Daniel 9 • It's Not All About Me

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

I want us to think about that gospel as we now turn to Daniel chapter 9.
Daniel chapter 9.
When Daniel was going into the lions' den, remember, we understood that he just kept praying as he had prayed before.
In Daniel chapter 9, we learn that he did something else fairly regularly:  He read the scriptures.
And what he's actually reading as we begin chapter 9 is he's reading the prophet Jeremiah and has discovered this amazing thing:  Jeremiah prophesied that the people of God in their rebellion would be in exile for 70 years.
And Daniel starts counting.
Wait:  One, two, three, four.
It's been 70 years.
And so he knows that Jeremiah's prophecy is about to be fulfilled, and God's people are going to be let go.
So it's time to prepare their hearts.
Not just theirs, but his.
And Daniel chapter 9 is the preparation of a people for a God who is about to act.
Let's stand and honor God's Word as we read Daniel chapter 9.
I'll start at verse 18.
We're in the midst of Daniel's prayer at that point.
Daniel 9 verse 18, "'O my God, incline your ear and hear.
Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name.
For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive.
O Lord, pay attention and act.
Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.'
While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.
He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, 'O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding.
At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved.
Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.
Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.
Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war.
Desolations are decreed.
And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.''"
Let's pray together.
>>> Father, the words are hard for us.
But the intention is not hard at all to understand.
For a people who were desolate, You promised redemption.
For a people who were ruined, You promised a great rescue.
For a people who had lost hope, You promised a Savior.
Help us to claim that gospel again, for the sake of our hearts and the world around us.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
The man I mentioned to you in the nighttime picture drove a car with eight people in it, eight big men in a little, bitty former Russian car, from Moscow to Saint Petersburg for the conference that we ran.
And I was impressed that they would make a long drive in such cramped circumstances but a little leery when I was told by my host what had happened.
These pastors had come from Moscow to participate in our seminar.
They had sacrificed time and energy and effort and money to come.
But now they had to get home.
And my host said, "They spent all their money to get here; they have no money to go home."
To which I, a good American said, "Isn't that kind of irresponsible?"
And my host at first looked horrified and then smiled a little bit as if to say, "Oh, yeah, you're an American."
He said, "These men live every day by faith.
They don't know where the next penny is coming from.
This is just an ordinary step of faith for them:  that God will provide for them to get here and God will provide for them to get home."
And then he said this:  "The pastor who drove:  He has already started three churches in Moscow.
He is the inspiration for all these pastors who have come who are also starting new churches in Moscow."
He said, "It is no imposition for us to help him.
It is a privilege to do the work of God through him."
I went to teach:  I was taught.
In my American mind, so much of what my faith is about is taking care of me, of God providing for my needs, of God supplying what I need for my convenience, for my ease, for my comfort.
And I was just reminded again:  It's not all about me.
We are supposed to be taking care of one another for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of one another, and for the sake of the spread of the message.
And people who understand that profoundly are going to be great instruments in the hand of God.
My message is really simple today.
It's a really difficult passage, but the simple message is:  It's not all about us.
How does Daniel teach that?
He teaches us in the prayer that he is praying.
In verse 18, you just look at the words that are so obvious.
"'O my God, incline your ear and hear.
Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name.
For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your mercy.'"
The first thing that you notice is this is corporate confession.
Daniel's not just praying about me:  God, please forgive my sin.
He is saying, "God, we as a people approach you in need of Your mercy."
I'm joining my heart with these other people and saying, "We all need You."
The reality of that corporate confession becomes even more plain if you back up earlier in the chapter, verse 5.
"'We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled.'"
Verse 6, "'We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings.'"
Verse 7, "'To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame.'"
Who's "us"?
Who's the "we" that needs the mercy of God?
And it becomes more and more evident as you read through Daniel's prayer:  It's everybody.
Daniel is praying corporately and including everybody in the need of the mercy of God.
Verse 7:  Those north and south need the mercy of God.
