This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back for day four of week four of our look at the book of Isaiah. You
may have gone right on to this one quickly because yesterday we talked about the
strategies that Satan has against us and today we're going to take a look at the
victory that God can give to us. In Hezekiah's actions we see three things that
you and I need to do in order to have victory in the battle against Satan.

Number one, you have to take the attack seriously. Isaiah 37 verse 1, when King
Hezekiah heard this he tore his clothes and he put on sackcloth and he went into
the temple of the Lord. This battle that you're in, this temptation that Satan's
throwing, this insecurity he's putting in front of you, it can hurt you.

It's ruined people just like you. And so Hezekiah realizes we could lose this
battle and so he tore his robes. He expresses his emotional turmoil.

He didn't say it's no big deal. He realized that his life, the life of his
people was in danger and your spiritual life is in danger. Satan's like a
roaring lion.

You have to take a lion seriously. Satan can destroy your witness, he can
mutilate your hope, he can steal your confidence. As a Christian your ultimate
victory may be assured in heaven but these attacks can take you to a place of
losing every day of your life in the daily battle.

And so Hezekiah takes it seriously. He puts on sackcloth, he humbles himself.
Here's a king wearing sackcloth.

That's humility. Personal humility precedes God's victories. Hezekiah was a
great leader who could delegate many of his responsibilities.

One thing you cannot delegate, no matter how great a leader you are, you cannot
delegate humility. Someone else can't be humble for you. That would be pride.

So in order to have victory you have to take it seriously and approach it with
humility. Not, "Hey, I got this one. I've defeated this one before.

" No, I need you God. I need you as desperately as I always have. And then
Hezekiah does a third thing here.

He goes into the temple as he takes it seriously. He seeks out the presence of
the Lord. You take the battle seriously as you find a place where you can sense,
where you can respond to the presence of the Lord when the attacks come.

You don't try to fight it on your own strength. It might be some special
location. It might be an attitude where you are right now but you find a place
where you can sense the presence of the Lord.

You take it seriously. That's the first thing you do. Second thing you do for
victory is you put things in perspective.

You remember who's making the threats. In Isaiah 37, 5 to 7, 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. Those words
with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Listen. When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his
own country and there I will have him cut down with the sword. " Put it in
perspective.

Who's doing this? It's some underling of some earthly king, Isaiah says, and
that's all. The person may seem to be threatening.

They may seem to be confident. The situation may seem to be threatening. It may
seem to be all-important but they're just a grain of sand in God's sight.

Remember who's making the threats. Put things in perspective and also remember
who they are threatening. Put things in perspective.

Verse 22, "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've 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 choicest of its pines. I
have reached its remotest parts, the finest of its forests.

' You are threatening God's glory," is the prophecy here. You put God and the
problem side by side and you recognize the greatness of God. You are threatening
the glory of God.

The army of Israel put itself and the problem side by side one day when they
faced a giant by the name of Goliath and they said, "Goliath cannot be defeated.
But David put Goliath and the living God side by side and he realized Goliath
just didn't measure up. When Satan threatens you, he's threatening one of God's
children.

When Satan tempts you, he's tempting one of God's children. The one in whom God
wants to work his glory. The one who's going to express God's glory for all of
eternity.

Realize who they are threatening. And a third thing you do is you put things in
perspective as you remember that God is always in control. No matter what the
circumstance, no matter what the temptation, no matter what the failure, God is
always in control.

Chapter 37 verses 33 to 35. "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 that 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.

" This threatening enemy had a surprise coming. They wouldn't even get near the
city. Not one arrow would come in.

Assyria would be shocked to learn that they were going to be nothing more than
an instrument of God's judgment. They were in the hands of God as well as
everything else. Realize that no matter what the circumstance, no matter how bad
it looks, God is in control.

He's working in even the circumstances of life that feel to us out of control or
that feel to us like Satan is in control. Even there, even there God's will is
going to be done in the end. So you want to have victory?

You take it seriously. You get God's perspective. And number three, you pray for
victory.

You pray for victory. Listen in Isaiah 37 14 to 20 to what Hezekiah did when he
received the letter that was threatening his country with destruction. Hezekiah
received the letter, verse 14, from the messengers and he 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, "Lord Almighty, the God of Israel,
enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the
earth. You have made heaven and earth.

Give ear, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to all the words
sin a cherub has sent to ridicule the living God.

It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these people in
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 human hands. Now, Lord
our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that you, Lord, are the only God.

" Hezekiah prays for victory and I love the picture here. He goes up in verse
14, he takes this letter and he spreads it out before the Lord. Spread it out
before the Lord.

What a beautiful expression of how to pray when you're under attack. Just go to
God and spread it all out before him. Sit down and have a talk with God.

Talk to him about the details, about your feelings, about your fears. Spread it
out, the problem before the Lord, and then praise God for his greatness. Realize
that he is greater than everything you've just spread out, and then pray that he
will be glorified.

God, in this circumstance, you're going to be glorified because in the end this
story is about your glory. Now, does God answer this kind of prayer? You better
believe he does.

A prayer for victory that's based on his word? Of course he does. So listen to
what happens.

Isaiah 37 verses 36 to 38, "Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death
a hundred and eighty-five thousand 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 withdrew.

He returned to Nineveh and he stayed there. One day while he was worshiping in
the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adramech and Sharazar killed him with a
sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esharhad and his son
succeeded him as the king.

" So here is this one who seems so much in power he's not going to live much
longer. Hezekiah is going to outlive him. When it comes to prayer, when you pray
for God's glory, God's glory is going to be done.

Now, it may not be done when you want it in the timing that you think. It may
not be done as you want it in the way that you think, but in the end God's glory
is going to be done. When you look at your life, the battles, at what point in
your life have you been experiencing defeat lately?

Maybe following after temptations rather than resisting Satan and seeing those
temptations defeated. Maybe allowing your emotions to control your decisions and
directions rather than looking to God's Word. Maybe the defeats come out of
frustration, the frustration of being led around by your fears.

Maybe sinful thoughts have been dominating your thinking, jealous thoughts or
hateful thoughts or unforgiving thoughts. Right now, begin to employ Hezekiah's
strategy for victory. Focus your attention on that problem.

Begin to take it more seriously before the Lord. Put things in perspective. Put
God in the problem side by side and then pray.

Seriously pray because God is a God of victory. And so Father, that's what we do
right now. We seriously pray.

We pray for your victory in our lives. We can anticipate, we can expect your
victory not because of us, but because of you. We can expect your victory not to
glorify us, but to glorify you.

And so that's the victory that we pray for. Help us to live by faith and not by
sight. Help us to live in victory and not in defeat.

Help us to trust in you. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. Tomorrow we're going
to learn one final lesson from Hezekiah, what to do when the news is not good.