Daniel 9

Are you guys ready? I don't think it's overstating the fact of the importance of the chapter that we're going to be looking at tonight in the Book of Daniel. This is an absolutely incredible chapter. The prophetic insights that it offers to us of the last days are amazing. And the timing that this thing gives is just truly astounding. So, let's open up in prayer and then we'll get into it here tonight. Heavenly Father, we, as we get ready to open up our hearts to the ministry of Your Holy Spirit through the Word tonight, we just really pray that our hearts would be open to hear Your voice, to hear Your message, and to respond to You, Lord, to what You desire to speak to us about and teach us about, and to exhort us about. And Lord, even as we open up our Bibles and pray this prayer, we're mindful of our brothers and sisters in the Ukraine who are dealing with very, very difficult circumstances. And Lord, we continue to pray for them, lifting them up to You in the name of Jesus, praying, Lord God, for this conflict to come to an end and praying, Father God, for the safety of Your people. Thank You, Father, for being ever so near in no matter what we're going through. Just pray that You'd be with us tonight as we dig into the Scriptures. Lord, make us wise unto salvation. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. All right, Daniel Chapter 9, if you're there with me. This begins with a time reference by saying,

And this is the second time we've made reference to King Darius who we don't hear about other than in the Bible. I've mentioned to you before that King Darius is a king, obviously, who was ruling and reigning at this time during the life of Daniel, but for whom history really as of yet has not corroborated. We know that Cyrus was king of the Medo-Persian Empire when they conquered Babylon.

Now, and we talked about this before, Cyrus could have put a man named Darius on the throne just to rule and reign in a section of the Medo-Persian now empire. Or it could be that Darius and Cyrus are the same man and have different names depending on the kingdom that is referring to them. But either way, it doesn't truly matter. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of that. And it tells us in verse two that,

Stop there for a moment. This is where we learned about the fact that Daniel looked into the writings of Jeremiah in order to help him understand more about what the visions were telling him that had been given him now over the last time since he started receiving them. We know that Daniel was greatly perplexed by these visions and he couldn't figure them out. He was given some information but not, he wasn't given the whole picture by any stretch and it bothered him, and he sought to look into these things more. So, he basically tells us here, he started to read through the prophecies that had been recorded by some of these major prophets who came before him, like Jeremiah. And, of course, Jeremiah was alive when, at the time when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian army. He was there when the city fell, and he prophesied to the Jews prior to the fall of Jerusalem and even afterward. So, Daniel looked into this through the writings of Jeremiah, and he was reminded of the fact that Jeremiah had been told that there was going to be 70 years of exile. Let me show you just one of the passages on the screen where he would've read this. It for us is Jeremiah 29:10. Of course, there weren't chapters and verse divisions back then, but it says,

Now, this isn't the only place that Jeremiah recorded that word of the Lord, but it is certainly one of the places that Daniel would've found and been encouraged by that. So, Daniel now learns, and incidentally, just so you understand Daniel's timeframe, he's probably about two to three years before the end of that 70-year period. So, he's somewhere between 67 and 68 years into the exile. It would make him quite an old man since he was probably in his late teens when he was taken away from his family to the Babylonian Empire. So, I want you to notice here, verse three continues, this is very interesting. He says, 3 “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” Now, this is really something, and this shows something special about the character of this man Daniel. Rather than looking up the prophecy of Jeremiah and kind of going, “oh, hey, based on when Jeremiah wrote what he did, we've probably only got about two or three years left here in the Persian Kingdom and something's going to happen and we're going to be given the freedom to go home. Sweet. Well, I guess, I can just kind of bide my time and keep my nose clean and do what I'm supposed to do and everything's going to just play out here in the next two or three years and looks like we will be going home. Sweet.” But that's not what Daniel does. This understanding that there's two or three years left and they will be going home, most of the Jews anyway, causes Daniel to enter into an extended period of prayer and not just prayer, but notice, “pleas for mercy with fasting in sackcloth and ashes.” So, here's all this pleading going on, and yet God has already promised that it's going to happen, and yet Daniel begins to plead with the Lord. He begins to fast, and sackcloth and ashes, that was something they did to show deep humility and grief. Now, we're going to see in his prayer that's upcoming in these verses, what is motivating him to feel this way. But I just find that very interesting, and you think about the prophecies that are ahead of you and me, there are prophecies ahead of us. We know that some of the prophecies include the coming of the Lord to catch away His church. We know that's going to happen. We know that we're going to, the world is then going to be plunged into the Tribulation Period. We know that there's various things that are going to happen along that particular timeline. Does it motivate us to pray? How does it motivate us? Does it motivate us at all? Does it motivate us to share the gospel? It was interesting, my oldest daughter was sharing with me that at Calvary Chapel Meridian, they've been going through the Book of Revelation, and I think they're, they just went through the 13th chapter. Pastor Troy is a good

