Whom Will You Trust?
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Isaiah 36. It's also there in your worship guide. Don't worry, we won't read all of that. That's there. Lauren and I, we were talking earlier this week about how much we both love the actual stories of the Bible.
Joel Brooks:I know all scriptures inspired and that the instructions about how to make all the sacrifices or how to treat all the skin diseases in Leviticus are every much a part of God's word as the gospel of John. I know that but I also know that as if I was stuck on an island and I could only choose one of those two, which one I would choose? I would choose John. I personally gravitate more towards the stories of the Bible than the more dense theological didactic parts. I love the stories because it's there.
Joel Brooks:You don't just get theology, you get theology applied. You get to see where the theological rubber meets the road, if you will. And that's why I love the story that we are about to read. For 35 chapters now, Isaiah has been giving us a lot of theology. He has been preaching to us.
Joel Brooks:Actually, this is what he does for most of the 66 books. He has written sermons out, prophecies out, usually using the the form of poetry. And yet, smack dab in the middle of of this book full of poetry, we actually find prose. We find this story here. This long story about Hezekiah and it just jumps off the pages because it's so different than everything else in this book.
Joel Brooks:And in many ways, it's actually the center of this book. It's the focal point. 35 chapters before it have been leading up to it, and in many ways, the chapters out of it after it flow out of it. It's here we get to see how all of the theology that Isaiah has been preaching up to this point. We get to see it all how it plays out in real life.
Joel Brooks:Now, now before I read this story to you, let me just set briefly the context. The story takes place thirty four years after King Ahaz. If you remember a number of weeks back, we looked at Ahaz in chapter 11. And if you remember, he had to make this very important decision. He had two kings that were about to invade and would he trust the Lord or would he go reach out to the Assyrians for help?
Joel Brooks:He reached out to the Assyrians for help. I mentioned that that was like a mouse going and hiring a cat to come in and to deal with two rats. And that's what happened. The mouse came, the mouse dealt with the two rats, but then what does the cat do? What does the cat do after that?
Joel Brooks:Just plays with the mouse. And so that's what Assyria has been doing with Judah, just just playing with Judah. It went ahead and it conquered the Northern kingdoms and now it's been marching all the way down to the steps of the capital city in Jerusalem and that's where we find this story. Ahaz is no longer king. His son Hezekiah is.
Joel Brooks:He was apparently one of the sons who wasn't sacrificed by his dad. But now, how will he handle the situation, a very similar situation to where his dad failed? What will he do? Well, let's read and I'll read all of 36 and just a few verses of 37. In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib of king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
Joel Brooks:And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshekah from Lakish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool of the highway to the washer's field. And there came out to him, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household and Shebna the secretary and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder. And the Rabshekah said to them, say to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria. What do you rest this trust of yours?
Joel Brooks:Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? And 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, such as 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 places and altars Hezekiah has removed saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar? Come now, make a wager with my master, the king of Assyria.
Joel Brooks:I will give you 2,000 horses if you're able to on your part set riders on them. How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master servants when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 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. Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Roshecher, please speak to the servants in Aramaic for we understand it.
Joel Brooks:Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall? But the Rabshekah said, has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you and not to the men sitting on the wall? Who were doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine? Then the Ravshekah stood and he called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah. Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
Joel Brooks: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 and come out to me.
Joel Brooks:Then each one of you will eat of his own vine and each one his own fig tree and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern until I come and I take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying 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? Where are the gods of Hamath or Arpad? Where are the gods of Shavarthiam?
Joel Brooks:Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands had delivered their lands out of my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? But they were silent and they answered him not a word for the king's command was, do not answer him. Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household and Shebna, the secretary, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshekah. Soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes.
Joel Brooks:He 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 priest covered with sackcloth to the prophet Isaiah, the son of Imaz. They said to him, thus says says Hezekiah, this day 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. It may be that the lord your god will hear the words of Roshetha 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.
Joel Brooks:This is the word of the lord. You would pray with me. Lord, thank you for this word. Thank you for the story. Through your spirit now, would you illuminate it?
