Sunday, January 31, AM

I apologize for the quality of my voice here but I'm glad to be able to be here.

And I'm not contagious as far as I know. So I did I had a negative test back in December so all is fine. No actually I had a negative test on Friday so all is well. Anyway we want to welcome you to Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning.

We're glad that you're here with us to worship the Lord together, to enjoy fellowship with one another, to encourage each other in the faith, build one another up in Christ. So we're grateful for the Lord's mercy to bring us together here this morning.

So a couple of announcements to to bring to your attention. One in your bulletin is in regards to Operation Christmas Child. Grateful for all those who gave through the course of the last year and we're beginning the process of collecting items for for this year.

So hats, mufflers, and gloves are always needed. So winter winter clothing items are helpful. So anything you can supply along those lines will be will be a much appreciated. Next Sunday after the after the morning service there will be a brief meeting about a 10-minute meeting down in the fellowship hall after the service to speak with those who might be interested in standing outside the abortion mill, abortion clinic that is in our neighborhood to pray there and if the Lord gives opportunity to speak with people.

But if you're interested in doing that at any point along the way please attend that meeting. They're also going to be talking about Abolition Day at the Capitol that will be in February and gathering together for a rally to abolish abortion.

First in our state and then in our nation. So be thinking about that praying about that that will be next Sunday morning February 6th after the morning service in the fellowship hall for about 10 minutes to to talk about that.

This morning we'll be not only enjoying our regular time of worship together but we'll also be sharing together in the Lord's Supper. So as we as we sing as we pray as we read God's Word as you hear God's Word preached let all those things prepare your hearts to meet around the Lord's table in fellowship with the Lord this morning.

Flock groups will also meet today at least some of them will be meeting today at various times in the second half of the day. So be mindful of that. Wednesday will be our regular Wednesday evening time of meal at 545 and then tag for the kids and prayer time for the adults at 630.

So we hope that you can come and be a part of that. Our Friday verse for this week comes from Psalm 103 and the hundred and third Psalm is a great Psalm to memorize and to be able to meditate upon. And so it begins with these well-known verses verses 1 through 4.

Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your iniquity. Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit.

Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. So as as you have opportunity this week read over meditate upon and maybe maybe even try to memorize those verses from Psalm 103. All right all right as we prepare our hearts to worship the Lord together this morning we want to take a few moments just for each one of us individually to be still before the Lord to know that he is God and that we are his and we gather together to proclaim his greatness and majesty.

And then after a few moments then Brian's gonna come.

Prayer for Worship and the Call to Worship

And lead us in prayer. All right so let's go to the Lord. Heavenly Father what a.

Privilege to be here this morning with these brothers and sisters in Christ. May you strengthen the bond between us and between you. As our quote says on the bulletin from Charles Spurgeon, God promises to keep his people and he will keep his promises.

What an assurance of our faith. So this morning Lord would you enlighten us by your word. Lighten our hearts with music and song and praise and remind us whose we are. We are yours. May our allegiance, our love, our loyalty, our obedience be to you O God and to none other.

May we find joy and peace and satisfaction in our souls this day. In the name of Christ our Savior we pray.

Amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship? News, the gospel is the good.

News. The greatest gift that God gave us was salvation. Sending the Son the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins and today as we remember that sacrifice and that wonderful gift of salvation we just well in our singing and our reading and our worship of Christ is be to Christ.

Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 74 starting this new chapter today and the psalmist is appealing to God for the destruction in the land of Israel. So God why do you cast us off forever?

Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your congregation which you have purchased of old which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion where you have dwelt.

Direct your steps to the parenteral ruins. The enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. Your foes have reward in the midst of your meeting place. They set up their own signs for signs. They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees and all its carved wood they broke down with hatches and hammers.

So if you would open your Psalms for worship hymnal page 74a and we're going to sing that passage that we just read. We'll.

Sing verses 1 through 3. Chapter 14 verses 12 through 23. How you are fallen.

From heaven O dawn star son of dawn. How you are cut down to the ground you who laid the nation's low. You said in your heart I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high.

I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. But you are brought down to Sheol to the far reaches of the pit.

Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you. Is this the man who made the earth tremble who shook the kingdoms? Who made the world like a like a desert and overthrew its cities? Who did not let his prisoners go home?

All the kings of the nations lie in glory each in his own tomb. But you are cast out away from your grave like a loathed loathed branch clothed with the slain those who those pierced by the sword. Who go down to the stones of the pit like a dead body trampled underfoot.

You will not be joined with them in burial because you have destroyed your land. You have slain your people. May the offspring of if may the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named. Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers.

Lest they rise and possess the earth and fill the face of the world with cities. I will rise up against them declares the Lord of hosts. And I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant. Descendants of and posterity declares the Lord.

And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog and pools of water. And I will sweep it with the broom of destruction declares the Lord of hosts. Please join me in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father thank you for giving us the ability to meet here today Lord and read your word.

I pray that that you will use today to work in the hearts of the congregation Lord and help them understand who you are and that they will be blessed by your word Lord in today's sermon. In.

Jesus name I pray. Amen. You may be seated. Our next song is out of Psalm 130. It's I.

Will wait for you. Today and thank you for your many provisions in our lives.

That you know exactly what we need and you so abundantly supply. We thank you that we can trust you. That you are good and everything you do is good. That every good and perfect gift comes down from you our Father of light with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

We thank you that your word is true and always reliable and powerfully addresses our current situations, the state of our hearts, the need of the hour. As we come together today to rejoice in the person and work of Jesus Christ and as we celebrate his resurrection from the dead that we live in his world.

I pray that you would give us grace to hear your word and respond with an amen. That you would have your way in us. We pray all these things for the sake of Jesus Christ the one with whom you are well pleased.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. Daniel is a book of riddles in which the wisdom of God triumphs over all. Whether the riddles emerge in statecraft where life and death are on the line or the riddles appear in dreams and visions which plot the arrival of the new covenant.

God's wisdom answers in every case as Christ is revealed. And although we are not in the middle of the book we have come to the central theme. We have come to the pinnacle chapter of Daniel in chapter 9.

All of the stories and all of the visions thus far have built to this critical moment. And the visions to come which round out the rest of the book they flow downstream from this spring. It's in Daniel 9 that we most clearly find the heartbeat of the prophet and we receive in a most concentrated fashion the promises about Messiah.

The theme for this chapter is covenant faithfulness. I invite you to stand with me as I read Daniel chapter 9 verses 1 through 10. Here are the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by his spirit to the prophet Daniel.

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus of the lineage of the Medes who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said oh Lord great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments we have sinned and committed iniquity.

We have done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heeded your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes to our fathers and all the people of the land.

Oh Lord righteousness belongs to you but to us shame of face as it is this day. To the men of Judah to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel those near and those far off and all the countries to which you have driven them because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you.

Oh Lord to us belongs shame of face to our kings our princes and our fathers because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness that we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. We have set before us a meal and this meal takes us from Genesis to Revelation. This meal testifies to the passing away of the Old Covenant and the arrival of the New Covenant.

The abundance of Eden which God enjoyed with the first Adam is superseded by the banquet of Zion set out by the second Adam. The feasting and fellowship lost in Genesis 3 is seen not only restored but then fulfilled in Revelation 19 through 22.

The Passover meal that God crafted for the Old Covenant is here collapsed into the communion meal. The shadow you see bows and backs away from the blazing light of Christ. And if the trappings of the Lord's Supper seemed to you to be far less ornate than those feasts of Old Covenant life, you would be correct.

The feasts and the ceremonies of the Old Covenant were far more ornate, far more involved, many more moving parts, and yet the person and work of Christ are far far better than all of those shadows of the Old Covenant.

And now that the new has come, the old has passed away. As we come to Daniel chapter 9, it is important for us to remember that that transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant has not yet occurred in Daniel's time.

It's certainly in view. Daniel 9 holds great promise for the New Covenant, but Daniel's prayers are offered to God in Old Covenant parameters, and his concerns are answered by New Covenant promises. It is important for us to properly locate the prayer of Daniel and the concerns that he has to locate those within the story of God's redemption.

