[0:00] Powerful song.
[0:10] Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong in the Savior's love.!
[0:22] This morning as we look at the passage, a continuation from a couple of weeks ago, from Isaiah chapter! Chapter 36 and 37, the question that kind of comes to us front and center as a theme throughout this message is this question.
[0:40] Who is the Savior in your home? Who is the Savior in your home?
[0:50] When troubles come? When difficulties encounter your family? Who is the Savior in those moments?
[1:00] Is it you as a dad who is figuring things out, making things work, finding a solution, looking for answers, helping your family come to grips with the facts of life and moving them to health?
[1:17] Or is it the Savior? The one and only Savior that becomes the source of hope and help for your family?
[1:28] In the big things and in the little things of life. This past weekend, my son was helping me put in a garage door in our home.
[1:39] And there were several moments where he, without my assistance, uttered a prayer out loud and said, Lord, please help in this moment.
[1:50] Daddy doesn't know what he's doing. I'm grateful for those moments. I'm grateful for those moments because my kids are beginning to understand who the Savior is in our home.
[2:10] And it's not daddy. It's not mommy. It's not a solution that we find in this world. It's a solution that is otherworldly, that is divine, that is powerful, that is overarching and great.
[2:28] It's a solution in a God who hears. A God who answers prayer. A God who desires to intervene. If we just welcome Him in. If we welcome Him to take His place where He belongs.
[2:44] A place of supremacy. A place of help because God desires to save. God desires to help. He desires to show His power in your life.
[2:55] If you will allow Him to come and to take part and to provide assistance. I want to show you a picture. It's a slide of something that took place this past summer.
[3:10] Maybe it's something you can see. Yeah, that's a little better up front. This picture on the surface is a picture of a family in a tree house. On the surface, it's a picture of our family this past summer.
[3:27] But what you don't see is evidence of a God who answers prayer. At least six ways. I was thinking just this morning about all the things that this picture represents in terms of God's answer to prayer.
[3:47] First is that here we are. This is a picture of us in Aurora, Illinois. Now, you were gracious enough to give our family several weeks to take a trip out to California and back.
[4:00] And my wife was praying for years that we would be able to make that journey. And this is a culmination of those prayers and being able to begin that journey.
[4:12] This was the first stop along the way. And then, here we are in Aurora, our former backyard. And a lot of prayers went into praying for God's next step for our family.
[4:28] And this was just a reminder of God's faithfulness. And all of the prayers that were prayed in that home and in that city. That God would move us to the place that He would have for us.
[4:42] And He moved us here to Ohio. And the person taking this picture is a person we had never met before. It was the person who bought our home.
[4:54] In years of praying that God would sell that house. And sure enough, someone bought it and they were kind enough to accept a bunch of strangers knocking on their door.
[5:06] Asking if they could go in the backyard and go up into that tree house. And then the tree house itself. For two years, my kids prayed, Lord, please let us have some lumber.
[5:21] So that we can build a tree house. We want a tree house. And Dad has said that he's not going to pay for wood to put this together. So will you show up and will you provide some wood for us?
[5:33] And every time we would pass a lumber yard, they would say, Hey, can we go over and ask if they have some lumber that we could have? And it wasn't until we were helping with a renovation effort at a church that we were attending.
[5:45] And I was carrying all this wood out to the dumpster. And I realized, here it is. All this wood that we are taking to the dumpster.
[5:57] This is the tree house. So I brought it home and it took hours to pull all the nails. And the kids and I had a blast putting together not just a one-decker tree house, but a double-decker tree house.
[6:10] It's just a testimony to God's ability to answer prayer above and beyond what we could imagine. And the lady standing up there next to us and her grandkids in the forefront is a testimony to God's answer to prayer.
[6:26] One of our neighbors who was trying to minister to her own grandkids. And the ministry that took place right there in that community. Encouraging, helping, supporting, and directing the heart of this woman to the things of the Lord.
[6:44] And just the fact that after three years of weather, here we all are standing up in this tree house and it didn't collapse. That's an answer to prayer just in and of itself.
[6:55] We serve a God who delights. Who delights in your prayers. We serve a God who desires to intervene in your life and to show up.
[7:11] To show himself strong. To demonstrate that he is able. More than able to do all that you could imagine or think.