Joel Brooks:Would you make it clear and write it on our hearts? Transform us. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. Pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. Whenever we do baptisms here at Redeemer, one of the things we do is we corporately say the apostles creed together. It's part of our confession of our faith. I love that creed. It's it's simple.
Joel Brooks:It's beautiful. Now I believe in God the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Every Christian here in this room, they would most certainly believe that creed. But here's the question that's posed before us. Is our faith simply a creedal faith?
Joel Brooks:Is that all it is? Is it a faith where we we believe certain things up here in our mind but yet when it comes to the day to day decisions, it really has no effect. Do we actually have a faith that that is lived out? Does the theological rubber up here actually meet the road of day to day living? So so we might say things like, I believe in God the Father Almighty.
Joel Brooks:But when we think about God being all powerful, do the decisions we make everyday reflect that we are relying on a God who is all powerful? Is Hezekiah's faith credo? That's what we're wondering at the beginning of the story. Is it, does it only exist here or what what's actually going to happen when when the rubber meets the road? The story begins with King Sennacherib of Assyria.
Joel Brooks:He sends his third in command who goes by the title of Rabshekah. That's basically a title given to the person who is the third in command. He's known as the Rav Shekah. We're just gonna call him Rav Shekah. That's his name.
Joel Brooks:He sends him to Jerusalem to meet with the representatives from Hezekiah. Now Rav Shekah, he is like Wormwood in Lord of the Rings. It's been a while, I'm allowed to make a Lord of the Rings reference. Wormtongue, he's the mouthpiece of Saruman. Now I made a mistake earlier in the 08:00 service.
Joel Brooks:I said he was a mouthpiece of Saruman. Some guy came up to me afterwards. He corrected me. He says, he's really not the mouthpiece of Saruman. He's a mouthpiece of Saruman.
Joel Brooks:And I said, you're not married, are you? And he said, no. I was like, well, you know, it's because of things that you might just wanna keep things like that. Free advice. Just thought I'd give it.
Joel Brooks:So he's the mouthpiece of Saruman. We'll just say he's a mouthpiece of the kingdom of darkness. How about that? Wormtongue was a very gifted speaker. He had this way of both intimidating you and also alluring you.
Joel Brooks:At the same time, he would insult you, yet also persuade you. But make no mistake, his goal was always to enslave you. Rob Shekha here, he's a real person, but I I think we can also see him as a type of worm tongue figure. He's a he's a spokesman for the devil himself. Verses four to five, he says, say to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, on what do you rest this trust of yours?
Joel Brooks:Do you think that mere words or strategy and power for war? I mean, Rabshak, he he goes straight to the heart of the matter there in verse five. He says, I hear what you're saying, but do you think mere words that those are an actual strategy? That those are actual power for war? Earlier, we were singing songs.
Joel Brooks:We were singing a song that, talked about God being seated on high. We sang things like how he is the undefeated one. How there is no higher name than his. How there is healing in his wings. The king above all kings.
Joel Brooks:Were those mere words Rav Shekha would say, he's not the king of all kings. Sennacherib's the king. Do those words that we all sing with one unified voice, do they actually have power? Are are they better than any strategy or any powerful word? Rob Shekha would say, no.
Joel Brooks:Go ahead. Sing all you want. Sing sing your delusions as loud as you can because they are no match for an actual strength, actual strategy, actual power. Trusting in God is no substitute for an army. Trusting in God for his provision is no substitute for having money in the bank.
Joel Brooks:Trusting in God to satisfy the longing of your heart, That's no substitute for giving in to your desires and to your lust. How long are you gonna cling to these mere words? Now what Rav Shekah says next in in verse six, it's especially painful. He says, behold, you are trusting in Egypt, a broken reed of a staff which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Now, don't read this here.
Joel Brooks:We read about this in second Kings 18, but second Kings 18, it gives the exact same account as what we read here. Almost verbatim. You have the exact same story. It's almost like God is saying this story is so important. I want you to read it twice.
