Daniel 9:1-17 Daniel's Prayer

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Daniel chapter 9, starting in verse 1, here now, the inspired word of God.

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In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the king of the

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Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books of the number of the years, which was revealed as the word of the

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Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

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So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

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I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome

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God who keeps covenant and lovingkindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.

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We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances.

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

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Righteousness belongs to you, O Lord, but to us, open shame. As it is this day to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all

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Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which you have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against you, open shame belongs to us,

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O Lord, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against you.

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To the Lord, our God, belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him.

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Nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord, our God, to walk in his teachings which he set before us through his servants, the prophets.

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Indeed, all Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, not obeying your voice.

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So the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have sinned against him.

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Thus he has confirmed his words which he had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity, for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything that was done like to Jerusalem.

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As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the

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Lord, our God, by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to your truth.

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Therefore, the Lord has kept the calamity in store, brought it on us, for the

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Lord, our God, is righteous with respect to all his deeds which he has done, but we have not obeyed his voice.

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And now, O Lord, our God, who have brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for yourself, as it is this day we have sinned, we have been wicked.

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O Lord, in accordance with all your righteous acts, let now your anger and your wrath turn away from your city

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Jerusalem, your holy mountain, for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers,

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Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all those around us. So now, our

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God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplications, and for your sake,

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O Lord, let your face shine on your desolate sanctuary. O my

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God, incline your ear and hear, open your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by your name, for we are not presenting our supplication before you on account of any merits of our own, but on account of your great compassion.

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O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive, O Lord, listen and take action. For your own sake,

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O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people are called by your name.

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Let's pray. Father, we bow before you and we are humbled even reading that prayer of Daniel.

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Teach us to pray as he has prayed. And Father, we pray that you would open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts, that we would see, hear, and understand what you have to say to your church this morning.

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And that, Father, that we would become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray, amen.

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Please be seated. I want to begin by asking you a question.

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When do you pray? Now, notice I'm not asking if you pray.

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For if you are a Christian, it is presumed that you pray. In fact, Jesus himself made that assumption in his instruction for his disciples.

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He said, when you pray, pray like this. And then he proceeds to give us that model prayer for how to pray biblically.

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So I'll ask you the same question once again. When do you pray?

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Now, you may be asking a question or two of your own right now. Why is the pastor asking this question?

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And what does it have to do with Daniel? Both of them are fair questions and will be answered shortly.

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But for now, we've been studying the book of Daniel for several months now. And most recently, we've been focusing on the visions given directly to Daniel.

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We've seen how all the visions and the dreams revealed in this most intriguing book.

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I think that's the word I used in my opening introduction to the book. It's an intriguing book.

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But we've seen that all of these visions and all of these dreams so far are all related to one another.

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They're not given piecemeal in a vacuum. And their subject matter is all in the same time frame, and that's the time frame of these four kingdoms of the ancient

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Middle East. Leading up to the coming of Jesus Christ and his work in his earthly ministry here.

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The first two dreams that Daniel had were unsolicited by him.

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They just came upon him. They're given to him by God, and as we have seen, for the purpose of encouraging and comforting the true people of God who are in captivity in Babylon.

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These dreams were so vivid, so overwhelming, that they physically affected

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Daniel. The first vision, the last verse of the chapter, chapter seven.

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At this point, the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me.

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My face grew pale, and I kept the matter to myself. And then again after the second vision,

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Daniel 827, then I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days.

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Then I got up again and carried on the king's business, but I was astounded at the vision.

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There was none to explain it. But the third vision of Daniel 9 comes as a result of something that Daniel has done specifically, he's reading the word and he's praying.

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So first, let's just put this chapter in its proper context.

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The first two visions of Daniel took place under the reign of Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, the successor from Nebuchadnezzar.

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The first vision in the first year of Belshazzar, the second in his third year. Now, we don't know exactly the length of time of Belshazzar reign, but certainly wasn't much longer than maybe ten years.

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But we do know when it ended. It ended in the first year of Darius' reign.

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We read about that earlier in Daniel. We read again now, the opening verses to chapter nine are instructive again for this context, and it begins this way in verse one.