[7:22] He wants to do that for you this morning. He wants to do that but he will only do that if you come to him in prayer. So as we turn to Isaiah chapter 36.
[7:36] All that the prophet Isaiah was trying to communicate to the people of Israel. Begins to culminate in the life story of this one King Hezekiah.
[7:47] So that the prophet spends four chapters developing the story, this narrative of Hezekiah. The culmination of faith.
[7:59] The crescendo of faith in his life that comes to bear. Not only for him but comes to bear as a hallmark, as a testimony to an entire nation.
[8:10] Hezekiah who is really on the brink of extinction in terms of becoming a nation. Not that God would not save for himself a remnant. But they were on the brink as a nation in total collapse.
[8:25] And Hezekiah in his faith in God becomes a banner. Testifying that God is able and desires to answer prayer in big ways.
[8:37] Let me read for us just the first verse of chapter 36. Isaiah chapter 36 verse 1. And by way of introduction and also in terms of bringing us up to where we are a couple of weeks, we went through this passage.
[8:54] But just to catch us up and remind us of those things, let me read for us this verse and we'll dig into our text this morning. It says, In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
[9:15] Last time we saw that Judah was in a desperate situation. This desperate situation of this rising empire, the force of the Assyrian empire that was coming to bear on the unknown world.
[9:32] And we're introduced in this verse to two main characters. The first character is the man Hezekiah. The second is the character Sennacherib, who was the king of Assyria.
[9:46] And we saw that in Judah's desperate situation, that there was a legacy of Hezekiah himself. That Hezekiah was used by God in significant ways.
[10:01] He was influential in removing the high places, in helping to restore Israel to the semblance of pure, godly worship, in helping to remodel the temple and to consecrate it and to make it in a way that was worthy, again, for sacrifice, for ritual, for worship.
[10:23] Of calling the priests and the Levites to sanctifying themselves so they could be a part of this worship service. of helping to remove the idols in the Asherah poles and removing the idolatrous practices of the people and calling them to the one true God.
[10:44] That's what he did in Judah. But he was also influential at this critical moment in Israel's history to help call a group of individuals, even from the northern ten tribes, to celebrate in the Passover.
[10:59] What's quite phenomenal about Hezekiah is not only was he useful for the Lord in helping to write and restore the worship of Judah and Jerusalem, but at a critical time in Israel's history, as they were beginning to be conquered by Assyria, Hezekiah has this brilliant idea.
[11:23] I'm going to not only reach out to people in Judah, but I'm going to reach out to the people across all of Israel and I'm going to invite them to celebrate with us the Passover. And so a year or two before the northern ten tribes were conquered by Assyria, Hezekiah invites all of Israel to participate in worship to God.
[11:48] Most of those who were invited in Ephraim and Manasseh and the other ten tribes mocked. But we find that there were some. There was a remnant who came.
[12:00] A remnant who worshipped. A remnant who, even though they were impure of heart, were able to experience the joy of worship. The joy of celebrating who God was and submitting themselves to Him.
[12:17] So that in 2 Chronicles chapter 30, it says this. It says, There was great joy in Jerusalem. For since the days of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.
[12:33] The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people and God heard them. For their prayer reached heaven, His holy dwelling place.
[12:46] Hezekiah, a man who was born to a wicked king, we find rises to a place of prominence in the kingdom and is used by God to restore a kingdom back to right and true worship.
[13:01] But that did not happen in isolation. It did not happen by accident. It happened because of the faithful witness, the faithful training of a faithful mom and a faithful grandpa.
[13:18] And so, the influence on Hezekiah's life not only affected him personally, but was useful to affect an entire nation and even the ten nations, or the ten tribes of Israel.
[13:29] And a legacy and a witness for the nations to come. A banner that says God is trustworthy. All that Isaiah the prophet has spoken, you can hear and you can embrace it with confidence.
[13:46] Trust Him in these critical moments. We also looked at the reputation of Assyria. We see here in Isaiah chapter 36, beginning in verse 2, something about this nation.
[14:03] It says, And we find in verses 4 to verse 10, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
[14:30] And we find in verses 4 to verse 10, all that this Reb Sheikah said to the king of Israel and to the people of Jerusalem.
[14:42] We'll look at that in a moment. But a couple of weeks ago, we saw that this rising power, this military force, was a force to be reckoned with.