Joel Brooks:There's one exception, just a few extra verses at the beginning of the story in second Kings 18, and there we read this. Hezekiah disobeyed and he reached out to Egypt and he asked for help. He said, I will pay you to come and help. And he went against Isaiah's explicit instructions to do that, but he thought he had no other options. And now, with Assyria knocking on the door, he reaches out for help from Egypt and Egypt is not there.
Joel Brooks:The image that's used there is Egypt presented itself as a strong staff that could support Judah's weight. But when Judah needs Egypt, leans on there and it's just a reed. It's not a staff and it shatters in the hand and it cuts them. Rob Sheka says, fool. What did you think was gonna happen?
Joel Brooks:Rob Sheka reminds them of their failure. You said you were trusting in god but it seems like you were actually trusting in a broken reed more. You know, it hurts when we give the enemy ammunition to use against us, doesn't it? I mean, it really hurts. Satan ever do that to you?
Joel Brooks:Does he ever bring up your past failures? Ever remind you of the time you nearly had a panic attack when you got that unexpected bill? Has he ever reminded you of that time you lost your patience again with your kids and you just blew up at them? Or how you once again spent the evening endlessly scrolling or looking at porn? Or perhaps the time that you recently lied to someone in order to just cover up an embarrassing mistake that you made.
Joel Brooks:And he loves to remind you, oh, you say you trust in the Lord. It didn't look like it then. You know, he's called the accuser for a reason. He loves to accuse. You know, as I get older, my memory is getting worse.
Joel Brooks:My name bank is already full. If I learn a new name, another one has to go out. It's it's it's at capacity. Even when I go to Atlanta and we visit with my family, if I'm around my sister, her name is Cheryl. If I'm around her, her name goes in and Lauren's name goes out.
Joel Brooks:And I call Lauren, Cheryl. And she loves being called by my sister's name. But but even like simple things, sometimes it takes me a while now to remember embarrassingly. Yesterday, was like, Lauren, could would you give me that water bottle? That's the word I'm looking for.
Joel Brooks:I couldn't remember water bottle. You all be kind to me as I get older because I don't know where it's going. But but it takes me a while. Satan is as sharp as ever. He he can remember everything.
Joel Brooks:Every sin you've committed, every detail about those sins he can remember and he loves bringing them up. He loves reminding you how you didn't trust in the lord. He loves accusing you. But do you know who will never bring up those sins? Who will never hold them against you?
Joel Brooks:Jesus? Never. Psalm one zero three twelve says that as far as the East is from the West, so far far does he remove our transgressions from us. I love this verse because the lord doesn't say that he removes our sins from us and places them on the other side of the room which is where I think some of us think of it. Yes, he's technically forgiven me.
Joel Brooks:He's he's removed this but then he kind of frames it, puts it on the other side of the room so that I can always be reminded of the time that I failed him. So we're always looking at it but that's not what the lord says. You can't get any further apart than the east is from the West. You can't see it. It is gone.
Joel Brooks:And we have to get rid of this notion that when the Lord washes away through his blood, the stain of our sin that it's only a partial cleansing. And I think that's how some of us think of it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's mostly gone but you know, I know it's still there. When we got a new couch at our house one time, I, one of the first times we got it like I I sat down and I had a piece of chocolate there and I sat down with the chocolate and it went into the couch and went into my pants. Like, I mean, this happens all the time, stuff like this.
Joel Brooks:But I I, you know, so I worked really hard washing out of my pants and I I I think it's gone. You're probably not going to notice it. I noticed it's there. And then I worked really hard trying to get it out of the couch. It's there's still a faint little stain there.
Joel Brooks:I always see it. It's it's there and it's it's you're probably not going to notice it. Well, now, you go to my house, you'll probably look and try to find it but but but I know it's there and I think some of us, we think that's what our sins like. Like, yeah, I mean, I've been washed, I've been cleaned but if you look hard, you you still see it. I still always know it's there.