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In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the

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Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the

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Lord to Jeremiah the prophet. For the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

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Remember now, Daniel's an older man, you notice

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I don't say old anymore. Older, doesn't that sound more dignified, that he's an old man or he's an older man?

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You can refer to me as an older man, that would make me feel better. At least until I look in the mirror.

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But he's an older man by now, but his devotion to God has not waned in the slightest.

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We find him all these years later reading the scriptures, specifically the book of Jeremiah the prophet.

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And he reads what we have now designated as chapter 25 and chapter 29.

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In chapter 25 verse 11 we read this. This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years.

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And as repeated again in chapter 29, verse 10, for thus says the

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Lord when 70 years have been completed for Babylon. I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place.

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And that's the context for this familiar verse, often misquoted verse. Of Jeremiah 29 verse 11, based upon that, those words in verse 10.

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For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare, not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.

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That almost became the verse for this church, but we decided on this hope we have as an anchor of our soul instead.

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But by reading this word from the Lord, Daniel is given hope, and he's stirred in his heart to do something, to take action.

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And what it does is it immediately drives him to his knees in prayer. Now this tells us several things about Daniel.

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We don't know how much of the scriptures Daniel had available to him. He's in captivity. And good portions of the scriptures haven't been written yet.

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But whatever he did have, he read them, and probably more importantly, or most importantly, he believed them.

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For once he understood what he had read, he was moved to action. There's a lesson in prayer right there.

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How do you respond when you read the word of God? The answer to that question says a lot about your walk with Christ.

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Because see, this was not a momentary reaction, a spur of the moment thing for Daniel.

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This was part of his life. His whole life was devoted to prayer and obedience to God.

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And it was his dedication to the truth that sometimes got him into trouble.

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It landed him in the lion's den. But here, once again, we see his character shining through.

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And the text tells us that it was the word of God that drove him to prayer.

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Specifically, he reads that there's an end. There's an end to the captivity.

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There's a time when the exiles shall return home. And he reads that God was gracious enough and gave him a time frame, 70 years.

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Which would mean that the end of the exile is near as he's reading this. So what does

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Daniel do with this information? He prays a very specific prayer.

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We understand that coming from Daniel, but what would most people do upon hearing that captivity's almost over?

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Celebrate. And if they were pious and God -fearing, they would thank

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God for the end of the exile. But that's not what

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Daniel does. Which is very revealing to us again about his character.

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So let's look at this prayer of Daniel. First thing we look is, he prepared for this prayer.

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Look at verse three. So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

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You know, the celebrations in Israel were true celebrations. They were marked by times of feasting, much like we do for special occasions.

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We're partying people in the United States, aren't we? We have parties for birthdays, for weddings, for engagements, anniversaries, baptisms, graduations.

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If someone's going away, we throw a party. They come home, we throw another party. Now, there's nothing wrong with those things.

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The Bible tells us there's a season for everything, and there's certainly a season for celebrating. So when

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Daniel comes to the conclusion that the captivity is about to end, you would expect him to celebrate, maybe even throw a party.

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But that's not what we see. He comes to the Lord in prayer with fasting and dressed in sackcloth and ashes, which is a symbol of mourning.

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Why is Daniel mourning when he's gotten this good news?

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We're almost ready to finish the exile. Look at verse four.

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I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, alas, O Lord, the great and awesome

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God who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.

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That's his address. This is his opening to the prayer. Notice what he says.

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I prayed to the Lord my God, Jehovah my

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God. There's that personal relationship that God has with his covenant people.

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He refers to himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I like to call him the

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God of Richie Jensen, because he is. Can you say the same?

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That's something to rejoice about. We have access to a heavenly father who is the

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God of the universe. Remember when Thomas saw the risen

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Christ, he says, my Lord and my God. But then

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Daniel proceeds, after calling him my God, he calls him the great and awesome

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God. I don't think I have to spend a lot of time defending those descriptions. We're over halfway through the book of Daniel and we have seen that God is great and he is awesome.

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Look at what Daniel observed during his lifetime in Babylon. The visions he's been privy to, they have been awesome.

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So much so that they actually affected his health. Sick for days, pale faced, exhausted.

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Think of what he saw. He saw the deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the furnace of blazing fire.

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He had come out of it not only unscathed, but didn't even smell of smoke. Great and awesome are understatements describing the most high

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God. And he's also described as being faithful.