[14:56] It had advanced technology, a military group of individuals who were devoted to service, who were trained for war, who had armor and who had iron, the first to use composite bows, the first to use multi-tiered siege engines.
[15:20] And because of the strength of this army, no one could stand in their way. We find a taste of that in verses 4 to verse 10.
[15:31] Let me read this for you and see how the pride of the Assyrian army comes to bear now as they stand before the city of Jerusalem.
[15:43] It says this, And the Reb Sheikah said to them, Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, On what do you rest this trust of yours?
[15:55] Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you are trusting in Egypt that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it.
[16:13] Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him. But if you say to me, We trust in the Lord our God, is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar?
[16:29] Come now, Make a wager with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able, on your part, to set riders on them.
[16:41] How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
[16:51] Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.
[17:05] God had given the empire of Assyria the ability to overtake the nations. They had already swept through the known region around Judea.
[17:20] They had already taken Tyre and Sidon. They had already taken Damascus. They had already conquered the northern ten tribes. They had already taken Assyria. They had already taken Philistia.
[17:33] And Egypt was just a minor annoyance. We find later in this chapter ten other countries that had been taken by the nation of Assyria.
[17:44] God had given them strength. God had enabled them as He had promised to do. what must have been a little troubling. As the people on the wall were listening to this message.
[18:00] He's remembering what Isaiah the prophet had already told them. He had already told them in chapter ten. We had read this before that Assyria would be the rod of God to discipline the people of Judah.
[18:16] He had already promised that discipline that discipline was on its way through the hand of Assyria. And you can imagine as all of the fortified cities of Judah were being conquered if the people of Jerusalem wondered is this the moment when we fall as well.
[18:36] We have seen what they have done to all of the nations surrounding us and we alone are left. We find earlier here in verse two we find that they had been at Lachish.
[18:49] And just in a moment we'll see that the second most prominent city in Judah Lachish had been conquered in just a matter of a few days.
[19:01] Because in the next few verses we find that word had come to the Reb Sheka that the forces of Assyria had left Lachish and were now moving a little closer.
[19:13] They were moving to Libna which instead of being 20 miles away was only 10 miles away. This prominent city of Lachish annihilated in just a matter of days.
[19:27] What possibly could Jerusalem offer in terms of defense and protection against such an incredible force? There was crisis in Jerusalem.
[19:43] And interestingly not a coincidence. The Reb Sheka delivers this message on the very spot that Isaiah had spoken and given assurance to King Ahaz Hezekiah's father.
[19:59] That wicked king who years before faced a similar crisis. Isaiah the prophet spoke to him on the exact location and promised him that in the future there would be deliverance through Emmanuel.
[20:17] I can only imagine that as Hezekiah saw the foreshadowing of this he must have thought to himself reminded himself of the message that the prophet Isaiah had given to Ahaz on that day.
[20:33] it was recorded in Isaiah chapter 7 3 be careful Isaiah says be quiet do not fear and do not let your heart be faint.
[20:50] Trust the Lord Ahaz and certainly that message must have resounded in the heart of Hezekiah as he was faced with this crisis of his own.
[21:00] Well the Reb Sheikah doesn't give up. He comes at this again beginning in verse 13 and now not only does he assail the character of the Lord that Jerusalem puts their hope in he assails the character of Hezekiah in many different verses he says in verse 13 then the Reb Sheikah stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah so that all the people could hear.