Joel Brooks:My sin is ever before me. Your sin is not ever before you when it's been washed. The blood of Jesus makes you wider than snow. And so so those sins are gone. Those things will never be held against you.
Joel Brooks:But here's the hard truth. Our enemy loves reminding us that there have been many times that we've relied on some broken reeds, haven't we? Way too often, we put our trust in the exact same things that the world places their trust in. We think, well, we can't rely on mere words. So we'll rely on power, beauty.
Joel Brooks:That's that's that's how you get somewhere in life. You have to keep yourself beautiful, fit. Education, that opens doors. You need to be well connected if you're gonna get anywhere in this world. Connections are what matters.
Joel Brooks:Gotta have money and all the things money can buy. Broken reeds. When the crisis comes and the crisis will come, we're gonna reach out and we're gonna hope those things support our weight and they will not. They'll shatter and we will be hurt. Rob Shekha, he goes on to further taunt this Hezekiah delegation by saying, I'll tell you what, guys.
Joel Brooks:To make it just a little more interesting, we'll spot you 2,000 horses. Oh, wait. Y'all don't have enough riders for them, do you? I mean, it's a little mic drop right there. After that insult, the Hezekiah's delegation, they begin begging Rob Sheka to speak to them in Aramaic and not to speak in Hebrew because they don't want the people to actually hear how bad their situation is.
Joel Brooks:Rob Shekka says, so I'm just going to shout even louder. He goes, because the people up there on the wall guarding the walls, they need to know what's about to happen. They're about to have to eat their own dung and they drink their own urine once we begin laying siege to this place. Compare that with what we learned last week. Remember what Isaiah said would happen if you trust the Lord?
Joel Brooks:Remember the promises he gave? You will feast. Trust the Lord. The day's coming. You're gonna have the best rib eye steaks you can imagine.
Joel Brooks:You're gonna be drinking well aged wine. Rabbi Shekha says, no. You won't. Trust in the Lord. You'll be eating your own dung and drinking your own urine.
Joel Brooks:It's harsh words there. Verse 16, he offers him another way. He says, you know, you don't have to do that, you know. It doesn't have to really get that bad. If you just surrender, if you just give in, I can give you a life full of blessing.
Joel Brooks:And he says, you know, don't listen to the king Hezekiah. Make your peace with me. Come out to me. Then it's like over the top. Each of you, you're gonna have your own vine, your own fig trees, your own dreams.
Joel Brooks:I mean, you think you live in the promised land. You don't. The promised land is Assyria. So just come to Assyria and live out the Assyrian dream. It's all a lie.
Joel Brooks:All of it. I mean, whom those whom Assyria doesn't kill, they're gonna enslave. But boy, those promises look good. Our enemy makes promises like that to us every day. Satan's gonna promise you every pleasure you can imagine, all in return for your enslavement.
Joel Brooks:He's gonna shout these promises to you using the megaphone of our culture. But then at night, he's gonna come to you in the quietness as you're laying down and he's gonna whisper, whisper those promises to you in your ear. But it's the same thing he's gonna say. It's gonna be this. You know you don't have to keep fighting.
Joel Brooks:Why keep fighting? Just just give in. I mean, why? I see you're struggling. I just want to help.
Joel Brooks:If you trust in me, I'll give you the security you want. I'll give you the pleasure that you crave. You only live once. YOLO. Love that.
Joel Brooks:See it everywhere. Rob Shekha, he he ends his speech by pointing out Assyria's undefeated record against all the other gods, all the other nations. And all he's doing is just stating the facts. It's true. But what he fails to realize is that if Isaiah could hear him saying that, Isaiah would be going, preach.
Joel Brooks:I've been telling him that all along. That's right. All the other gods are not gods. They have no power. We don't need to fear any of the other nations.
Joel Brooks:And that's what Isaiah has been proclaiming. He's saying, but we need to trust the truth. There's only one god. We need to trust him. That's the only thing that matters.
Joel Brooks:Are we trusting the lord? So what are what would you do if you were in this situation? What would you do if you were Hezekiah? Maybe a better question is this, what are you doing now? I know we could think of this huge crisis situation out there, but the truth is we go through little mini versions of this every single day.