We will be greatly helped to understand and apply the principles of prayer and confession and hope when we remember what context Daniel is in when he prays. And what does Daniel desire? What does he pray for?

Well, I only read the first 10 verses. He keeps praying all the way down to verse 19, so you know your homework for today. What does Daniel desire? What is he really after? What does he hope for? What is he asking for?

I think that you'll see that he's looking for forgiveness, mercy, the restoration of fellowship between God and his people. What he desires is communion. What he desires is something that is realized even in the ordinance set in front of us.

Throughout Daniel chapter 9, here's the controlling thought we are going to see. God's covenant faithfulness, and that means him keeping his promises, that means him loving his people based on who he is and not who they are.

God's covenant faithfulness manifests, is revealed, it shows up. God's covenant faithfulness manifests in Christ for all the saints, for all the saints. So when the old covenant saints who were circumcised of heart, when they wanted to know how faithful God was, they would look at the shadows and the types and the promises of Christ.

And as new covenant saints, when we want to know how faithful God is, how good he is, that he keeps his promises, that he loves us based on who he is and not who we are, we also look where he has revealed his covenant faithfulness, and that is the person and work of Jesus Christ.

God's covenant faithfulness manifests in Christ for all the saints. This morning what we're going to do is simply look at the first two verses of Daniel chapter 9 to remind ourselves of some very important events that have already occurred in the history of Israel, how it is that Daniel has come to this particular position at this particular time.

We need to understand the setting for the prayer that he offers to the Lord. Daniel chapter 9 verses 3 through 19 gives us a wonderful look into the prayer life of an old covenant saint, a prophet in exile after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and this is one example of many long-form prayers that we have in the Bible.

We can read Hannah's prayer, we can read David's prayers, we can read Jeremiah's prayers, we can even go to the New Testament and read the prayers of Jesus, and the setting of all of those prayers matters.

When the saints and our Savior prayed, we should think about what was going on in that time, what were the covenant conditions, what had been revealed about redemption. I say this because we need to remember about what Daniel is praying, he's praying an old covenant prayer, and I say that not to say this, I don't, I'm not saying that has nothing to teach us, far from it.

I'm not saying that it's wrong-headed, far from it. I'm not saying we should ignore it, far from it. What we need to recognize is that Daniel prays from an old covenant concern and that the new covenant is yet to come.

We need to sort our understanding of Daniel's prayer according to Christ, not according to our current socio-political situation, not according to our felt needs, not according to our lived experiences.

We should be reading Daniel's prayer according to Christ. Where is Christ at this moment when Daniel is praying? What has been revealed about him thus far? What has he accomplished and what is yet to come in his manifest reign?

The only alternative we have to reading God's Holy Word in the light of Christ, the only alternative is to read our own experiences, our own emotions, and our own cultural ethos into the text, and who knows where we will end up then.

And so we will give perhaps and apparently an inordinate amount of attention to the setting of old covenant concern in verses 1 2. Now there are two considerations going on in verses 1 2. There is a set of timing and authority in verse 1, and there's a set of timing and authority in verse 2.

Which one is the more important connection for Daniel? Which one is controlling his thoughts and his prayers? Growing up in Guthrie, our church and school were located down in the flood plains of the town, and there were a lot of empty city blocks spread all around our dilapidated white cinder block buildings that had survived the floods.

All of the abandoned houses had been demolished and the debris removed away, so we had a lot of open area down there, and the city would use it for carnivals and festivals. And one carnival came through every year and offered those infamous rides.

You know the kind. You get strapped in some half-worn loose restraining straps, and then you get hurled around as fast as the motor can turn you so you can feel like an astronaut in training. The flimsy belts fastened across your body, they don't really keep you in place.

It's those G forces that are doing that. And as long as the rattling bolts of that rust bucket ride hold together, the centripetal force keeps you in place. And it doesn't matter if the restraints across your body are a threadbare, brand new, you could even replace them in the middle of the ride and it wouldn't matter.

I say all this because there are two intersecting factors mentioned twice in Daniel chapter 9 verses 1 and 2, timing and authority. One set of those factors is like that seat belt that you could take it or leave it or change it out.

