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Psalm 47, please if you'll go there with
me.
I'm going to speak what I feel is
a prophetic message for many of us who
are here today called shout unto God with
the voice of triumph.
Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
Now, typically when a preacher preaches a message
like this, then he gets everybody shouting at
the end, but that's not going to be
the case today.
That's the flesh, it would do no good
for anybody here.
There is a shout, though, that does come
to the righteous and you'll know your time.
Nobody will have to tell you to shout,
you'll just know your time.
It's like popcorn in a pot of hot
oil.
Your time comes eventually to explode.
Everyone else around you might look the same,
but there's just something in your heart that
breaks out.
You're going to begin to understand what that
is today.
And I believe that many, many people in
this sanctuary and in the body of Christ
who are searching for truth in this hour
of time that we're living in are going
to experience this shout to God with the
voice of triumph.
Father, I pray God for the anointing of
the Holy Spirit.
Thank you, Lord, that you love when your
people's hearts are open to receive your word.
God, you want to do something so marvelous
in all of us.
And I pray that you give my mind
and spirit the ability to convey this truth
that you've spoken to me.
Give us hearts to believe it and help
us, God, to move into these places of
promise that you have made available to those
who walk in obedience and truth and the
fear of God.
Father, I thank you for this.
Thank you, Lord, that you're going to do
something marvelous.
Lord, a work that is going to astound
many.
And I thank you for it with all
of my heart in Jesus' mighty name.
Psalm 47, verse 1.
Oh, clap your hands, all you people.
Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
For the Lord Most High is terrible.
He is what means awesome.
He is a great king over all the
earth.
He shall subdue the people under us and
the nations under our feet.
He shall choose our inheritance for us, the
excellency of Jacob, whom he loved.
God is gone up with a shout.
The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God.
Sing praises.
Sing praises unto our king.
Sing praises.
For God is the king of all the
earth.
Singing praises with understanding.
God reigns over the heathen.
God sits upon the throne of His holiness.
The princes of the people are gathered together,
even the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong unto
God.
He is greatly exalted.
Oh, clap your hands, all you people.
Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
Now, back in the Old Testament in Joshua
chapter 6, the people of God were instructed
to shout when coming in to possess the
land of promise, which for us today is
the land of God's promises.
He said, you're to go into this particular
land.
And he said, I'm going to give you
some instructions, which are going to look foolish
to those who are outside of this place
of promise.
You remember that the people were instructed to
march a specific number of days in a
prescribed order, round about these impenetrable walls that
the enemy had established in this land that
was promised to the children of God.
And, folks, there are some here today that
you are given promises, but the enemy has
made encampments in your mind.
He's got encampments in your heart.
And they're places that you simply cannot go
to in human strength.
You cannot defeat them in human strength.
You've tried and you've failed.
In some cases it's depression or discouragement, or
maybe it's an addiction.
Maybe it's a mental stronghold, an attitude of
heart.
Something that is in this place where there
should be in reality a promise of God
coming to life.
And you have faced this in the place
of God's promise.
But the Lord gave this instruction.
And he brought the camp as it is
into divine order and said, I want you
to walk a certain way, really walk in
obedience to me.
Just do it the way I say to
do it.
And trust me.
And go around about this city for seven
days.
And at this prescribed time, he said, I'm
going to tell you, you're going to hear
the sound of a trumpet.
And when you hear the sound of the
trumpet, I want you to shout.
And he said, at the time of the
shout, I'm going to bring down all the
walls of your enemies.
And every man, not just a few of
you, but in Joshua chapter 6 and verse
5, he said, every man is going to
go into these former strongholds as a conqueror.
Not just a select few, but every man
is going to go.
And if you can see this as I
see it this morning, it's a type of
something that Christ has made available to the
entire body that is called his church on
this side of eternity.
He said, I want you to walk in
obedience.
That's why you and I have got to
get into the word of God.
We have to know what God is saying.
We have to walk in the order that
God is calling us to walk in.
Now, these people, all they could do was
obey him as foolish as it might have
seemed at the time.
They simply just obeyed him and did what
they knew to do.
And at the end of this testing, as
it is of obedience, they heard the sound
of a trumpet.
And I don't think they had to force
it.
I think it just exploded within them.
There was a shout that came into their
heart.
And as they shouted, these walls of their
first and established enemy came crumbling down in
the city called Jericho.
And every man went into this stronghold that
was in the promised land.
And he went in as a conqueror.
Verse 20 says, when the people heard the
sound of the trumpet, they shouted with a
great shout.
Now, remember, we read in Psalm 47, verse
5.
The scripture says, God has gone up with
a shout, the Lord with the sound of
a trumpet.
He rose from the dead.
Folks, when he rose from the dead, he
conquered death.
He conquered the power of death.
He conquered the strongholds of death.
He conquered the gates of death.
He conquered the plans of death.
He conquered everything that had come with sin,
death and destruction from the time of Adam
to the time that he rose from the
dead.
And when he rose from the dead, the
psalmist in verse 47 describes it as a
sound of a trumpet.
God rose from the dead with a shout
as it is.
Christ rose from the dead.
And this trumpet sounded.
