This sermon emphasizes the importance of winning secret battles in our personal lives to ultimately bring glory to God. Drawing from the story of David and Goliath, the speaker highlights the need to overcome hidden struggles, fears, and unbelief by standing on the promises of God. The message calls for a spiritual awakening in the church, urging believers to fight in prayer, acts of kindness, and faith in God's power. It challenges individuals to take back the victories that belong to them and not let the enemy steal their testimonies.

Good morning, Times Square Church. God bless you this morning. Preaching a little early this morning, Elder Jerry Hampton and myself are leaving for India at 11.30 this morning. So I'll be finishing this message and we have to head out. Initially I had canceled the India trip because of Hurricane Sandy, but there are 4,000 pastors coming to the conference and there's nobody, I'm the only one that got a visa to go there. So by virtue of elimination I'm going to be there preaching on Wednesday and Thursday. We leave today, we'll be back Friday. So please pray for us. God give us a journey of mercy and we'll be there at the height of the festival of something or other in Varanasi in Northern India. So appreciate your prayers for protection and for God's encouragement to those pastors, many of whom are suffering persecution at this time. Thank God for all of the workers in the body of Christ. That's all I can say. So many have responded to the needs of their fellow Christians and their fellow human beings in New York City. And we've got people here today from Canada, we've got people from Alabama, we've got people from all over the place that have come in and responded to the need. I'm deeply grateful. I have a staff here at the church that I think Thursday is the first day that some went home since the day before the storm. It is so gladdened my heart as a pastor to see the level of dedication and it's volunteer dedication that's been in this church among our staff and in the congregation. On average I think about 700 people would come in most days somewhere in that vicinity and then go out in teams to various locations throughout the city. And that's not including the hundreds that just went immediately because of Feed New York and its organization, went immediately to locations and began to work there. I know I had a day of traveling through Staten Island and I had met Times Square church people everywhere I went, virtually every location, whether you were coming out of houses, sorting clothes in the streets, helping. What a gladness it brings to the heart. And to see God's people helping of all denominations, all churches, everywhere I went through Staten Island, the people of God were there setting up camps, distributing clothes. Thank God. I have a message this morning which I believe will strengthen your heart, especially for those that are given to serving the Lord in this capacity. It's from 1 Samuel chapter 17. 1 Samuel chapter 17, it's called Delivering the Lamb from the Mouth of the Enemy. Delivering the Lamb from the Mouth of the Enemy. Now Father, I thank you Lord with all my heart for the strength of the Holy Spirit. I thank you God because you've always made me more than I am. I thank you Lord for overshadowing this frail vessel and letting your mind become mine and your thoughts my thoughts and your strength my strength. You're the only one who can make your word live. Lord, we can talk about it but we can't make it live, only you can. So I ask you by the power of your Holy Spirit to cause this word to burn in our hearts today. And for those that are listening in Roxbury and online, cause it to burn in us. Help us to understand why we were born at this time. What is our role in this society that we're living in? How can we glorify God? Give us grace and strength to understand this. Give me the strength to speak it. I ask this in Jesus' name. 1 Samuel chapter 17, verse 34 to 37. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep. And there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them. Seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. Delivering the lamb from the mouth of the enemy. Now God had ordained a people in the earth at that season that time called Israel. Their spiritual father was Abraham and God gave a promise to Abraham. He said I'm going to bless you. I'm going to multiply you and through you all the peoples of the earth are going to be blessed. Now you and I know that ultimate blessing was fulfilled when Jesus Christ was born. One of the seed in a sense that came through Abraham when Christ was born and then subsequently the church of Jesus Christ was born through Christ's death, his atonement and his resurrection. And this was the testimony of God in the earth at this time. The devil has always been against this testimony. He was after it in Eden and he's been after it ever since. The serpent has always thrown out a flood against the seed of the woman to try to destroy this testimony of God. Satan hates the testimony of God. He hates God. He hates everything about God. And he walks through the earth as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. This has not changed. You and I must understand something today above all things. The weapons of our warfare to fight are not carnal, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We have weaponry as a church age that I fear we've not used in a long time. I think it's time to go back to the prayer closet and find where our strength is again. The testimony of God was in crisis