This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our second day of week seven of our Look Through First and Second
Kings. We're in 2 Kings 19 today. We're turning from the attacks of chapter 18
against Hezekiah, the Assyrians, to the victory in chapter 19.

Yesterday we saw the Assyrians attack against Hezekiah, showed us, reminded us
of some of the schemes that Satan uses to try to defeat us. Today we're going to
see in Hezekiah's actions the way to victory. How do you enjoy victory?

He teaches us to do three things. Number one, you take the attack seriously.
Second Kings 19, 1, when King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and he
put on sackcloth and he went into the temple of the Lord.

He took the attack seriously. He didn't pretend like it wasn't there. He didn't
live in denial.

This is an attack he knew that could destroy his country. And when Satan attacks
you, you take it seriously. It can hurt you.

Attacks like that have ruined people just like you, just like me. Now look at
what Hezekiah did. The simple things he did teach us how to take it seriously.

He tore his robes. That wasn't a way that they had of expressing emotional
anguish. And he expresses his emotional turmoil.

Hezekiah doesn't echo this statement that's become the downfall of too many
people. It's no big deal. Ah, it's no big deal.

He realized that this attack, his life was in danger, his country was in danger.
And your spiritual life, in fact your relational life, your family life, your
business life, it can be in danger through the attacks of Satan. We need to
admit the results that these attacks can have on our lives.

We need to take them seriously. Satan is a roaring lion, the New Testament says.
You take a lion seriously.

A roaring lion that can destroy your witness, that can mutilate your hope, that
can steal your confidence. As a Christian, your ultimate victory in heaven may
be assured, but these attacks can make you an everyday loser in the daily
battles of life. So you take it seriously.

Emotionally you draw in and recognize how serious an attack this is. He tore his
robes and then he put on sackcloth. He humbled himself.

Here's a king wearing sackcloth. That is humility. And personal humility always
precedes God's victory.

You can't get to God's victory through pride. Hezekiah was a great leader, a
great leader who could and did delegate many, many responsibilities. But there
is one thing you cannot delegate no matter how great a leader you are.

You cannot delegate humility. That is something that has to be in your heart and
has to be seen in your life. In order to take it seriously, you have to have the
humility to know I need God to get through this one.

I can't make it on my own. So he put on sackcloth. And then he went to the
temple.

He sought out the presence of the Lord. You find a place where you can sense,
where you can respond to the presence of God when the attacks come. You get away
from the voice of Satan and you listen to the voice of God.

You open God's word. It might be a special location, but this can be found in
the attitude of your heart and a verse that you've memorized in pulling
something out at the moment that you need it, not having to wait until the end
of the day. You seek out the presence of the Lord in this moment.

You take the attack seriously. That's the first thing you do. Second thing you
do.

The key to victory is you put things in perspective. Put things in perspective.
And to do that, you remember who's making the threats and you remember who's
being threatened.

That's how you put things in perspective. First, you remember who's making the
threats. Starting in verse 5.

"When King Hezekiah's officials came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, 'Tell your
master,'" this is what the Lord says, "do not be afraid of what you've heard.
These words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
" Isaiah, the prophet, who you know writes obviously an entire book in the Old
Testament, is here in the prophet during the reign of Hezekiah.

And they go to Isaiah and he has the right perspective. He says, "This is an
underling of an earthly king. That's all.

This person that seems to be threatening, the truth of the matter is they're
just a grain of sand in God's sight. " Satan is a roaring lion. But when you put
things in perspective, he is a roaring lion who is going to be destroyed by the
power of God.

So you remember who Satan really is. You remember the fall that he had and he's
going to have. And when you remember that, it helps you to put things in
perspective, but that's only half of the equation.

The other half is you remember who they're threatening. Verses 22 to verse 23,
"Who is it that you've insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised
your voice and lifted your eyes in pride?

Against the Holy One of Israel. By your messengers, you have heaped insults on
the Lord. And you have said, 'With my many chariots, I have ascended the heights
of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon.

I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choices of its pines. I have reached its
remotest parts, the finest of its forests. ' Because of their pride, they are
threatening God's glory.

" And what's happening here and what you need to do to put things in perspective
when the battles come, to have victory in the battles, is you put God and the
problems side by side. Back in the days of David, the army of Israel put itself
and the problem side by side. They measured themselves by the giant Goliath and
they came up short.

But long comes David and he puts God and the problem side by side. He measures
Goliath by the greatness of God and he realizes God has the victory. How are you
measuring the problem you're facing right now?

