The text for today from the chapters of Isaiah, chapters 36 and 37. I'm not going to read both chapters. I'll give a narrative instead. But the title of our message comes from verse 5. where the king of Assyria, a spokesperson, is taunting Judah. In verse 5 he says, Now on whom do you trust? So our title today is, In Whom Do You Trust? I want our focus today to be about prayer, specifically Hezekiah's prayer in chapter 37. And as we look at his prayer, I want us to look at how it can be a model prayer for us in times of despair or times of uncertainty or when you just simply don't know what to do in a situation. We go before the Lord, as Hezekiah does, in a heart of trust, in answer to the question of in whom Do you trust? There's various situations where we need God's guidance and prayers. We need His guidance for decisions that we just simply need to make in our lives. Sometimes we've gotten ourselves into a mess, as David did in Psalm chapter 34, and he says, this poor man cries unto God. Sometimes we need to know a path to go, a way to go. And sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we have zero control over the situation, zero control over how it's going to turn out. We simply don't know what to do. And that's what Hezekiah finds himself in here in this prayer. But Hezekiah turns to a God who hears. As David cried, this poor man cried unto the Lord, And he asked the Lord to hear him. Hezekiah says that the Lord hears and sees. So first let's look and see what's going on in Hezekiah's life at this time of this prayer. Hezekiah is the king of Judah. The Assyrians have come to conquer them. The Assyrians had been on a campaign in all of the surrounding countries so far and were taking over everyone. Sennacherib, that's the way I pronounce it. If you pronounce it different, that's just forgive me. But we're going to go with Sennacherib today. He's the king of Assyria. Mighty, mighty man. The Assyrians are a powerful, powerful group of people and no one has been able to stand up to them. They have destroyed every city that they've come to. And the first thing that they do when they go into a city is they challenge the gods of that city. And they tell the people that pray to your gods and it will do you no good because Sennacherib is the god. And so they will destroy the gods, take the gods down first thing, burn them, crush them, so that the people have no more hope because hope is in God. So they'll destroy the gods before the people. And if the people will willingly give themselves up, then they will graciously allow them to live, but they won't let them stay in their land. They'll take them, and they'll implant them in a different land, and they'll bring new people in to take over that land. And so Judah is aware, the nation of Judah is aware what's going on, and they see Sennacherib's massive army of Assyrians coming to their castle walls. Now Hezekiah gave very specific instructions to the keepers of the wall, and to his spokespeople not to say a word back to the spokesperson of the Assyrians. The spokesperson of the Assyrians is a man named Rabshika and he speaks for Sennacherib. Sennacherib is not going to actually demean himself by going and speaking to the people. He's too great and mighty for that so he has a spokesperson to do that. So a good bit of the chapter of 36 and 37 is Rabbi Sheikah's words of intimidation to the people of Judah. So Hezekiah sends out Eliakim, who is over his household. He sends out Shebna, the secretary, and he sends out Joah, the recorder, so they could actually scribe what is going on in this conversation. Well, Rabbi Sheikah, first thing he does is attacks the gods and he starts to challenge them. And in verse 4 and 5, in verse 4 he says, What confidence is there wherein thou trustest? What is your confidence in? What are you trusting in that you think you could stand against me? Then he comes again in verse 5, Now whom are you trusting? Whom are you trusting? So what he's going to try to do here is shake their foundation of faith. What are you trusting in? The first thing he asks them if they're trusting in is the Egyptians who wanted to ally with Judah because they had the common enemy of the Assyrians. So he's asking them first, are you going to trust in the Egyptians? Because they will backstab you. He puts it in eloquent words here that they're just going to deceive you, backstab you. You can't depend on the Egyptians. And if you can't depend on the Egyptians, who's the next powerful army, and they're close enough to come and fight for you, then what is your trust in? Don't tell me it's in your God. Because as you have seen, we've destroyed all the gods of all the other kingdoms that we've come to, so please don't tell me that it's your trust in your God as he says in verse 7, So now Rabbi Sheikah is confused about what Hezekiah had done. And the Assyrians, when they've gone to these other cities to take them over, they go straight to the gods, which are idols. They're statues. They're emblems. And they take them and destroy them. Well, Hezekiah, when he became king, took down some of the false altars that were still in Judah, and he destroyed them. That's what Rabshica is referring to here. Didn't he already take down your gods? Aren't they already useless to you already? Because even your king saw that your gods were useless, so he destroyed them himself. and tells you to only pray over here at this altar. You need more gods, not less. And he's saying, but if you will give me a pledge, then we will spare your lives. So first he comes