as it has been in nations throughout history, and I believe is in our nation at this time. There was a people seemingly more and mightier than they were who stood up against them. The Philistines, this encroachment of evil as it is, always trying to obliterate the testimony of God in the earth, stood on the opposite side of a valley more and in the natural mightier than the children of Israel were. Their spokesmen stood impressively adorned his name was Goliath, and he was a type of the best the world has to offer. He defied the testimony of God on the earth, and he said to the children of God, put forth the best that you have in a winner take all battle. In 1 Samuel 17 verses 8 to 11, it says he stood and cried to the armies of Israel and said to them, why are you come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine and your servants to Saul? Choose a man for you and let him come down to me. And if he be able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you should be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day, give me a man that we may fight together. And when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. We're living in a time in history that somewhat mirrors this. We've come to a point as a nation where at least 50% of the population have cast off restraint and believe that everything that this text of scripture holds sacred can be cast away without consequence. They believe that children can be murdered in the womb simply for convenience sake. And somehow there's no price to be paid for this. They believe that they can redefine marriage, the very institution of God established in the beginning in Genesis to bring about health, strength, stability and prosperity in the earth. The father, the mother and the children ordained by God. And we're living in a time now when about I would say safely half of the population perhaps has no problem with the redefinition of marriage in this nation today. We're living at a time of unparalleled arrogance against the word of God, the ways of God and the things of God. We're living at a time of moral landslide, an abyss of immorality and we're teetering as a nation on the very edge of it. And I'm afraid that if there's not a spiritual awakening now in this country that we won't recognize it 10 years from now. It would be a sad thing to walk into our streets and what we're going to see and the abnormality that will have become normal and the castigating of everything that is godly and everyone that is godly. Saul and most of his followers had long ago abandoned faith for wealth, position and status. Now Saul is, I'm looking at Saul as a type of the church, the spiritual leadership because not only was he a king but he was also in charge in measure at least anyway of the spiritual of ensuring the proper spiritual leadership of the nation. But he'd abandoned it because when this voice stood up against the ways of God, the only thing that Saul could offer the people is what his value system had become. And it's chapter 17 verse 25 it says the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man that has come up? Surely to divide Israel is he come up and it shall be that the man who kills him, the king will enrich him. Now here's the only reward he could, this is all that Saul could offer the people who were following him. The king will enrich him with great riches, wealth, will give him his daughter position and make his father's house free in Israel, status. That was the theological focus of Saul. And that theological focus of wealth, position and status in society always brings about a powerlessness, it always has and it always will. It will always leave the church trembling, it will always leave God's people in a sense of being overwhelmed, undermanned on the losing end of the battle. A sense of hopelessness, a sense of the inability to win this battle. And they all stood on one side of this valley overwhelmed, trembling, powerless as godlessness threatened the very testimony God had given to them on this earth. And as they stood awaiting the battle, I'm sure every man must have thought, is there anybody among us who's able to stand against this kind of a threat? And if so, what kind of a person will it be? And when will he or she arise? And how will we know it when he or she or they stand among us? Now 1 Samuel 17, 15 tells us that God had a prepared vessel who was diligently fighting to preserve what had been entrusted into his hand. In verse 15 it says, But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. Now this is really significant, follow me if you will at this moment. He was not in the battle, he was in an obscure place and something was put into his hand to do. It's so important for you and I to be diligent in what God has given to us. And to do it with all our might and with all our heart. In chapter 17 where we began in verse 34 and 35 it says, And David said to Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep. There came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. You see what had happened, he was in Bethlehem and he was looking after his father's sheep when a lion came. And the lion and the bear sought specifically a lamb. And they took the lamb, the Bethlehem lamb, out of the mouth. They took it out of the flock and David rose up and took it back. And this speaks to me of a person who has had hidden victories unspoken of until the day that he stood ready to fight the giant. And it's a type of those here who have fought and won. When the devourer came and tried to kill that which the father has given to you, he