Good evening viewers, my scripture readings comes from the book of Isaiah 37 verse 14 and it reads, And the Zekaya received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And the Zekaya went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And the Zekaya received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And the Zekaya went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. That's the end of the reading. Thank you. Thank you for joining our worship prayer day. We want to dwell on a subject that will bring us prayer to be more meaningful. And it is my prayer by the end of it all we should have a draw closer to God. But above all in the recent times we are living in the many situations that bring desperation. There are many situations that we have to make certain decisions. There are many situations that are hard and sometimes hope looks bleak and our faith can be challenged in the situations we find ourselves in this present day and age. But I'm encouraged by the word of II Timothy 3.16 that all scripture is an inspiration of God and it's profitable for us for doctrine, for repro, for correction, for instructions in righteousness and I am encouraged to know that the word of God can bring a very hopeless situation to a very hopeful and a faith filled situation considering also the words of the Book of Romans 15 verse 4 that for everything that was written in the past was written to teachers. It was written for our example so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures that we might be encouraged that we might find hope and we might be our faith might be reverberated and I pressure be so our experience this afternoon as we dig deep into the scripture into that which was written as for examples and today we will consider the story of the king Hezekiah and his response to a situation that looked dire and maybe to my eyes I would say a hopeless situation and I pray by the end of the story of the king Hezekiah we shall be able to be encouraged to follow him even when the enemy has otherwise to say it is my prayer then that we shall have hope at the end of it all and our faith shall be ignited and let us pray. Heaven the Father we are grateful, we are grateful for an opportunity to come before your throne we are grateful that you have a God who stays in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary we are grateful that you can call you 247 and you are always ready to listen to your children and we are grateful that you have given us the scripture that when sometimes when our faith is small that when you read the stories of day that conquered in the past that our faith is increased therefore this evening Lord how we pray that increase our faith o Lord in you even as we start this sharing that really Holy Spirit may come and speak through this feebo person we standing before man it is not because I am righteous Lord but because of your masses that are new every morning therefore pick me up, change my tongue to be the tongue of the angels the washa shall come and the meditation of my heart shall be acceptable before thy throne for we ask in Jesus name amen so turn with me to the book of Isaiah it has been a delight actually for me to study the book of Isaiah this season I think since the year began I've been dwelling in the book of Isaiah and it is a book that's teaching and it's very related to all the prophecies about Jesus so it's really a New Testament book but said in the Old Testament but today we will not deal with one of those stories that talk about a New Testament story but we will talk about a story that happened that was real and sometimes it's hard to imagine how these real situations look like but we will try by God's grace through His word that we shall hear the reality of the word and therefore the book of Isaiah I'm going to chapter 36 where my sister Abley read our memory text in the book of Isaiah chapter 37 and we shall get to 37 when we are going to almost close this meeting but I want us to start from the story from the book of Isaiah chapter 36 because this is the baseline, this is the background to the story of Isaiah chapter 37 without 36 we may not be able to understand chapter 37 and I want us to think through these words and again this story is repeated in the book of 2 Kings chapter 18 to 20 and in the book of 2 Chronicles 32 and for me every time then that the word of the Lord is repeated over and over again 3 times in the Bible this story is repeated so I have to ask my question why should God allow a story to be repeated 3 times it's because it's a lesson for us and I pray shall be so that we shall pick that lesson so the book of Isaiah chapter 36 comes after a whole series of Isaiah warning Judah not to enter into alliances with other nations or even look for comfort in other nations he kept admonishing them and telling Judah how we should stay in the present time when they were living in when idol worship was so real and God was punishing a state after a state a city after a city and this is a background concerning the book of Isaiah chapter 36 so right in the book of Isaiah chapter 36 we find one of these stories where God had already predicted they are going to be an invasion by then I would call it a superpower the Assyrian Kingdom it had this way of conquering the other cities making them captive and we find it had given a threat to Israel not only had it given a threat to Israel actually it had captured Israel and by the time we are coming to chapter 36 of Isaiah or 2 Kings or 2 Chronicles Israel is no longer Israel it had been captured actually it was captured in the 7th year of when King Hezekiah was ruling Judah that is when Israel was captured and therefore this time I can imagine the fear of King Hezekiah knowing that Israel had been captured but they give a reason why Israel was captured is because they had gone down into idolatry you can read the whole of that story in the book of 2 Kings chapter 18 how Israel had been captured but for today we are meeting King Hezekiah and the Bible says in verse 1 of chapter 36 that now it came to pass in the 14th year of King Hezekiah that Zenas Sherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them so this is the introduction of our story today what is the scenario here there is the enemy of Judah the enemy of Judah is the kingdom of Assyria it was the superpower I would call of that day and we have the king Zenas Sherib who is ruling this kingdom and what he had done very well in is that he had captured all the other fortified cities of Judah and the only city that had been left that had not been conquered is Jerusalem and therefore he is sending a message to King Hezekiah that I have already conquered all these other cities and I am coming I am coming to Jerusalem verse 2 says this then the king of Assyria sent Rebshakar with a great army from Ratchesh to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem and he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway to the fullers field ok today we are going to refer almost verse