Sound
Pt. 5 – Sound Warfare
If you have been here the last 3 weeks then you are surely becoming convinced that there is power in sound. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that is probably true. However, as powerful as sight is sound rivals its impact. You simply change the sound and the feeling, impact, results change!
I stated that our problem is that our world has learned to harness the power of sound more effectively than the children of God. So I have been trying my best to teach you some principles and truths about sound.
Week 1: Sound precedes victory. Your situation will line up with your sound. Silence is for a season. You can't accept silence as a substitute for sound.
Week 2: Sound must not be tied to your sight. Otherwise on your good day you will have sound but in the midnight hour you will be silent and defeated. Your sound must seep. Your sound isn't really for you. It as we hear from each other that we find strength!
Week 3: Sound draws people. If no one is being drawn to us they won't be drawn to God. I challenged you and asked, "Is the sound of your life drawing anyone?" Then I challenged you that the sound components that caused the greatest revival man has ever seen are the same components we need today. The sound of praise marked by the sound of Pentecost! It is Spirit breathed, empowered praise that will draw people to us and ultimately to God!
Week 4: You will face Sound Barriers. There will be people around Jesus that will try to stop or stifle your praise. You can not allow those that don't understand your pain dictate your praise! So you must have a persistent sound! A sound that will push past every obstacle until you stop Jesus with your sound.
So today let's keep going and wrap this thing up by talking about Sound Warfare!
There are at least 3 (perhaps more) instances in which sound became a crucial aspect of warfare in Scripture. In 1 Samuel 7, the prophet Samuel calls the people of Israel to cry out to God and in response God thunders over the Philistines and disrupts and disturbs them so badly that the Israelites destroy them in battle. In 2 Samuel 5, David is instructed to wait until he hears the sound of marching in the tops of the Mulberry Trees before he attacks the Philistines. However, it is the 3rd account that I want to focus in on this morning. The reason I want to focus on this account is because in account 1 and 2 we learn that God has a sound. We have no problem understanding, believing, and accepting that God's sound has power. I mean He is like . . . God! He should have powerful sound. But it is in the 3rd account that we discover some important things about our sound!
Text: Judges 7:16-22
Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside. “Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’” Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled. When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.
a. You need to model sound.
Gideon modeled the sound. His instructions to some untrained soldiers was, "Do what I do. When you hear me shout you shout. He even told them what to shout!" You can model for others, by the use of your sound, how to win victory. In other words, if you will release your sound you can teach people around you how to win.
There are some folks around you right now, friends, family members, young folks that have no idea how to fight spiritual battles. You can teach them how to do sound warfare. I am concerned for some of you because you are training those around you with your sound!
You are teaching your kids a sound. Is it a positive, powerful sound or is your sound negative and defeated? Model sound warfare for your kids . . . refuse to bad mouth, belittle, speak to things as though they were rather than as they are! Don't demean your spouse and your boss and then expect them to respect their dad, their teachers, and their future spouse . I encourage you to take them back to the lesson of Jehoshaphat and teach them that worship goes out ahead of battle! Want to change your kids, your spouse, your job? Model the right sound!
b. Your sound is important.
Notice it was as each man made their sound that victory was won. It wasn't only one man that made a sound. It wasn't just the worship team that made a sound. It wasn't just the loud folks that made a sound. No it was as each man made their sound!
What if one man had held back his sound? What if one man refused to participate? What if one man had disobeyed? What if Marty over there didn't like trumpet music? What if Ron over there didn't like the shout that Gideon prescribed? I like these words better? What if Sam over there didn't feel like praising on that day? What if Peter decided he was a quiet guy and this sound thing was just too weird for him?
Could it possibly be defeat would have been the result? Victory was a result of the entire body of 300 making their sound. Gideon obeyed and then his men obeyed and released their sound and victory is won! You have a sound that is important to this body! We must all get into agreement in our sound! I am asking you as the leader to recognize the importance of your sound. We need your sound! We don't need a strange sound, we don't even need an original sound, we don't need a different sound. Just get in agreement with the sound you hear and participate in the sound you hear and let's see if God can't use our sound to destroy some armies that are plotting against us!
c. Your sound confuses the enemy!