--- Bible teacher, but she said to me, “I heard Troy do something that I've never heard another pastor do.” She was telling me on Monday, she said he, in the midst of his teaching through Revelation 13, he inserted a message to people who would be left behind after the church is caught away. And I thought, that's interesting. So, she asked me, “dad, have you ever done that? Have you ever done a message for those that might?” And I said, “no, I actually haven't.” I just, I never, I don't know, I guess I never thought of it, but what an interesting thought, huh? So, he kind of just included a statement to say, if you're listening to this and something cataclysmic has happened and a bunch of people are missing, and everybody's got wild theories, but nobody can really explain why, let me tell you what's happening. Well, that's what this imminent return of Christ for the Church did for him. It moved him to share that message. And so, I thought about that. I thought, what are the prophecies that lie ahead for you and me? What are they motivating us to do or to be or to say? Again, in Daniel's case, he prayed. Now, he goes on to talk about how he prayed. He says, verse four,

And this is that place in Daniel's prayer where he stops and he acknowledges the fact that God had warned the people of Israel clearly. Through the Law of Moses and the giving of that law, and then the rereading of that law, which took --- place many times over the years. Once Israel came into the land they set themselves up, the whole nation of them in a big valley, and they had men go up on the top of one opposing mountain and then go have some men go up on top of the other opposing mountain, and the people all stood in the valley and they read from the Law and they read on one mountain the blessings. Here's what the Lord will do if you follow Him and obey Him and keep His commandments. And on the other mountain they read the curses and this is what the Lord will do if you turn away and reject the Lord and seek the ways of the peoples of these lands and worship idols and so on. And the people were well aware and God had spelled it out for them long in advance, and Daniel is acknowledging here that God had done that, like every good parent does, by the way. That's a sign of good parenting, actually, when you let your children know these are the rules and these are the consequences. If the rules are broken and it's not in a threatening way, it's in an informational way. This is the deal. This is what you're dealing with. And yet Daniel also goes on to say here that we have not kept your law even to this day. Verse 12, he goes on,

Now, pay attention to this next sentence, end of verse 18,

What Daniel is emphasizing there is I call upon you not because we deserve anything good. When he says, not because of our righteousness, he's saying, not because we've done anything to deserve your mercy, not because we've done anything to deserve Your grace or Your goodness, but just because you are merciful, that I call upon the God who is merciful. And he says in the last verse of this prayer,

So, the last thing Daniel does is he appeals to the name of the Lord and he says, You are the one who made the promise and so that You might prove to the world that You keep Your promises, forgive and pay attention and act and do not delay. So, it's a beautiful prayer. This is the kind of prayer I would encourage you to go over again in your own prayer time, in your own quiet time. Spend time with the prayer of Daniel, though, you know, there are wonderful prayers throughout the Bible. You've got Nehemiah who prayed incredible prayers. You've got Daniel here, you've got of course, David, through the Psalms. We can learn so much. If you're one of those people that says, “well, praying is kind of a challenge for me and I struggle with prayer,” then learn from these wonderful prayers of the Bible. Study them, meditate on them. Take notes when you read through these verses, think about what they prayed about, how they prayed, why they prayed, what they prayed. And these can really give a lot of insight and understanding in your own personal prayer life. All right, now, God is going to respond here. It says in verse 20,

What an incredible statement this is. He says, while I was in the midst of prayer, I see the angel Gabriel coming at me, as he says, in swift flight, you'll notice that he says that Gabriel came at the time of the evening sacrifice.