Verse 8:  Those who are rulers and those who are relatives, both kings and fathers.
Verse 16:  Those present and those past, young and old; all need the mercy of God.
And the summary in verse 11:  All Israel has transgressed.
It's the New Testament message of Paul in Romans, right?
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
"There is none righteous, no not one."
We all need the mercy of God.
And so here is Daniel just saying, "God, show Your mercy to us all."
But even in that prayer, there are certain surprises that come our way.
We say, you know, why is Daniel saying "we"?
I mean, he's a prophet.
He's a holy man.
He's writing inspired scripture.
Surely "we" doesn't really mean me if Daniel is talking.
He makes it clear to us, though.
Verse 20, "'While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel.'"
Well, it's not just rep--, rhetorical.
It's not just representative.
Here is a mature man of faith saying, "In order to pray corporately, I have to acknowledge that I'm part of the corporation.
I'm in this body, in need of the mercy of God."
And the first surprising thing that I find in this corporate confession is not just that Daniel looks across the people and say, "We need the mercy of God," but he unites himself with those people and say, "Me too."
It's the path of the prophets over and over again.
You know the words of Isaiah:  "All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned each to his own way.
And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
We don't extract ourself from the need for mercy.
We stand before one another, we bow our heads, and we say, "I too need the mercy of God.
It's not just those people over there.
Lord, me too."
But as much as we can say that in church, it's actually to--, hard to believe and to confess in our hearts.
I too need mercy.
God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Paul Tripp writes, "If you ask the little girl why she hit her brother, she won't say it's because of sin in her heart.
She said, 'It's because he's bothering me.
It's his fault.'
But if you ask her father why he's so angry all the time, he will tell you it's because of the kids or his wife or his boss.
It's not his fault.
They just make him so angry.
If you ask the single woman why she's so moody and discontent, she won't say it's because of the jealousy and envy that resides in her heart.
She will point to the ways that life has been hard and how her friends don't deserve the good things in life that they have received.
And if you ask the old man why he's grumpy and nasty with his words, he won't tell you it's because of the bitterness that has captured his heart for decades.
No, he'll talk about all the times in his life when he didn't get what he knew he really deserved."
It's hard to say, "Me too.
God, be merciful to me too, for I'm a sinner in need of Your grace."
The first surprise is that a prophet would say that.
The second surprise is that it's not enough.
Daniel does not just say, "Me too."
He says, "Lord, all of us need Your mercy."
And not all those even recognize that yet.
Listen, if we're really all in the same boat, there's none righteous, no not one:  If we're all in the same boat, we need to pray for the boat.
God, help my friends, my family, my church.
We are sinners in need of the gospel.
I know that doesn't help me out, but, Lord, You need to help them out.
And You need to help us out.
I am because we are.
My life in the body of faith is characterized by how we love and show compassion to one another.
And if we are not praying for one another, then we are not able to do all that God has called us to do.
Martin Luther's theology of the cross said, "If you really are going to identify with Christ, it means that at some point you have to carry the sins of others."
Lord, why should I forgive them?
Why should I ask Your mercy for them?
They have hurt me.
They have bothered me.
They have hurt those that I love.
Because we bear about on us the image of Christ.
And so we say, "Lord, help them too."
It is God's calling upon us to pray for others, to say, "Lord, for You to act," which is what Daniel is saying, "pick us up, dust us off, set us straight, and send us out."
And that's not just a prayer for me.
It's not all about me.
It's about us and those who are mature, not only joined in saying we need the mercy:  We ask for the mercy for everybody.
It's just incredible to be with Russian pastors who have suffered under communism and atheism so many times now, even the persecution of the present government, to see them on their knees, not just praying for forgiveness for their sin but praying for the guilt of their nation and saying, "God, forgive us and lead us and take us to a better place for the sake of Your name.
God, be merciful to us."
And I felt the wonder and the goodness of it when I came back from Russia and I talked to so many of you who participated and were attending the Gospel and Same Sex Marriage seminar.