entrusted to you the victory of his son Jesus, the lamb of God who was born in Bethlehem. And that's the first battle that you and I will have to fight. It's the hidden battle. It's that battle when God says to you, you turned to me, you surrendered your life to me and I gave to you the victory of the lamb. The lamb from Bethlehem. And I'm sending you there now in a secret place and there are battles you're going to have to fight in secret that nobody else is going to know about. And the enemy is going to come like a roaring lion and he's going to try to take that lamb from you. He's going to come and he's going to take the victory I've given you. He's going to take the promise of a new life. He's going to take the promise of a new mind. He's going to take the promise of your life being used one day in the strength of God and for the glory of God. And he's going to take that lamb in his mouth and he's going to say to you, this promise is not for you. This promise is for someone else. I'm stronger than you are. I have the power to come in and take this from you. And every new Christian has to fight this. Everyone who's young in the Lord has to fight this. The devil will come against you with everything he's got to take the lamb of Bethlehem and put it in his mouth. Take your victory and take it into his mouth and say, this is a lie. It's a fraud. It's not going to happen. Look how easy I can take it away from you. But in that secret place, you've got to rise up in that secret place where nobody else sees you. You're all alone in your living room. You're all alone in your bedroom. You're all alone on the subway. You're all alone in your neighborhood. And when the devil comes, it says, your life is not going to amount to anything. The promises of God are not true for you. Your family is not going to walk with God. You are not going to have victory. You're not going to have a new mind. You're not going to have a new future. You're not going to have a new life. And when the devil comes and takes that lamb from Bethlehem in his mouth, you've got to rise up and fight. You get up and fight in secret because you're not going to be a warrior in public one day if you've not won the secret battles. It's just not going to happen, folks. You have to win those battles in secret. That's what gave David courage. That's why David came into the camp and walked among the people there and said, why is nobody doing anything about this? Why is nobody fighting for the testimony of God? Does nobody here realize how powerful God is? I was in secret, he said to Saul, and a lion came in to take the lamb that was entrusted to my care. And a bear came in to take the lamb that was entrusted to my care. And I rose up and I took the lamb out of its mouth. That's what he said. You've got to take those promises back out of the devil's mouth over your life. He is a liar. He is the father of lies. He can't do anything but speak a lie. When he speaks, all he can do is lie. He can't do anything else but lie. And he'll come and try to take that victory from you, that small victory, that little victory. A lamb is only a little thing. But a big, big victory comes through it. And David rose up. And he said, when the lion, then the lion rose against him, after he took the lamb out of its mouth, the lion rose against him. And he said, I went, I faced it and took it by the beard. Now, you have to be supernaturally empowered to do this. There is no other way. One swipe of a lion's paw and any young person would be as good as dead. But he rose up and he was not afraid of it. It probably stood two, three feet above him on its hind feet and took it by, literally by the mane. And he said, and I killed it. I slew it. And he said, don't let any man's heart be afraid. I'll go fight this giant. The God that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear will deliver me out of the hand or the paw of Goliath. David knew because he fought those simple battles. And you and I sitting here today, there are many that say, well, what's the big deal about this little thing in my life? The enemy's trying to make me believe I'll never have victory over or take away from me. Oh, what's the big deal about this little compromise that I have in my heart? This little thing that I do when I think nobody else is looking. What's the big deal about this lack of faith that's in my heart or this lack of reading the text of scripture and understanding it and believing it or the lack of ever believing I'm going to amount to anything. What's the big deal? Oh, it is a big deal. It's a huge deal because your life really won't be brought to the fore until you have won these secret battles. And these are battles that nobody else will know about unless you choose to tell them, but God knows. And it's a test of your faith in God. It's a test of your confidence in the word of God and the keeping sustaining power of God. You got to take the lamb back out of the mouth of the destroyer. Everybody here hear me? Because the future depends on it now. We don't have 10 years to get this right. The future depends on it. You've got to win now in secret. When you go home tonight, you've got to win that battle. You've got to throw that thing out. You've got to get rid of something. You've got to get away from something. You've got to move towards something. You have to stop running from your fear. You've got to face your enemy. You see, David never would have had the courage to go into that valley and face Goliath had he not faced the lion first. Had he not faced the devil literally in his own personal