And for those who can hear it, when
he rose from the dead, he conquered death.
And he conquered sin.
And he conquered fear.
And he conquered suicide.
And he conquered depression.
And he conquered inability.
And he conquered cultural limitation.
And he conquered spiritual blindness.
And he conquered woundedness and bruisedness in the
heart that the enemy would want to cause
to have you walk in pain for the
rest of your life on this earth.
He conquered it when he rose from the
grave.
And the people, the scripture says, when they
heard this sound of the trumpet, when they
heard this sound of victory that God alone
can provide to those who are walking in
obedience to him, they shouted with a great
shout.
And in the Hebrew, the word means to
shout with an ear-splitting joy over a
conquered enemy.
Hallelujah.
They shouted a shout that could not be
any louder, any deeper, than can come from
everything that God has enabled us to shout.
There was just this shout that came from
their inward parts as if they had conquered
even before the walls began to crumble.
They began to shout because they heard something
in their inward parts.
Now, I shared with you before that this
shout was without doubt accompanied by faith.
Romans 10, 17 tells us faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God.
These people were in divine order.
Their steps were being led by the word
of God.
And as God's plan and order were being
revealed to them.
You know, folks, it's so important that you
and I get into this book and that
our steps begin to be led by God.
We begin to desire to obey him.
Now, I venture to say to you today,
you know, if you read this in Joshua,
there was a prescribed order.
They marched in a certain order.
They did things a specific way.
They were a type of the church in
our generation.
They were walking in obedience.
They were in divine order.
They had no capability within themselves to bring
these walls down.
But they did have the power to obey
God in as much as they were able
to do so.
And for those who play games with the
word of God, for those who don't take
the word of God seriously, this message will
mean nothing to you.
You will shout, but you'll never know the
victory.
There's a shout beyond anything that will ever
be worked up in a service.
It cannot be worked up by my preaching.
It is something the Holy Spirit alone can
do within you.
He tells you when to shout.
There's an agreement with something that God is
doing.
And you are the only one that knows
it.
You're in the middle of a worship service
and everybody is worshiping as they normally do.
And all of a sudden, you just burst
through something.
And a shout of glory comes into your
soul.
And God begins to tell you, yes, you
have the victory in this area of struggle
in your life.
Yes, your son, your daughter will live for
me.
I will bring them out of the prison
where they are right now.
And I'll bring them into my life.
And you know it.
God knows it.
And nobody else.
It doesn't matter who else knows it.
You know it.
And you are shouting.
You are dancing.
You are leaping into the air.
The person beside you is looking and saying,
what happened to her?
What happened to him?
They're not supposed to be responding this way
to the song that we're singing right now.
But the reality is that there's a shout
that has come into your soul.
You've heard the sound of the trumpet.
You've heard the sound of the victory that
Christ has won for you.
It has become so real to your heart.
You cannot contain it.
You have to shout out to God.
You have to give Him glory.
You have to clap your hands.
You have to shout to God with a
voice of triumph.
Hallelujah.
I can see these people walking in obedience
around about this city.
Their enemies are leaning over the wall and
laughing at them, talking about their foolishness and
all the rest of it.
But they're expecting in their hearts any moment
to hear this sound of triumph.
They're expecting to hear the trumpet.
And yes, we have enemies that we have
to face.
But as we walk in obedience, this sound
of Christ's triumph comes into our ears.
And as I said, we're the only ones
next to Christ Himself who might hear it.
This sound of triumph.
Psalm 89 verse 15 says, Blessed is the
people that know the joyful sound.
They shall walk, O Lord, in the light
of Thy countenance.
In Thy name shall they rejoice all the
day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be
exalted.
Blessed is the people who know the joyful
sound.
Blessed is this people who are walking in
obedience to the Word of God and have
begun to hear something that nobody around them
is hearing.
They're hearing a sound.
They're hearing this sound of victory that only
Christ can give.
They're hearing this trumpet that has declared that
Jesus rose from the dead and sits at
the right hand now of all power and
all authority.
All kingdoms, all kings, past, present and to
come are in subjection to Him.
He rules over all and will be Lord
and God of this universe for all time
to come.
Thanks be to God.
We are in Him, in heavenly places, seated
at the right hand of God in Jesus
Christ.
Paul said, Oh, that your eyes might be
opened, that you might see the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who are to
believe, that we might begin to understand it,
that the shout of God might come in
to the inward parts of God's people once
again.
But, folks, it doesn't come into the hearts
of the disobedient.
And sad to say, not every shout that
comes from God's people is a shout of
triumph.
There's a lot of shouting that goes on
in the house of God, I dare say
today, but not much of it is a
shout of triumph.
Some is just shouts of tradition.
I'll show this to you in 1 Samuel,
chapter 4, if you'll go back in your
Bible with me.
Talking about the shouts of tradition.
We shout just simply because that's the thing
to do.
The church we go to shouts, so we
shout.
They shout at the appropriate time, so we
shout at the appropriate time.
The preacher raises his voice, we raise our
voices.
They give us an altar call at the
end of the service, and the preacher seems
to be excited, so we get excited.
And we lift our voices and shout.
And, folks, it can all just become tradition.
