Gen 25:21, And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. 
	We are deep in the midst of our consideration of effective intercessory prayer. As we have stated over and over again, there is a tremendous wealth of information regarding prayer. There are numerous scriptures, endless writings, countless examples, and thousands upon thousands of sermons detailing what is involved in a true prayer relationship with God. This morning, we will spend some time with Warren Wiersbe’s writings in regard to Daniel as a man of prayer. 
Prayer is the very basic means of communication with God on our part. It is not something that we can just ascribe to with generic and casual disregard of what it means to call upon the Name of the Lord. The avenue of prayerfully being in the very presence of God, through the life blood of Jesus, is not something that should ever be taken for granted. Neither should it ever be neglected. In the very heart of this certainty, we are currently reflecting on the example that we have in Daniel, who was a prayer warrior of exceeding caliber. 
	Please turn again to Dan 9:13-19 as we re-read this passage of one of Daniel’s great prayers. It highlights some of the many facets of intercessory prayer including the attitude of awe and reverence and respect, with which we should always bring our petitions before the Lord. 
Dan 9:13-19, "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 Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Thy truth. "Therefore, the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice. "And now, O Lord our God, who hast brought Thy people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and hast made a name for Thyself, as it is this day —  we have sinned, we have been wicked. "O Lord, in accordance with all Thy righteous acts, let now Thine anger and Thy wrath turn away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people have become a reproach to all those around us. "So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Thy servant and to his supplications, and for Thy sake, O Lord, let Thy face shine on Thy desolate sanctuary. "O my God, incline Thine ear and hear! Open Thine eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Thy name; for we are not presenting our supplications before Thee on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Thy great compassion. "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name." Amen.
	As we noted last time, Daniel was prepared for prayer. He did not just approach this time before the Lord with carelessness and disregard of its affects on the whole nation of His people. He rightfully considered prayer as the absolute means of coming before the very Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth. He entered into prayer before God prepared to learn from God and to ask God to intervene in the affairs of God’s own people. This was the greatest course of service that Daniel could render before God. Therefore he approached it in all the seriousness and the dedication that it required. He fully and meticulously prepared himself to so address God. 
	This creates a very searching and illuminating course of personal integrity before God as His people. How many of us actually prepare our hearts to sojourn with Him in prayer? Compare how we get ready for our daily jobs, for school, for important meetings, for presentations, for consultations, for counseling sessions, or for job interviews or evaluations with the time spent in preparation for prayer. Do we put that same requisite effort and energy and preparation into our each time with the Lord? Or, do we just look at prayer as just a spur of the moment, as we find time and if we have nothing better to do type of thing? 
Daniel prayed three times a day to affect the greatest possibility of learning the heart of God for the sake of those whom he brought before the Lord. He was prepared to speak and he was prepared to listen. He let nothing interfere with his vital commitment to the Lord in those thrice daily appointments before the Throne of God.	
	At the heart of this earnest preparation, Daniel knew the reality of what it meant to worship the Lord. As Wiersbe points out, quote, Too often we rush into God's presence and ask for things, without first pausing to worship Him. Daniel prepared himself for prayer, as did Ezra (Ezra 9:3-5, And when I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard, and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering. But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord my God) and the Levites (Neh 9:5+6, Then the Levites, …, said, "Arise, bless the Lord your God forever and ever! O may Thy glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! "Thou alone art the Lord. Thou hast made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. Thou dost give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before Thee). It's important that we focus on the character of God and not become too preoccupied with ourselves and our burdens. The "invocation" to Daniel's prayer is a primer of biblical theology. His words describe a God who is great and faithful to keep His promises, a God who loves His people and gives them His Word to obey so that He can bless them. He is a merciful God (Dan 9:18) who forgives the sins of His people when they come to Him in contrition and confession. This is also the way Nehemiah prayed when he sought God's will concerning rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem (Neh 1:5+6, And I said, "I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, let Thine ear now be attentive and Thine eyes open to hear the prayer of Thy servant which I am praying before Thee now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Thy servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against Thee; I and my father's house have sinned).
It's one thing to pray to the Lord and quite something else to be a worshiping intercessor. When we see the greatness and glory of God, it helps to put our own burdens and needs in proper perspective. End quote. (from The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament © 2001-2004 by Warren W. Wiersbe. All rights reserved.)  
What is the view of God that we bring into our prayers of intercession? Please forgive me if this is too crass, but very often it seems that we view God as a butler or a servant who exists to meet our every demand. We come to Him and we ask Him to do things for us. We may even beg for Him to make our lives easier and to give us stuff. 
We do not have the proper perspective of the fact that we are permitted, singly through the very sacrifice of God’s Only Begotten Son, to be in the immediate presence of the Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent Lord God Almighty! Rather than demanding His service of our needs and our wants, we should be prostrate in humbleness and awe-struck with reverence and utter respect at the very thought of His magnificence. We should be trembling and in rapt adoration before His glorious Throne of majesty. We should be penitent worshippers of the splendor of His Being of Holiness and Righteousness and Perfection and Glory. Proper preparation to pray is vitally woven together with a heart of worship and an attitude of contrite humbleness!