Joel Brooks:And if we do not trust God and these small things of our life, what makes us think we'll trust him in the big? Mean, are you are you not gonna trust God with with this little issue here, yet you're gonna you're gonna trust him with your eternal soul. You gotta trust him with the small things before you could trust him with the big. When Lauren and I first got married, we were so young. 22, 23 years old.
Joel Brooks:We moved here to Birmingham for me to go to Beeson Divinity School. We were dirt poor. She's working as an intern at Southern Living. I am working as a part time forklift driver, which is where the money's at. And it were we we lived in this little apartment that right off of Valley Avenue.
Joel Brooks:If you live there, I'm sure it's changing. It's fine. You live in a wonderful place. But let me tell you, it was right across from Sammy's. We didn't know what that was.
Joel Brooks:But it's what we could afford. So, we're living there. We we go in and this is how bad it was. The the kitchen counter there, the previous tenants, they had mounted a gun holster underneath it that was pointed right at the front door. So all you had to do is just reach under, pull the trigger.
Joel Brooks:It's a great place. We couldn't afford any furniture. So we borrowed some friends of ours from Atlanta, their outdoor patio furniture. That's what we had in our living room. And it it was during those times we we thought, are we gonna trust the lord or not?
Joel Brooks:And so we're we're gonna trust him with what we have. And so we in that setting there, we decided to open up our apartment to be hospitable, and we consistently invited people over, because the gospel hospitality doesn't need a great place. We just shared what we had. We said we were going to give. We were in a tithe to the church.
Joel Brooks:He's gonna get the god was gonna get our first fruits of everything and then whatever offering we could put on top of that, we would. There were some some months we didn't have anything we could really give other than we offered the pastors and the elders of the church. We're going to free babysitting. So, we want to do something. So, we were just kind of giving that way.
Joel Brooks:And two two stories about remembering like, is is lord going to provide? Is this actually going to work for us or not? I went to Beeson's Bookshop because I had to get books for the semester, but I did not really have money. Theological books for some reason. It's ungodly what they charge for theological books.
Joel Brooks:And so they tallied up all the books. It was 300 something dollars. I which is about $200 more than I had. And then the person said, hey, just so you know, somebody called and gave me their credit card number and all your books are on them. I mean, we just moved to Birmingham.
Joel Brooks:So, I don't know who it could have been. It wasn't my family. I knew I asked them. I didn't want to be beholden to them. So, I don't know who it was.
Joel Brooks:A few months or maybe a month or two later, Lauren went to go pay our rent. It was the first time ever that we had to use a credit card to cut to pay for other things like food because we didn't actually have money in the bank. So it's in in order to pay rent. And so she goes to pay rent, she gets up there, and the landlord says, hey, just so you know, somebody gave me a check for your next six months. I have no idea who.
Joel Brooks:It was just it was those little things. Like at the very beginning, the little things how the the lord just he provided. He proved himself god almighty. And now, you know, being so many years removed, twenty eight years removed from that, twenty nine Lauren will get me. Twenty nine years removed from that.
Joel Brooks:It's not that I don't have some fear and anxiety at times when I think of the future, how am I gonna pay for schooling, weddings, things like that. I mean, it's still there a little bit it it's tampered down quickly because I can look at the past and I can say, God, you've been faithful. Like, so faithful. You took care of me then and you took care and you took care and every time I would take a step in what I thought was a risk, I look back. Was like, that wasn't risky at all.
Joel Brooks:You were just there waiting to show yourself. Show yourself that you love me and that you show your show the power that you have. Trust him with the small things. And when the crisis comes, you trust him with that. When Rob Shakha's words here, when they reported back to Hezekiah, I love it.
Joel Brooks:We don't read how he tries to put a spin on this. Anything like that or try to look for some other way out. The man humbles himself and repents. First he's I mean, doesn't hide his emotions. He's like this is a disastrous word.