Now, tradition is something that we learn, which
we do, and we do it even in
the name of God, but it loses all
of its meaning.
I've been into some of these meetings where
it's just a scream fest from the beginning
to the end, and all I ever got
from it was a headache.
Folks, I kid you not, I've sat on
platforms as a preacher in some of these
conventions, and I've had to take Tylenol migraine
before even going into the service.
I'm not making this up because I knew
I was going to get a headache from
all the shouting and screaming in these services
because it's all tradition.
The army is virtually on the edge of
defeat.
There's so little victory, but they've learned to
shout because that's, of course, the Pentecostal charismatic
thing to do is we shout.
We make a lot of noise, and, unfortunately,
there's not a lot of victory in it.
Now, 1 Samuel 4, verse 4, I'm going
to show you this.
He says, So the people sent to Shiloh
that they might bring from thence the ark
of the covenant of the Lord of hosts,
which dwells between the cherubims.
And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and
Phinehas, were there with the ark of the
covenant of God.
Now, here is the ark represents the power,
the promises of God, the provision of God.
We know all of these things.
And when the ark traditionally came into the
camp, the people shouted just like they did
on the days when they marched around Jericho.
And the shout was this shout of victory
that only God really can give to the
hearts of those who are walking in obedience.
But, you see, this is a priesthood and
a people who are not walking in obedience.
The sons of Eli are committing fornication right
at the doors of the temple.
They are greedy and they are out for
their own gain.
They're demanding the choice cuts of the offerings
that the people are bringing into the Lord
for themselves.
And so, verse 5 says, The ark of
the covenant of the Lord came into the
camp, and all Israel shouted with a great
shout, so that the earth rang again.
Basically, it means the earth was trembled.
The earth shook.
I mean, I've heard that.
And when we were in Nigeria a few
years back, and there was a shout among
the people at one point.
And I don't know how many were there
exactly, but there were hundreds of thousands for
sure.
And literally, I had a sense of what
this must have sounded like.
When that many people begin to shout, the
earth literally trembles.
And you can see this ark coming into
the camp, which represents everything that God has
promised to the people.
And all Israel shouts with a great shout,
so that the earth rang again.
Now, part of what I want to tell
you is that the enemy fears this shout.
The enemy fears the shout of righteousness.
The shout that comes when people are walking
in obedience.
He fears this.
Every devil of hell fears this.
Satan himself fears it.
But there are shouts in the house of
God that the devil doesn't fear.
When the Philistines, verse 6, heard the noise
of the shout, they said, What means the
noise of this great shout in the camp
of the Hebrews?
And they understood that the ark of the
Lord was come into the camp.
Now, keep in mind, this is a type
of the promises of God have come, in
a sense, into the hearts of God's people
again.
But, of course, this was not really the
case.
And the Philistines were afraid, verse 7, for
they said, God is come into the camp.
And they said, Woe unto us, for there
has not been such a thing heretofore.
Can you imagine how much more hell must
be afraid when the Holy Spirit comes in
full measure into the life of a believer
in Jesus Christ?
Your life from mine, when we're walking in
obedience to God.
Here was just a physical ark that represented
something which was, it was for the people,
but it was, in effect, outside of the
people.
Now, here in the New Testament, we have
this same presence or provision of God in
the power of the Holy Spirit now because
of Christ abiding within us.
And when you and I have the promises
of God, folks, do you get this, how
simple this is?
When we have the promises of God come
into our heart, and they're not just things
we're memorizing in a class somewhere.
And we're not just quoting it out of
tradition, we believe it.
And it comes into the heart, and finally
the weakest of God's saints stands up and
says, Devil, who do you think you are
to be making a mess with my mind
and my house and my life and my
future and my kids?
And we begin to stand up.
And the Philistines said, when they heard this
noise, they said, they were afraid.
They said, God has come into the camp.
And they said, woe to us.
You have to have a picture of how
hell sees it when you and I are
fully engaged in obeying God and honoring his
name.
Woe unto us, they said in verse 8,
who shall deliver us out of the hand
of these mighty gods?
They are the gods.
Now, they said it in the plural because
they didn't know that God was one.
But he said, these are the gods that
smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in
the wilderness.
Then verse 9 says, be strong, this is
the enemy speaking, and quit yourselves like men,
O you Philistines, that you be not servants
to the Hebrews as they have been to
you.
Quit yourselves like men and fight.
Now, folks, when the promises of God come
into your heart, it doesn't mean that it's
going to be without a fight.
There's a cease of obedience in this.
There will be a fight.
Your enemy will mount up every resource that
he has at his disposal.
And he will fight against your faith in
the promises of God.
He will accuse the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
He will accuse you.
He will come against you.
He will fight against your mind.
He will do everything he can to afflict
you and to stop you from believing the
promises of God.
And the Philistines fought and Israel was smitten.
And they fled every man into his tent.
And there was a very great slaughter.
For there fell of Israel 30,000 footmen.
And the ark of God was taken.
And the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and
Phinehas were slain.
So the typology here, really, is there was
a very, very great defeat among the people
of God.
They shouted, but their shout was not in
obedience.
Folks, this is why this year in this
church we're going to be moving into the
word of God like never before.
