This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to week seven, our last week of
looking through 1 and 2 Kings, day one of that week. We're going to be in 2
Kings 18 much of this day. We in this last week are going to continue to look at
how you can have an outstanding faith.

We're learning from these great kings of Israel, of Judah actually, Joash and
Hezekiah and Josiah how to have this kind of faith. Joash taught us the
importance of the place of worship in our lives. Hezekiah taught us the
importance of removing the destructive, the distracting influences in our lives.

And before we get to Josiah, there's much to be said about the life of Hezekiah
here in this section of 2 Kings. So there's a couple of other lessons we want to
learn from the life of Hezekiah. One of them is about how to experience God's
victory in our lives.

Imagine what happens in 2 Kings 18 verse 9 and then also verse 13. Verse 9, "In
King Hezekiah's fourth year, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of
Eilah the king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria
and laid siege to it. " And then down in verse 13, "In the fourteenth year of
King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of
Judah and captured them.

" So you notice the fourth year and now the fourteenth year, he's still being
attacked. The king has changed of Assyria from Shalmaneser to Sennacherib, but
they're still attacking. This was the battle of Hezekiah's rule.

They just kept coming at him. And the lessons you and I can learn from this,
because remember all these stories in the Old Testament, the Bible teaches us,
are there for you and I to learn how to have faith, learn how to live the life
that God has for us. The lesson you can learn from Hezekiah here is how to win
the daily battle.

If you wake up feeling like you're defeated before you begin, like you'd just
rather not face the world, if you're feeling like I've got to exchange this
feeling of defeat for one of hope, one of confidence in my life, how can you
begin to live God's victory rather than just talking about it? The Bible is
clear. God desires for you and I as believers, as followers of Jesus, to live a
life, a victorious life.

Faith is the victory. We have victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. But how
does this look?

How does it even begin in our lives? How do we have victory over sinful
temptations and draining emotions and anger and fear in our lives? Hezekiah is
going to teach us some things about how you can see this victory.

First you've got to recognize the attacks that will come. And second, you've got
to live victoriously in the face of those attacks. We're going to talk about the
first of those today and then the other tomorrow.

First you've got to recognize the attacks as they come. If you don't know that
it's an attack that's being sent at you, you're going to fall prey to it.
Recognize the threats of the enemy.

If you know something about the strategy, the methods of the enemy, then you're
ready for those attacks when they come. And Paul said that we are not unaware of
Satan's schemes. Satan is attacking you as a follower of Jesus.

And the way that the Assyrians attacked Israel are a picture of the schemes that
Satan tries to run against you. Because they stood outside the walls of the city
and they kept saying these things. And they indicate the kinds of things that
Satan tries to say into my life, into your life to defeat us.

How does he attack us? First of all, he attacks us with insecurity. Second Kings
18, 19, and 20.

The field commander said to them, "This is the enemy army standing outside,
shouting to the walls of Jerusalem. Tell Hezekiah, this is what the great king,
the king of Assyria says, 'On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You
say you have strategy and military strength, but you speak only empty words.

On whom are you depending that you rebel against me? ' What reason is he yelling
up to them? Do you have to be confident?

And he's trying to chip away at Hezekiah's confidence, at the people's
confidence. He wants everybody on the wall to hear this. And Satan will attack
your confidence level.

He will attack you at this point of your insecurity. He'll begin to call into
question all of those things that you base your confidence on. God's word, can
you really trust it?

God's people, they're going to let you down. I mean, they've let you down
before, they're going to let you down again. He has a favorite ploy in attacking
your security.

And that ploy is, well, verses 33 and 35, 'Has the god of any nation ever
delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where were the gods of
Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Shefervarim and Henna and Ivah?

Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries
has been able to save this land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem
from my hand?

' He's asking here, have you ever seen it done before? I mean, I've defeated
every country that I've come up against. What has never happened before will
certainly not happen now.

Satan, one of his ploys is, the way he makes you feel insecure, is he wants you
to base your confidence on positive proof of what you've already seen happen in
your life. But the struggle with that is God's doing new things in your life.
New challenges are coming into your life because those will help you to grow.

You do have positive proof of some things in your life, but whenever you're
taking into a new area, a new challenge to growth, that's where he's going to
attack you. It doesn't take much thinking to see the danger in this one. You
become a person who'll never try anything new because you've never seen any
victories and who'll never see any victories because you never try anything new.

That's where Satan wants you to be. He attacks us at the point of our
insecurity. He also attacks us with just pure accusation.