And I talked to a person who said, "You know, I went expecting that there'd be all kinds of finger pointing and blame.
But what they actually kept talking about was:  We all need the gospel."
But how beautiful that that is the message that we are saying:  We need mercy, not just the ones who look right and have everything put together, but all of us are acknowledging we're in the same boat of needing the mercy of God.
And when that becomes part of our testimony, it is magnetic and powerful for the sake of the gospel.
I think of its effect on Kathy's and my own heart when we were candidating here as a church.
And wonderful leaders who were just being very honest with us said these kinds of words:  "We as a church have been prideful and legalistic and unwelcoming of lost and struggling people.
And our own children have left us.
We want to lead in humility, but we don't know how."
And Kathy and I said, "That is the kind of church we need."
We need people who will gather together and say, "Listen, it's not just for me, this gospel.
It's for us and we'll pray for one another.
And we'll ask God's mercy upon us all, because that's when the gospel begins to do its work far beyond the boundaries of me.
And the reality of that corporate care is evident not just in the prayer of confession but in the petition that Daniel begins to make.
Notice how even as he's praying in verse 18, I'm going to go back into 17.
I didn't read that when we were in the scripture reading.
There's just so much time in the service.
But verse 17, it says, "'Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your sake, Lord, make your face shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.'"
Lord, we pray for the church.
It's more than that.
Verse 4--, verse 18, "'O my God, incline your ear and hear.
Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name.'"
Lord, bless our worship in the sanctuary.
Lord, bless Your people who are desolate.
Lord, bless Your city, which is our workplace and the place where You will send Your Son.
Regardless of what You must do, God, bless everybody that needs to hear the name of Christ among you.
God, do the work that's greater than we.
And in doing so, what Daniel is doing is teaching us about body building, how what we're actually doing is trying in our faith, in our prayers, in our service to build up the body of Christ and not just say, "This is all about me."
It's my reflex to think about my comfort and my convenience and my success.
But what Daniel is doing is he's turned it outward to say, "How can I pray for others so that the body of Christ would be built up?"
The necessity of understanding it's not all about me was demonstrated by Pastor Andy Stanley in Atlanta one time, and he talks about this with a little bit of a grimace, because it's the illustration that got him in trouble.
Okay?
So here's what he did.
He actually put a lar--, several transparent, large jars up on the pulpit stage.
And then he put body parts in each of the jars.
To remind people how ugly it was for any body part to be separated from the body.
Now, he said, "It was just doll parts, but people didn't know that."
And so there was a lot of offense going on.
[Laughter]
But the offense was even greater when he said what the illustration illustrated.
He said, "As ugly as it is for the body parts to be separated from the body, that is how ugly it is for members of the body of Christ to be only thinking about themselves."
So that we come to church and we don't think about supporting other people in prayer or in finance or in service.
And he was bold enough to say, "If you're not willing to support other people, you're just taking up room, and we need the seats for somebody else."
Well, we've got a few seats here still, so don't leave yet.
[Laughter]
But when you think about what it means to be the body of Christ, think about that.
We are not baptized into independence.
I'm not baptized into something for me.
I'm baptized into the purposes of the body of Christ.
And church membership is not about filling up rolls somewhere:  It's about committing to one another.
I commit to find out that we would have proper officers for the rule and the governance of a church.
I commit to see that our mission program is doing what we think is proper for the glory of God.
I commit to seeing that our worship is honoring God.
And I participate and have volt--, vote and voice and participation to hold myself accountable and to hold others accountable so that God would be glorified in this place.
If you're not a member of something, you maybe need to examine that.
Is God really calling you just to kind of sit in independency, or is He calling you to say, "I need to be committing myself to the purposes of God, or am I just a body part that lives separately from the body?"
The ultimate purpose of this body prayer that the prophet is praying is not just for God's people.
Ultimately, it is for the glory of God.
Think of how verse 18 ends.