The other set of factors is like those G forces pinning you in place. One doesn't really affect the saint anywhere near as much as the other. And we're going to see how these things work in the prayer life of Daniel.

We begin with the not so important restraint straps, the timing and authority of the current political situation. Daniel chapter 9 verse 1, the first year of Darius the Mede. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.

Now what's confusing for readers of the Bible is that the names Darius and Ahasuerus show up again in the story of the empire of Medo-Persia. These are royal names used both by the Medes and the Persians.

The Medo-Persian empire was complex. They had a cultural unity but differing groups. The Medes, then the Persians, they had upwards of four different imperial capitals. A complex empire. But as we saw in Daniel chapter 8, the Medo-Persian ram that went and conquered the known world, the first horn was the smaller horn of less power and that was the Medes.

And the second horn, which was much larger, was the Persian horn, the one that got all the fame and glory in the history books. So when we read about this Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, these are the Medes, not later on.

Not the Darius of the Persians, under whose reign the temple was rebuilt. Not the Ahasuerus of later times, whose bad advisor Haman tried to have all the Jews killed. This Ahasuerus and Darius aren't the same as those two.

These are the Medes who came much earlier. This Darius is the one we read about at the end of Daniel chapter 5. Daniel chapter 5 verses 30 and 31, that very night Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, was slain and Darius the Mede received the kingdom being about 62 years old.

That Darius. Which means that the old regime had been defeated. The Emperor had fallen. Long live the Emperor. The Empire had passed away. New Empire, but basically the same story. Here in the first year of Darius the Mede, he was large and in charge and looking forward to making a bunch of changes that would consolidate his power.

We can read about the organizational changes that Darius the Mede put in place at the beginning of Daniel chapter 6. He wanted a tight control over his empire and so he reorganized things. New agendas were being set.

A whole new order was in motion. The Great Reset had occurred and neither hope in the state nor fear of man was the proper response to the Medo-Persian ascendancy. Remember also this was the same Darius who agreed with his advisors to consolidate his new power by establishing a 30-day quarantine on any prayer except to him.

All loving neighbors and righteous citizens would comply. This was the greater good mandated by the state. Except Daniel did not comply. He went to his window as he had done every day from his youth and he faced the promised land.

Well, the now devastated and destroyed Jerusalem and Temple, piles of rubble. But yet Daniel was resilient in his hold upon the shadows of Christ. He feared the Lord, not man, and he prayed according to the word of the Lord, not according to the creed or mandate of man.

And what was he praying about? What was Daniel praying about? There in his upper room, facing out at the promised land. He just got word. He wasn't supposed to do that. But what was he up there in the first year of Darius the Mede?

What was he praying about? Well, we see that in Daniel 9 and we see that the controlling factors of Daniel's prayers was not about Darius in his first year or Darius in his new mandate, but God's word and the promise of 70 years.

That was what controlled his thinking. The 70 years of Jeremiah's prophecy, verse 2. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Now, there was obviously an effect upon Daniel when they transitioned from Babylonian rule to Medo-Persian rule. Remember that Daniel was there in the last night of the Babylonian Empire. He was there interpreting the handwriting on the wall to Belshazzar the very night that Belshazzar was killed and the city of Babylon fell to their enemies.

But more important to Daniel was these 70 years. 70 years that drove Daniel to his knees in prayer. When would God fulfill the promise? When would God fulfill the promise of the 70 years and say, now is the time?

That wasn't initially clear to Daniel. Daniel had read the scrolls of Jeremiah. He found the prophecies and we would locate them in chapters 25 and 29, but he had read them. What was going on in that time?

In 605 BC, years before the destruction of Jerusalem, when Daniel was very young, in 605 BC, Babylon had finished off their enemies, the Assyrians, and their Egyptian allies in a climactic battle called the Battle of Carchemish.

After that, no one had any kind of ability to oppose Babylon. They were the sole remaining superpower in the ancient Near East. And although God was using Babylon as an instrument of judgment to bring judgment against all these different nations, Babylon, being evil in and of herself, would also face her own destruction in God's good timing, and that was 70 years.

