Have you ever realized you were lost on a road trip? Most of us have at one point or another and so we carry atlases and road maps to help us along on our journeys. Sometimes we just aren’t paying attention to the signs on the road and miss a turn and in other cases we take the wrong detour. Someone I know very closely has driven on the opposite side of traffic. I once watched a person back up an on ramp to a highway. I have also seen someone drive through a turn lane in the wrong direction. This freaked me out because I was taking that route next. Whatever excuse we make for our bad driving decisions, it is still our fault and we must face the consequences of our actions such as a ticket, a wreck, or just lost time.
Sometimes we wonder where we are in our lives as well. Some of you have already raised children and now have grandchildren. Some of you are running through the gauntlet known as parenthood and others yet still are just trying to finish school. Have you asked yourself the questions “Where am I in life? What am I doing here? How did I get to such a place in my life?” We get bombarded each week by the severe demands on our time and energy with work, school, children, and church. In between navigating through all of this we have to find time to spend with our spouse and make sure our homes are safe, clean, and secure for our families. Don’t forget all the disasters that can occur in between to make things more complicated. A family member goes to the hospital or you yourself become sick and unable to use your time how you would like. Where are you in life today? Are you using your time or is your time using you? Do you have any control over your life or is it running you to death? Do you fit God in that time constrained world of yours? He really belongs first you know.
Daniel may have a lesson or two to be learned about placing ourselves in God’s time stream instead of our own. I think it is time we found out where we really are in life and realize that there probably has to be some change. Daniel 9 is basically a prayer from Daniel to God about the condition of himself and the Jewish people of Israel who had been deported to Babylon. We are in much the same boat as those men and women. The boat, known as First Christian Church of Camp Point, needs a wake up call to see where it is headed, realize that it is the wrong direction, turn around, and head the right way. We must turn our lives around. Just as if we were traveling down the highway, we will need four tools to help us make it safely to our destination; 1) we need a map (to read), 2) we need to understand the map, 3) we need to be able to correct ourselves according to the map, and 4) we need to be able to get back on track.
READ – Daniel 9:2
“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 seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” - New King James Version (NKJV)
Daniel, as he was reading the word of God, discovered something in Jeremiah’s writings that brought a very important period to his mind. Daniel had been taken as a boy from the land of Israel and placed in the palace of the king of Babylon. He would have been deported somewhere around the year 586 when Jerusalem was destroyed and now he reads about the prophet Jeremiah who stayed in Jerusalem and finds that this destruction would last for seventy years. Ezekiel was deported in 605 B.C., Daniel and some others in 597 B.C., and the final destruction occurred in 586. Which starting point counts to start counting the seventy years? The end of the seventy years could be 4 or five years away. This triggers in Daniels mind and heart why they were deported in the first place. What did Daniel read in the book of Jeremiah?
Jeremiah 25:4-7 says, “the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the LORD, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt (NKJV).” The people had built idols and worshipped them. They ignored everything God’s messengers said and went on with their business.
What I want you to understand is how Daniel found out where he was spiritually. Daniel found the state of Israel and his own spiritual state by reading scripture. Daniel opened up the scroll of Jeremiah and read it. Daniel read about the sins of Israel and how they had failed God and ignored God’s word. He then understood their state of affairs. We also need to check our map on this road of life to see where we are and see if we have veered from the proper road. We have the complete revelation of God at hand. You can buy a bible for 3 dollars easily here in America and yet very few people even read it. If you want to see clearly where you are in life you might want to check your map. You may find you are further off course than you think. Narrow is the road to heaven but wide is the road to hell. We need and have a map; read it!
After you read it however you must understand it.
REALIZE – Daniel 9:2-6, 20
“Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O 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.” – NKJV
Daniels whole demeanor must have changed. He set his face towards God means that he put every ounce of his physical, emotional, and spiritual being into focusing on God. He didn’t leave any part of himself behind. He faced God with everything he had and prayed to God while fasting in sackcloth and ashes. He was repenting by giving up all his worldly possessions and paying total 100% attention to God and God alone. He confessed the sins of himself and the people of Israel right in front of God. He told God exactly what they had done. They had rebelled, built altars to idols, and worshipped other things besides God. They didn’t listen to God’s messengers. When Daniel read the scroll of Jeremiah, his road map, he saw what the people had done and realized how much they had done to hurt God.