"'For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.'"
Lord, You need to act, so that Your mercy will be seen.
And as You do that, verse 19, "O Lord, O Lord, forgive; Lord, pay attention, act.
Delay not for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.'"
Now, first there's just kind of a wonderful gospel message that's embedded in here:  that you and I bear on us the name of our Savior.
My success does not mark my identity.
My shame does not mark my identity.
Not what I achieve or don't achieve.
Not what my children achieve or don't achieve.
Not what my grades are or are not.
Ultimately, my identity is that I bear on me the name of my God.
I am a Christian; Christ marks me.
And that means sin and shame are not my identity.
The gospel has replaced my unrighteousness with the clothing of the righteousness of Christ.
And that's the beauty of the gospel.
But the obligation of the gospel is to say, "Then I live for Him.
If He is my identity, then now my goal is to bring Him honor and glory."
"Christ is my life," says the apostle Paul.
And when he says that, he is reminding us that we have obligation, not just to one another, but the reason we are obligation to one another is that we might bring glory to the God who has saved us.
Over and over again, we make decisions so that the testimony of the church is what it ought to be that Jesus would be known.
Now, some of you are going to know far more details about what I'm about to say than I know.
But a generation ago, when this church was heavily involved in media ministries, there was a separate corporation that was set up for a TV station and ministry.
And that didn't go very well.
And there was debt that was incurred of some two million dollars.
That entity went bankrupt and the creditors didn't have any rights to the money.
The entity could've just gone out of existence.
But in the community, the perception was that ministry was Grace Church.
And even though there was no legal obligation for the church to pay the two million dollars, the leaders of this church said, "For the glory of Christ and the testimony of integrity in this community, we are going to pay the money."
That was really dumb.
I mean, there was no obligation.
No one would take you to court.
Why'd you do that?
For the testimony of Christ, for the glory of His name, for the witness in the community, you as a church made a decision.
And I think of what young couples are doing now as you look at the Heartbeat Ministry that is just being inaugurated, not by the leadership of this church, but by young families in this church who say, "We want to," I mean, wasn't it beautifully, how it was expressed?
"We want to show how we have been adopted into God's family and show the grace of God by extending it to other people."
We want to show the glory we have received to others, to a child if nobody else, but also to let that ministry move far and wide in terms of this is a church who cares more about other people than ourselves.
I mean, young couples who would be adopting like that:  They're sacrificing money and time and energy and effort and emotion and years.
I know that.
You know that.
Why would they do that?
For the glory of the Savior as well as the good of the child.
They're beautiful things that are happening as God begins to say, "As you actually begin to think about the work of the church beyond yourself, the boundary of 'me' goes away."
And when the boundary of 'me' goes away, heaven's purposes begin to unfold in amazing dimensions.
That's really what happens next.
When the prophet Daniel is now praying more broadly than himself for confession and more broadly than himself for petition, the message of the mercy of God begins to go out in amazing ways.
To see how the mercy message goes out, just think of how it begins to unfold in verse 20.
"'While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before my God for the holy hill of my God,'" verse 21, "'while I was speaking in prayer.'"
You getting it?
He's just praying and saying, "I'm a mess.
I've sinned and my people have sinned."
And he's just praying that.
And what happened?
Verse 20, "'While I'm praying, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at first, came to me in swift flight.'"
And verse 22, "'He made me understand.'"
What did he make me understand?
Verse 23, "'At the beginning of your plea for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved.'"
I know, a lot of words going by, but you can put it together.
While he's praying, Gabriel comes swiftly.
And Gabriel says, "Even as you started praying, a word went out from heaven because you are greatly loved."
Why is he greatly loved?
Because he's a holy prophet with no sin.
No.
He's confessing his sin.
At the very moment that he's confessing his sin, Gabriel goes, the prayer goes from earth to heaven and back again.
And the prayer's not even done.
That's really fast mercy.
[Laughter]
And it's that fast mercy that's the message going out:  that here is God saying to Daniel, "Here's how fast I work.