One of the ways you put things in perspective is by remembering that God is
always in control. Listen to what happens in verses 32 to 34. "Therefore, this
is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria.

He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it
with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way he came, he will
return.

He will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save
it for my sake and the sake of David, my servant. " God's in control.

This threatening enemy had a surprise coming. Hezekiah is going to outlive him.
Assyria is going to be shocked to learn that they're nothing more than an
instrument of God's judgment.

They're even being used by God. God's in control. Put things in perspective.

That's one of the keys to victory. Now, you may not see that physically right
now with the physical problem you're facing, with the relationship problem
you're facing, or the financial problem you're facing. You may not see
physically that God is in control, but you can believe it.

In eternity, God's going to be in control. And towards eternity, you're going to
see more and more of the fact that he is in control. Then there's a third thing
you do.

First you take the problem seriously. Second, you put the problem in
perspective. And then you pray for victory in the problem.

You pray for God's victory. Listen to what Hezekiah did when he received a
letter that threatened his country with destruction. It starts in verse 14.

"Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. And then he went
up to the temple of the Lord, and he spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah
prayed to the Lord, 'O Lord God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you
alone are God over all kingdoms of the earth.

You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O
Lord, and see.

Listen to the words that Senate cherub has sent to insult the living God. It is
true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their
lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them.

For they were not gods, but only wood and stone fashioned by men's hands. Now, O
Lord, our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms on earth may
know that you alone, O Lord, are God. '" This prayer of Hezekiah, first look at
how it begins.

In verse 14, he took this letter, and I love these words, he spread it out
before the Lord. What a beautiful expression of how to pray when you're under
attack. You spread out the problem before the Lord.

You sit down, and you have a talk with God. You just lay it all out. You talk to
Him about the details.

You talk to Him about your feelings, your fears. You spread out the problem
before the Lord, but you don't stop there. That's where Hezekiah started, but
then you praise God for His greatness.

In verse 15, you see that. You praise God that He's going to be glorified in
verse 19. Everyone's going to see that you are the Lord.

You go from spreading out the problem to praising God for His solution. When
it's going to come, how it's going to come, I don't know the details of that.
You don't know the details of that, but the fact that God will be glorified in
the end, you can be confident of that.

God answers this kind of prayer. Now, in Hezekiah's case, he answered it very
immediately and in a very physical way. In verses 35 down to verse 37, "That
night, the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five
thousand men in the Assyrian camp.

When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies. So
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, broke camp and he withdrew. He returned to Nineveh
and he stayed there.

One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nishraq, his sons
Andramalek and Charazer cut him down with a sword. And then they escaped to the
land of Ararat. Sennacherhaddon, his son, succeeded him as king.

" So God has the victory in the end. God has the victory in the end. And in your
life, God is going to have the victory.

I can promise you that, not based on my promise, but based on His promise. I
can't tell you when it will come. I know that it will come by the time we get to
eternity in heaven.

I know that it very well may come. Some of the victory will come while we're
headed to heaven in our life on this earth. You're going to begin to experience
His victory now and you're going to experience His complete victory in all of
eternity.

At what point in your life have you been experiencing defeat lately at the hands
of the enemy, Satan? Following temptations rather than resisting? Or allowing
your emotions to control your decisions and directions?

Frustration because you're being led around by your fears? Allowing sinful
thoughts to just dominate your thinking entirely? Begin right now to recognize
you can live in victory.

God wants you to live in victory. Now, sometimes it is three steps forward and
two steps back. The process of growth can seem slow at times, but there is a
process of growth in your life.

There is a process towards victory in your life. So what do you do? You focus
your attention on the problem and begin to take it more seriously.

You put things in perspective. You put God on the problem side by side and then
you pray. You seriously pray.

Let's do that right now. Our Father, we pray together for victory. We don't want
to live in defeat.

Defeated by our temptations or defeated by our fears or defeated by negative
emotions, our anger, our hatred, our unforgiveness. We want to live in your
victory. And so we pray that, first of all, you help us to hear your voice.

That you are leading us from victory to victory. You're leading us to places of
greater growth. More than those times when it seems like we've taken a step back
help us to realize the truth about us is not expressed in that step.

The truth about us is expressed in Jesus Christ, who he is. That's where we're
headed. And Lord, give us the hope.

Give us the faith today to know that you are going to complete in us the work
that you began. We trust you for this. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Join us tomorrow. We're going to learn from Hezekiah what to do when the news is
not good.