Not just from the pulpit, but I'm believing
in my heart for every Christian who attends
this.
If you consider this, your congregation, you're going
to start moving into the word of God.
And say, God, I'm beginning to see some
things.
I'm beginning to understand.
There's great, great provision for me.
Great victory.
But it doesn't come apart from obeying you.
I can't walk in willful disobedience to the
word of God and then shout and think
I'm going to have victory.
Folks, there are people here living in adultery.
People cheat on their taxes.
People do all kinds of things.
They lie about their past.
They lie about their present and their future.
They're in illicit relationships.
They're doing all kinds of things they shouldn't
do.
And then come into the house of God
and shout, expecting this marvelous victory.
Well, folks, you won't have any more of
a victory than Hophni and Phinehas had.
And ultimately, the promises of God will be
literally taken out of your heart by your
enemy.
And the priest or the position you thought
you had will be taken away.
You will lose it all if you play
games with the word of God.
Oh, there's incredible provision in the kingdom of
God.
But it comes to those who obey God.
And there has to be a genuine fear
of God because God is good.
God is wonderful.
God is marvelous.
But God is holy.
God does not play games with people any
more in the New Testament than he did
in the Old Testament.
Now, this is a shout of tradition.
It's without the fear of God.
It's without obedience.
And it brings spiritual defeat and death.
Now, Exodus chapter 32, if you go there,
I'll show you another shout where there's no
power.
Exodus chapter 32 and verse 15.
These are shouts from people who are gathered
around a wrong concept of God.
And they're headed in the wrong direction.
A lot of camps in Christianity today that
are doing a lot of shouting.
But they have fashioned another God.
They've called him Jesus, but he isn't Jesus.
And they're headed in the wrong direction.
Instead of moving into the promises of God,
moving into this life which will be an
example of the life of Christ to their
generation, moving into a life of selflessness and
giving of oneself for the purposes of God,
they're moving in a direction of Egypt.
That's where these people were going.
They had fashioned a God who could take
them back into that which they had left
behind.
Amazing.
And we think that this foolishness is only
found in Exodus 32.
But I tell you, it's all over America
today in the Christian church.
Fashioned a God.
They've called him Jesus.
But this Jesus that they've fashioned out of
their own minds leads them now back into
the world that they've left behind.
They can drink and dance.
They can party.
They can seek out wealth and riches and
fame and all these other things and have
salvation at the same time.
They can shout and scream.
They can jump like pogo sticks in their
services.
They can run the aisles.
But ultimately, their shouts are not heard.
They're powerless.
Exodus 32, 15.
When Moses turned and went down from the
mount and the two tables of the testimony
were in his hand.
You see, he has the word of God
in his hands.
But these people are now fashioned another God
which is in opposition to the word that
is before them.
The tables were written on both their sides.
On one side and on the other were
they written.
And the tables were the work of God.
And the writing was the writing of God
graven upon the tables.
And when Joshua heard the noise of the
people as they shouted, he said to Moses,
there's a noise of war in the camp.
And he said, it's not the voice.
This is Moses speaking of them that shout
for mastery.
In other words, this is not people who
are fighting for the honor, the glory of
God.
They're not fighting to achieve something.
Neither is it the voice of those that
cry for being overcome.
But it's the noise of those that sing.
Do I hear?
And so here is a people who have
defied and pushed away the word of God.
They formed another Christ as it is if
I use it as a type for our
generation.
And they've gathered around this other Christ and
they're dancing and shouting and singing.
And he said, it's noise.
Moses had been in the presence of God
and it wasn't worship.
It was noise.
All the shouting was in vain.
It was for nothing.
God was not hearing them.
You go to First Kings.
Don't bother turning there.
But in First Kings, Chapter 18 is the
famous chapter in the Old Testament where Elijah
had a contest.
With the prophets of Bill, because the people's
hearts were moved away from truth.
And they were gathered around an altar whose
prime focus was self-preservation, personal comfort and
financial provision.
And the Bible tells us that in verse
28 in First Kings 18, they cried loud.
They gathered around this altar.
They cut themselves with knives.
They were extremely sincere about what they were
doing, but they were extremely wrong in their
pursuit.
They were way, way far away from the
heart of God for his people.
And they shouted.
They cried.
You could just hear them.
The scripture says they were leaping on the
threshold of their altars and leaping off.
And every man was getting his opportunity for
glory.
I can see these prophets leaping on their
altar.
I believe that probably the next guy up
was pushing the previous guy off because everyone
wanted to be there with the glory.
They wanted to be known as the man
who brought the glory.
And they're shouting and they're dancing and they're
all about themselves and their theology.
If you look at the theology of Baal,
I don't really have time to go into
it.
It's all about a full cupboard and a
full closet.
And it's all about having more than all
of your neighbors.
It's about preservation, comfort and provision.
That's the theology of Baal.
And they're dancing around this altar and they're
crying aloud.
And there's a tremendous shout going up.
I mean, if you walked unaware onto this
scene, you'd think, man, there's a revival going
on in Israel.
This must be revival.
Look at all these people gathered.
Tens of thousands and all this shouting that's
going on.
And look how sincere they are.