This was promised in Jeremiah chapter 25 and verse 12. Then it will come to pass when 70 years are completed that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

In chapter 25, the Lord sends word by Jeremiah and says, look, I've put Nebuchadnezzar in charge. Babylon is the ruler of the roost now, and you all need to submit to his rule as part of your punishment.

And if you decide to resist and rebel against Babylon, here's what's going to happen. You're going to lose. Also, it's a disaster going to come upon you, and in fact, he'll come and destroy you, and he'll take you away captive, and it will be disaster.

And the people of Judah, true to form, did not listen to the word of God, did not care about Jeremiah's preaching, did not submit to Nebuchadnezzar's divinely appointed supremacy, and due to the rebellion, they suffered a number of defeats.

Three defeats and three forced exiles by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar. The final event in 586 BC, destroying Jerusalem and the temple. So Jeremiah 25 talks about 70 years, and then later on, after the second exile, before the final destruction, Jeremiah sends word to the exiles living in Babylon in Jeremiah 29.

Remember that Daniel's among them. Jeremiah sends the word of the Lord to the exiles already in Babylon. False teachers were telling them, hey, it's going to be all right. Pretty soon we're going to pack up, and we're going to go home, and nothing bad's going to happen.

Jeremiah writes and says, no, you're going to be there a while, so here's what you need to do. Build houses, live in them, get married, have children, make sure they get married and have children, plant gardens, and harvest their crops, and pray for the prosperity of your oppressors.

Do not decrease, but thrive, be abundant. Why? Why would God want his people to live that way, and to be abundant? Why would he want them to be that way? Because God had a promise, and after 70 years, he was going to bring them back to the land, and he wanted them to live in hope, and not in despair.

Jeremiah 29 verses 10 and 11. For thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Now, track back to the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel up in his room, praying, breaking the law, praying to God. What's he praying about? He's praying thoughts of peace, and not of evil. He's praying about a future, and a hope.

When Daniel takes to prayer, even in the face of tyranny, he had great hope. There was a future for his people, a future in the promises of God. And so, this notation here of the 70 years, this is hugely significant for the life of the Old Covenant Saints.

This matters a great deal to Daniel. 70 years, that's a number, that's an assurance, that's a promise that God would restore his people, that he would bring them back. And at the same time, the fulfillment of those 70 years was not immediately clear to Daniel.

That's what part of the reason why he's praying. When are the 70 years up? I'm ready for them to be up right now. I want to go home now. That's why he's praying. There are three possible starting points to count to 70.

And of course, if you have three different starting points of counting to 70, there are three different ending points to anticipate. So, which one is it? In 609, during the Battle of Megiddo, good King Josiah died, battling Pharaoh Neco.

Pharaoh Neco replaced him with a puppet king named Jehoiakim, who was a tribute king before Pharaoh, and then before Nebuchadnezzar. Now, you can look at those days, the death of Josiah and a wicked king, Jehoiakim, and you could look at that as the beginning of the desolations of Jerusalem.

After all, Babylon had already become a world power. They had already, in 612 BC, destroyed Nineveh. They were on the rise. I mean, D-Day had already happened. It was only a matter of time before Assyria was gone and Babylon was the only remaining superpower.

It was pretty clear. So, you could start counting at 609 BC as the desolations of Jerusalem and the ascendancy of Babylon. If you fast forward 70 years from that turning point, you find Daniel in prayer during the first year of King Darius, 539 BC.

So, 609 BC, Josiah dies, Babylon's on the rise. If you count 70 years forward from that, we come to this moment right here, Daniel 9, Daniel praying about the 70 years. Is it now? Is it now? A second way to count to 70 is the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

Jerusalem is destroyed. The temple is destroyed. Is that the beginning of the 70 years of desolation for Jerusalem mentioned? If you go 70 years out from 586 BC, you come to 516 BC. And Ezra chapter 6, verse 16 says, in the sixth year of Darius the Persian, the second temple was completed and dedicated.

That's 70 years. But the third and the correct way of starting to count to 70 was the year that Jeremiah gave the prophecy of the 70 years of Babylonian dominion. In 605 BC, Babylon finished off Assyria.