According to the Law of Moses, there were to be two main sacrifices in the morning and in the evening. And of course, those things had not been offered since the destruction of the temple, some 67, 68 years had gone by. Those sacrifices had not been offered, and yet Daniel still remembers and marks his prayer time by the evening, the time of the evening sacrifice, even though the evening sacrifice isn't happening right now. So, I just think that's interesting. He still observed those times with prayer. And here now comes the angel Gabriel, verse 22. He says,

Now, we're going to get into this word, and we're going to get into this vision, but I want to just stop for just a moment and just take note and call your attention to this simple statement that Gabriel tells Daniel, and that is, “you are greatly loved.” Don't underestimate the power of those words when they come from the lips of God, “you are greatly loved.” Just to hear that is one of the most, and I've had many people in this life, many humans say to me, “Paul, you're loved, or, I love you.” I mean, my mother would say it all the time when I was a little boy. And in our family, “I love you,” a lot of that stuff, my kids, my wife, but I heard it once from the Lord. And not that I needed to hear it necessarily more than that, because I, I believe it. I know that the Lord loves me, but I heard it once from the Lord and it knocked me to my knees and I had to, I started weeping uncontrollably. I don't know why. It was just, it's just when the Lord tells you that He loves you, there's just something, it's kind of like, what else do I need? The highest court in the universe just told me, “I love you”. What else is there? What else do I need to attain? It's a powerful thing to hear. So, Gabriel comes and says, I've come to give you understanding related to the vision. So, here's the message, and you'll notice here that it's largely about timing. Verse 24, now, you're going to have to pay attention here because this is going to get kind of thick, but I'm going to do my best to explain as we go along. He says in verse 24,

Now remember, your people is the Jews, okay? He's talking to Daniel, who's a Jew. “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.” All right, stop there. Note, I want you to notice that Gabriel mentions six things that this timing is all about, and we're going to talk about that timing here in just a moment. But first I want to look into this time reference that is given to Daniel here. Notice here in verse 24 that he says that 70 weeks had been decreed for the people of Israel. Now, if we're going to take that absolutely literally, and we're going to say 70, well, we know there's 52 weeks in a year, right? So, we know this is going to be something less. If you take it literally, it's something less than about a year and a half or so. But you have to understand something. This is one of those passages you can't take literally, because in the ancient Hebrew, the word that is translated here weeks and in this passage can very simply refer to a unit of something or a unit of seven, because a week is made up of seven days. So, to say weeks can mean a unit of sevens. And while the Hebrew word often means a unit of seven days, which would be the literal sort of a translation, it can also speak of a unit of seven-years. And there are other biblical examples of this happening. So, for this reason, there is general agreement among Bible scholars and students of the Word of God that this usage of the Hebrew word specifically refers to 70 units of seven-years. In other words, a total of 490 years, okay? So, in other words, what Gabriel is saying to Daniel is, 490 years have been decreed for your people and for the holy city. Now, we'll come back and talk about that 490 years and how it's broken up in just a minute. But I want you to think again with me and look again with me at all the things that Gabriel told Daniel would be accomplished in that 490 year period. Let's put them up on the screen here so you can see them together. This is what's going to be accomplished. What will be accomplished ● To finish the transgression ● To put an end of sins ● To atone for iniquity