They're even cutting themselves and showing their sincerity
before God.
And they're putting a tremendous amount of human
effort into this altar that they've just built.
But you go on further in the scripture.
In verse 29, it says there was no
voice.
There was no answer.
And nobody even regarded them.
Amazing.
No voice.
No answer.
Nobody regarded them.
A lot of shouting.
A lot of human effort.
And I've seen this over the years.
So much shouting.
So much human effort going on in the
house of the Lord.
So many preachers just wanting to be the
man who brought the glory and worked the
people into a frenzy.
But, folks, there's no change.
There's no voice.
There's no direction.
The people leave the sanctuary.
They don't know what to do.
They don't know where to go.
They don't know how to live.
They don't know how to get there.
There's no power to accomplish anything.
They're out of the Word of God.
They're moving strictly in this realm of human
emotion and human effort.
And there is no victory there.
There's no victory.
And if any of you have come in
today and you've come out of these types
of conventions, you know exactly what I'm talking
about.
The only way you have even a sense
of victory is you have to stay around
this altar of shouting, because that's the only
place where it feels like there's at least
a momentary release and a momentary victory.
But there's no voice.
There's no answer.
There's no hope.
There's no future in it.
There's no strength in it.
It's very quiet in here.
I told you you wouldn't shout.
1 Samuel chapter 17.
Now, this is a time in Israel's history
when there are very, very few people that
are hearing the sound of victory.
They're under the leadership of flesh.
They're under Saul's leadership.
Saul has lost touch with God.
Saul is into methodology.
All he can offer the people now, if
anybody can win the victory against our enemies,
you'll marry my daughter, your house will be
free, and you'll have a new car.
I mean, basically, that's the type of theology
he had.
This is all he could offer, and all
of Israel's soldiers are standing on the hillside.
They're unable to fight.
They're filled with fear.
Everything is gone.
They're not hearing the sound of victory anymore.
And they're shouting, but the reasons that they're
shouting are as varied as those that we
have just discussed.
1 Samuel 17, verse 20.
It said, And David rose up early in
the morning, and left the sheep with the
keeper, and took and went as Jesse had
commanded him.
And he came to the trench, as the
host was going forth to fight, and shouted
for the battle.
And so David is not aware of what
God's going to do in his life.
He shows up.
He's got a donkey.
He's got some cheese on it.
He's simply a young man who's walking in
obedience to God.
He's obeying his father.
His father told him, Take some cheese and
bread to your brothers and find out how
they're doing.
So he's simply a young man who walks
in obedience.
He doesn't even know that God's going to
use him to bring about this marvelous deliverance.
And that's usually the way it is.
Folks, I'm telling you something.
If you just start obeying God, you just
start doing what is right.
You just start saying, Lord, if I see
it here and you say to do it,
that's what I'm going to do.
And you just start walking that way.
As a Christian, you can be the person
who brings deliverance into your house.
You bring deliverance into your family.
You bring deliverance to people in the workplace.
You might be the one who brings deliverance
into drug-infested neighborhoods that you might be
living in and around in your city.
You don't know.
You're not even aware of it.
But you're just a person who's walking in
obedience.
Because God can use you if you're walking
in obedience to Him.
Hallelujah.
And David walks in.
And he's doing as Jesse, it says, had
commanded him.
And he came to the trench and the
host was going forth to the fight and
shouted for the battle.
But it's just a shout of tradition.
Because it's what we're supposed to do.
I can see the army of Israel getting
up every morning.
Hooray!
This is the day!
And they head down into the valley and
they come back and they're wounded and beaten.
And they know that there's not a man
among them that has the courage to fight
against this giant.
That has risen up and challenging the armies
of the living God.
In fact, challenging the honor of God.
So they're a defeated army even while they're
shouting.
They're defeated.
The enemy is against them.
The enemy is swallowing literally the testimony of
God in that generation.
Until David comes.
And when David comes, the men of Israel
again begin to hear a sound.
A sound they haven't heard in years.
They're starting to hear.
They're starting to hear this sound of victory
that only God can give.
It's the sound of a trumpet that only
comes to those who walk in obedience to
God.
They're beginning to hear the sound of this
trumpet.
Folks, you've got to hear this today.
God is not looking for superstars.
He's looking for people who will walk in
obedience to Him.
And obedient people who've opened this book and
say, if it says husbands love your wives
as Christ loves the church, then I am
going to, by the grace of God, love
my wife as Christ loves the church.
Obedient men and women of God.
Not superstars.
Obedient.
And in the world's sight you might look
like no more than somebody with a mule
with a bit of cheese and bread on
it.
But you come into the camp and all
hell knows that you are the man, you
are the woman, you are the young person
that God can use to bring glory to
His name again because you've learned to obey
Him.
You're hearing a sound that nobody else is
hearing around you.
They're all looking at their armor.
They're all looking to their fleshly king who
has no answers.
All their methodology has failed them because something
has risen up and human spirit cannot come
against this.
This is demonic what's standing in front of
them.
And the human spirit cannot triumph over it.
We're living in a generation, folks, where absolute
demonic activity is baptizing our society and filth.
And flesh can't stand against it.
No seven steps of anything are going to
win this battle.