by verse of chapter 36 but now as we learn our lessons all together so the king of Assyria is sending his commander of the army the commander of the army with that big word Rebshakar and he was not only going alone to King Hezekiah's territory which is in Jerusalem but he went with my Bible says a great army so this is a scenario where then if you think of Jerusalem as the modern day Nairobi where we are in right now that we have been surrounded by the great army of the enemy which is Assyria and they had stood at a very strategic place again my Bible says in verse 2 and he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool meaning he was standing at a point where the water was coming in Jerusalem in a way he was so near Jerusalem so he is already giving warning when he was at the neighborhood of Jerusalem the danger of that is he could attack Jerusalem anytime he could decide to block the water to Jerusalem anytime then what would happen to the people of Judah without food and even without water my Bible continues to say at this exchange when the enemy is coming being led by the commander of chief Hezekiah had prepared a team that had to come and meet the enemy so they are meeting at the outside gate of Jerusalem and the three people who are here is Elayakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebna the scribe and Joa the son of Asaf they all came out to meet who the enemy and the enemy here is represented by the commander in chief of Assyria and that is Rabsheka now when they come to meet Rabsheka Rabsheka say to them the words to go and tell the king which king Hezekiah of Judah he says this Rabsheka say to them say now to Hezekiah that says a great king now I wanted to mark these words that says a great king the king of Assyria let's go back a bit then Rabsheka say to them say now to Hezekiah he did not even have regard for Hezekiah he did not call Hezekiah by the rightful title of King Hezekiah he was so rude it is like any other person he forgot that this guy is appointed by God to be in that position so he is not referring to him with the rightful title which is okay as we go with the story we will see what that means and so therefore he is lifting up the king of Assyria and he is saying that says the great king the king of Assyria and this is Senashari who he is referring to and he has a message for Hezekiah and remember he is not talking to him like a king and he is asking him he is asking Hezekiah what confidence is this in which you trust in short the enemy has come and he is looking to the king and he is asking him Allah how good do you feel about yourself what is this that you are trusting in there and then he is creating what we called out to the kingship of Hezekiah then he continues to tell in verses 3 I say you speak of having plans and power for war but they are mere words now in whom do you trust that you rebel against me arrogance before the king he can dare tell him you people are just people of words you say you can be able to fight but where are the actions he continues to tell him look you are trusting in the staff of the broken reed Egypt on which if a man leans it will go into his hand and pierce it so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him commander of the army is intimidating Hezekiah's people he is telling them you think you can have a backup in Egypt but it is not going to work because even Egypt has fallen he says if you lean on Egypt it will pierce you meaning they have already overcome even Egypt he continues to rebuke them and say much more and say in verses 7 but if you say to me we trust in the Lord our God it is not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and say to Judah and Jerusalem you shall worship before this altar in short the commander of the army Rabukatia she is saying the altars you have destroyed when king Hezekiah came into power if you read the book of second kings the Bible says he destroyed all the high places the places that were there for worship for idol worship and then this the commander in chief the commander of the army is confusing that to mean that you have destroyed the places of worship so where are you going to worship anyway so that is why he is mocking him and telling him but if you say to me we trust in the Lord our God it is not whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away meaning you have no place to worship other than that one place you say people to go and worship he didn't even understand how the children of Judah were supposed to worship the true worship because he himself then he did not know it he doesn't stop there in verses 80 he says now therefore he has already put his case now he wants to bring a solution to the case remember this is the enemy of God he is saying now therefore I ask you give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria and I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able on your path to put riders on them now that is the height of rudeness the enemy is telling you if you come to my side I will do you this one thing I will give you horses I will empower you but do you even have 2,000 men who can be able to ride these horses to fight he demeans the army of Judah he has no apologies to make of what he thinks about Judah he arrogance links what will you be able to find 2,000 horsemen to ride them even if I gave you and the enemy did not stop there finally in verses 10 he says have I now come up without the Lord against the land to destroy it the Lord said to me go up against this land and destroy it the enemy continues to put his case after he has shown how King Hezekiah is unprepared for war and the best thing King Hezekiah can do is to join allegiance with the enemy as he drop everything and come to the enemy's side he is telling him after all I have been sent by God to be able to do this which is true in a sense because if you read the book of Isaiah I think 10 you will see that Assyria was supposed to destroy the rest of the cities because of the idol worship what is Rab Shekha saying what is this commander of the army of the king of Assyria saying to Judah Judah you have tried to look for help in Egypt but you won't get it by the way if you read Isaiah chapter 30 it is actually talking about the one into Judah going to look for help in Egypt in Isaiah chapter 30 from verses 1 to 5 what is Rab Shekha telling Judah if you say you trust in the Lord right now it looks bleak because I am the one who has been given to come over you and when Judah really looks behind and he can see what Assyria has done he has conquered fortified cities then he has all the reasons to back up and say we will join you what is Rab Shekha saying to Judah you don't even have men to fight even if I equipped you what does that mean to us every day Rab Shekha is on our case Rab Shekha is the enemy of God Rab Shekha is Satan himself he is always whispering some voices to us Rab Shekha puts daily pressure that we are not able to take God by his word there is a voice that tells us that even God sometimes will not