and challenges the foundation of their faith, and then he gives them a great offer. We won't kill you. We won't destroy you like we have everyone else. We will let you live. So Hezekiah's spokesmen come before them and say, please stop speaking to us in the Jewish language, in the Hebrew language. Speak to us in Assyrian because we understand it. We don't want the people on the wall to hear you. Rabbi Sheikah, of course, says, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to keep speaking in your native tongue so that everyone who hears and is within earshot will know of the destruction that is coming them, or if you take our offer." So, he's shaking their trust in God first, and then the messengers want him to speak in another language so that the people on the wall aren't fearful is their purpose of asking that. So then he goes in verses 14 and 15, after he says he's going to keep speaking in the language, and he says, don't let Hezekiah deceive you. Again, he's going to try to shake their trust in God. Don't let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you. Neither, and here's how he says that Hezekiah is deceiving the people. Don't let him deceive you. Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord. He's saying that if you trust in God, you're being deceived. If you let Hezekiah get his way, and he's told you trust in the Lord, don't talk back, don't say anything, just trust in the Lord, then you're in essence being deceived. Because you're trusting in something that cannot defeat the God of Sennacherib. who is his own God. There is no other gods greater than the Assyrian God because none of the other gods have been able to stand. So he goes in verses 18 through 20 and he starts to tell how they have destroyed all of the other gods that have stood before them. Not a single one has been able to stand. So how do you, Judah, expect to be delivered by your God when all the rest have been destroyed before you." So don't let Hezekiah deceive you. He's saying no gods can stand before Sennacherib. So you have to put yourself in Hezekiah's shoes here. They're surrounded by a massive army. Now it's not two competing armies that are matching. Hezekiah knows that if they go out into open war, they're defeated. It's not even close. So now they're being intimidated. There's no way to escape. And all they have promised is either destruction or bondage. And Sennacherib is appealing to his own might and his defeat of all the other gods. So what is Hezekiah's response here? Now, oftentimes I find myself in the situations where I have no answers. It seems like the world is against me. Everything has gone wrong. I can't get anything right. I can't get anything right, and my response is not automatically to go to God and say, Lord, help me. What is my natural response in my sin nature? What can I do to get myself out of this situation? What am I able to do to remedy this? What can I myself fix? But Hezekiah doesn't do that because Hezekiah is being realistic. He knows he can't win in this battle. There's battles we fight that sometimes we just don't know the right answers to. We just simply don't. We don't know where to go. But Hezekiah's response is not some defiant war speech where he's going to depend on his own military prowess as a general. He knows in open battle they'd be defeated. He knows they can't run and hide and he also knows this is the city of David and he doesn't want to abandon it because Hezekiah is a godly king. He doesn't come in grumbling to the people. Anybody got any good ideas? I'm lost. He goes and he sends for word from God. His first response is, let's see what God has to say about this situation. So he sends his spokesman to the prophet Isaiah. And they tell him in elaborate ways all the destruction that is before them, all the words of the king of Assyria. And the prophet says, don't be afraid, not because you're mighty, he says, but don't be afraid because they have blasphemed God. Therefore, do not be afraid. So he gives a prophecy that eventually Sennacherib will go back home and he himself will be scattered. Well the men come out and Rabshica realizes that the king of Assyria is already in another battle. Sennacherib's already fighting somebody else in another place with another one of his armies, but he's left this army here. So Rabshica has to go to where his king is. So what he does now is he sends a threatening letter. He writes a letter, sends it back to them, and has them read it out loud. So how does Hezekiah respond to this letter? He's already received word from the prophet. He's already sought God's counsel through the prophet. The prophet is saying, don't fear. They're blaspheming God, so don't fear. So Hezekiah now has another option. What is he to do now? So here's where we hear Hezekiah's prayer. And that is in chapter 37, verses 16 through 20. We're going to read that prayer and then we're going to go through this prayer and talk about it. Verse 16, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear. Open thine eyes, O Lord, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their countries, and they have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have been destroyed. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand. that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only." So what Hezekiah does first is he goes to the Lord's temple and he takes this letter and he actually rolls the letter out and lays it down before God. Now let me ask you kids, did God need to read the letter from Hezekiah's hand to know what was in it? No, he didn't. So why is Hezekiah laying out this letter before God? He's opening this letter out before God as a sign of humility, acknowledging that God is over all of their affairs, even the affairs of Sennacherib coming to attack them. So he takes the scroll, he takes the matter, he takes the problem, and he lays it out before the Lord. That's our first example for us. We just simply go to God and we lay our problem out before Him. God, I don't know what to do. I'm in this situation. This has happened to me. I did this, and Lord, I simply don't know what to do. You just take your matter, you take your concern, you take your petition, and you just simply lay it out before God and place it at His feet. Now what He does here, In verse 14, he 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 then he prayed. Now the way that Hezekiah prays, I think, is very important in the method that he prays and in the order that he prays. So he opens up this letter. as a sign of humility acknowledging that God is over all and He starts with praise. Now our first response isn't going to be praise, is it? When I'm in the worst situation, Danger, storms are all around me. I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm sinking. I feel like I'm losing. It's your first inclination to go before God and praise God. Now usually it's to complain. God, why did you let me get into this situation? God, aren't you there? Don't you see what's going on with me? Why haven't you fixed this? Why haven't you solved this? But his first response is to go to God and praise Him. Oh, Lord of hosts, God of Israel. He starts with just simply acknowledging who is God. Who is He praying to? He's saying, Lord, You are the Lord of hosts. That means you're the God of all gods. Because the threat here is that the Assyrians will destroy Judah's God just like they have destroyed every other God that is out there before them. But Hezekiah is acknowledging a truth. A truth that is foundational to the rest of his prayer. You are the Lord of hosts. You are the God above all gods. Lord, You're the God above my storm. Lord, You're the God above my problems. Lord, You are the God that is above all of my fears. And then he goes into something else. He goes to where God dwells. He says, Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims. He's acknowledging that God is sitting upon the mercy seat. That God is there, in between the cherubims, ruling over all the affairs of men. What he's doing is he's saying, God, I know that you are more powerful. than Sennacherib. I know that you are more powerful than the Assyrian army, and I know that you sit upon a throne." Now, Hezekiah had a throne, but he knew it was man-made. Sennacherib had a throne, but it was a man-made throne. All the other kings that had been destroyed had thrones, but they were man-made thrones. But what Hezekiah is saying is, Lord, You have the heavenly throne, the indestructible throne, the throne created by God Himself. O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, You are the God of all gods, and You sit upon the only throne that man cannot touch, that man cannot topple, that man has no control or sway over. You sit upon that throne. And then he goes into God's status as God in the same verse. Thou art the God. You are the one and only God, even Thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. Lord, all these other kingdoms had their gods that were destroyed, but you are God over all of them. Now, just starting his prayer that way, acknowledging who God is, where God sits, and God's status as the ruler of all, I have to ask myself, is that how I start off my prayers when I'm in distress? Convictingly, it's not how I start my prayers when I'm in distress. Usually, I go the route of, woe is me, Lord, why aren't you helping me? But I love Hezekiah's example because they're being faced with such an adversity that they simply cannot overcome it. There is no human way for Judah to be able to repel the Assyrian army. But Hezekiah is not in distress. Is he worried? Yes. Does he have fears? Yes. But does he throw his hands up in ringing, God, where did you go? No, he simply goes and he praises God. That is a lesson for us. When we go to God in prayer, when it seems like the world has turned against us, no one is on our side anymore, life is futile, we start the woe is me, getting the blues, are we going and just simply praising who God is and where God sits upon His throne? And then he says, Thou hast made heaven and earth. That's how he knows that God is above all the other gods. He even says, they're just wood and stone. They're just man-made carvings, but You, Lord, You have created all things, and all things are within Your hand and within Your power. So He's praying not just to a God, He's praying to the God, the Creator God, who started, who holds all things in His hands, and who all things are sustained by. Is that the way that we look at God when we go to Him in prayer? Lord, I know that You created every situation, every circumstance that Your hand is guiding through it. Is that the way that we go to God when we are praying? When we find ourselves in distress? Often times not. Now what He's not doing is He's not asking for salvation for Judah based on Judah's deserving it. His plea is based on God's sovereignty over all of the earth. His first concern, even in this first verse, this first verse of his prayer, his main concern is God's glory over all other gods. That is his focus in his prayer. And he goes into verse 17 and he says, Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear, and open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Now does God have to have physical eyes and physical ears to see and hear His people? No, God is a spirit, and in that sense, He doesn't have the eyes and ears that we have, but what He's doing here is He's putting it in language that we as humans can understand. Lord, see me. Lord, hear me. Because we know that the eyes of God are closed and the ears of God are closed to those who do not know the Lord. But we know that His ears are open to His people. That is comforting in times of distress. To know that God hears you. To know that God sees you. So he's asking, Lord, hear us. Lord, see us. And then he says, Lord, hear all the threatening words of Sennacherib. He wants God to know. He wants to have this acknowledgement that, Lord, I want you to see my plight. So first he starts with praise and acknowledgement of who God is, and then he says, Lord, hear. Laying out the letter before him, here are the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach you. Now that changes. Hezekiah is being threatened. The kingdom of Judah is being threatened. But really, it's God's glory that's being threatened. And that is Hezekiah's concern. Lord, open your ears. Lord, open your eyes. Because all of these words are not really aimed at Hezekiah. They're aimed at You, Lord. They're aimed at You. And he is concerned for God's glory. He is concerned for God's glory. Now, is Hezekiah ignoring the threats? Not at all. When we have problems in our life, when we have storms that we're facing, and we go to God in prayer, acknowledge what those storms are. Acknowledge what those problems are. He spends two verses saying, you know what? Truthfully, Lord, of truth, the kings of Assyria, they really have laid waste to everyone around them. They've destroyed all the other nations and country. It's true. They've cast their gods into the fire. They have utterly destroyed and conquered all of the other people. It is a truth. He's not blowing it off as if it's not some big deal. It is a big deal. Your problems are a big deal. They affect everything about your life. They affect the way that you treat one another. They affect the way that you go to work. They affect the way that you do your schoolwork. They affect the way that you talk to your parents in the home or that spouses talk to each other or the way that parents discipline our children. Our problems affect our life. But what Hezekiah is not doing is putting all of his focus on the problem. He's acknowledging what the problem is. But more than that, he's acknowledging who God is over all of these problems. So he gives the truth of what's going on. So why does he ask that God hear and see him? Why? In verse 20, Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from this hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou art the Lord, even Thou only. hear our plea, so that all of the kingdoms, not just Assyria, not just Sennacherib, but all of the kingdoms, even the ones who have been destroyed and all of their gods destroyed, so that they too see that you are the true, the one and only God. What does this say about God in comparison to all the other gods of all the other kingdoms? That He cannot be destroyed. That He is not made with hands. That He is not of this earth. that his ears are open. The stone and the wood couldn't hear. They couldn't speak and they certainly couldn't save because they were destroyed along with the people. He's saying, Lord, only you can hear and only you can see. So Hezekiah's prayer is an answer to the question that's posed in the beginning. In whom do you place your trust? In whom do you place your trust? This prayer is his answer to that. Now Rabshica saying it mockingly, what are you trusting in? Who are you trusting in? Hezekiah saying it with all earnest faith that Lord you are the Lord above all my problems. You are the Lord above all other gods and in you do I trust. So with this prayer, I love the way that Charles Spurgeon puts it. With this prayer he is saying, we trust in Him whose power will never be exhausted, whose love will never cease, whose kindness will never change, whose faithfulness will never be soiled, whose kingdom will never be perplexed, and whose perfect goodness can never know a reduction. That's who we trust in. The God that does not change. The God that cannot be defeated. The God who does hear. The God who does not sleep. The God who is awake to all of your needs at all of your times. Does God hear? Yes, he hears. Does God see? Yes, he sees. So how does this lesson from Hezekiah, how does his model prayer here help you to learn to pray? In the storms of your life, in the struggles of your life, through sadness, fears, angst, worry, whatever it may be for you, how can his prayer be a model prayer for you? Now let me ask you this. We like to limit what God can do sometimes. Like, I don't know that God is really worried about my plight. I'm not sure that God is actually listening to my prayer right now. So kids, I'm going to ask you another question and you can tell me yes or no. If I am praying at home and you're in a different house and you're praying at the same time, can God hear both of those prayers at the same time? Yes, he can. He doesn't have to say, hold up, time out. I've got this one over here praying. I've got to worry about this problem. I'll get to you in five minutes. Yes, he can hear your prayer, my prayer, your mom's prayer, your dad's prayer, your aunt's and uncle's prayer. He