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He is a covenant keeping God and his loving kindness is abundant. Look how

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Nehemiah describes our God. In Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 32.

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Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who keeps covenant and loving kindnesses.

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At Jeremiah in Lamentations 3 .32, he says, for if he causes grief, then he will have compassion, according to his abundant loving kindness.

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Notice there's a consistency, and there's a reason for the consistency of how

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God is described in the scriptures, because our great and awesome God never, ever changes.

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Just as we sang this morning from Lamentations, Lamentations 3 .22, the

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Lord's loving kindness indeed never cease, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.

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What a great hymn. And it must be noted that Daniel is praying these things back to God in a private prayer.

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He's praising God for who he is. Not that God needs reminders, but for Daniel's own sake, he's reminding himself just how great and awesome

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God is. This prayer should serve as a reminder to each one of us that we should be praying like this.

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Is this how we begin our prayers? By addressing the great, the awesome, the covenant -keeping

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God who is abundant in loving kindness. Remember, prayer is more than just asking

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God for things. Now, it is that, but it's much more than that.

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Prayer is an act of worship. Prayer is communion with God.

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John MacArthur has done some wonderful work on this very subject. He says, the essence of prayer is simply talking to God as you would to a beloved friend without pretense or flippancy.

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And he continues, he says, because communion with God is so vital, and prayer is so effective in the fulfillment of God's plans, that the enemy attempts constantly to introduce errors into our understanding of and commitment to prayer.

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And then the good Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones, he nails it with this writing.

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He said, speaking of prayer, he says, it is the highest activity of the human soul.

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And therefore, it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man's true spiritual condition. There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people as much as our prayer life.

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Ultimately, therefore, a man discovers the real condition of his spiritual life when he examines himself in private, when he is alone with God.

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And have we not all known what it is to find that somehow we have less to say to God when we're alone than when we're in the presence of others?

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It should not be so, but it often is. So that it is when we have left the realm of activities and outward dealings with other people, and are alone with God, that we really know where we stand in a spiritual sense.

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Daniel, as a prophet of God, was privy to many secrets that God was to reveal to his people.

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He was a faithful and a humble servant of the Lord. And that character is reflected in this very prayer.

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At the very start of the prayer, Daniel humbled himself in sackcloth and ashes.

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And reminds himself and us just who this God of heaven is.

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The great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and whose loving kindness is better than life itself.

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Next comes the confession part of his prayer. But first, let's be reminded of the context.

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Daniel, by reading Jeremiah, understands that the period of exile is coming to an end.

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That's what prompts the whole prayer. And instead of celebrating, he prays this marvelous prayer, interceding on behalf of the people.

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And you will see that he is praying for God to do exactly what he has promised to do for his own sake.

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Even though the people do not deserve his compassion. But before he does that, he lays out before God the sins of the people.

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Daniel knows that there are reasons for the exile in the first place. Look at verse five.

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He says, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, rebelled, even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances.

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First notice, Daniel doesn't separate himself from the people. He says, we, we have sinned.

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Another sign of his, not only humility, but wisdom. Though salvation from bondage to sin is on an individual basis, nations and institutions are also subject to God's judgment.

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We know that. Remember when the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, and God put a ban on the things in Jericho, and Achan stole, stole from God.

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The whole nation suffered defeat. The first Israelites to lose their lives in battle were a result of the sin of Achan.

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So Daniel understood this principle, and he comes before God as a representative of the people.

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And, and this explains why, instead of rejoicing at the good news, he mourns with sackcloth and ashes.

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He knew the hearts of the people had not changed. They were still rebellious, so he prays, and listen to the list again.

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We have sinned, committed iniquity, we acted wickedly, rebelled, even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances.

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I think that list could be longer, but I think Daniel ran out of words. But you get the point.

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Case in point, they are in exile for these reasons, and the people have not shown any signs of repentance or changing their wicked ways.

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Case in point, while the book focuses mostly on Daniel and his three friends,

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I'm sure there are others who remained faithful. But if there were, there weren't many, and certainly not enough to impact the captors.

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Case in point, when Nebuchadnezzar erects the golden statue and commands everyone to worship it, who's identified as violators?

