Text: Daniel 9
Title: How to receive a blessing from God
Introduction
“In the first year of Darius…who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom-in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” (1-3)
One day as Daniel is reading the Bible (the book of Jeremiah) he comes across a promise from God found in…
Jeremiah 29:10-11
“When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Daniel is so excited about this promise of God found in Jeremiah 29:10-11 that his response is …
“So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.”
Notice again his response to the promise of God.
•He turned to the Lord
•He pleaded with the Lord in prayer and petition
•He fasted
•He put on sackcloth and ashes
What caused Daniel to do all these 4 things?
The only answer I could think of is this;
More than anything else he wanted to see the promise of God come to pass.
Consider for a moment this thought;
God has promises throughout the Bible for every one of us
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29v11)
It’s not a question of, “Does God really have a plan to bless my life?” It’s more a question of “Do I really want God to bless my life.”
I believe I speak for everyone here when I say that all of us want God to bless our life.We came to church this morning because we want God to bless our life.So how do we receive a blessing from God?
We can take one of two approaches to receiving God’s blessings
Approach #1: I can just sit back and wait for God’s blessings to come to me.
The really sad part is this -lots of people believe that the Bible actually teaches this approach.
They believe that sitting back and waiting for a blessing from God is the Bible’s way of living by faith.That living by faith means I sit back and wait for God’s blessings to come to me
The devil loves this kind of living by faith. The devil loves it when we take this kind of approach to the blessings of God.Why?
Because as we will see later- this approach guarantees that we will receive very few of the blessings of God.
There is a second approach we can take to receiving God’s blessings
Here is approach #2: If I am to receive a blessing from God then I must chase after the blessings of God
I’m calling approach #2 Doing it the Daniel Way
Remember Daniel’s Way? (v3)
“So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.”
Illustrate the difference between sitting back and waiting for a blessing from God verses chasing after the blessing of God
A good friend finds out that you have a great financial need. Your good friend is able to meet that need so he puts a check for the full amount in the mail.That good friend forgot to put a stamp on the envelope. That’s bad news because the post office has a firm policy.The policy says; no postage no delivery. The Post Office will not deliver that blessing to you because it does not have the proper postage.
Here is my application
God is like the post office. There are blessings that God will not deliver to us because we have not paid the proper postage.
What is the proper postage?
Look at V3 again
He turned to the Lord, he prayed, he petitioned, he fasted and he put on sackcloth and ashes.
(He put on sackcloth and ashes –we could say that Daniel put on humility)
Now some people might say to me
There might have been postage to be paid for those who were living under the Old Testament covenant But there is no postage to be paid for those who are now living under the New Testament covenant. Don’t we all love the envelopes that say “No postage necessary if mailed in the United States.”
Listen to James 2:20
“…Faith without deeds is useless.”
The identity of James
Was he an apostle? Was he a pastor?
My theory is that James may also have worked part time in the post office!
He worked in the post office and he oversaw the delivery of all the letters that were addressed to God.
And every now and then he would take one of those letters, shake his head and
say …We have to send it back. “Don’t these people ever get it; No postage no delivery” means “no postage no delivery.”
But when James the post office worker held a letter addressed to God that has been written in prayer, written in petition, written in fasting, written in ashes and sackcloth …
It must have felt like … he was holding the envelope that wins the blessings of God.
Ask and you will receive; seek and you shall find; knock and the door shall be opened to you.
Where did Daniel find the will to turn to the Lord?
Where did Daniel find the time to pray and petition?
Where did Daniel find the self-control to fast?
Where did Daniel find the courage to put on sackcloth and ashes?
He found everything he needed to do all these things in the promises of God!
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29v11)
Consider this
In order to start a prayer life you need a promise from God to start praying about.
In order to fast you need a promise from God to fast about.
In order to put on sackcloth and ashes (humble yourself) you need a promise from God to keep you humble.
Illustration:
Somewhere in heaven there is a huge warehouse. That warehouse is full of the blessings of God. Those blessings have our names on them. God wants to give us those blessings.
He has even given us the catalog; The Bible!
We will only receive those blessings if we first turn to the Lord, pray and petition the Lord and finally fast and humble ourselves before the Lord.
You have not because you ask not!