When you call out to Me on behalf of your sins, on behalf of the people, mercy flows."
And when it does, it just profoundly affects God's people.
I think of the ministry of the Quilters and More, a ministry of women who quilt for missionaries and children in this church.
My wife, Kathy, was talking to her sister Karen a few weeks ago, describing one of the ministries of the Quilters and More.
They just take pieces of fabric and they sew some fabric bags and put a little placard on it that says, "Jesus Loves Me," and provide it for the authorities who have to take children from the homes of their parents for abuse or other issues.
And when Kathy told her sister Karen that, Karen in North Carolina began to cry on the other end of the phone.
Kathy said, "What?
What is it?"
Karen has been a community service nurse for a lot of years, and she said, "I get it.
I understand.
When the Department of Family Services takes a child out of a home, they take all that child's clothes and toys and possessions and they put it in a black plastic garbage bag.
The full identity of the child is just this:  You're just trash."
And here are the beautiful women of this church who are saying, "No, now there's a child that has a bag made for the child that says, 'Even in the moment of devastation, Jesus loves me.'"
Before the child even knew what to ask, God was providing.
It's what the psalmist say:  Before a word is on our lips, God knows it altogether.
Even as we're praying, God is saying, "My mercy is that fast."
It's beautiful.
But it's not just fast:  It is vast.
And the rest of the chapter's this hugely controversial 70 weeks of Daniel in which all that God is doing is expressing how vast is the rescue.
I'm going to talk about the controversy in the minutes that are remaining, but I want you to hear the big picture first before we get into any of the controversy.
Here's the big picture:  The nation has been in captivity for 70 years.
And now, God says to Daniel, "I want you to understand.
Your rescue is coming, and it's going to be 70 times seven.
Just as there has been a great problem and ruin, there will be a greater rescue.
And it will be magnified all the more.
The 70 weeks are described in verse 24.
"'Seventy weeks are decreed.'"
The weeks are periods of seven.
Don't read the word "week" in English as just kind of it means days.
Seventy periods of seven and most commentators take each of those periods of seven to be a year.
So that 70 weeks is actually 490 years.
You've been in captivity for 70 years; now the rescue is going to be almost half a millennia, 490 years.
"'These 490 years are decreed about your people and your holy city.'"
What will happen?
"'To finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal,'" that is to certify the truth of, "'both the vision and the prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.'"
Almost everybody agrees that that's the title page.
Here is what God is going to do.
He is going to send someone who is going to end the transgression, atone for sin, bring in everlasting righteousness.
I think that's Jesus, but we'll get back to there.
Once you see the title page of this wonderful brochure of things ahead, your questions are, "Well, give me some details."
And verse 25 and following are the details.
"'Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to rescue--, to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.'"
Okay.
A word is going to go out.
And it's going to say, "Rebuild Jerusalem."
And from that point until the rebuilding and a holy one will come, it will be seven weeks.
Now, I must tell you:  Here is right where one of the chief controversies is.
When does the word go out?
If you start tracking it right at this point in Daniel's life, then everything that's going to follow yet is going to end up talking about Antiochus Epiphanes.
Remember that evil guy who put the pig on the altar, the guy who put Zeus into the temple and then decimated God's people?
But if the time that the word goes out is the time that Nehemiah is sent under Artaxerxes to reestablish Jerusalem, then the anointed one who is coming is Jesus.
And the decimation that's going to follow is going to be after his death when the Romans destroy Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
Now, you and I have about four minutes to deal with what needs to be about seven weeks of explanation.
[Laughter]
And we won't get through it all.
But the difficulty we have is this:  Everyone debates, alright, are we talking about something that happened at the time of Daniel, at the time of Nehemiah?
There is one more alternative:  It's at the time of Jesus.
You need to look just very quickly at Matthew 24.
In Matthew 24 in verse 15, Jesus refers to this passage in Daniel.