● To bring in everlasting righteousness ● To seal up vision and prophecy ● To anoint a most holy place He says to finish the transgression, to put an end of sins. To atone for iniquity. Those first three, they can all kind of almost be taken together when you stop and think about it. Finishing transgression, putting an end of sins. Now remember, people, this is referring to what God is going to do to Israel, okay? Remember what Gabriel said to Daniel? 70 sevens or 70 weeks of years, or 70 sevens of years, units are decreed for your people and for the holy city. Okay, so when he talks about finishing transgression, when he talks about putting an end of sins to atone for iniquity, these initial things refer to Israel, right? The last three are to bring in everlasting righteousness. We know that's something Jesus is going to do. To seal a vision and prophecy, and that basically means to finish prophecy, to fulfill prophecy, okay? And to anoint a most holy place. So, it's interesting that we're looking at all of these things that Gabriel tells Daniel from the Lord, that these are going to be done in this 490-year period. And we know that when Jesus returns for the nation of Israel, the nation of Israel is going to come to the Lord as a single nation. We're told that elsewhere in the Scripture that they're going to turn back to the Lord together when He returns at the end of the Tribulation Period to fight against their enemies. And there's going to be just this incredible coming to the Lord from the people of Israel. But notice I just said at the end of the Tribulation Period, now, for somebody who's paying attention, you're going to say to yourself, “now, stop here for just a moment, hold the phone because you're talking about things that haven't even happened yet on the prophetic calendar, you're talking about things that are going to happen at the end of the Tribulation Period, and yet, Gabriel told Daniel these things would all be fulfilled within a 490-year period. So, how do you explain that?” Well, bear with me and I will explain. So, this is, when you think about this, this is a pretty incredible announcement. But the reason that we need to continue on here in our reading is because it's going to get more specific about the things that are going to happen during this time. And the way it is given to Daniel is going to help us to understand how these time periods need to be seen, all right? So, we're going to keep reading, verse 25,

25 “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.” (or 7 units of seven, if you will) “Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.” All right, I want you to stop there now because this is really, truly amazing because what Gabriel is giving to Daniel at this point is he's giving him a timeframe to be able to figure out the coming of Messiah the first time for the Jews, and that is what he's laying out. It's a time reference, and here's when does the clock begin? Well, he tells him here in verse 25 “from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem.” This is the starting point. This is the beginning of the 490 years that he says were decreed for Israel. And we know when the word was given to go out and rebuild Jerusalem because it's recorded for us in the Book of Nehemiah. We know that it was King Artaxerxes who made a decree giving the Jews permission, along with safe passage and supplies, to go back to their homeland and to rebuild the walls of the city. Now, this took place much later after the temple had already been rebuilt. But notice what Gabriel said is the 490 years doesn't begin when the temple, when they're told to go back and rebuild the temple that Cyrus gave them permission to do. But it's much later that they are given permission to go back and actually rebuild the city, in other words, the city walls. And that's what we read about in the Book of Nehemiah. And so, we know when that happened. It happened at 445 BC when King Artaxerxes made the decree, the Jews may return. I, in fact, I'm even going to bankroll it for them. And I'm going to give them safe passage back to their land to go back and rebuild the walls. That's when the clock started clicking. 490 years, okay? Let's keep going. Look again here with me in verse 25 one more time.

So, now he's, we have a total of 483 years, right? Okay? So, you can see here that Daniel's being told that from the decree that's going to be happening in the future to rebuild Jerusalem until the coming of Messiah, there's going to be 483 years. That's pretty interesting, isn't it? I mean, he's told ahead of time, we're looking at the Second Coming of Jesus and we have no, the Bible says no man knows the day or the hour. They knew, the Jews knew, they were told when Messiah would come the first time. It's going to be 483 years from this point, boom, you can, because you can mark that on a calendar when King Artaxerxes made the decree, 483 years, and that's when Messiah's going to come. Now, look at verse 26, it says, 26 “And after the sixty-two weeks,” (in other words, that second grouping of years, meaning after the 483 years) “an anointed one shall be cut off” (And by the way, that is an ancient term for death) “and shall have nothing. So, Daniel is literally told here that no sooner really is Messiah going to reveal Himself, but He's going to be cut off, okay? And he goes on to say, as we're continuing to read verse 26, “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.” Well, this is kind of a bummer for Daniel. He's just finished figuring out from the writings of Jeremiah that they're almost done with their exile and they're going to be allowed to go back to their homeland. He's been told that there's going to be a decree given in the future to go back to the city and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He hasn't been told that they're going to be given permission to go back and rebuild the temple. God didn't tell him that. But he knows the walls of the city are going to be rebuilt because he said it, he's been told by Gabriel, but then he is told it's going to be destroyed again. How terrible is that? Your city is going to be destroyed again, not just your city and your sanctuary. Who's going to do the destroying? Notice here at the end of that verse or kind of in the middle of it says, “and the people of the prince who is to come.” They're the ones, they're going to destroy the city and they're going to destroy the sanctuary. He's told there's going to be this overwhelming army that's going to come in like a flood, he's told. Now historically, we know that was fulfilled in AD 70 when the Roman army came against Jerusalem, surrounded the city, took the city, burned the city, destroyed the temple. We know that it happened. It's a historical fact. It's done, and it hasn't been rebuilt since, as far as the temple goes. Jesus predicted this destruction. You can read about it in Mark. Let me put this on the screen from Mark 13:1-2. It says,