be able to help us like the way it was a situation that was dire as it was there is a voice that will always whisper from the devil showing us the impossibilities and the only option we have joined the alliance breath rain our faith is always tested daily my question to you is who will you listen to there is a promotion at a place of work but the way the thing is being done it is fighting for it will you trust God to give you the promotion or will you join the rest to fight for it when we are preparing our children for KCSE exams our phone calls there will always be a leakage somewhere of some papers parents will we be able to stand and say we will not look at these papers regardless of or the leaders of these schools we have been pushed to the end which voice will you listen to will you justify that you didn't have much choice as a kaya man had a choice to justify and say indeed God has sent Assyrians to kill us Rabshaka or the devil will convince us there is no other way that is his work that is his trick your faith in God will be tested daily our faith in God is tested daily in the industry today for some of us in business you have this nice deal but you have to cough out something for you to get that help you which voice will you listen to will you be able to bribe to get that contract which voice will you listen to and the devil will whisper to you or you will return the type which voice will you listen to when you have to work on the Sabbath and you justify and say I really need that money for sustenance of food with my family which voice will you listen to brethren the enemy will always justify let's carry on with our story from verses 11 because the enemy has not stopped and he's not about to stop so Rabshaka continues the man of Judah that is Eliyaki Joa and Shebna wanted this conversation to be in a language that the dwellers of the city of Jerusalem will not hear remember the dwellers of the city of Jerusalem because it's already fortified the windows are on the walls so they can listen to this conversation and the men of Judah are telling Rabshaka Rabshaka please speak in Arameik do not talk in Hebrew so that our people may not hear this conversation that one you'll find from verses 11 and 12 but my Bible says in verse 13 then Rabshaka stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew so he's doing contrary to what the people of Judah want the leadership of Judah want they do not want the story to spread like a bushfire they wanted to contain the information Rabshaka is not like that the Bible says he said with a loud voice what did he say here the words of the great king of Assyria again he's elevating the king and he continues to say that says the Lord that says the king Rabshaka is out to intimidate the people of Judah Rabshaka is about to horrify the people of Judah he wants to instill so much fear and that is why he shouting the people on the walls of Jerusalem can hear he wants to demoralize them he wants to belittle their king he wants to intimidate them he wants to discourage he wants to bring despair and he wants to scare them so they can be worried to death you know the moment you are worried to death you cannot make rational decisions that is the goal of Rabshaka children of God the devil is always looking for us such that he can intimidate us and he is always ready to intimidate us he continues to scare the people of Judah he says to them in verses 12 has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words and not to the men who sit on the wall who will eat and drink their own waste with you so he is already pronouncing doom he says if you do not play allegiance to us if you do not join our camp you are going to be so much trouble there will be no water for you that you will be taking your own urine to drink and you will eat your own down meaning there are going to be days of trouble in Judah Rabshaka is scaring the people of Judah with a loud voice and he is saying the three do not in verses 14 to 18 the first thing he tells the people of Judah in the do not is in verse 11 sorry verse 14 he says thus is a king number one do not do not let Hezekiah deceive you for he will not be able to deliver you remember the whole of Judah is listening and they are listening to anemi telling you do not listen to your king because he will deceive you he will not be able to deliver you he will tell you to stay in Judah and yet you are going to die in Judah number two do not do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord saying the Lord will surely deliver us this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria do not let Hezekiah make you trust in his God in short because Hezekiah I thank God they knew that he trusted in God Almighty wether they regarded him as a king or not at least they knew one thing that he had a connection with God and that is why I say do not listen to your king when he tells you God will deliver you at least they knew he had a God who could deliver them number three do not do not listen to Hezekiah to stay in the city because he is saying in verses 16 do not listen to Hezekiah for that says a king of Assyria make peace with me by a present and come out to me and everyone of you eat from his own vine and everyone from his own fig tree and everyone of you drink the waters of his own cistan until I come and take you away to a land like your own land a land of grain of new wine a land of bread and vineyards in short what is the enemy saying do not listen to Hezekiah to stay in the city for I am giving you a better dwelling place where you shall have the vines to drink from and where you shall have enough food when you say in the city you are going to be farming is going to strike you because then you will not have food poverty is following you brethren what is the devil promising you is he promising you a land that has so much vine is he promising you a land full of milk and honey like the way Rapsheka is promising what is Rapsheka offering you if you make peace with him in verse 16 and 17 Rapsheka is promising Judah that they will even have their own fig tree and they will have their own cistan to drink water from in short he is saying I am giving you the heaven that you need to be for us come on day Christian right here on earth because I will give you everything you need all I ask you toe on my line Rapsheka is offering false deliverance and even after offering false deliverance which he offers us most often than not the devil never stopped there Rapsheka continues this time he is mocking and blaspheming God Almighty verses 18 the Bible says beware lest Hezekiah persuade you saying the Lord will deliver us has any of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria meaning of all the nations that I have fought with have you ever seen that God has delivered them verse 19 where are the gods of Hamath and Afad where are the gods of Sevave indeed they have indeed have they delivered Samaria from my hand meaning there is nothing that your God can do he belittles our God