God needs an obedient people again.
David comes into the camp.
In verse 45, David hears this threat against
the honor of God.
And he starts running around.
And he's just a kid with a donkey
and some cheese.
And he says, is there not a cause?
Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should
defy the armies of the living God?
Now, his brothers are offended at him.
And they say, we know the naughtiness of
your heart.
With whom have you left these few sheep
in the wilderness?
Oh, we know why you're here.
You just came to see the battle, didn't
you?
You want to see real men fight.
That's why you're here.
And you're just frothing off at the mouth.
But David says, no, no, I'm hearing something.
Nobody else seems to be hearing it, but
I'm hearing something.
In verse 45, David, after convincing Saul, I
don't know how for the life of me
Saul was ever talked into this.
I'm going to have to look this up
in the archives when I get to heaven.
But somehow Saul was talked into letting a
15 or so year old boy go down
with a sling into a valley to fight
a giant who had been a warrior from
his youth.
And David came to the Philistine in verse
45.
Now, I want you to keep in mind,
follow me in this.
There's been shouting.
Every day there's been shouting.
But there's no victory.
And the men are skeptical of their own
shouts.
They have to be by this point.
Hip, hip, hooray.
Here we go.
And folks, I believe it's gotten this way,
even in much of the body of Christ.
Hip, hip, hooray.
And everybody heads out knowing they're walking into
defeat one more time.
But all of a sudden, a sound comes.
They haven't heard the sound of this triumph
in Christ.
Remember in Psalm 47, he said he rose
up with a shout and the sound of
a trumpet.
And God went up with this sound.
And David came to the Philistine.
And he said, You come to me with
a sword and with a spear and with
a shield.
Now, these are the methodologies of man.
But I come to you in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of
the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied.
You come to me with methodology.
You come to me with what man's hands
have been able to fashion and weapons of
war that have been fashioned by man.
But I come to you with nothing more
than faith in a living God who is
able to take you down and give your
head to me and give the host of
the carcasses of the Philistines to the birds
of the air this day.
I stand against you by faith in the
living God.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
Something gets into your spirit when you are
walking in obedience to God.
As best as you know how, you begin
to hear something that nobody else around you
is hearing.
Verse 46, he said, This day will the
Lord deliver thee into my hand.
I will smite thee and take thy head
from thee.
Remember, the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty through God through the pulling
down of strongholds, casting down imaginations.
This demonic giant imagined that he could stand
against the armies of the living God.
He could stand against the God who created
him and created the universe.
He imagined he could stand.
And David said, No, I'm going to take
your thoughts from you.
In other words, I'm going to take your
head from you this day.
All these words that you roar against the
body of Christ, against the army of God,
I'm going to stand against you and take
it away from you.
And I will give the carcasses of the
host of the Philistines this day to the
fowls of the air and to the wild
beasts of the earth, that all the earth
may know that there is a God in
Israel.
You see, David says, No, I come to
you by faith and I come for the
glory of God.
I don't come for my own honor.
I'm not looking to leap on an altar.
I'm not looking to be the man that
is there when the glory comes.
I come for the honor of God.
I come because God is to be honored.
Every knee must bow.
Every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord.
You see, this is the man, this is
the woman who gets the promises of God.
When you look in the mirror and say,
This is not honoring to God.
This thing in my heart, this thing in
my life, this thing that I'm doing, this
thing that I'm thinking, is not honoring to
God.
I stand against it in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus, be honored in me through this.
Be honored in my life, O God.
Do such a work in me that the
world has to stand up and take notice
that you are in reality risen from the
dead and sitting at the right hand of
all power.
And all this assembly, verse 47, shall know
that the Lord saveth not with the sword
and spear, for the battle is the Lord's,
and he will give you into our hands.
I come to you in weakness, but I'm
going to show you, David said, where true
strength lies.
I'm going to prove to you that the
God of this universe is in absolute control
of every body ever born and everything that
exists all around us.
Hallelujah.
Now, after David defeated this giant and took
his head off with his own sword, verse
52 says, and the men of Israel and
of Judah arose and shouted.
Now, I venture to guess it was a
different shout this time.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
We haven't heard this for years.
We haven't seen this for years.
Look at this kid come into the valley.
Nothing more than faith in God.
No other reason to fight than for the
glory of God, for the honor of God.
He comes in weakness, and God shows himself
strong.
Oh, glory to God.
And they rose up, I believe, as one
man and headed down with that same anointing,
that same power, into the valley.
If you can follow me today, I believe
that half the army was casting off their
man-made armor.
He can do it with a sling.
I can do it with my hands.
I can do it with a stick.
For the glory of God.
I can hear them on the hillside.
For the glory of God.
The scripture says they pursued the Philistines as
they come to the valley, to the gates
of Ekron.
And the wounded of the Philistines fell down
by the way to Shariam, and even unto
Gath, and unto Ekron.
And they pursued them.
They not only shouted after them, but they
pursued them to distant cities.
You've been here long enough, Satan.
You've occupied this place long enough.
Hallelujah.
I don't have to match you sword for
sword.
I don't have to match you blow for
blow, and fist for fist, and jab for
jab.