battle. And when you and I choose to make that decision and face that initial fight, something comes into your heart. Something of faith comes in. It's a God I know I won this in your strength. I never could have done it on my own. And you start to believe that all things are now possible to him that believes. The scripture comes to life. You start to understand when he said, have faith in God. Verily I say to you, whoever shall say to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea. He really meant what he said. He really did mean that all power and authority is given to you. He really did mean it when he said, I'll give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you. He really did mean what he said. And secondly, in first Samuel chapter 17, again verses 17 and 18, he won his secret battles. There will be no great victory without the secret battles won first. In verses 17 and 18 tells us this was a person, David, who cared about others. And he had the ability to hear and obey his father's wish to bring provision to his brothers and even to their leadership and to convey to them the comforting words of the father. And so David went, it says, and Jesse said to David, verse 17, take now for thy brethren, an ephod, parched corn and these 10 loaves and run to the camp of thy brethren and carry these 10 cheeses to the captain of the thousand. And look how they brethren fare and take their pledge. Not only did he win secret victories, but he could hear the instruction of his father. And it was just, it was so simple. We try to make it so complicated. Sometimes feed the hungry, encourage those who are leading the church, go to your brethren, bring them corn, bring them bread, bring them cheese and tell them their father cares about them. It's not complicated. We want to make it complicated with all of our study, but it's actually quite easy. Do this, win the secret battle. That's the type of a person, win your secret battle, your secret struggle, your secret fears, your secret unbelief that God will win that secret battle. Fight it and fight hard, fight in the prayer closet, fight when you study the word of God. You've got to get some gravel in your gut church of Jesus Christ at this time. There's no time. This, this, this self-seeking Christianity of wealth status and power is doomed in our generation. It's finished. It's day is gone. It's done. It's standing on a hillside, trembling now as voices are rising and redefining the very essence of what this country has been about and defying everything that is right and holy from the word of God. Win the secret battle and then just simply get up and do what God says. I'm going to preach from Isaiah 58 till the day I die. Until it deeply gets into the hearts, until everybody here memorizes it. You're going to get so tired of me reading this chapter of scripture that you're going to learn it yourself and be able to quote it without opening the Bible. Is this not the fast that I've chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoke. Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry? Bring the poor that are cast out to your house. When you see the naked, cover him and don't hide from your own flesh. That means from humankind. Then shall your light break forth as the morning. Think of David now coming into the camp. Think of him. All he's got is corn and bread and cheese and secret victory. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. That's all it takes. That's the only kind of a person that God needs. How many times do we have to see it in scripture? How many times does somebody have to come into the camp with nothing more than a staff in their hand to understand the way that God works? To see how God is glorified. Not the strong but the weak. Not the wise but the foolish in the eyes of men. Not those that are noble, not those that are royal, not those of mighty birth, but the nobodies, the nothings of society that have laid hold of God. They've fought the secret battle. They're hearing the voice of God and they're moving in the divine. Only to find that the whole power, it's not a young man with just a stick in his hand coming into the camp of Israel. If you have eyes to see it, hundreds of thousands of thousands of angels are coming in behind him. Then your light will spring forth as the morning. Your health will spring forth speedily. Your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rearward. The glory of the Lord will come behind you. The glory of the Lord. It means the weightiness of God, the majesty of God, the power of God, the magnificence of God will come in behind you as you make the choice to go in somewhere to make a difference. Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You'll cry and he'll say, here I am. If you take away the yoke, the putting forth of the finger and empty talk and draw out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in obscurity and your darkness will be as the noon day and the Lord will guide you continually. Satisfy your soul in drought, make fat your bones and you'll be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters don't ever fail and they who are of you or those who you lead to Christ will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations and you will be called the repairer of the breach and the restorer of paths to dwell in. Secret battles are won and David just got up when his father spoke and said, take provision to your brothers. Take provision to those who lead them. Ask them how they're doing and let them know that the father cares. It's not complicated. I