who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand what a narrowgant king blasphemy to God Almighty but the story is taking a twist when the enemy has said everything he wants to say about you, you are life convincing you Judah's government officials headed to the king's command what would you do in such a situation three government officials decided we are not going to entertain you the devil Rapsheka we are not going to answer you in this matter verse 21 my Bible says but they held their peace who are they these are the rulers from Judah George, Asaf and Shebna they said but they held their peace and answered him not a word for the king's command was do not answer him breath them do not give the devil a chance to argue silence him by your silence the same trick the devil played at the garden of Eden he has never changed the moment you entertain him and you start having a conversation with him he will continue alluring you to himself the devil will always make us doubt God doubt our faith doubt our commitment doubt our principles doubt our decisions doubt our judgment doubt our stand and you can the least can continue when we give him a chance and you start having a conversation with him he only need some little time that you engage him like Eve he just entertain the voice of the devil for a while and she ended up doubting that which God had said let's not engage the devil the book of James 4 verses 7 is a one that admonishes us and tells us resist the devil and he will flee from you and how did these three men resist the devil they remain silent even as Rabkesha is talking over and over they are here James 4 continues to tell us come near to God and he will come near to you wash your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double minded grief, mourn and wait every time we encounter the devil let's remember James 4 verse 7 we need to flee from him we need to resist him and then once we have resisted him we allow the Lord to wash us and purify us and then we mourn and wait for the salvation of the Lord is at night the Bible says a double minded person is unstable in all ways was Hezekiah unstable was he double minded at this point in time who causes double mindedness of course it's the devil by making us doubt and doubt over and over again why does he make us doubt because you already pile things to your ears that your reasoning capacity is not where the story continues in verses 22 and the story becomes sweeter Eliakim, Shebna and Jonah have to go and tell the king this is king Hezekiah of what Senasharib the king of Assyria Rabkesha has said but even before they go to king Hezekiah when these words came to them they did one thing they tore their clothes meaning they went into a mourning remember the book of James 4 verse 7 has finished by saying grief, mourn and wait that is exactly how these three men did they mourned and the moment they went to king Hezekiah you will meet king Hezekiah now in chapter 37 the king himself tore his clothes covered himself with sarcloth and then number 3 he went to the house of the Lord breath and that's the formula when the devil attacks us when you have these things that cannot be understood let resist the devil run from him put on your grief your mourning over the situation you have then run to the house of the Lord because in the house of the Lord there is safety Hezekiah knew that Hezekiah ran to a place of safety Hezekiah knew he had to remove the kingly robe to be able to access the king of kings we cannot go to God the way we want we cannot go to God with already solutions by him removing his clothes his garments and tearing them he is saying Lord I am helpless I am hopeless all I need is you a question is to ask where do you turn first when a tough situation rises up do you turn to friends do you turn to relatives do you turn to professionals do you turn to politicians do you go to seek the cancer of men before you seek the cancer of God Hezekiah knew where to go the Bible never records whether he had a discussion with this man all they knew Hezekiah has changed has gone into mourning they are also mourning they are in sacludes and Hezekiah runs to the house of the Lord and then he said a word I think that is in verses 2 of Isaiah chapter 37 then he sent a liar kim who was over the house of Shabna the scribe and the elders of the priest covered the sacludes to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos meanwhile when he is going to the house of the Lord he has sent for backup to the man of God a prophet not to fellow man no he knew where to get his help do you know where to get your help what is the order of your help when you are looking for it is it that you have hit a rock because you have tried to look for cancers of men first Hezekiah did not look for the cancers of men Hezekiah went straight to the cancer of God and when the man came and gives the word to the prophet Isaiah and you could see the heaviness of King Hezekiah's words he said this is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy and when this information is relayed to prophet Isaiah Isaiah gives back the word in verses 6 of chapter 37 so to the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah and Isaiah said to them thus you shall say to your master is King Hezekiah thus is the Lord do not be afraid of the words which you have had with which the servants of the king of Syria have a blessed name God was in this conversation Isaiah did not have to explain to God what was happening God already had known because God always has ears he sees ears eyes he hears eyes and he identifies with us what a God therefore he is telling Hezekiah do not be afraid do not be afraid of what the enemy is saying over you do not be afraid when the enemy is mocking you do not be afraid when the enemy is mocking me when he is blaspheming me for surely he shall die of the sword that is in verses 7 because he had been prophesied in Isaiah 10 verses 12 so Isaiah just repeating that which he had said earlier he is bringing it to life to King Hezekiah and Rabkesha returns and you would think war is over and Hezekiah has been told do not be afraid but the devil never backs off the devil never stops at it the devil will always go for it King Hezekiah send a letter of threat to King Hezekiah you can read that in 37 10 to 13 this time he sent a verbal word and a written word meaning he has gone from this step to a higher step he wants it to be very well known to King Hezekiah children of God the work of the devil according to John 10 the thief comes to steal kill and destroy he has never changed his strategy it's still the same even today under 1 Peter 5 8 says be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil comes as a rolling lion walking about looking whom he may devour the devil never gives up when he has targeted you as a prey just like a lion he shall come for you he will make us tremble he will make us doubt he will make us question God when you are here to your weakest point at this point remember that when the devil shows up like the way he