One of the names for Satan is the accuser. It's one of the strategies that he
has to defeat us. He accuses us regarding our past sins and guilt.

He'll bring them up in your mind. One of his favorite and least understood
methods of accusation is shown here in verse 22. That verse reads, "If you say
to me, 'We are depending on the Lord our God,' isn't he the one whose high
places and altars Hezekiah removed?

Saying to Judah and Jerusalem, 'You must worship before this altar of Jerusalem?
' He's accusing them and he's saying, 'You've made a mistake. You've removed the
high places.

If you'd only not done the right thing. '" They were supposed to remove the high
places. "If you'd only not done the right thing, you wouldn't be in this
situation.

If you'd only not had integrity, you wouldn't have lost your job. And Satan will
accuse you about that. If you'd only not been honest, you wouldn't be having
this difficult conversation with your husband or your wife.

Satan will accuse you about that. If you'd only not tried to shy away from that
temptation, you wouldn't be going through the suffering that you're going
through right now. Satan will accuse you of that.

"Look what a mess you've gotten yourself into by following God," he says. That's
one of his accusations. "Not just of our past sin and guilt, but also of our
obedience.

" He accuses our obedience. Now he says, "You don't have that old habit to fall
back on. You don't have that old relationship.

" I know it was messed up, but you don't have that old relationship to fall back
on. "You should have sinned when you had the chance," he says. Now, it's
accusation.

It's the way he's trying to keep you in defeat. But it's one of the methods that
Satan has that we need to be aware of, that we have to battle against. Another
method that he has is the method of ridicule.

The enemy used ridicule to try to reduce Hezekiah's resolve. Verses 23 down
through about verse 26. "Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of
Assyria.

I will give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them. How can you repulse
one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending
on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore, have I come to attack and
destroy this place without word from the Lord?

The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it. And then
Eliakim son of Hilkiah and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, 'Please
speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in
Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.

'" Aramaic was a language that just the rulers used. They didn't want all the
people hearing this ridicule. 2,000 horses, but you don't have the riders.

Public embarrassment. Satan's tactics haven't changed much. He still ridicules
you.

He'll try to ridicule you personally, put you in a place of embarrassment that
makes you feel like, "Why am I following the Lord? Who are you to fight against
this? " He'll say it into your heart.

He'll try to ridicule you publicly. It's not fun to have other people make fun
of you. But the Bible teaches us, Jesus said, "I'm sending you out like sheep
among wolves.

" And sometimes we are vulnerable in our faith and we are made fun of for our
faith. But never forget, when you hear that ridicule of Satan echoing in your
mind or echoing through somebody else's voice, never forget the example of the
cross. The cross was a place of public ridicule.

And yet God chose to make it a place of forgiveness and salvation. Never forget
that the ridicules that Satan tries to throw against us, God will turn them
around and he'll use even those for his glory. One other way that Satan battles
against us, the clearest way, is just with lies.

He is a liar. And so he throws his lies at us. Down to verse 32.

"Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, 'The Lord
will surely deliver us. ' This city will not be given into the hand of the king
of Assyria. " Do not listen to Hezekiah.

This is what the king of Assyria says. "Make peace with me and come out to me
and then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink
water from his own cistern until I come and take you to a land like your own, a
land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees
and honey. Choose life and not death.

Don't listen to Hezekiah for he's misleading you when he says, 'The Lord will
deliver us. '" That's a flat out lie. The enemy is tempting these starving
people with food, with luxuries that he's never intending to give them.

He's going to take them into captivity and use them as slaves. There's a shorter
word for temptation, you know. Lie.

Temptations are appealing lies. Satan will tell you whatever you want to hear,
but the promise is never fulfilled. He doesn't have to fulfill his promises.

God always fulfills his promises. He promised Eve knowledge and she found shame.
Satan promised Cain satisfaction and he found loneliness.

Satan promised Judas hope and he found despair. What's he promising you? It is a
lie.

In order to battle against the schemes of Satan, we got to be aware of these
schemes of Satan. We need God's wisdom, so let's pray for it. Father, we do pray
for your wisdom.

Help us to see those times when Satan is running these schemes of insecurity and
ridicule and lies against us. And help us to realize that you have a power that
is greater than his and to rely on your power. Lord, help us not to buy the lie.

Help us not to believe the words of ridicule or insecurity. Help us instead to
trust your word and help us to let the truth set us free. We ask this in Jesus'
name.

Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to talk about where you find the victory.