thank God for the hundreds who are making their way into the far Rockaways and to Staten Island and other areas of the city doing exactly this. I hope you won the secret battles and if not, do both of these things. Win your secret battle. I won my secret battle many, many years ago. You know my story. Nine years of panic attacks, nine years twice in the hospital, once with the nurse dropping the blood pressure machine on the floor running out thinking I would literally die or have a stroke on the table. Just in my early, a man in my early 20s and after nine years of hell, I read the Bible and I saw after I came to Christ, one verse of scripture, only a part of a verse actually. Paul said, if God before us, who can be against us? And I felt another panic attack coming upon me one evening and I left my bedroom. I was alone. This is the secret battle. I went down into the living room and you better believe the lion was there and the bear was there trying to take the lamb. This little lamb I had, this new salvation, this little promise of God into his mouth and saying it's, it's not going to work. The whole thing is a fraud. You're never going to be free. Your life is never going to amount to anything. I, my roots are too deep in you. You're never going to get out. You're never going to be free and I remember standing in my living room and saying, Satan, you can only kill me. Now this is all alone. Nobody's there. I know exactly what David was facing. I said, you can only kill me if God allows you to. And if he does, I'm going to heaven and if he doesn't, I'm going to live for him. So I went either way and I remember saying, so you throw at me everything you've got, but I throw back at you what I now have in the name of Jesus Christ, the son of God, I resist you. And like David, I stood up in that living room and I took the line by the, by the main and in the strength of God. And you know, my story, many of you, I could, I could, I live it as if it happened yesterday. It's like a white hot fire hit me in the feet and just went right through my entire body and at the top of my head. And I was free. I was free. Nine years of hell was over. And that's almost 30 years ago, more than 30 years ago. Now I preached all over the world in some of the worst places and going into Varanasi today, leaving for Varanasi today, where I'm told they still do human sacrifice during some of these festivals, going into a place where the church is persecuted. There is no fear in my heart. And I thank God because I've fought in the secret place. You understand you have to fight in the secret place. You got to read this word. And if all you have is a quarter of a verse, stand on it. You only need one stone to bring down the giant. You don't need a gravel truck full of stone. Now, when David walked into the camp in chapter 17, verse 23, he had to have known that the roar he was hearing was familiar. He'd heard it before. And as he talked, it says in verse 23, with them there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines and spoke according to the same words and David heard them. It's amazing. See, he'd fought in the secret place. He was given for the needs of others and suddenly heard something and he'd heard it before. Hey, this sounds familiar to me. Something, somebody, the best the world has to offer and they found a champion has risen up. The crowd is much larger. The circumstances are more ominous, but the roar was familiar. And something rose up in David as it must in you and I today. David couldn't have known it, but this time the lion was again after the lamb. But it wasn't the lamb in his father's flock in Bethlehem. It was now the lamb that was soon to come through the very people with which he was standing. There was another lamb coming. Another lamb was going to be born in Bethlehem. That lamb was going to come through the tribe of Judah, through the people among whom he was standing. That lamb was in his loins. He was in the lineage of this lamb. He could have no way of knowing it, but something must have stirred so deep inside his heart. He said, one more time, I hear the lion trying to take the lamb in his mouth. I hear a voice in our generation trying to take the lamb in their mouths, trying to say that God's kingdom has no power. Christ's victory is inconsequential. There are no consequences to what we're doing. There is nobody of any insignificance who's able to stand against us. That's exactly what Goliath was saying. But David stood in this camp, insignificant to those who walked in the power of their own reasoning and their own strength, but very significant to the kingdom of God. And David stood there and all hell might have begun to tremble at that moment. Every demonic power that was behind the scenes, because one more time, God had somebody through whom he could work. God had somebody, God had not only a vessel, but a people because the Lord knew. And I believe the devil knows it because he's seen it so many times throughout history. It only takes one to break through that gate of faith and many people will begin to follow after. He was fighting for the lamb. And David said, why is no one doing something about this? Where's your courage? Is not the living God among you? And David spake to the men, verse 26, that stood by him saying, what shall be done? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? David's saying, well, what's, have any of you ever been in the presence of God? Have you ever known the power of God? Have you ever walked in the supernatural? I can see him just going from man to man. Now he's only a youth. These are warriors. They're accusing him of pride. They're accusing him of just wanting to see the battle, but something stirred in him. Does nobody see what's happening here? Does nobody see that this, this giant, this voice that is raised lives outside of the true power of God? Does anybody understand that God is able to give us this victory? An overwhelming victory, a stunning victory, a marvelous victory, a powerful victory, a spiritual awakening. Does anybody see this? Finally, David says, I'll go and fight. If nobody else will, I will. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. Though Saul was very far from God at this time, he must have remembered the days when God's spirit had come upon him. The scripture tells us in the beginning, he, he knew initially the sovereign leading of God. He knew that God fulfilled his word and the Holy Spirit had come upon him and he had begun to prophesy and was turned into another man. There could be no other reason why he would embrace this plan of sending a youth out to fight with a giant. And finally David headed out into the battle and he said, I can't go with the weaponry of those whose spiritual focus has simply been wealth, position, and status. It's powerless. It may have seemingly won a battle or two along the way, but it's powerless now. It can't take you where we need to go. And all of the churches in America, I say this to you lovingly, but if that is your theological focus, you're going to stand on a hill trembling. If you're not already, you'll have no power in the coming days to fight. But David, it says he took his staff, verse 40, in his hand and chose five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in the shepherd's bag, even in the script. And his sling was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and drew near to David. And the man that bear the shield went before him in the natural and insane matchup. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him for he was only a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to chase me with a stick or with staves? And the Philistine cursed David. That was the spirit of the age by his gods, the God of self and success and power, natural might. And the Philistine said to David, come to me and I'll give your flesh to the fowls of the air and the beast of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a shield. In other words, you've come with the best that the world can give. You've come with your own reasoning. You've come with your own armor. You've come with your own power. You've come with your own status. You come with your own boasting. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. In other words, you've not defied religion. You have defied God. You have stood up against God in arrogance, not thinking there's any price to be paid for this. And you have boasted against the power of God. You boasted against the ability of God to answer those of his people who pray. You boasted against the ability of God to take the weak and the foolish and the nobodies and the nothings in society and make a change so significant that one more time, the name of Jesus Christ is glorified in the earth. You boasted against these things. This day, David said, the Lord will deliver you into my hand. And the defeat, he said in verse 40, is going to be complete. There's going to be another scattering. There's going to be an absolute triumph. And all this assembly, verse 47, will know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, nothing of man. For the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. It came to pass when the Philistine arose and came into near to meet David, that David hasted and ran towards the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took a stone and slung it and smote the Philistine in his forehead. You remember casting down imaginations, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him. And there was no sword in the hand of David. Verse 52, and the men of Israel and Judah rose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until you come to the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way even to Gath and to Ekron. It's an amazing thing because remember Isaiah said, and they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places. There are many here that are going to have to go through first and some may pay a price. But the very future of the world as we know it around us is at stake now. We don't have 10 more years to get this right. I'm not even sure that we'll be able to fight as freely as we do today in the future. This is a moment where God is looking for a man, for a woman, for a people. That one more time will stand up and have it in their heart to see the name of Jesus Christ glorified in the earth. In order to be that kind of a man or woman we have to win in secret first. You can't live in a secret defeat and ever win a public battle. You have to win in secret. Secret sin, secret fear, secret practice, secret struggle. You have to win in secret. You have to know the word of God and stand on the word of God and win these battles and win them all. Don't let the lion take the lamb into his mouth that belongs to you. The victory belongs to you. You have to hear the voice of the father and hear the heart of the father and move towards helping others. That's why in this church it was so important that we moved towards feeding people in New York through the various inner city churches, up to 100 inner city churches, that the Holy Spirit moved upon us to help. It was not only for their strength, it