And He says in verse 15 of Matthew 24, He's already predicted that the temple will be destroyed, that one stone will not be left upon another, that there is destruction coming ahead for Jerusalem.
And in verse 15 of chapter 24 of Matthew, He says, "'So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand.'"
Now, the big debate is:  What does that mean, "Let the reader understand"?
It should be obvious.
But it's almost as though Jesus is saying, "You know what I mean."
Or at least Matthew as he records what Jesus said.
The question is:  Is Jesus actually saying the 70 weeks of Daniel and the abomination of desolation is forward, or is He describing the forward desolation in terms that Jews would recognize?
The way you and I would sometimes refer to Harriet Tubman as being the American Moses, right, what are we referring to?
Somebody who took people from slavery.
And so we use an image that people will recognize to describe something more current in history.
I think that's what Jesus is doing.
I've said to you before, there's often an immediate point in a prophecy and an instructional pattern of what's to come.
And the pattern of what's to come is Jesus saying, "There is going to be something like happened in Daniel's prophecy.
That abdominal of desolation will come again."
So, verse 23, "'If anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it.'"
Listen, people will say now to the abomination, "Things have gotten really bad.
Jesus or the Savior is supposed to come."
But don't believe it.
But those are going to be signs of the second coming.
That's verse 29.
"'Immediately after the tribulation of days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.'"
I think Jesus is saying, "Listen, you know what that abomination of desolation was about, how the temple was destroyed long ago, how Antiochus put an abomination upon the altar.
There will be another destruction to come.
It is when the Romans are going to destroy Jerusalem.
Not one stone will be left on another in the temple of Jerusalem.
But don't you believe that's the time that I am returning.
I am not returning until you see the clouds part and I come in power and great glory.
And that is the time to believe.
Don't believe the false prophets.
Don't believe the false antichrist.
You wait for the moment in which all the eyes of the world shall see the parting of the clouds and Christ appear."
But the message is actually the same.
You think there's ruin, but there is a greater rescue coming.
Don't give up hope.
Don't believe that God is not working.
That's what God was saying to Daniel.
"You had 70 years; there is 490 years of rescue coming."
This is what Jesus is saying.
You will see the destruction of the Romans of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D.
It's only going to be 70 years from when he's talking, but he's saying, "Listen, there is a much greater rescue coming."
And it's the message that God's people need to hear over and over again in ages of ruin and devastation.
The Russians that I was with, think of it, had 70 years of atheistic, communistic teaching.
From 1917, the Revolution, until 1989; I know that's 72.
There was the overruling atheism.
When Lenin took over, 67,000 churches; by the time Lenin was gone, 100 churches and only one of them still functioning.
Surely believers said, "It's done.
It's gone.
It's over."
But I am with pastors who are working with those like me who are saying, "We now want to translate Bible-believing gospel-centered material into Russian, because 300 million people in this world speak Russian.
And 50 million of them are Muslims."
And these pastors in these little churches have so much zeal for the gospel that they actually believe that God can work to rebuild not just the Russian church but to rebuild the kingdom of God, even penetrating the Muslim world, through Russian activity in the Muslim world through the work that you sent me and others to do.
Listen, sometimes God works in inches and sometimes He works in miles.
And what you and I have to believe is is His work is not done.
This is my Father's world, and though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.
It's what you and I believe.
It's what you and I are called to believe:  that we are not just here for us, that God has called us to a greater purpose, to a grander goal.
And when I take away the boundaries of me, heaven unfolds and the gospel goes forward through people like us, because the rescue is always greater than the ruin.
God is the Ruler yet.
>>> Father, so work in our hearts that we would believe the gospel that You have given to us.
Work in us that we might not lose faith, not get caught up in controversy, but see the gospel even through the mess as You are redeeming people over and over again who say, "God, forgive a sinner like me.
And, God, make a church of sinners like us.
And, God, use us beyond ourselves."
We believe you can and will, because our God is great.
So bless us we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.

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