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Three, only three individuals, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

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Now I grant that they were specifically the object of a conspiracy, but not one other person is singled out for failure to bow to the knee to the statue.

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And we know from the rest of scripture that even after the return from exile, the society of Israel and Judah were corrupt, and they remained corrupt all the way up to the time of Christ.

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The Apostle John sums it up so adequately and so succinctly when he says in John 1, verse 10.

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He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.

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And then the heart -wrenching verse, he came unto his own, and those who were his own did not receive him.

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And so Daniel, as a prophet, sums up the condition of the people. We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, rebelled, and even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances.

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Moreover, that's not all. Moreover, we have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and the people of the land.

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Basically, Daniel says, we're incorrigible. Not only are we sinful, but we're not willing to listen.

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We've had many prophets who have spoken to our leaders, says Daniel, to no avail.

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And once again, Daniel nails it. God sent numerous prophets calling the nation to repentance.

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Now, think of it this way. There are 16 books of the Old Testament that are called by prophets' names.

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But they were not the only prophets that God sent. One list that I read says that there were as many as 60 prophets in the

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Old Testament alone. In other words, there was no shortage of prophets coming in the name of God, calling the nation to repentance.

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And they spoke to all levels of society. They spoke to kings and princes. They spoke to rulers. But they didn't neglect, they spoke to the common people.

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The prophets would come calling for repentance and detailing the consequences for failure to do so.

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The prophets basically came as God's prosecuting attorneys. And when the people broke his covenant.

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And that's exactly what we see happen to Judah, as Jeremiah prophesied against them.

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Jeremiah 20, verse 4. For thus says the Lord, behold, I'm going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends.

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And while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of the enemy. So I will give over all Judah to the land of the king of Babylon.

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And he will carry them away as exiles to Babylon and will slay them with the sword.

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That's what has happened. But Daniel also remembered the prayer of Solomon. Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple.

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In first Kings 8, 33. When your people,

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Israel, are defeated before an enemy, notice what he says.

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Not if, but when. When your people,

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Israel, are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you, if they turn to you again and confess your name and pray and make supplication to you in this house, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people,

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Israel, and bring them back to the land which you gave to their fathers. That's what

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Daniel's praying. Daniel continues by comparing who

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God is with what the men of Judah deserve. Look at verse seven.

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Righteousness belongs to you, O Lord, but to us, open shame. As it is this day to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all

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Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away, and all the countries to which you have driven them because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against you.

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And he repeats it in verse eight. Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes, our fathers, because we have sinned against you.

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Daniel is doubling down, as they say in Vegas. To the

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Lord our God belongs compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him. Nor have we obeyed the voice of the

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Lord our God to walk in his teachings, which he set before us through his servants, the prophets.

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Notice something that's absent. Nowhere does Daniel pray, give the people what they deserve.

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Nor does he make comparisons to other nations. Lord, we're not great, but we're better than those

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Philistines, those Dagon worshippers. Nor does he make excuses.

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We've tried our best to be good servants, but it's hard. It's hard being a Jew. Look what we had to give up.

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I could really go for some bacon right about now. Now Daniel, speaking for his people, he lets it all out.

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You are righteous, O Lord. We are a shameful people. And this prayer is for everyone, including those who are far away.

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Why are some far away? They were driven from the land by Almighty God himself. Why? For all their wicked and sinful ways.

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And he repeats again the sin of rebellion. The sin of rebellion is a particularly heinous sin.

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Remember when King Saul went against the word of the Lord and Samuel came and he was cut off from being the king.

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And through Samuel, God told him, God told Saul, for rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry, because you have rejected the word of the

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Lord. He has also rejected you from being king. Notice what he says.

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Rebellion is like witchcraft and idolatry. Those bring serious consequences.

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How many times have we rebelled? We would be quick to say, we're not idolaters.

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Word of God says, different if you've ever rebelled. So the bottom line, they were not only disobedient, they were incorrigible.

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And then in verses 11 to 14, Daniel draws the direct comparison between the sin of the people and their present distress and captivity.

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This too is instructive for us on how we should pray. Look at verse 11. Indeed, all

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Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, not obeying your voice, so the curse has been poured out on us.

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Along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have sinned against him.

