Victory Has a Big Mouth

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon's captions — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

The text: don't brag till you get through whipping me

The cut opens on the host's welcome — "Brother Phillips, they know you. God bless you. Come on, preach the Word of God to us" — and Phillips takes it with a shout: "Somebody's shouting to God with a voice of triumph. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. I'll be honest with you: I kind of feel like a pyromaniac with a gallon of gas in one hand and a lighter in the other, and I'm walking around a little lumberyard. You've been saying that? Yeah, I've been saying it, but it could happen for you tonight. The First Kings chapter 20 and verse 1. When I was a kid, preachers used to say, 'I ain't gonna hold you long,' and that usually meant we was gonna be there a long time. But I'm gonna try my best to not hold you long... I mean to give honor — I realize he's not here, but I'd be a fool to stand in this pulpit and not give honor to the ministry of this great church: this young bishop, young Bishop Wilson, and all of the family, this great ministry team over here. God gave the Rock Church the best. Well, that's kind of weak. I said God gave the Rock Church the best. Y'all better hope Brother Young ain't watching tonight. Lord, you might have got me for this morning, but he might get y'all now. Hallelujah. First Kings chapter 20, verse 1: 'And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his hosts together. And there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria and warred against it.' I could just stop right there and preach more. That's good stuff. You just think about this now — this ain't where I'm going with you, just think about this: he took thirty and two kings, and horses and chariots, just to go after the people of God. That tells me right there that the devil's a lot more afraid of you than you are of him. Well, like I said, I ain't preaching that, but it feels like preaching right there. You try to put all kind of stuff in front of you — horses and chariots and thirty and two kings — to come out to one little old church. That makes me ask the question: who's afraid of who here? Greater is He that is within me than he that is within the world. Bible says that he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city, and said unto him: 'Thus saith Ben-hadad: Thy silver and thy gold is mine. Thy wives also, and my children — thy children — even the goodliest, are mine.' And the king of Israel answered and said, 'My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have.' And the messengers came again and said, 'Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying: Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver and thy gold and thy wives and thy children' — now, they did something wrong with this to me. I mean, take my money, but my wife and my kid? He said, 'I'm gonna give it all to you. My wives and my children,' and he said, 'I'm gonna deliver the silver and the gold. I'm giving it all to you.' He said, 'Yet I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time, and they shall search thine house and the houses of thy servants. And it shall be that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand and take it away.' Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, 'Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief. For he sent unto me for my wives and for my children and for my silver and for my gold, and I denied him not.' And all the elders and all the people said unto him, 'Hearken not unto him, nor consent.' Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Ben-hadad: 'Tell my lord the king: All that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first, I will do. But this thing I may not do.' And the messengers departed and brought him word again. And Ben-hadad sent unto him and said, 'The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me.' And verse 11, where I want to take my text tonight: 'The king of Israel answered and said: Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.' And just country-boy language: he looked at him and said, 'Don't brag till you get through whipping me.' God will help us tonight. I want to preach for the next few moments: Victory Has a Big Mouth. Victory has a big mouth. Would you help me right now by lifting your hands and your voice, and asking God to move in here? God, we love You. We praise You. We give You glory. There's nobody like You in heaven or on earth. God, You're the everlasting. You're the One who was, who is, and is to come, the Almighty. I must see the Lord right now. Jesus, have Your way. Jesus. Jesus, have Your way. Jesus, do what You want to do in this house. Miracle, signs, and wonders — lift up for this house. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Somebody one more time clap your hands and give God a shout. I promise I won't preach — I'm gonna do my best tonight. But I'm gonna be honest with you, I ain't got much left in the gas tank. I'm gonna need your help. You gonna help me tonight, right? All right, we're gonna find out. You may be seated."