We too must come to a realization that we have also failed. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Every single human being has chosen to do something that breaks God’s laws. We have all chosen to lie, cheat, steal, hate, become bitter, demanded our way, hurt another person, etc. If we say we haven’t, 1 John 1:10 tells us we are liars (a sin) and have nothing to do with God. If we read the road map called the Bible, we will see many ways we have chosen to go off from the straight and narrow path. This country was truly founded on the basis that God is in control of all reality and time. WE as a country have also sinned and it is about time to admit that we have run from God towards the depths of sins deadly pit. Daniel realized the failures of the people and how much it hurt God. Do you realize what sins are in your life and how damaging those are?
Now, once you read the map, you will see where you failed. Now you need to take a U-turn and get yourself back on the right road again.
REPENT – Daniel 9:7-9
Daniel continues his prayer to God. I believe Daniel truly shows us what a real heart of repentance looks like. Listen to how he attributes to God what God deserves and blatantly names mankind as the ones causing the problems. “O 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 in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. “O 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, though we have rebelled against Him.” – NKJV The people of Israel faced open shame among other nations because they had been conquered and scattered over the known world. They had been decimated all because they would not obey God. They knew what they should have done and did not do it. They chose to be selfish and prideful and their downfall came because of that. Daniel understood that their shame continued for the last 70 years. This is what a repentant heart looks like; complete admission of sin committed and the damage done to the Holy God.
From the guilt and shame Daniel felt over his sins, he turns to God as his only hope for salvation. There are two ways to go when we feel guilt, shame, or sorrow over how we have been living. 1 Corinthians 7:10 says, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” Daniel here exhibits the sorrow that makes a person repent and find salvation from their sins. He believed absolutely that he had to change to be acceptable to God. Let me be honest, many of you sit on the other side of this fence. I have heard many of you say, “I know I am not doing what I am supposed to but…” You know you should change the way you are living and what you are doing. You know very well but you do nothing. That’s the sorrow that leads to death. I pray you hear the warning you are getting now because you may not have a tomorrow to change. Stop believing you have tomorrow and concentrate on doing what’s right today. If you have sin, confess and repent to God.
One last thing, you should know that there is forgiveness. Everyone can be restored back to God. We must take a U-turn but only God can erase our failures. The analogy between driving and life breaks down here because in driving we turn around but we never get the time wasted back. God however restores us as if we had never turned off the highway.
RESTORE - 1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
John, in the book of first John, tells us exactly how a Christian can restore their relationship with God in heaven. We must confess our sins to God. We must tell God what we have done. Our heart should be torn apart by the sins we have done and we come before God broken in pieces and tell Him what we have done. Daniel did that exact thing for 17 verses in Daniel 9. He spends verses 18 and 19 calling to God and asking Him to act on their behalf and take away their shame. Daniel confessed everything the nation of Israel had done and believe that a loving God could forgive all that had happened. His heart was broken and beaten because he knew how badly he had hurt God. Daniel was a righteous man of God and yet still knew he had wounded God. God promises to help you take all those broken and shattered pieces of your lives and put them together properly.
But you will never truly repent and you will never have a greater sorrow for your sins until you understand that not only have you wounded God but you have also destroyed your children and your spouse. You sin destroys everyone including you and it is time you got your act together and saw that a wonderful and forgiving God is waiting for you to give up your pride and give Him your broken life. You cannot fix it but God is faithful and righteous to forgive your sins and clean up the mess you’ve made of your life. You can be restored back to the way God created you. There is a Christian song that comes to mind. Have you ever heard the song “Broken and Beautiful”? Let’s listen to it.
God wants nothing more than to have a relationship with you but he cannot have a relationship with your sin. He wants you to repent and confess your sin to Him so that He can clean you up and spend time with you. He wants to know you on a more personal level and He wants you to know Him too. Read your map and understand when and where you have failed. Once you understand, go to God in humility and honestly confess what you did to Him. You would want your children to come to you and tell you the truth if they did something wrong wouldn’t you? Set the example by speaking to God about your failures. I guarantee that you will find forgiveness, love, hope, joy, and acceptance from God. Take the chance now to pray.