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What is the curse he's speaking about? Specifically, Deuteronomy 28. In Deuteronomy 28, the

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Lord is giving instructions for the Israelites entering the land of promise. And it contains a list, if you obey the terms of the covenant, then all these blessings will come upon you.

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But it also lists all the curses that will come for disobedience. And it's a lengthy list, which includes being overrun by their enemies and being carried away into captivity.

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And verse 12 to 14 just confirms this. It says, thus he has confirmed his words, which he had spoken against us and against the rulers who ruled against us, to bring us a great calamity, for under the whole of heaven there has not been anything done like what was done to Jerusalem.

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This is serious business. This is why Daniel is praying this. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us, yet we have not sought to favor the

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Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to your truth.

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Notice what he's saying. Even though we're already experiencing the curses, the people's hearts still haven't changed.

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And in his prayer, Daniel agrees with God's judgment upon his people. He lists their violations, and then he says, they got what they deserved.

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Then he appeals to God for compassion and mercy. Look at verse 15.

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And now, O Lord, and now, O Lord our God, who have brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for yourself, as it is this day, we have sinned, we have been wicked.

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Notice how Daniel brings to mind the exodus from Egypt by way of comparison. Its remembrance was celebrated each year in the

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Passover. And it became a symbol of deliverance. And we see it over and over again in scripture, even like in Hosea.

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And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came out from the land of Egypt.

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And so Daniel pleads, he pleads with God to perform a second exodus, if you will, look at verse 16.

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O Lord, in accordance with all your righteous acts, let now your anger and your wrath turn away from your city,

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Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For because of our sins and iniquities of our father,

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Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all of those around us.

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Notice how God -centered this prayer is. Turn your wrath from your city, not our city, it was the city of God, from your holy mountain.

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Verse 17, so now our God listened to the prayer of your servant and to his supplication. For your sake,

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O Lord, let your face shine on your desolate sanctuary. And then he gets to the only reason his prayer would accomplish anything at all.

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Verse 18, my God, incline your ear in here, open your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by your name.

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For we are not presenting our supplications before you on account of any merits of our own, but on account of your great compassion.

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That sums it up. The only reason any one of us is not headed for hell is not because of anything we've deserved or we've earned, but because of the compassion of God.

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And finally, verse 19, Lord hear,

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Lord forgive, Lord listen and take action. For your own sake, my

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God, and do not delay, because your city and your people are called by your name.

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That is biblical praying. There's lessons to be learned here.

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James said in chapter five, verse 16 of his book, the effect of prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

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To be effective, the prayer must be biblical. And Daniel has given us a prayer to aid us in our praying.

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Let's just review a few highlights before we bring this sermon to a close.

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First, the content. Notice what he says, he's always praising

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God for who he is. Ask yourself, does your prayer life consist of that? Are you praising

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God? Praise him for what he has done.

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Who he is, he's worthy just to praise him for who he is. What about for what he has done?

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Pray for the promises of God to come to fruition. Don't pray for what you think you deserve.

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Pray for mercy and compassion. Before you pray for your daily bread, pray for the will of God to be done and for his kingdom to come.

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Who should you pray for? Well, you pray for individuals, of course. But pray for the church in general, and by that I mean the church around the world.

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Daniel came and stood on behalf of the whole people of God, no matter where they were, the exiles, those still in Jerusalem.

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And he prayed for them. He interceded for them. We need to intercede on behalf of the entire

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Church of Jesus Christ. Pray for our church, specifically, that we would be a

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God -honoring church, that we would be a faithful church, a church that would reflect the loving kindness and be faithful to the truth of his word.

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And then, of course, pray for our nation. And all the subdivisions, just like we do from this pulpit.

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So, when do you pray? Only when you get an email, only in an emergency.

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If you're here today and you're not a Christian, first and foremost, there's one prayer that you need to pray before you pray anything else.

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And it's quite simple, I have sinned, forgive me. To the

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Christian, praying is an integral part of the Christian life. Take a lesson from Daniel.

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Take a lesson from James. Come out to prayer meeting on Wednesdays where we study, we're studying right now the topic of what a biblical prayer is.

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But most importantly, take a lesson from our Lord. When you pray, pray like this, our father who is in heaven.

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Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

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And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever, amen.