was also for our own in this time of crisis that we're facing in the city. We have to help even those who have fallen short of what they should be. David's brothers in reality were cowards and Saul the king was a coward. He had all the outward appearance of godliness in the sense of being a son or one of the sons of god's kingdom, but he was a coward. The scripture says he trembled and all the men have followed him trembled. They knew they were up against something they couldn't defeat, but you and I need to hear the voice and the heart and move to human need in every way that we can. We set aside 1.5 million dollars for Feed New York and a secondary million dollars for Hurricane Sandy. God gave us wisdom as a church to in the good years like Joseph did to put aside handfuls into an account for these days and now he's calling us to open those storehouses and let this store be released for human need. If you are willing to do these things now your life will be one that God can use to deliver the lamb from the mouth of the enemy. It's so important you have to get some fight inside. Remember David came in he won that secret battle he came into the camp and says why is nobody doing anything about this? Is not the glory of God at stake here? Are we not the people of God? Who is this man who lives outside the kingdom of God who's making these boasts against the kingdom of God? And there has to be something come into your heart and into mine. We win this battle in prayer. We win this battle with kindness. We win this battle spiritually not physically spiritually. We win it by becoming the people of God. We win it when David threw that stone to me it's a type of the word of God. It's a type of a word that can only come from God and it finds its mark in the conscience of fallen men. It goes deep says the stone sunk in his forehead and when you and I are standing under the anointing speaking the word of God for the purpose of the glory of God there's something of that anointing that that word can penetrate even the helmet that was on his head even the thickness of his skull and it penetrates and goes into the consciousness. We need a spiritual awakening in America folks today. There's no plan B. There's no other way this is going to happen. We need a spiritual awakening. God's people have to get back into the prayer closet. They have to get back into the prayer meeting. They have to turn off the football games and everything else and get back to the house of God. God's people have to have the courage to stand up and pray and be unashamed of the testimony of Christ. Somebody, somebody somewhere has got to stand up for the glory of God and for the souls of men. Somebody has to fight for those who are losing their own salvation and in their own ignorance heading into hell. Somebody has to love them enough to fight for them. Somebody and don't write yourself off. If you're writing yourself off this morning, you're letting the enemy take the lamb of God that is yours and put it in his mouth. Do not write yourself off. You are an integral part of this battle. Everybody who's here is part of this army and part of this battle. Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God. You can do so much more through prayer, so much more through winning your secret battle, so much more through acts of kindness, so much more through becoming all that God calls you to be and not cowering. David, when he ran into that valley, he was putting his life on the line for the glory of God, for the testimony of Christ, for the lamb of God to be born into Bethlehem. He had something in his heart that had been planted there of the Holy Spirit and you and I have to have that in our lives today, each and every one of us. We have to stand up as a church and stand up as a church age and win the battle that's before us. I have to leave now but I'm going to give you an altar call and Pastor William is going to bring it to close in prayer. I want to give an altar call for everybody here today that's in a secret battle and you're just going to say, by God's grace, I'm going to win this. Whether it's a secret fear, a secret self-loathing, a secret sense of unworthiness, whatever it is, unbelief. You quote the scripture and you sing the songs but deep inside there's an unbelief that's trying to take your lamb into its mouth but something rises in your heart today and says, not now, not this time. The devil is not getting my testimony. Yes, he's bigger than me and yes, he's stronger than me but he is not stronger than the Holy Spirit who's in me. And by God's grace, I'm going to win this battle. Folks, you and I can't wait for another superstar. Those days are over. It's not going to be some great prophet rise up and somehow miraculously turn the nation. It's going to be the church. It's going to be the whole church. It's going to be the church of every denomination. Salvation army, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Catholic, charismatic. It's going to be the whole church. Pentecostal. It doesn't matter to me if you believe it or not because I know that's what it's going to be. The whole church is going to have to rise up. The whole church is going to have to start prayer meetings. The whole church is going to have to go back to the house of God. The whole church is going to have to abandon pursuits that have left her weak and powerless. The whole church is going to have to get out of places where preachers are simply preaching light gospels that don't bring anybody into the life of Christ. The whole church is going to have to get back to