[21:33] Hear the words of the great king the king of Assyria thus says the king do not let Hezekiah deceive you for he will not be able to deliver you do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying 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 for thus says the king of Assyria make your peace with me come out to me then each one of you will eat of his own vine and each one will eat of his own fig tree and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own a land of grain and wine a land of bread and vineyards beware lest Hezekiah mislead you the Lord will deliver us has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria this message coming with force against the people calls them to question the character and the commitment of
[22:42] Hezekiah to trust in the Lord don't listen to this one come with us we'll make you live in a land that is just like your own we will spare you we'll have mercy certainly you'll be captives but at least you'll be able to survive you trust Hezekiah I can't make the same promises perhaps reports of of the prophecy of Isaiah emboldened Sennacherib emboldened the Reb Sheka this messenger of Assyria to call into question the hope of Jerusalem in the one true God leadership was questioned the people were intimidated and now is the moment of decision the moment of decision where the rubber meets the road where all the faith that
[23:44] Hezekiah had called the people to embrace now is a point of decision in making it action faith demands action in terms of the people so what is Hezekiah to do and now we turn to our next point Hezekiah's determined faith Hezekiah's determined faith we see that beginning in verse 37 as soon as King Hezekiah heard it he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord and he sent Eliakim who was over the household and Shebna the secretary and the senior priests covered with sackcloth to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos they said to him thus says Hezekiah this is a day of distress of rebuke and of disgrace children have come to the point of birth and there is no strength to bring them forth
[24:50] Hezekiah is coming to a place of having to stake his claim in the confidence in God we find in these verses Hezekiah's confidence in the Lord his confidence in God to save and recognizing what has gone before recognizing as we find in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles as the account of this story unfolds we find there that sure enough Hezekiah did employ the help of Egypt he did form an alliance with this empire and asking them to help we also find that he paid tribute to Assyria early on in the hopes that they would turn away and not come and to ransack the land Hezekiah had turned to secular means in those moments he had turned to his own ingenuity he had looked for human strength to overcome the obstacles that he faced but there was a point of clarity in his life sometime between that moment and this moment there was a point of clarity in his life we find in 2
[26:18] Chronicles chapter 32 that he is speaking encouragingly to the people he says to them all that had gathered together he gathers them in a square and he says to them be strong and courageous do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him for there are more with us than are with him with him is an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles and the people took confidence in the words of Hezekiah king of Judah somehow this message along with the messages of Isaiah the prophet made their way to Sennacherib made their way to the king of Assyria they understood where their new confidence lay it lay in the Lord their God and Hezekiah was the messenger of that confidence calling the people to hope in
[27:23] God the God who is able to save and in this moment in Isaiah chapter 37 in responding to the message that he hears from Rabshakeh Hezekiah turns to the Lord in prayer he comes to the Lord in repentance he recognizes that his past confidences in Egypt in the confidence in paying off Assyria were all futility and expresses his repentant heart his sorrowful heart in terms of brokenness and sackcloth and mourning and the message that is sent to Isaiah is a message of repentance he comes this is a day of distress of rebuke and of disgrace but their hope doesn't end there it moves to the next level in verse 4 it may be that the
[28:27] Lord your God will hear the words of the Rebsheka whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left Hezekiah calls his men to ask for God to intervene ask that God might might salvage his reputation that is what is at stake what is at stake in this moment is not the preservation of Israel not the protection of Jerusalem not the future legacy of Hezekiah and his people what is at stake is the reputation of God God who has said and committed himself to save God who has committed himself to deliver his people if they pray it may be he says that the
[29:28] Lord your God will hear he is the one to whom we pray he is the one to whom we look for help and that is our next point a united cry for help from God a united cry for help from God is joined by these two men Eliakim and Shebna interestingly we haven't had time to look in depth at the book of Isaiah but if you look back to chapter 22 you see that these two men had been previously rebuked by Isaiah himself Shebna had decided that he was going to build for himself a tomb in the rock there in Jerusalem and Isaiah had to confront Shebna and say what in the world are you doing because of your sin because of taking this step you're actually going to die in the wilderness you're going to be cut off
[30:28] Shebna a similar warning went against Eliakim Isaiah calls him a tent peg a tent peg that will be severed will be cut certainly these men in walking into the presence of Isaiah the prophet must have wondered what's Isaiah going to think how is he going to respond he's already been bold to rebuke us for past sin but they come in repentance as well they come approaching the house of the Lord and robed in sackcloth and asking for God to intervene and Isaiah gives them an answer they recognize that God is the one whose reputation is in full view Isaiah makes this the issue he sees this as a taunt and a threat against the almighty one and he makes
[31:36] God the focus of his prayer the renown of God is front and center in his mind not personal interests not personal comfort but the reputation of God is at stake and we see God's decisive!