hears all of the prayers at the same time because he is an omniscient God. God is everywhere. God is all-knowing. and He can hear all of His people's prayers at all times. That may sound simple just saying it like that, but is that not an amazing truth to know that God hears the cries of all of His people at the same time and that He can answer? I find a lot of comfort knowing that my little old problems, my small insignificant problems compared to some of the other problems I hear of other Christians in the world matter to God. and that he actually hears my cries to him even when I'm like David in Psalm 34 and I've gotten myself into the situation I never should have been in. David never should have gone to the Philistines in Psalm 34. He ran to the enemy for protection and then he finds himself there and he's pleading to God. This poor man cried but the Lord heard me." Even when we find our situation of our own doing, the Lord still hears the prayer of His people. That's comforting because all too often I find that my problems are from my own doing. So there's four things that we'll just read through real quick here and then we'll be done on this model prayer of Hezekiah. And I want you to think about how he went to pray and how you should go to pray. You have to be comfortable going to God, not awkward going to God. Now I want you to think of this example. You're going to go to a church camp or something like that. You see your friends once a year at this place. You only see them once a year. Now your friends, and you know them, but you're not intimate friends, like they're not your best friend that you see every day or every week. And you go to them, are you going to be able to open up and tell them your biggest fear, your biggest worry, and your darkest secret? Or is it going to be a little bit awkward? Chances are that's going to be a little bit awkward going to them. How often is that our situation with God? We haven't gone to God often. He's that distant friend that we know is there. We love Him. We want to talk to Him sometimes, but we never really get around to it. And then we need something. And then we go to God and we feel awkward. You know how you fix that? Go to God often. Go to God daily. Go to God for every situation. Be comfortable going to God. Hezekiah was comfortable seeking the Word of God through the prophet Isaiah. And Hezekiah was comfortable going to God because Hezekiah was a righteous king. He was a godly man and he had no problem going to God. Neither should we. Because God does care about you. God does care about your small insignificant problems. But if you're not making it a regular habit of going to God in prayer, then when you finally do, sometimes it gets a bit awkward. So my encouragement for you is to pray often. Pray first and pray often when you go before God. And then number two is acknowledging that He is in control. Not you, not others, not your fears, and not your circumstances. They are not what's in control. God is in control. Number three, remember, He is bigger than all of your fears. He's bigger than all of your enemies, whether they're natural, emotional, mental. God is bigger than your greatest fears. And then number four, desire above all else that God's name be praised and God receive glory through your trials. Often we go to that prayer and our whole focus is on just get me out of this problem. Just fix it. But are we praying that God would fix it so that he receives glory or are we praying that God would fix it so that we receive some kind of relief and comfort? So number one, be comfortable going to God in prayer. Number two, acknowledge he's in control. Number three, just remember He is bigger. And number four, desire His glory and His praise above all things. So I'm going to ask you that question again that we asked in the beginning. In whom do you place your trust? And we're going to end by reading Psalm chapter 20. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob defend you. May He send you help from the sanctuary and strengthen you out of Zion. May He remember all your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice. May He grant you according to your heart's desire and fulfill all your purpose. We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed. He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses. but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and stand upright. Save, Lord, may the King answer us when we call. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Remember that prayer in your deepest and darkest troubles. that you have a God to lean upon and you have a God that you can trust fully in. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that as we go through the storms of life that we all have, that we don't look to the nature of the storm, we don't look at how deep and dark those waters may appear to be. Lord, I pray that we would place our focus on you, that we would first go to you and just praise your name and worship you. that Lord in the midst of our trials, our whole petition would be that you receive glory through our trials. Not that we receive relief, but Lord you would receive glory and that we could come out stronger as being refined by a refiner's fire, that we could come out purer and closer to you through those trials. So Lord may we place our trust in you not in the chariots or the horses or the remedies of man but Lord we would place our trust and our hope in you and like Hezekiah we would go before you in humble prayer and seek your face. And it's in Jesus name we pray.