Opening:

A father of three won a shouting contest with a roar louder than a passing train. "If you want a war, you go!" Yoshihiko Kato shouted. The sound meter registered 115.8 decibels, louder than the racket of a train passing overhead on an elevated railroad. For that winning shout, Kato won the $750 grand prize of the 10th annual Halls Year-End Loud Voice Contest. Eager to know how he won reporters ran to Kato to ask him how he did it. Kato admitted that he probably built up his loud voice shouting at his children.

Examples of shouting in my life:

Mom shouting at me and then answering the phone

Shouting at my kids

Shouting at drivers

Shouting at referees

Types of shouts:

Angry

Happy

Scared

Desperate

SHOUT Sermon Series:

Shout of Healing

Shout of Promises

Shout of Joy

Shout of War (this week)

I hope you came ready to shout today. Because today, we are going to life up

Shout of War

Text:

2 Chronicles 13:13-18

2 Chronicles 13:13–18 NIV

13 Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to the rear, so that while he was in front of Judah the ambush was behind them. 14 Judah turned and saw that they were being attacked at both front and rear. Then they cried out to the Lord. The priests blew their trumpets 15 and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. At the sound of their battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16 The Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. 17 Abijah and his troops inflicted heavy losses on them, so that there were five hundred thousand casualties among Israel’s able men. 18 The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

Body:

Give context of what lead to this point.

It is very difficult to fight a battle where you are way outnumbered, let alone being outnumbered and having to fight on two fronts. Jeroboam thought he had this battle in hand. But as we see here, that isn’t the case. Things did not go the way he thought they would. Rather than panicking and running for fear, when Judah realized what was happening, they lifted up a Shout of War and went on to victory.

There are times in life when we might feel overwhelmed, outnumbered, and like life is ambushing us. And there are some things we need to learn from Judah that we can apply to our lives when we find ourselves in the midst of war.

War time requires action

When we are in war, we must…

1. Shout out our prayer

2 Chronicles 13:13-14a

*This cry was a desperate plea for help, “God, we need you!”

*Sometimes life will ambush us and crying out to God needs to be our first response. Don’t panic, don’t try to figure it out, don’t worry about it, etc, take it to God.

We don’t have to carry out battles. His Word tells us to give it all to Him. So, stop trying to do God’s job!

1 Peter 5:7

1 Peter 5:7 NCV

7 Give all your worries to him, because he cares about you.

* The best place to look is not in, but up! Don’t try to figure out what to do, take it to Him and let the Holy Spirit lead you.

There is no battle we will face that is greater than God.

*One of the best ways to win a war is to disrupt communications. Well, there is no battle great enough to cut off our communication with God!

God doesn’t just hear our prayers, He responds to them!

2. Shout out our faith

2 Chronicles 13:14b

*The trumpet sound was a reminder of God’s presence. This is the sound they would hear as the arc of the covenant was brought in somewhere. They would blow the trumpet to announce that God’s presence was entering. At this point, as the battle was beginning, the trumpets where blown to remind the army that the presence of God was with them.

Sometimes we must remind ourselves that God, the undefeated champion, is with us!

2 Chronicles 13:1-12

2 Chronicles 13:1–12 NIV

1 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah, 2 and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother’s name was Maakah, a daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3 Abijah went into battle with an army of four hundred thousand able fighting men, and Jeroboam drew up a battle line against him with eight hundred thousand able troops. 4 Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me! 5 Don’t you know that the Lord, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? 6 Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, an official of Solomon son of David, rebelled against his master. 7 Some worthless scoundrels gathered around him and opposed Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young and indecisive and not strong enough to resist them. 8 “And now you plan to resist the kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hands of David’s descendants. You are indeed a vast army and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. 9 But didn’t you drive out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and make priests of your own as the peoples of other lands do? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods. 10 “As for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him. The priests who serve the Lord are sons of Aaron, and the Levites assist them. 11 Every morning and evening they present burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the Lord. They set out the bread on the ceremonially clean table and light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening. We are observing the requirements of the Lord our God. But you have forsaken him. 12 God is with us; he is our leader. His priests with their trumpets will sound the battle cry against you. People of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed.”

2 Chronicles 13:12 – God is with us; he is our leader! So, when we face a battle, we don’t face it alone! We face our battles with our leader!

And sometimes it’s nice not being the leader.

Give examples of what it means to say, “Sometimes it’s nice not being the leader.”

We may not know how to fight the battles we’re in but praise God we’ve got someone on our side who doesn’t know how to lose our battles!

The battle might be bigger than us but it’s not bigger than God so, we can trust Him with it!

God is our leader and He knows how best to fight our battles.

3. Shout out our victory

2 Chronicles 13:15-18

*This cry was a cry of triumph! “The day is our own, for God is with us!”

*The battle wasn’t over yet, physically, but they were claiming the victory.

When we shout out our prayer and shout out our faith then we can have the confidence to shout out our victory!

We may not have to fight our battles, but we do have to face them. And when we face out battles, what we have to do is rely on God.

2 Chronicles 13:18 – The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the LORD, the God of their ancestors.

*We don’t have to figure things out. We must rely on God.

1 John 5:4 NIV

4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

1 John 5:4 (CEV)

Every child of God can defeat the world, and our faith is what gives us this victory. (CEV)

Trust Him, rely on Him, and shout out your victory!

Closing:

Friends, you may be in the middle of a war right now.

1. Shout out your prayer

2. Shout out your faith

3. Shout out your victory

But before we close today, I want us to look at one more thing. Sometimes we might not be willing to lift up “The Shout of War” because we think we aren’t in a war.

Ephesians 6:12

Ephesians 6:12 NIV

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

We are at war daily! Which means we must daily lift up the Shout of War daily!

Shout out our prayer!

Lord, help me be a person of character & integrity!

Lord, help me do the right thing even when it’s hard!

Lord, help me be truthful, honest, and upfront!

Lord, help me to be pure of thought and action!

Shout out our faith!

Lord, I am not alone for You are with me!

Lord, I am Yours and You will fight for me!

Lord, I can cast all my cares on You! Your peace will guard me!

Shout out our victory!

Lord, in you I am victorious! In fact, in You I am more than a conqueror!

Maybe today you’re one that feels surrounded, outnumbered, and like life is ambushing you right now. Lift up “The Shout of War!”

Or maybe you’re realizing that you haven’t lifted up “The Shout of War,” because you haven’t realized, or you’ve forgotten, that you are in a war. Lift up “The Shout of War!”

Whether you are in a physical battle, mental battle, financial battle, emotional battle, or spiritual battle, today I want us all to lift up “The Shout of War!”