[31:51] answer in the next few verses in chapter 37 verses 5 to 7 what is God's decisive answer it says this beginning in verse 5 when the servants of king hezekiah came to Isaiah Isaiah said to them say to your master thus says the Lord do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me behold I will put a spirit in him so that he shall hear rumor and return to his own land and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land first we see that God will destroy the Assyrian army God will destroy the Assyrian army Isaiah reaffirms this message to Hezekiah do not be afraid Hezekiah
[32:51] God will show up for you God will answer your request God has heard God will intervene up to this point through the book of Isaiah the theme has been to fear the Lord in Isaiah 813 the Lord of hosts it says him you shall honor as holy let him be your fear and let him be your dread but now from chapter 37 moving to the end of the book we find that fear in God leads us to not fear in the nations here we find do not be afraid Hezekiah do not worry in chapter 40 we find it says go to a high mountain O Zion herald the good news lift up your voice with strength O Jerusalem herald of good news lift it up fear not fear not fear not for I am with you be not dismayed for I am your
[34:01] God in 41 13 fear not I am the one who helps you in 41 14 fear not you men of Israel I am the one who helps you your redeemer is the holy one of Israel what most often stands in our way of faith is a fear that cripples us from asking God for answers and waiting for him to show up in your life but in this moment this moment of crisis we're Hezekiah had spoken words of faith into the people of Israel now is able to take action go to Lord in prayer and seek his face and trust him with what would otherwise be an impossible situation and God shows up and gives this answer don't be afraid Hezekiah don't be afraid he's going to hear a rumor!
[35:02] He's going to go away and he's going to be killed in Now those of us who know the rest of the story might think that's great news but for Hezekiah who's hearing this can you imagine but okay I understand Lord he's going to hear a rumor eventually but what does that mean about me what does that mean about Jerusalem what does that mean about our safety here I get the fact that you're going to honor your prayer and you're going to salvage your name and your renown in the world but what about the here and now and in this moment there is not an answer about the here and now there's not an answer about the immediate although we do begin to see God's answer in the next few verses in verse 10 of chapter 37 we begin to see how God is working actually backing up to verse 8 the
[36:08] Reb Shekha returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libna so he has taken Lachish the second most prominent city of Judah and now he's moved closer to Jerusalem about 10 miles away now and now he's going against Libna verse 9 now the king heard concerning Terukah king of Cush he has set out to fight against you and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of!
[36:50] Assyria! So he sends this word back he wants to make sure that Hezekiah doesn't get the wrong idea now Hezekiah has gone to prayer Hezekiah has gotten an answer back from Isaiah the prophet and from God himself that says they're going to hear a rumor and they're going to leave the city and sure enough they begin to hear a rumor and they move now to Libna and then they move to a place so they can fight against Egypt and the Rebsheikah sends word back to make sure that Jerusalem doesn't get the wrong message we're coming back we're going to take this city we're going to conquer you we're going to devastate and destroy this entire city don't get your hopes up don't make the wrong assumptions there will be no mercy and there is no
[37:58] God that has ever stood in our way he renews his threat against Jerusalem and Hezekiah has another opportunity to reinstate his faith in God what will Hezekiah do we find what he does in verse 14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord O Lord of hosts God of Israel enthroned above the cherubim you are the God you alone of all the nations and the kingdoms of the earth you have made heaven and earth incline your ear O Lord and hear open your eyes O Lord and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to mock the living
[39:00] God truly O Lord the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations of their lands and have cast their gods into the fire for they were no gods but the work of men's hands wood and stone therefore they were destroyed so now O Lord our God save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are God again what comes front and center in Hezekiah's heart and mind is the testimony and the renown and the glory of the Lord of hosts the God of Israel God show your hand show up for us today state categorically emphatically who you are make it obvious to the nations that you reign that you're in control help
[40:01] Jerusalem and all that are looking on this situation to recognize who we serve and we get an answer God answers again we find that answer beginning in verse 30 this shall be a sign for you in chapter 37 verse 30 this year you shall eat what grows of itself and in the second year what springs from that!