should have for King Hezekiah the second time he is coming to attacking Hezekiah but I am excited to report to you God's people that Hezekiah could not take any form of intimidation from the devil I mean the Lord help us to be like Hezekiah that we shall not be intimidated intimidated in any way Vast 14 of chapter 37 of Isaiah my Bible says and Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it and Hezekiah what did he do he went up to the house of the Lord spread it before the Lord the title of our message spread it before the Lord when the devil comes and he wants to confuse you when the devil comes and he wants to take charge over your life like Hezekiah pick up that which the devil has said over you open book take it to the Lord in prayer because we will learn that God hears and answers your prayer and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord and he said oh Lord God of hosts God of Israel the one who draws between the cherubim you are God you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth you have made heaven and earth he continues to petition God and he says incline your ear oh Lord and hear open your eyes oh Lord and see and hear all the words of Senasharib which he has sent to reproach the living God truly Lord the kings of Asiliya have laid waste all the nations he is stating the facts and have cast their gods into the fire for they were not gods but the work of men's hands wound and stone therefore they destroyed them verse 20 now therefore oh Lord our God save us from His hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord you alone I pray that shall be our prayer that right now when God is still hearing we pray like Hezekiah incline your ear oh Lord God's ears are never down the door of mercy is still open let's seek Him now before it's too late before He rises up from that seat the question is as we close what is your letter today from the enemy is it a doctor's report telling you you have some form of illnesses is it a warning from a school somewhere that your child has been involved in XYZ is it a warning from HR's department for redundancy or retirement or retrenchment is it a financial crisis that the devil has put you to is it a school fees letter is it doubt because of your sins is it a cross load in a relationship is it a stagnated spiritual growth what's your letter today is it a divorce letter is it a relative threat whatever it is the form of your letter it is you who knows best be like Hezekiah spread the letter before the Lord in His masses if only He could hear you and He shall say what He said to King Hezekiah through Isaiah verse 21 then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah saying thus says the Lord God of Israel because you have prayed to me against the Nazarene king of Assyria God which the Lord has spoken concerning him and he gave him all that he needed to say about Senashari King Senashari as a story closes dies of the sword and if you capture the rest of the story from verses 36 before he dies of the sword the Bible says the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of Assyria the one who had come in such a great army he killed 185,000 by that time people were waking up to morning brethren we do not have to fight this battle Hezekiah did not have to fight the battle by swords or by horses or any ammunition he didn't have to the only battle he fought is a battle of the knees the only battle he bought is to spread out his letter before the Lord let's spread our letters before the Lord and Senashari died of the sword just as Assyria had prophesied in Assyria chapter 10 today let's spread our letter to the Lord as we claim the blessings and the words of Isaiah 49 verses 24 to 25 that says thus says the Lord even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prayer of the terrible shall be delivered for I will contend with him who contends with thee and I will save the children as Tchakaro comes to pray with us let's claim this promise spread your letter to the Lord may the Lord help us that every time we are faced with this enemy we shall learn how to spread our letters and we shall not be intimidated Tchakaro will pray for us let us believe and pray our mighty and everlasting Father our Prince of Peace we approach the throne of Masi this evening we thank you God for who you are in our lives you are God Almighty and you've created the whole world of mighty Father you've created the heavens and the earth and the seas below mighty Father our excellent is your name oh God today we thank you mighty Father for reminding us oh mighty Father of your greatness or king of glory even when the devil throws all the hulls and temptations around us oh mighty Father you've reminded us king of glory that if we spread everything to your throne oh mighty Father you indeed can hear our prayers oh mighty Father and thank you for reminding us oh God that we can only win our war mighty Father through prayer and supplications to your mighty Father thank you Jesus Christ because you have reminded us again king of glory that the devil is out here looking for whom to devote mighty Father and he comes to steal kill and destroy king of glory but oh God you have strengthened us and told us oh mighty Father that you have come that we may have life in abundance oh God please bless people in our lives oh mighty Father who will always pray for us oh mighty Father when things are dark around us oh mighty Father when things look like all hope is lost oh mighty Father and the storms of life are all around us oh mighty Father may we have those friends around us who will lift us in prayer just like Isaiah king of glory came through for Hezekiah and reminded him oh mighty Father that the war will be won by praying oh king of glory thank you Jesus Christ because you understand us and you know our hearts oh king of glory help us to continuously spread our burdens to your throne in Jesus name I pray we ask that he who is Jehovah you who wait even when we are throwing stones at you you are so patient but we thank you because you've already won the battle allow us to experience the gift of salvation allow us to know you did it all at Calvary and thank you that the words of the hymn 499 what a friend you have in Jesus why do we have to care so much and yet you are so close as you are with Hezekiah with each and every one of us fight our battles and give us victory in Christ for we ask in Jesus name Amen