Scriptures: 1 Kings 20:1-11

The loudmouth, and why you can't coexist with the devil

"There might be some in here tonight that could say — that you maybe even lift your hand, I don't want to do that — but that you despised loudmouths. Let's just be honest: nobody likes it when somebody's just always in your face, running their mouth. There ain't a whole lot of Bible theology in this, but it's just human theology right here: I can't stand the loudmouth, in one sense of the word. There's another side of me, though, that kind of admires them. Now, I've been around here for rec creation, and I'm about to get in trouble. It's funny to me — and this is just, I just, sitting around watching you — even catch me out there playing — the guy that's usually a little out of shape. Look, y'all stop looking around. I ain't talking to anybody individually. Hallelujah. That's — you know, it was good back in his day, but that was a couple years ago. He done put on — he done grew in Christ, you know what I'm saying? Lord started adding to his territory, all this good stuff. But it blows my mind how that guy is usually the guy talking the biggest game. And what also blows my mind is, when you really watch and pay attention, most of the time they get in somebody's head, and the next thing you know, that young athletic whippersnapper that had it all together is huffing and puffing, and just cannot figure out how in the world this guy is beating me. It don't make any sense. I'm not talking about tonight the loudmouth that always has something to say but never tries to stand around and show up, to show up. But I'm talking about people that are prime specimens of mental warfare. They use it to their ability. Though physically they're out of shape, their strategy of just being a loudmouth brings them victory time and time and time again. We go to the Scripture tonight. If you spend very much time in First Kings, or follow the saga between Israel and Ben-hadad — to narrate the story, one in common English might just say, 'And yet again, Ben-hadad attacked Israel.' In reality, he has it out for Israel, and everyone that is connected to Israel, because he just hates God's people. And at this point in history, there's been an ongoing battle between Ahab and Ben-hadad. When Ben-hadad gathered his host — realizing that there was God's people — and so he brought thirty and two kings, and horses and chariots, and came out against the children of Israel. He warred against them. Sent messengers telling Ahab, 'Your gold and your silver, your wives and your children — everything you have belongs to me.' Again — now, that just irks me the wrong way. You might get some of my stuff, but you gonna know I've been there, and you're gonna be glad I left. You mean to tell me you gonna let somebody just walk in and take your wife? And you kill — the name Ben-hadad, by definition, means 'the son of Hadad.' Her dad was a man who died. And as he died, they raised him up to become a Semitic god. Hadad was the son of Ishmael — the son that they had, had trying to get around God in his life. People's known as the king of Edom, which in typology is always the type and the shadow of the flesh. And so, in literal terms, he was born out of disobedience, and an evil king and other people who are the epitome of carnality. And when he died, those carnal people, they deemed him a Semitic god. And it was said that when Ben-hadad would come out against the people that he was fighting, that he would pick them up in a whirlwind and cast them back down to the ground. And that's how he defeated his enemy. Simply put, he was a tornado. Every besiegement that Ben-hadad had ever had was to the glory of his father, Hadad. Every time that he had surrounded — it is said, and you can go throughout biblical history and find where he was the one that besieged so many cities — the reason that he surrounded these cities, as he told — and it's written in history, and it was just his way of warfare — is that when he was surrounding the city, it was like his father, the whirlwind. He was surrounding his enemy, and it was a type and battle of worship to his father. And now this man, who is the son of a so-called whirlwind, who is aspiring to become a demigod himself, has attacked Israel. And they have outnumbered them. They have tried to intimidate them. They're surrounded. And Ahab said, 'Okay. I'm outnumbered. I've done all I can do. I'm sending the servants. You do whatever you want to do.' And then Ben-hadad made the mistake of just wanting a little bit too much. 'I've given, and you weren't happy. I tried to let you just — I tried to coexist with you, but you wouldn't allow it. You just kept—' That's just kind of how the devil works. You can't coexist with the devil. I'm just gonna tell you this right now: no matter how many times you come to church, if you let the devil come to church and sit on your shoulder, it won't be long, you'll be sitting on the back pew. Then you'll be sitting in the foyer. And the next thing we know, we don't see you anymore. Because you cannot coexist with the devil, and let him live in your life, and still live in victory. It don't work that way. And so Ahab gets this revelation, and he finally sends a servant to Ben-hadad and says, 'You tell him: Let not him that boast the way when he puts on his garment, the way as one that takes it off.' Simply because: 'I understand I am outnumbered. I understand I might be the minority. But in all of this, I've had enough. And if I die, I'm fighting. Because I made up in my mind, I'm not gonna let the devil walk all over me.' I know this is simple tonight. When I come to preach to somebody on a Sunday night, in your brain, and trying to convince you: baby, you need to shake that spirit. I feel in my spirit, I just got a new breath. I just got a new anointing. I just got something on the inside that started to bubble up, will not quit. You see, here's the thing, and this is the whole point right here. This is what I want to pull out: Ahab had already surrendered. I'm gonna let that sink in for you for a minute. He'd already told him, 'Do whatever you want to do.' But something happened somewhere after he had already said, 'Just do whatever.' Something began to ball up on the inside of him, that's a — 'I just can't quit.' Or something in me that just won't let me quit. Let me tell you something: if God gave you the Holy Ghost, He gave you the ability to make it through whatever it is that you're fighting right now. And what you need to do is stop listening to the voice of the adversary telling you how you're gonna fail. And some might have already given up. I might have already thrown in the towel. I might have already said — I'm preaching to somebody right now. I know what I'm feeling. The holier — you came to church tonight thinking, 'If I don't get a word tonight, it's hit. It's over. I'm done. I can't live like this anymore.' God sent me to tell you, all the way from Mississippi: it's not the way. Breakthrough is all the way. Holy — that devil lied to you."