So, Jesus predicted some 35 years maybe, prior to the destruction of the temple, that it would be destroyed. But here's the interesting part. We know that Rome in AD 70 is the prince that is referred to here, and the people of the prince would come and destroy the city and the temple. But he's not the only person that's being referenced here, and we know that, too. Remember I told you last time we were together, I think it was the last time, about the law of double reference? Do you remember me telling you that? The law of double reference is that biblical understanding that we have, that some prophecies in the Bible refer to two different events or two different people, but the first event or the first person often foreshadows the second event or the second person in the far distant future? And the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70 was a foreshadowing of the destruction that would take place and the attack of the city under yet a future work that will be accomplished by antichrist. And that's why Matthew 24 is so difficult for so many people to understand. Because when you read through that chapter in Matthew, particularly, Jesus will talk about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and then he'll just suddenly talk about the end. He'll talk about the end of Jerusalem toward the end of the Great Tribulation. And the reason we know that is because he makes reference to things in that chapter that didn't happen in AD 70. But our cataclysmic worldwide sorts of phenomena that are going to take place, and those things are still yet to come. So, we know that the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 was a foreshadowing of the destruction that will take place during the Great Tribulation when antichrist turns on the Jews, all right? By the way, we call it the Great Tribulation. The Jews refer to that period of time as the time of Jacob's trouble. That's how it's referenced in the Old Testament. So, it goes on here saying, verse 27,

--- 27 “And he (Now, he is talking about the antichrist. We've just switched to the far distant end of this prophecy) shall make a strong covenant” (or pact, if you will) “with many for one week,” And this refers to seven years, one seven-year period. So, he's telling Daniel that the antichrist is going to make an agreement, a covenant, a pact with the Jews that is supposed to be a seven-year covenant. And this is, by the way, the seven years that we call the Great Tribulation. And it goes on to say, “and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering”. And this is how we know that halfway through the Great Tribulation, or halfway through that seven-year period, the antichrist is going to renege on his promise to the Jews. He is going to call an end to the sacrificial system, which has been restored during the first half of the Great Tribulation when the Jews think that the antichrist is their hero, and then he's going to set up his own image in the temple and demand to be worshiped, and he will in fact desecrate the temple. And that's why it goes on to say at the end of this verse, “And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.” Or on the one who makes desolate as the New American Standard Bible puts it. So, we're told here that the antichrist is going to desecrate the temple halfway through the Great Tribulation by setting up his own abomination, the image that he will demand worship from the world during that time. So, this is interesting. Now, I want to go back if I could, to the 70 weeks, the 490 years, because we still haven't explained how all these things work out and because we were told that all these things are going to get accomplished within this 490 years, right? Well, we still haven't really explained how that's going to happen because if you count 490 years from the time that King Artaxerxes made the decree to go and rebuild the city, you end up about seven-years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Well, the antichrist didn't come in that time, but yet all these things are going to be taken care of within that time period, but that's where the separation of these time references comes into play. Let me put these up on the screen for you so we can kind of see the separation. These are the time periods that are given to us in three divisions.

Time periods in three DIVISIONS: ● 7 weeks (or 49 years) ● 62 weeks (or 434 years) ● 1 week (or 7 years) First you got seven weeks, or the seven, seven-year periods, which make up the 49 years, okay? Then you've got the 62 weeks or the 62 7-year periods equaling 434 years, at which time they were told Messiah would be cut off, right? That's when Messiah would die, okay? And then you've got one week, and that's what he talks about for the last seven or the last week, this final seven-year period is going to complete the prophecy or the message that Gabriel gives to Daniel. But something happened between the first 69 weeks and the final 70th week. And that something was, the church began, the church age, which the Bible refers to as the last days we are now in the church age. But something happened when the church age began. God paused the clock. That was the end of the 69th week of Daniel, and that 69th week has been on pause ever since because we're in the church age. This is one of the reasons that I believe that the church must be removed before the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy can begin because we're the ones who stopped the clock, and the reason it got stopped, you remember, is that the Old Testament doesn't make reference to the church. We've talked about this many times. In the Bible, the Old Testament prophets could see many things into the future. In fact, into the end of time, but they could not see the church. And this is depicted, I have a little thing that I put up called the Mountain Peaks of Prophecy. You guys have seen me put this up before. ---