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This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Good afternoon. This is Ray Tuchiyama in a special edition of Think Tech Asia with my guest Ichiro Sekimitsu. And he's going to be talking about his career and topics in global finance today. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much for having me, Ray. It's a pleasure. Well, let's start from the beginning here. And I know you've done a lot in the global finance industry. And so most recently, where were you? Before moving to Hawaii, I was in Tokyo for about 14 years, a very short stint in New York. But I've been here now for two years. And you were CEO of Asia Pacific Rates and Currencies at what bank? Bank of America, Merrill Lynch. OK, and before you were based in Hong Kong, what were you doing there? I was also in Hong Kong. I was the head of trading for interest rates and actually corporate bonds as well. And those are very arcane topics for our viewers, which we will go back later in the show. And you also worked in my favorite city, London, for a while. How many years there? 10 years in London. And what were you doing and for what bank? Again, it was Bank of America, Merrill Lynch. But all these banks got together. I was working for a bank called Continental Illinois and Bank of America bought them. So a combination of those. But all doing the same thing, pretty much interest rate and currency derivatives. OK, we'll go back to that. And you have an MBA from a business school in Switzerland. Which one? It's called IMD. It was called Imede when I was there. But yeah, in Lausanne, Switzerland. And the courses and programs are in English? They're all in English, pretty much the Harvard case method. And where did you get your bachelor's? In Claremont, California, Harvey Mudd College. And in what field? Engineering. So we go back to the beginning and we'll kind of wind our way to the current times now. And first, where were you born and raised? I was actually born in Kyoto, Japan. I'm Japanese. And grew up in Kobe, Japan. And now, when you say you're Japanese, your parents, when they had you and your grandparents, they were all Japanese citizens, right? Yes, that's right. And they spoke only? Well, Japanese, but they did speaking some English. Yes. And did they ever live abroad, your parents? Well, yes, that's why actually I was born in Kyoto. But I moved to the United States when I was one, and then moved back when I was seven. So those were days, you know, and my parents were obviously with me. And so we were in Evanston, Illinois. Oh, wow. And the words Kikoku Shijo will apply to you. Somebody was returned to Japan after some education in the United States. Exactly. I mean, I went back with very little Japanese as a Kikoku Shijo. And my parents had to make a decision. Do we put them back a year and put them into the Japanese system? Or do we put them into the international school system? And they made the choice of putting me into an international school. And I guess that changed my life. That's in Kobe. Which one was that? It's called Canadian Academy. And when I hear Canadian, it was established by Canadians? Yes, indeed. 100 years ago, let's see, a little over 100 years ago by Canadian missionaries. And so what kind of city is Kobe? I mean, it's in the Kansai region of Japan. And so there's Kyoto, there's Osaka, and Kobe. Each with a distinct culture, I guess. What would you characterize the Kobe culture? Well, I think it's big cities. Tokyo would be sort of like Honolulu. And then Osaka would be the second city. I don't know, right? What would be the second city of Honolulu? It's Hilo. Is it Hilo? Hilo is the second largest city in the state. They're very proud of that. Oh, good. But you make an analogy, say, Chicago to New York City. Yes, Chicago to New York City. But then Kobe, Tokyo, Chicago to New York would be Kobe and Osaka and Tokyo. Kobe is part of Osaka. So when you first entered banking, which bank was that? When you first started a career, what was that? It was called the Continental Illinois National Bank. And so were you in Illinois? I was, Chicago. OK. So you were in the Midwest, which is a very distinct culture in itself compared to San Francisco and New York City. How would you characterize the Chicago culture? No, I would say it is America. No, seriously, you've got the West Coast and the East Coast, and Chicago was very Midwestern. Good values. I liked it. OK. And so in your career, you said that you were doing mostly the same thing, right? What was that? What was that area that you specialized in? Pretty much interest rates and currencies. Most people, when they think about financial markets, think of stocks. They're very, you know, that's very clear to them. But many people aren't very clear with interest rates and currencies, but that's what I did. This was a time when there was a lot of innovation going on. So we started doing these things called derivatives, swaps, options, things like that. And that's what I was involved with for my career. And that's a really mysterious area for non-financial people in the street. I guess you're right, yes. Now, when you talk about, let's separate interest rates and currencies. When you talk about currencies, we talk about the yen, dollar, the euro, many, many currencies in the world. Am I correct? Yes, we are. So how do you make money off of currencies? Really from movement. And there's things being a market maker. So people need to buy and they need to sell. So there's a selling price and a buying price. And the market maker usually tries to make money from having a spread between those. But also, people can take speculative positions. And hopefully they're right. If they're wrong, they lose money instead of making money. But it's fairly simple. Now, interest rates, aren't they kind of set by the federal bank or the central banks of each country, more or less? Or that people can't decide on interest rates by themselves. Am I correct? That's very true, Ray. But there's a thing called the yield curve. And the yield curve is that there's very short-term rates. And then there might be 10-year rates, 30-year rates. And the very short-term rates are pretty much regulated by the central bank. But they don't have that much control over the longer end. And that's pretty much supply and demand between buyers and sellers. So when you say buyers and sellers, who are the buyers and who are the sellers in this area of interest rates? Well, really, anybody that needs an investor who needs to buy, let's say, bonds. Bonds are pretty much the sort of benchmark for interest rates across the yield curve. And so they'll move based on somebody having to buy something, might bring the price up. And somebody needing to sell it might bring the price down. So that would create movement. Now, is it true that when bonds go low, stocks go high? And vice versa? That's, again, sometimes. But sometimes not. There's so many things that, in general, because when bonds are low and interest rates are very high, then people, that can be attractive. So people might say, I'd rather have that than that stock. So you're getting into an area where every day, there are decisions made by people with money. What do you do with, say, $1,000? Do you keep it in cash? Do you keep it in gold? Do you buy stocks? Do you buy a bond? Do you invest in something else, antiques? You're talking about how to make money grow in some way or be stable. Is that the world of what you just talked about, currencies and interest rates? Would that be in that world? I would think so. Yes, it's, I guess, what we call asset classes. Everything that you've mentioned is an asset class. So if you've got some money, then you'll invest. And hopefully, you're going to pick the ones that you think are going to be stable and grow. So we come to your move to Hawaii in Toronto-Lulu. You had never lived here before, am I correct? That's correct.  