Joel Brooks:He's like I have it's like I've used all of my energy laboring. I've got nothing left and I can't bring forth life out of this. We read that he put on, you know, Taurus clothes, put on sackcloth. Those are signs of humility, repentance. And then he goes to the lord in prayer.
Joel Brooks:You read about this in verse 14. We read actually the king of Assyria himself writes Hezekiah a letter, details everything he's going to do when he comes to Jerusalem, and that Hezekiah would be a fool to keep trusting in the lord. And I love what we read in verse 14 is this, Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers. He read it, then he went to the house of the Lord and he spread it before the Lord. I love that picture.
Joel Brooks:I mean, I love it. Such a model for prayer. You know, so when you get that next angry email or text or I mean, I don't know if you get angry emails, I do. But if if you get those angry emails or the text, you you lay it out before the lord. Here it is.
Joel Brooks:I'm not going to lie. Lord, this hurt. I'm not going to try to like spiritualize it. Oh, this didn't hurt me. No, it hurt and I don't know what to do with this or if you get that unexpected bill, here it is, lord.
Joel Brooks:I don't know what to do with this. You get the lab results back. They're not good. Lord, I just I just wanna lay this before you. Do you see it?
Joel Brooks:I just wanna lay it before you. This week, I I I challenge you. Whatever burden it is that you have and everyone in here carries a burden, would you in some tangible way just lay it before the Lord? Jesus, he said, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Just in whatever tangible way you can, maybe it's just through your posture of getting on your knees or putting your hands forward or or putting the email out, whatever it is, just lay it at the feet of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:We don't have time to go into the content of Hezekiah's prayer. Let me just summarize it for you. It's mostly him just meditating on the power and the glory and the character of god. Now, I I make this mistake all the time. Sometimes, I treat god like a celestial vending machine and so when when I pray, I know I gotta put in a few tokens of praise.
Joel Brooks:You ever do that? It's like, okay and let's see what I hear and like, almighty god, you know all things as you gotta get more coins for this one. Like, you know, you just you just keep, I gotta keep the praises going. Alright, I think I've done enough of praises. Now, I can hit what I we really want.
Joel Brooks:Now, I can get my ask. It's not what Hezekiah does here. It's it's not why he's doing it. He he's reminding himself of these the truths of who god is. God's all powerful, all knowing, god's supreme over all the nations.
Joel Brooks:Remember a number of months back, I said, if you could just remember, chew on these three truths, you do that and you'll never be fearful or anxious again. And I don't care what you're going through. And the three truths were this, that God is sovereign, that God is good, and that you are his child. You you chew on those things, nothing will ever rock you. I don't care what happens.
Joel Brooks:God is sovereign. That means God, whatever I'm seeing here, you're in absolute control of this situation. You could do all things. Nothing is happening apart from your hand. God is sovereign.
Joel Brooks:God, you are good. Whatever I see here, I know that there is no evil intent from you behind it at all. But you are good and you're gonna do this for my good. And the reason I know that is because I am your child. You're my father.
Joel Brooks:And if there's anything for my good, you will not withhold it. You are for me. You just chew on those three truths there, you'll probably forget to make the ask. Because how can he be fearful or how can he be anxious when you know those three things? For the Lord listened to Hezekiah and delivered him from his enemy.
Joel Brooks:It gives him over a hundred hundred years of of Assyria being pushed away. This is just a foretaste though of what Jesus would later do. Assyria represents, you know, the much greater enemies that we've all had to confront, the enemies of sin and death. And there Jesus came and he dealt with those once and for all. Not just giving us a hundred years of peace but those enemies have been banished.
Joel Brooks:So the question we have before us though is if we're gonna trust him in that final day, are we trusting him now? Pray with me. Lord Jesus, through your spirit, would you make the words we read, would you make the words we sing not be mere words? The declarations of truth that we have built our whole life on. Even now as we sing to you in this moment, would you come and have it the praises of your people?
Joel Brooks:Remind us of your sovereignty, of your goodness, and that you are our father. And we pray this in the sweet name of Jesus, our savior. Amen.