The Old Testament prophets could see into the future, but they could not see the church age. It is not, it was not given to them. Paul tells us clearly in the Book of Ephesians that the church is a mystery, and that word means something that was unrevealed previously, but has now been revealed by the apostles and prophets of the New Testament age, but it was not revealed to the prophets of old, so they couldn't see the church. So, when they saw these things, they prophesied the First Coming of Christ. They talked about the Second Coming of Christ often in this almost the same prophecies, and they will even talk about the Millennial Kingdom. We read a lot about the Millennial Kingdom in the Book of Isaiah, for example, but they could not see the church, and they could not see that the church would come at a time that would actually stop the clock for Israel because Israel's time is not completed until the church is removed. So, we've got all these dates and times and things that are given to us. And for those of you who would like to know more about the computations I'm going to refer you to the information that is printed in a book by a man by the name of Sir Robert Anderson. Let me put this on the screen.

He wrote a book called The Coming Prince, by the way, sir Robert Anderson, as you can see, passed away in 1918, but he was an investigator with Scotland Yard who came to know Christ as his Savior, and then took all of his investigative skills and put them toward deciphering the prophecy of the 70 weeks of Daniel that was decreed for the people of Israel. And he wrote this all down in his book, The Coming Prince. And by the way, you can still purchase that book today. And it is fascinating, and what's interesting and what takes a little computational insight is that calendars have changed since the time that of Daniel, we look at years differently than we did back then. So, there are things that have to be considered if you're going to put together the days. But what's fascinating about Sir Robert Anderson's computation is that he marks the declaration, or the decree made by King Artaxerxes for the Jews to go back to their land to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He counts it forward, making all of the adjustments for the changing in calendar, the way we perceive a full year, and so on and so on, even figuring out leap year type stuff and putting all that in, he ends on a particular date which is the exact day that Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey, and for the very first time in His ministry was proclaimed publicly to be Messiah, to the day. Now, I'm not smart enough to do all those computations, but what I've done here is I've put together a handout and you can see these, the stack of paper here down on the platform here, and I invite you after we're done to come up and grab one. And you can take it home, take a look at it. In fact, if you might want to buy the book and study it a little bit further. But, and for those who are watching us online, this is going to be available in PDF form. And I guess for those of you that might forget tonight, you will find this on our website at CCOntario.com/daniel, you'll find a PDF right next to this study where you can download this document right here. And that'll be available probably sometime tomorrow morning is my guess, best guess, when we'll have that up on the website. So, just a fascinating chapter in Daniel where we are given just incredible insight as to the coming of the Lord. So, that's where we're going to stop for tonight. We'll pick it up in the next chapters after this. So, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your Word. None of us should be surprised at the fact that You know the beginning from the end, and that You can tell an aged man living in the Babylonian Empire, through one of Your angelic messengers, the exact computational formula for figuring out when Messiah would come the first time and ride into the city on a donkey, and for the first time be proclaimed Messiah, publicly. Lord, that's completely within Your purview. And we're thankful, God, especially living in these last days when the world is in such an uproar and there's so much chaos going on all around us and in other nations to know that You are the God who has counted out the days, and you know the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. And we can trust in You, and we can put our hope in You as King of kings, Lord of lords, and soon coming, Redeemer. Lord, on that day, may You find us walking in faithfulness doing the work that You've given us to do, being faithful to our families, faithful in all of our ways, in all of our words, living our life to please the Lord and not just to please self. Strengthen us, Lord, to live for You, for the days are short and they are certainly numbered, and we know, Lord, that You are coming soon. The Spirit and the bride say, come, even so, come Lord Jesus, for it is in Your name we pray, amen.