I've got something much bigger than anything that
you've got.
I've got faith in God.
And He's going to be honored in my
life.
He's going to be honored in my home.
He's going to be honored in this earthen
vessel.
Until the day He takes me home, He's
going to be honored in me.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Lord.
In the day of Ezra, when the people
of God who were captivated by Babylon were
allowed to return, because God's Word said they
could return, they built the foundation again of
the temple of the Lord.
In Ezra 310, it says, they set the
priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the
Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to
praise the Lord after the ordinance of David,
king of Israel.
In other words, they rebuilt the foundation after
they came back from this place of captivity
in Babylon.
And they set things in order according to
the Word, as they had it from God,
that had been left to them through David,
the king of Israel.
And they sung together by chorus in praising
and giving thanks to the Lord, because He's
good and His mercy endures forever towards Israel.
And all the people shouted, the Scripture says,
with a great shout, when they praised the
Lord, for the foundation of the house of
the Lord was laid.
Now, listen to me.
You might have no more.
You might not be a great temple.
And the glory of God might not be
manifested the way you'd like it to be.
But if you are trusting Christ for your
salvation, if you said, God, I want my
life to be built on the foundation of
truth, maybe that's all you have this morning.
Maybe you have very little victory, but you
have a foundation.
And because you have that foundation, you have
a right to shout with a great shout.
You have a right to declare a great
victory.
Because Christ says, not only am I going
to put you on this foundation, but I'm
going to build a glorious temple.
And I'm going to come and dwell in
the midst of that temple.
And I will be glorified in you and
through you.
And all the world will have to stand
up and take notice that I am God,
when I am glorified in you, says the
Lord.
We have a reason to shout.
Zephaniah 3.14 says, Sing, O daughter of
Zion.
Shout, O Israel.
Be glad and rejoice with all the heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem.
For the Lord has taken away your judgments,
and He has cast out your enemy.
This is the reason why you can shout,
even if you only have a foundation in
Christ.
Because God, through Christ, has taken away your
judgment.
You are no longer under judgment.
You are no longer under the penalty, the
power of sin.
You're not going to hell.
You're going to heaven.
Hallelujah.
Not only that, He has cast out your
enemy.
The enemy can't accuse you any longer.
He has no grounds.
He has no legal access to your life.
You are the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus.
Oh, you can shout.
You can glorify Him.
You can sing to Him.
You can clap your hands.
Psalm 5.11 and 12 says, Let all
those that put their trust in Thee rejoice,
and let them never shout for joy.
Why?
Because you defend them, the psalmist says.
Because you will bless the righteous.
Because you will camp around them with favor
as with a shield.
God Almighty will defend you.
God Almighty will cast down your enemies.
He will bless you with His life and
His presence.
And He will compass you about with favor.
You'll be changing from day to day, little
by little, line by line, step by step,
image by image, glory by glory.
You'll be changing into the image of Christ,
the Son of God.
His life will become your life.
You'll become intertwined, and you'll be given a
new nature, a new heart, and a new
mind.
Glory to God.
You'll be shouting for joy.
It won't matter if the preacher's got a
good message or a lousy one.
It won't matter if the choir's on tune
or off tune.
It doesn't matter.
You'll be shouting for joy because you know
that God is defending you.
You know that you are the righteousness of
God in Christ.
And you know that God's favor is all
around you.
You've seen it.
You have a testimony.
You have now a history with God.
Hallelujah.
When they came back out of captivity, the
people got discouraged.
And it can happen.
You come back and you have all the
knowledge of everything I've shared with you today
from the Scriptures, but you get discouraged because
it is a battle.
It is hard.
And they got discouraged, and they stopped working.
They laid the foundation and just sort of
left it there and moved away from it.
And for quite some time, there was no
work going on.
And there are some of you here today,
even this morning, you've laid a good foundation,
but you've not gone on in this because
it's been such a fight and there's been
such opposition.
And you've joined the ranks of those who
say, well, we'll just kind of sit here
on the hillside and talk about heaven, sing
about heaven.
In the sweet by and by, we'll understand
it all.
But God sent His Word again.
You see, that's why we've got to get
into the Word.
God sent His Word, and He told them,
no, I've commissioned you to do this, and
I'm going to be the enabler.
I'm going to give you the power to
do it.
And He used in Zechariah all types of
pictures that help us to understand.
He showed them a lampstand with oil that
had a never-ending supply flowing into that
which was called to give light.
And it was a type of the fact
that we have the life of Christ in
us now.
We have this never-ending supply of everything
that you'll ever need to be all that
God has called you to be.
And there was this man, one of the
men who was commissioned to rebuild the temple.
And I guess in his mind, he saw
the mountains.
He saw the violent opposition, and there were
so many voices that were roaring against him.
And he wondered, are we ever going to
be able to finish this thing?
And the Lord sent him through Zechariah the
prophet a word.
And here was the word, who art thou,
O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.
And he shall bring forth the headstone, thereof
with shoutings, crying grace, grace unto it.
Who are you, God says, O great mountain?
Who are you, O Goliath?
Who are you, O besetting sin?
Who are you, O Jericho, established city of
the enemy, in the place that I have
promised to give to those who are my
children?