This, then, leads fully into the next aspect of Daniel’s intercessory prayer. To be an intercessor is to see ourselves rightly before the most Holy One. When we see the glory of God, we must, in all humility and shame, acknowledge that we are absolutely unworthy, of ourselves, to behold His glory. We must confess our sin and shame and thank Him for His grace and His mercy and His love and His forgiveness in Jesus Christ. 
Quote, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16, NIV). God doesn't have to wait for the entire nation to repent and cry out for mercy; He will start to work when He hears the believing prayers of one faithful intercessor.
While Daniel's prayer was certainly personal, he so identified with the people of Israel that his prayer involved national concerns. The pronoun he uses is we rather than they or I. He confessed that he and the people had sinned greatly against the Lord and broken the terms of His gracious covenant. According to Dan 9:5+6, the Jews had sinned, rebelled, turned away from His law, disobeyed His commands, done wrong, and refused to listen to the messengers God had sent to them. "And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy" (2 Chron 36:15+16, NKJV). God had been long-suffering with His covenant people, but the time came when He had to act.
What were the consequences of the nation's rebellion? They became a sinful people, a people covered with shame ("confusion of face," Dan 9:8), and a scattered people. Their land was overrun by enemy soldiers, their great city of Jerusalem was destroyed, and their holy temple was desecrated, robbed, and burned. No wonder the Jews were ashamed! But it was their own sins that had brought these disasters, because their kings, princes, and priests had disobeyed God's laws and refused to obey God's prophets.
The leaders and the people knew the terms of God's covenant, but they deliberately violated them. The Jews were unfaithful to God's covenant, but God was faithful to keep His Word. If the nation had obeyed, God would have been faithful to bless them (Ps 81:11-16, "But My people did not listen to My voice; And Israel did not obey Me. "So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, To walk in their own devices. "Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! "I would quickly subdue their enemies, And turn My hand against their adversaries. "Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him; And their time of punishment would be forever. "But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat; And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you): but because they rebelled, He was faithful to chasten them. "You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster" (Dan 9:12, NIV). Daniel didn't make excuses for the nation nor did he say that God's covenant was too demanding. Israel had enjoyed great blessings when they had obeyed the law, so why should they complain when they experienced great suffering because they disobeyed the law?
But there was something even worse than the sins that brought divine punishment to Israel. It was the refusal of the Jews to repent and confess their sins even after being taken captive! They spent their time praying for judgment against Babylon (Ps 137) rather than seeking God's face and asking for His forgiveness. God's will for Israel in captivity was outlined in Jer 29, but the Jews didn't always follow it. Daniel's approach was biblical: "For the Lord our God is righteous in everything He does" (Dan 9:14, NIV). Why would He bring His people out of Egypt and then allow them to waste away in Babylon? Daniel knew that God had purposes for Israel to fulfill, and so he reminded God of His past mercies (v. 15). End quote. (from The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament © 2001-2004 by Warren W. Wiersbe. All rights reserved.)  
Daniel saw the wickedness and the sinfulness of his people and he confessed that reality unto God. He did not make excuses. He did not seek to blame others. He did not try to minimize or negate the fact of the faithlessness of the nation of God’s Chosen Ones. He confessed their sins and asked God to forgive, and to be merciful despite the lack of obedience. Daniel took that place of the penitent for the nation before the throne of the Almighty Judge. He confessed, with all shame and contrition, that God was right in so judging the nation.
Then, we have the final aspect of this prayer of intercession. Daniel asked for mercy on God’s people for God’s own glory. Quote, God in His grace gives us what we don't deserve, and God in His mercy doesn't give us what we do deserve. Daniel asked the Lord to turn away His anger from Jerusalem and the holy temple. He admits that the sins of Israel (including Daniel) were the cause of that great catastrophe, but that God had promised to forgive if His people would repent and confess their sins. "We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy" (v. 18, NIV). But even more, Daniel, desired the nation to be restored that God might be glorified. After all, the Jews were God's chosen people, and Jerusalem was the place of His holy temple; the longer the people and the land were under God's wrath, the less glory the Lord would receive. "Your city and your people bear your Name" (v. 19, NIV).
God answered Daniel's prayer. The next year, Cyrus issued a decree that permitted the Jews to return to their land, take the temple treasures with them, rebuild the temple, and restore the worship… End quote. (from The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament © 2001-2004 by Warren W. Wiersbe. All rights reserved.)  
	Let us ask the Holy Spirit to instill this very heart of intercession into us. No excuses, no justification of motives, no seeking after our ideas or our concepts of what God should do! No demands for retribution upon others! Rather, we need to humbly and contritely beseech the Lord that we would seek after only that which would increase and further God’s glory on this earth as His people. 2 Chron 7:13+14, If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 

We need to fall upon our knees in earnest recognition that God is worthy of all praise and adoration and glory! That He, Alone, deserves the very best that we have to offer! Our hearts need to be circumcised and prepared to pray after only that which will bring all praise and adoration and glory to the Name of Our Lord God Almighty! So be it!
    	And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 99:9. Exalt the Lord our God, And worship at His holy hill; For holy is the Lord our God. Amen.