the standard of God's scripture again and living for Christ and living for the souls of men and the testimony of God. It's going to be a battle for the whole church in our generation. And so I challenge you with everything that I know inside of me to stand up for the sake of God. Stand up beloved church of Jesus Christ and get some fight inside of you. Don't let the devil take your lamb. Don't let him take your victory. It's only a small thing and you'd say well who knows. Folks if David had not won in secret all he would have been able to do is bring cheese and corn and bread and that would have been the end of the story. He would have turned around and gone home afraid like everybody else but he won in secret. Hallelujah to the lamb of God. Hallelujah. Father God almighty give us courage. Give us strength as a church age. Help us not to turn back or to cower from this moment we find ourselves in. I'm so thankful Lord that government can't turn us today. I'm thankful it's all come back to your church again. Thank you Lord Jesus Christ. You'll do whatever has to be done to get a hold of your people. God I thank you Lord for prayer meetings breaking out all over New York City. I thank you Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you for what you're going to do through people's lives who are gathered even here this morning. Glory to God. Satan we stand against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We make a declaration to you that our victory is not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of almighty God. We stand against you by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony and we love not our lives unto the death. We stand against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father I pray God one more time one more time send an awakening to this nation one more time oh God do something so profound in New York City that even the most arrogant even Lord the most vicious against the testimony of Christ would have to bow their heads and acknowledge that only God could have done this. Father I ask you to do this in Jesus name. Everybody who's fighting a secret battle I want you to stand now as we all stand and make your way to the front of the sanctuary. We're going to worship for 15 minutes together and you start to pray start to pray when you come down don't wait for somebody to lead you you start to pray and say devil you're not taking my victory I only had it's only a little victory but it's mine and you're not putting it in your mouth I'm keeping my victory make your way annex as well stand between the screens please in the balcony go to either exit make your way down and we're going to pray pastor William's going to lead you and we're going to believe God hallelujah to the lamb of God hallelujah to the lamb of God thank you Jesus oh Jesus we thank you this morning for your wonderful presence thank you for speaking a word to us oh Jesus that has in it hope and encouragement a reminder of who we are in you reminder of the great victories that are ours through you Lord how you're able to work a victory in our personal lives that have their fruition in those things that are apparently greater than the things that we're used to Lord there was an awe in the eyes of the Israelites when they saw the giant of gath but David was not in awe of him because he had seen the glory of God in his personal life this was a man who was in awe of God and who fought for that awe fought for that name fought for that glory a man who had a sense of purpose a sense of focus spirit of Jesus I pray that you touch everyone in this room and particularly those who've come to this altar each one who says it there was a reason that I'm here as David said there was a purpose and and there's a reason that I ought to take victory in my personal circumstances it's not just so that my life can be a little bit better but there was a purpose behind every victory that I take even the glory of God David knew that his victory brought glory to the name of the Lord Jesus we choose to take those personal victories those victories in private those victories in secret because we know that those things that happen in secret reverberate throughout the heavenlies and even the angels of God can say that's what the cross was all about that's why Jesus died and all of the demons of hell can tremble and say that there is a victory going on there that must ultimately find greater impact and influence out there and that which is faithful in the little things will be faithful in the great things spirit of Jesus we come against every lie of the devil and we say along with David how dare he take the lamb in his mouth how dare he take the name of the lamb in his mouth how dare he take the work of the lamb in his mouth how dare he take the sacrifice of the lamb in his mouth how dare he mention the name of the lamb in his mouth how dare he try to caricature the lamb with his lies no we believe the report of the Lord hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah we believe the word of the Lord and our Father in Jesus name we ask you to simply by the Holy Spirit seal the words that we heard today seal them in our heart so that we can walk in victory we can walk in a victory that reverberates not only in the heavenlies but in the earth so that men and women will know without a shadow of a doubt that there is such a one as God and that he chooses to glorify his name in the earth we thank you for this oh Jesus we love you for it we praise you for it in Jesus name amen amen amen amen amen God bless you so very very much