Who are you before this man, this woman
of God?
That's the word for you today.
God says, this mountain is going to become
a plain.
A plain is as flat as the top
of this pulpit.
God says, I'm going to bring it down,
I'm going to make your passage through quite
easy.
I'm going to take it all away.
And at the end, you're going to finish,
and there's going to be a time in
your life when you're going to put the
last stone in place.
Of everything that I've intended to do through
you is going to be done.
And there's a day coming, and I'm speaking
to you right now.
There's a day coming in your life when
the last stone is going to be put
in place.
The last thing, because I'm talking about now
at the end of your life.
You might be in the last hour of
your life.
It might be the last half hour of
your life.
And the last stone, the last thing that
you have trusted God for is finally put
in place.
And out of your inward part is going
to come a shout.
And he says, Zerubbabel will bring forth the
headstone with shoutings, crying, grace, grace, unto it.
And that's going to be the shout of
your life, and that's going to be the
final shout of my life.
Grace, God's unmerited favor.
God's goodness to me.
God's blessing came on my life.
God did everything God said he would do.
Oh yes, I may have accomplished some things.
I may have done some things.
I may have glorified him.
But let me tell you something.
And you'll be able to say it on
your deathbed.
You'll be able to say it even if
you're dying of cancer in your last days.
Grace, grace brought me to where I am.
Grace made me what I am today.
God's grace, incredible grace, amazing grace, saved me
and changed me and took the mountains out
of the way and made me into a
man or woman of God.
Grace, grace, grace will be the final shout
of your life.
Hallelujah.
There's a day coming at the end when
you're going to clap your hands and shout
to God with the voice of triumph.
On the last day of your life, you'll
shout to God with the voice of triumph.
Grace, thank you, almighty God, for the goodness
of your life that you have brought and
intertwined with mine.
In the last verse, in verse 6, before
verse 7, before he says, He says, this
is the word of the Lord under the
Zerubbabel, saying, You're going to make it through.
You're going to be what I've called you
to be, but it will not be by
human effort.
It will not be by human wisdom.
It will not be by any amount of
yourself trying to muster up your old self.
It will not be any amount of vain
shouting.
It's going to be by my spirit.
And you're going to know when to shout.
The Holy Spirit's telling me to tell you.
I'm going to tell you when to shout.
You're going to know when to shout.
You're going to know when you've got the
victory.
You're going to know when the promise that
I've given to you has become a living
reality within your heart.
Not by might nor by power, but by
my spirit, said the Lord of hosts.
Now, Father, you're going to draw this church.
You're going to draw this body into a
dimension of your life.
God, that will make us the church that
you destined and desired your church to be.
Lord, you're going to help us in the
coming days.
You're going to give us strength to stand
against our enemies and to see them defeated.
And the life of our Christ being made
manifest within us.
And I pray today, Father, for those who
in some area of their life have only
a foundation.
And they have moved away because they've become
discouraged.
And they've lost their shout.
They've lost the sound of the trumpet.
They don't know.
They've lost hope and heart in this area
of their life and home.
Not understanding that the victory in this has
already been won.
And I pray, God, that if there's a
measure of disobedience involved that has closed their
ears to the word.
I pray, God, that today that you give
the courage to turn away from this.
And to begin to walk in obedience to
truth as it has been revealed to them
through the Holy Scriptures.
I pray, Father, that you open every heart
in this house today.
Of those who are built on a foundation
and have turned away because of discouragement.
To hear one more time the sound of
the trumpet.
One more time this incredible victory of Jesus
Christ that is given to all who place
their trust in him.
And, Father, I thank you for it.
God, with all my heart, in Jesus' mighty
name.
Now, folks, we're going to stand here in
the education annex.
And the Holy Spirit is drawing you a
specific altar call on my heart today.
You just have a foundation in a certain
area of your life and you've moved away
and given up in discouragement.
You've not heard the sound of victory in
a long, long time.
In this one area.
It could be a bad temper.
It could be depression.
Whatever it is.
It may be just a terrible self-image.
You just cannot see yourself as Christ sees
you.
Or as God sees you in Christ.
And the enemy has used this to hammer
away at you.
And God's saying today, no, just come to
me.
Obey me.
I'm also giving a call for those who
know that you've got disobedience in your life.
And you've got to get something right.
Because you want to hear this sound of
victory one more time.
And have this shout of victory in your
heart.
Would you come?
Let's all stand in the balcony.
Go to either exit in the main sanctuary.
Just slip out of where you are.
Please just join me here.
And we're going to pray together.
Hallelujah.
Say these words with me.
Who are you?
O great mountain.
Before my God.
You will become.
A plane.
At the end of my life.
A shout.
Of glory.
Will be in my heart.
And I will shout out.
Grace.
God's grace.
To every opposition.
Every stronghold of the enemy.
I make a declaration to you.
Satan.
You're coming down.
All of your strongholds.
Are all coming down.
All of your giants.
Are all coming down.
All of your lives.
Are all coming down.
All of your walls.
Are all coming down.
Because victory.
Is mine.
In Jesus Christ.
My Savior.
And my Lord.
This is the conclusion of the message.