In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the need for obedience to God in order to win spiritual battles. He uses the story of David and Goliath as an example of someone who had faith and obedience to God. Despite being mocked by his brothers, David boldly confronts Goliath, recognizing that the Philistine is defying the living God. The preacher encourages the audience to be obedient to God and to trust in His power to overcome the demonic forces that are prevalent in society.

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website. However, written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timessquarechurch.org. Other recordings are available by calling 1-800-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New York, 10019. 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. 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! 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.