Two years. But again, I do have a connection with Hawaii, where my father was one of the first Japanese after the war to actually be allowed to study in the United States. He was from the Yamaguchi prefecture. There's a lot of Yamaguchi people here in Hawaii. And so he came, looked for distant relatives, and they helped him out. And so I do have a connection to Hawaii. So how long was he here? He was, well, he was here just enough to make enough money. He worked on the field, taught judo, and then he went off to the mainland for the study. So there is a kind of a family connection. You're right. So you've come back to a place where you enjoyed. Yes, yes, I like Hawaii. And so you're here. And now you've kind of seen what Hawaii is about. And I know that you've been talking and making presentations on finance. And so what is your topic that you've been presenting to people here in Hawaii? Essentially, I call it financial shakana, but that's just a catchy phrase. But I pretty much present my career of managing financial risk over many years and in various centers. And just kind of showing what are the characteristics of a financial shock. And we will go deeper into that after our break for Think Tech Asia. Thank you very much. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Think Tech Hawaii, which streams live on Think Tech Hawaii.com, uploads to YouTube, and broadcasts on cable OC16 and Olelo 54. Great content for Hawaii from Think Tech. We all play a role in keeping our community safe. Every day we move in and out of each other's busy lives. It's easy to take for granted all the little moments that make up our every day. Some are good, others not so much. But that's life. It's when something doesn't seem quite right that it's time to pay attention. Because only you know what's not supposed to be in your everyday. So protect your everyday. If you see something suspicious, say something to local authorities. Welcome back in this really warm afternoon in Honolulu, Hawaii. We're talking on Think Tech Asia to Ichiro Sakimitsu about his career in finance. And just before the break, he was focusing on his career and about this very exciting topic on finance. And I'll let you kind of really summarize it for us. And then you can tell us about why talking to people in Hawaii. Well, again, I initially started putting this presentation together. Because I really want, for me, I wanted to kind of summarize my career and try to get lessons. When I was in the markets, I just didn't have time to think. And this gave me time to put it all together. And I wanted to talk about financial shocks and how they come about. What is the anatomy of a financial shock? And how has it changed? And particularly in Hawaii, I thought it would be helpful. Because Hawaii is an island state. I came from an island nation, Japan. I worked in another island nation, the UK. And we have this thing, something in Japanese that we call Shimaguni Konjou, the island mentality. And so you know. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. But you tend to be sort of insular. And you have water borders. And so you think, and you try to, you're happy with the quality. You're happy with what you have. And you don't want things to change sometimes. And I found that similar thing in Hawaii. And my point was that as I looked back over the last 30 years, the interconnections, not just financial, but technological, the interconnections have just grown so much that people in Hawaii are connected, whether you like it or not. Well, we are, yes. And so I was trying to, just from a financial perspective, say, well, have a thought. Have a thought. Because all these things going around the world affect you and me. We live here. Well, one of the biggest actions that happened in the early 80s, the Plaza Courts, that suddenly lowered the value of the US dollar vis-a-vis the yen. And all of a sudden, that had caused an effect of tourists coming to Hawaii, and of course, seeing the yen currency so much more value to acquire assets in Hawaii, real estate companies, and of course, omyage, and the presences of work. And that had an action. And that was a Plaza Courts done in New York between US and Japanese kind of ministries getting together. Yes. And it was actually a global thing, too, right? It wasn't just the Japanese, but the Europeans. Everybody came together and said the dollar is too weak. So it needs to appreciate. And so the yen appreciated 360 yen, as you recall, at a fixed to a much stronger level. And yeah, that kind of thing very much affects the trade between countries. Now, right now, we have tremendous global trade happening in China, Japan, US, and heaven. But as you know, Hawaii is not a trading state. In many ways, we attract people to come and spend money, and that's how the economy is driven. Does trade also have an impact to our lives in Hawaii? Absolutely. Right. Again, it depends on the terms of trade. As you say, Hawaii doesn't really manufacture too much. It's very dependent on, I guess, the real estate investment, tourism, things like that. So it's a special set of circumstances. But in general, global trade has been increasing for many years. But the thing is, it's actually stopped increasing in some ways, right? Because, well, you see, the various political elections, et cetera, means that everybody is starting to say, what am I benefiting from globalization? And so. Because in the past, through the last 20 years, the mantra was globalization equals good, that somehow you're tied to more markets, you're tied to more cheaper manufacturing goods in China, in Walmart. That is all good. So we have more money to spend and get more stops. But you're correct that we have become highly dependent the US on cheaper labor, which is also rising, as you know. Salaries in China, Southeast Asia, rise to becoming their own consumer markets. And they want their own things to buy also. So you're correct that that is a kind of a mantra that's no longer 100% true. I think so. Absolutely right. I mean, I don't think people think that they're benefiting from global trade as much as they used to, or perhaps not. But of course, that is a kind of, you can go back to the last lecture. Also, the presidential election, America First.  