Notice in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel that God produces a sound. However, in this account the enemy is destroyed and confused by the sound of Gideon and his men!
God can use our sound in warfare as well! I think this is important because as I have stated many of us are waiting on God to touch or make a sound while we sit in silence and fail to realize that He is waiting on us and our sound! It is interesting to me that many of get into trouble and want God to rescue us and yet we won't cooperate or participate in the rescue that our actions have created the need for in the first place!
Some of you have no problem ascribing power to God's sound! However, you continue to underestimate your sound. You fail to realize the importance and necessity of your sound in the equation of victory. I realize God can win without you, but He adds your sound to His sound! You are part of the equation! If He just used His sound the enemy would only be afraid of Him. But since He has decided that our sound is important too and since He has mixed our sound with His sound now the armies of the enemy become scared of us too . . . it is Gideon and Gideon’s sword!
You have got to understand when we make our sound we confuse our enemy! When the enemy comes against you with sickness, financial difficulties, brokenness, and pain and you are still praising after the attack that confuses not only the folks around you but also the enemy!
I sent my worst addiction against them why are they still shouting?
I sent them my worst fear why are they still sounding off?
I sent my worst temptation, disappointment, distraction, destruction and they are still praising? What is wrong with them. Job confused the devil with his "though he slay me yet will I trust him" sound. Our sound confuses our enemy!
The devil tries to confuse us and some of you allow the enemy to keep it together because you are so quiet! When you shout in the face of attack your attacker becomes the attackee! Sic him! Attack him with your sound. Take just a moment and in spite of the impossibility you face, in spite of the pain you feel right now, in spite of the week long attack you have been walking in would you just open up your mouth and make a sound that confuses the enemy. Come on . . . make the devil look at his demons and say, "Hey why are they still shouting? I thought we beat that out of them? They are crazy. What are we going to do now? The harder we attack the more they sound off? I don't understand!"
My praise may confuse you because you don't understand how I can keep praising with what I have been thought . . . but hear me clearly I am not trying to confuse you cause if you hang around me long enough I will explain to you how I can keep praising . . . I want my sound to seep! No, I am not trying to confuse you I am confusing my enemy!
d. Some of you are fighting hand to hand what should be fought at a distance!
Gideon didn't have the man power necessary to take on the enemy. He had to rely on God's ability to use their sound! If they had squared off against this enormous army hand to hand Gideon and his men would have been massacred. Instead, as soon as the men blow their trumpets and shout God steps in and causes the armies of Midian to destroy themselves! From a safe distance their sound affects the enemy! Their sound carries!
You need to learn that your sound carries too!
Listen to some research that Danny found in a book about sound. "Hearing is our primary warning sense. It is hardwired into our primal brain, traveling direct to the instinctive limbic region and not to the rational, interpretive cortex where visual signals are decoded. That is why it is far easier to upset someone through their ears than through their eyes: sound goes very deep, very fast."
Listen God could have sent a vision to scare the armies that were fighting against Gideon. Instead He sends a sound! The enemy needs to hear you coming before he sees you coming! God is trying to teach us to war through sound!
God can precede you in battle some of you are bracing for a fight that God can win without you. If you stand face to face with the enemy, if you stand and argue with the obstacle, if you get into close quarters with your adversary he can strike you, he can reach you, and can hurt you. However, if you will sound off God can bring victory while you are still at safe distance! Why use your hands in battle when we can stand back and let God reach through our sound that we can't reach in person!
When you are willing to make your sound God gets involved and you can surround and stun your enemy!
Let your sound carry you to victory! Some of you are in the trenches slugging it out when you are supposed to be at a distance sounding it out! You are hands deep in the battle and should only be sound deep!