[40:33] then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit and the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward for out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant and out of the mountain Zion a band of survivors the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria he shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it was shield or cast up a siege mount against it by the way that he came by by the way that he came by the same he shall return and he shall not come into the city declares the Lord for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David finally a definitive answer don't worry Hezekiah this force unmatched with power it's not going to come against you it's not going to lift up sword or shield or bow you have nothing to worry about
[41:43] I will protect you I will save you I will be your deliverer because I'm your God and I will do this for my own sake and for the sake of my promise to David trust me I'll do it we find in verse 36 and the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of Assyria and when the people arose early in the morning behold these were all the dead bodies then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh God showed up God destroyed the army of Assyria now what we don't get in the empty spaces that aren't conveyed here in this narrative is that the time that elapsed before the answer came as we see one verse consecutive after the other it's our thought that prayer was given and
[42:51] God in the very same night destroyed the army but the evidence in the passage and in the context is that it actually took two to three years before the answer finally came that's why a sign was so important in verse 30 this will be the sign for you Hezekiah this will be the evidence that God is going to work through His answer in your life in the first couple of years you're just going to live off the land you see you didn't plant crops when there were armies that were occupying your territory you didn't want to feed the occupying army you don't want to give them a reason to stay but God was going to still provide for His people He was still going to make sure that their needs were met and so for the first couple of years they were going to be able to live off the land and it wasn't until the third year that they were going to be able to plant crops and see the harvest and the bounty and the preservation of God it was going to take some time before God's answer was clear it was going to take some time before the army was decimated and finally returns home you see throughout the scripture the testimony is that
[44:06] God expects His faithful men and women to wait but waiting isn't something that we're inclined to do but if you look at Noah in the 150 years of waiting you look at Abraham in the 25 years of waiting for the promise of Isaac you look at David in the 10 years of waiting for God to finally help him to be king waiting is a mark of faith as God is seeking to develop within our hearts a commitment to trust him regardless of the circumstances is God worth trusting that much that is worth waiting for when we wait and when we trust God shows up and his glory is put on display only God can get credit for wiping out the Assyrian army chariots what are they iron weapons what are they war machines compound bows and all terrain boots who cares one night one angel 185,000 gone by the hand of the Lord devastation the power of God at work it shows up because
[45:29] Hezekiah commits himself to trust so that God can get the glory in Jerusalem not the ingenuity of good strategy of good military skill of prowess in battle but so that God can get the glory this is Hezekiah's God and this is your God this is our God the God of power the God of glory and renown who desires to show up in your life today whatever the situation whatever the circumstance God desires to receive glory in your life as you commit yourself to trust in Him and our final point God deals with Sennacherib God deals with Sennacherib Sennacherib runs back to his home territory he runs back to the safety of Nineveh and what the scripture doesn't tell is the 20 years that he survives and thrives in Assyria up to the point of his death we find here in verse 38 and as he was worshipping in the house of Nishrak his god
[46:46] Adrammelech and Sherazir his sons struck him down with the sword and after they escaped into the hand of Ararat Esarden his son reigned in his place there would be no safety for Sennacherib he might run back to the to the stronghold of Assyria he might run back to the worship of his deity but even there he was not safe from the hand of the God of Israel God would find a way to strike him down in exact vengeance and exalt his glory in this situation to stake his claim as the God who is able to answer the God who can intervene the legacy of faith is recorded for the ages the faith of Hezekiah stands as a banner for us an example for us to look to and embrace and to say Hezekiah's God is our
[47:46] God the God who is able to save the God who hears and answers the God who desires for his glory to be put on display if his people will but ask for his help this last picture I want to show you is a picture of a new tree house this is a tree house in Columbus kids began to pray for more wood I don't know what is it about trees and wood for our family but I didn't know how this one was going to work out I certainly didn't know what tree we were going to be putting a tree house in but wouldn't you know the big windstorm that came about a week ago or several days ago blew down a gigantic branch from one of our trees and fortunately it would have landed in the neighbor's yard and broken the fence but it was cradled by a row of pine trees we have in the back and the kids went out and cut up the branches and without a nail or a screw or rope put up this tree house in our backyard and God again showed us that he cares about big things and little things like tree houses he cares about what's going on in your life he is able to save regardless of the situation that you're in when a mighty empire comes knocking at your door when this impenetrable force shows its might at your gates or when you just want something simple like a tree house
[49:36] God cares and is able to answer will you ask for God's help let's pray Lord we understand that you delight in answering prayers not just because you love us and because you desire to meet our needs but more importantly because you desire to make your name glorious and as we identify ourselves with you as we as we commit our hope and our faith in you as we make it evident to the people around us where our source of confidence lies you delight in showing up because you are able to put yourself on display it's a way for you to make your name glorious in this world so Lord I pray that you would help us to see those opportunities and to capitalize on them to commit the big things and little things of life into your care so that you can take credit and so that our own children and our co-workers and anyone else that we might interact with would see what a great
[51:00] God you are that's our desire and we praise you for the fact that you are faithful and we ask that you would help us as your people to commit ourselves to our faithful God we pray in Jesus name amen holy holy