physical hardship. We will face spiritual hardship. Don’t stop praying. Daniel did not pray just one time he prayed continually expectantly for three weeks. Maybe we don’t have that kind of endurance, yet we might not have endurance for three minutes, three hours, three days, three decades. How long will we pray? But Daniel keeps praying, so maybe, if you don’t have that kind of endurance yet, here’s what I would have for you as an action step, pray that the Lord would give you the endurance to keep praying. That should be your prayer. Lord, I want to give up. Lord, I’ve been praying for the same thing over and over again, like pray that he would give you endurance to keep. Praying, and maybe you want to challenge yourself with those bigger prayers. A great way to do that is to join the prayer team. Like we’re all on the prayer team. We’ve said this before, but there’s something about coming together to pray. So join the prayer team. Come to Prayer gatherings. Pray big prayers as a family, as a community group, and pray for revision the vision statement that Brandon laid out by 2033 that we’d have two churches planted. That’s a big, bold and possible prayer, by the way. Are you praying for that? Do you want to see that happen? Are you going to keep praying for it, and we’re never doing this in our own strength. We’re doing it in his strength. Maybe you’re still struggling thinking about prayer. So here are these words from AW Tozer. If when we come to prayer, our hearts feel dull and unspiritual, we should not try to argue ourselves out of it. Rather, we should admit it frankly and pray our way through. Some Christians smile at the thought of praying through but something of the same idea is found in the writings of practically every great praying saint, from Daniel to the present day, we cannot afford to stop praying till we’ve actually prayed. And that’s what I hope all of you will be encouraged with today is pray until you actually pray. Like small, small letters, pray until you like all caps, until you actually pray. Tozer says, sometimes the best time of prayer is the last 10 minutes and the first 30 were like, what was I even doing? Because at 30 minutes, you were actually getting ready to actually pray. But how often do we let that time happen, or we just say it’s too hard pray until you’ve actually prayed. Don’t stop praying until you’ve actually prayed. Get rid of the distractions, right? It should consume us, and keep praying. Let’s pray now.
All powerful God, the one who hears and answers our prayers, we come before you today and pray that You would help us to put on the full armor of God so that we can take our firm stand against the schemes of the devil. Help us to remember that we have divine power to demolish strongholds and take every thought captive, to make it obedient to Christ. There are big prayers that all of us should be praying. Lord. Show us today how we should pray. Bring these things to our mind. Give us the endurance to keep praying, and as we submit to you, help us to resist the devil, and we know he will flee from us. Lord, You have given us our salvation through your Son, Jesus, on that cross, the greatest victory in the world shook Heaven and Earth, and now we are called to pray big prayers that you will use to continue to shake Heaven and Earth for Your glory and for our good. We pray all this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.