They swept down to Judah. Nebuchadnezzar took captives. The first batch of exiles he took away to Babylon. Daniel was among them. And if you go from 605 and you fast forward 69 years to 536 BC, you find the first year of Cyrus the Persian.

The first year of Cyrus the Persian. And when we read in Ezra chapter 1, in his first year, he says that the Lord told him to decree the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. So what happened in the 70th year?

Ezra 3 says that the very next year, the 70th year, the foundation of the temple was laid. It was dedicated to the Lord and the worship of God restarted again there in Jerusalem. How do we know that's the right way to count to 70?

Because Ezra chapter 1, verse 1, and 2 Chronicles 36 -22 tells us so. Which is awfully convenient. With three sets of 70 that are really compelling, the Bible says which one is which. And that's amazing.

And although that's convenient for us, Daniel didn't have that yet. He wasn't told that yet. So what's going on with Daniel? Babylon has been defeated. The Medo-Persian Empire has has come to power. Daniel has lived in exile for nearly seven decades, and they clearly saw that the promise of 70 years in God's Word could be fulfilled.

And at the very first possible moment, he prays accordingly. Isn't that great? Posture of faith. Trusting in God's Word. It's not about the Medo-Persian Empire and all the promises that Darius the Mede is making about a bright new tomorrow.

Daniel doesn't pin his hopes or expend his despair on the political shift. He goes before the Lord in the fear of God and seeks the mercy and forgiveness of the covenant-keeping God. Timing of God's promise and the authoritative standard of God's Word.

Those are the controlling factors in Daniel's life. The transition from one regime to the other has an impact, but Daniel is prayerfully seeking understanding of the times by applying the promises of God's Word to his situation.

These promises are all encompassing because they're all important. Their fulfillment signals progress toward the new covenant to be revealed in that restored Jerusalem and at that rebuilt temple. You see, the shadows of Christ, the city of Jerusalem, the temple, all that went on there, they have been destroyed.

They're just piles of rubble right now. But when those dissipated shadows are reshaped that only affirms the future revelation of the substance who is Christ. The city of David, the throne of David, the high priest, the sacrifices, the altar, the ark, the feasts, the rituals, all of these things showed in shadow the person and work of Christ pointing to the hope of the new covenant.

God had promised to bring his people out of exile, back to the land after 70 years, and for Daniel that's what mattered. That was the controlling factor of his prayers, the authority of God's Word and the timing of God's promises.

So, what are the controlling factors of your prayers? What are the controlling factors of your prayers? What is central to your abiding in God? What is central to your communion with Christ? As we gather around this table to remember and to commune, to abide and to affirm, we are provided symbols of God's covenant faithfulness, sustenance for our faith.

Old covenant shadows and promises have been fulfilled. They have been fulfilled in the new covenant substance of Jesus Christ. Here at this table we are reminded of God's Son gifted to us, the Lamb of God, his righteous person, his redemptive work.

We are reminded here of our need of his sacrifice for us. We are reminded here of our satisfaction in Christ. We are reminded of God's holiness offended by our sin and his justice satisfied in Christ.

This is what ought to be controlling in our prayers, that we will return here again and again and remember who God is and who we are and how Christ by his person and work through the power of his Holy Spirit brings us to God.

This should be central. This is not news that pagan men are going to pagan. They're gonna act as tyrants and fools. That's not new. I hate to break it to you but we ain't special in our generation. Read some church history.

Pagan men are gonna pagan. They're gonna rage against the holiness and the truth and the authority and the wisdom of Christ. They will rebel against the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. They're gonna worship the state.

They're gonna embrace the hideous as the holy. Political, social, economic, and cultural upheavals will occur like earthquakes and volcanoes and tsunamis in our culture. Things are going to be shaken up in our world.

But the saints of God in Christ keep coming back to have this meal. No matter what language we speak, what side of the world we grew up on, or what century we are in. We keep coming back to have this meal.

Why? Because it is here that we see God's covenant faithfulness manifested in Christ. We strike anchor here. We come together here. We hold fast together here. The person and work of Jesus Christ, the controlling factors of our prayers, upon this rock, Christ builds his church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.