And others, you buy very little. But you sell as much as possible to the others. That's very true. I didn't really want to touch on any elections or anything like that. But you're absolutely right. But the reason for some of these elections is that people don't feel particularly benefiting. They don't feel like they're moving on in life. They're moving backwards. So based on your, like you said, you had time to meditate on your career about the corner looking at the anatomy of finance and industry. And then you must have something to say to Hawaii based on your career about what may happen, or what areas do you see as areas that Hawaii should really be concerned about, its own economy and citizens? Well, I don't really focus in on just Hawaii. I try to keep it fairly general. Because what I try to do is just show how much more interconnected the whole world has become. And that's why we, living in Hawaii, need to know what's going on in the world. And as far as the financial aspect, I looked at the shocks. There were things like geopolitical shocks we had, things like the Gulf War. And then we also had things that happened with financial imbalances. Sometimes that too much money went into one direction. And then finally, when everybody decided to come out, then there was a huge reaction. And markets suffered. And because of that, markets went down. And people's quality of life went down. But what you're saying is that something, a shock or an imbalance or something that affects the economy of Hawaii, may come from somewhere that we didn't know would come from there. Something that appears from nowhere or somewhere that we didn't know. But like interest rates, right now they're very low. What would make suddenly it go up again? Well, a few things did happen. When President Trump was elected, the whole market thought that he would be able to increase infrastructure spending and spend a lot of money, a lot of deficit spending. So that would mean more bonds are supplied and take interest rates up. But however, after that initial spurt, right now interest rates are still very, very low. And something that I point out in my talk is that there's actually places, not in the United States. There are places where interest rates are negative. It's minus interest rates. And that's pretty scary in Japan. But in Japan, that's like that. And in Europe. And you know, it's something I can point out is that there's about $100 trillion of bonds in the world. And of that, 10 trillion, 10% are actually trading at negative interest rates. So you give money to buy a bond, but you get less money back at the end of 10 years. You are guaranteed to lose money. So why would anybody do that? Well, that's a very good question. It's like you and I would not do it. But usually the people that have to buy it are the institute, the banks, the big institutions. They need to have it because they have so much. And it's a risk thing. They have to place these bonds with the central bank. There's regulations. And so they figure that also I have a bunch of others that are giving me a very high yield. And if I have a negative yield, my whole portfolio is OK. So there's various reasons. But that's called hedging. Hedging. Well, hedging, yeah. But in a lot of ways, it's just that they do it because they have to in a lot of ways. But coming from a logical financial perspective, it's abnormal. It's abnormal. But the other thing is that, remember, not everybody just holds onto a bond until maturity. They try to sell it. So if I think that I can buy it at a minus interest rate and then sell it to you for an even higher, lower interest rate, then I'm OK. I've made money. But that's being very optimistic here. Exactly. If everybody thinks that, then we might have a problem. So getting back to Hawaii, one of the areas that the government must show up is the pensions. Because you can't have a pension fund that loses money. Exactly. What any thoughts there for the state? Yes, exactly. When I first gave this presentation, in my presentation, I had said that the pension fund shortfall, the amount that the state is short in the public employees benefits, the pension benefits, was about $9.8 billion, I believe. And then right before I went and gave my talk, I read in the Star Advertiser that it had gone up to over $12 billion. That's in one year. And it could be even higher. Because pension funds, they make that estimate based on an assumed interest rate or assumed investment return, which are quite high. It could be 7% of like that. That's very high. It can be, right? So that was my other point was that you should know how interconnected you are. Because if something happens overseas, China, Europe, anywhere, and that slams the market, then those pension benefits, people are getting very low interest rates. And so they're reaching for yield, reaching. They're taking on more risk. They say, I need to take more risk because I have to hit my target. And then if the bond market takes a big hit and then stocks also go down, then your investment returns are even lower. Then your shortfall is even bigger. What happens? Then Hawaii has to raise taxes, cut benefits, or they won't have the money. They have to put it into the pension system so you don't have money to fund rail, for instance, or roads, education. Or to give the pension checks to the retirees. Exactly. That is a community that will be very, very violently upset at this. And so what do you do? It's very. But you have a very good point, judges said, is that usually this balancing out. But what if, as in the trade, there's a black swan? When suddenly everything goes down, currencies, bonds, stocks, everything just goes down. And you hedged everything that something will be up there. But suddenly it's a complete decline in every market. And that's the black swan. And these has those types of actions happened in the past. They have happened. But one thing that I've researched was that there's two types of financial shocks. So as I think I mentioned before, the geopolitical ones, Iraq invades Kuwait. So all of a sudden everybody goes, oh, no, no, no, no. But then there's other ones, like the financial imbalances, like it's like Latin American debt crisis, or even the great financial crisis of 2008, the housing crisis. Now what the difference between those two is that one is the geopolitical ones tend to have a big shock to the system. So the market goes down. But then most of the time, with a short period of time, it comes right back up. Whereas the financial imbalances take a long time to heal. We're still recovering from the great financial crisis of 2008. And that's almost 10 years ago, a decade ago, when you think about it. Yes, that's right. And that's another reason why these interest rates are very, very low. They had to bring interest rates down because they think that's what we need to do to improve the economy. And they're just staying to the time of saying, well, maybe the economy is healthy enough that we can start doing something about it. But who knows what's going to happen? Well, we're going to end on this mysterious note for our viewers. Because I think, H.R., you gave us a very insightful view of the markets based on your 30-year-plus career in many global capitals. And I hope to see you again in a few months to give another insight to what's happening to the economy and whether there's bad things out on the horizon or we're holding steady. Thank you again. This is Think Asia. My name is Ray Tsuchiyama. And thank you very much.