Always causeth us to triumph

"I don't care what the devil said. As a matter of fact, I'll go a step further: I don't care what your peers have said. I don't care what your family that's not in church said. I don't care what the doctor, the lawyer, the bank — I don't care what any of them said. I know what God said. And God said this — 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14. We know it so well: 'Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph.' He always causeth — you know that word simply means 'cause.' He makes me. Can I tell you something? You couldn't lose if you wanted to. When God gave you the Holy Ghost, He put the spirit of a victor inside of you. Not even — in Europe — well, 'Preacher, you don't know what I did. You don't know how far backwards. You don't know how many mistakes I made up.' I'm here to tell you right now: 'Now thanks be unto God, which always' — us to triumph. You gon' make it up. You hopefully — all right, everything's gonna work out in your favor. Paul, our — made — gotta shake your paper a little bit. Tell a foe: 'Don't quit now.' I wish you just take a look back over your life and see how God brought you through. You done come too far to quit now. I'm telling you right now, I'm preaching against a backsliding spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, that's coming against the young people of this church, that's been telling you, because of the mistakes you made, you might as well quit. That's a lie from the pit of hell. God made you a victor. I know the devil told you, because your mama was an alcoholic, you're gonna be an alcoholic. But the devil's still a liar. No — he said, because your daddy was a drunkard, you gon' be a drug head. But the devil's still — you pay close attention, and you'll find — and I don't have time to give you a whole Bible study, but do you trust me? Well, some of us — rest, y'all scared to death — you can find very easily through Scripture that the natural and the spiritual, they walk hand in hand. There's a great resemblance between the two. You know how I know victory's got a big mouth? You go look at nature. When a male lion defeats his foe, he roars. I got so much Holy Ghost on me right now, felt like I could switch a bear. You go — when a dog defeats his fellow, he barks. So that — 'What, preacher? I'm just running for my life.' Well, let me just tell you this: I'm a hunter, that's all, man. I'm telling you, y'all — look, anything camouflage, you — I've been sitting in the woods before, and watching bobcats and stuff get after a squirrel. And when that squirrel finally outruns that bobcat, he'll get up on that tree where he can't reach him, and I'm talking about give him the barking of his life. You ain't never heard such a ragged sound, like the whole woods is coming apart, tearing down trees. So, 'I've been running for my life.' Yeah, but when you get safe, you didn't bark at the devil a little bit? You know that — you know what you're doing when you come to church? You've been running. You barking at him: 'I made it. You said I wasn't coming back to church, but here I am. I'm still here.' The Bible says we're overcome by the word of our testimony. Sometimes you just gotta let the devil know with your play: 'I've made it, and there ain't nothing you can do about it.' Now, you're ready for this? This is deep. So I started to study about this, and I found out that when a rabbit outruns his foe — me and my little boy was sitting down one day. I'm telling you, God will speak to you if you listen. He was sitting in my lap. I've been gone. He said, 'Daddy, let's play games.' I said, 'Okay.' So we sit down, he grabs his iPad, and he said, 'We're gonna play a Peter Rabbit game.' I don't have the movie. Y'all stop — some of y'all do. How you doing? He said, 'We gonna play.' Okay. So in the game, he's running from the fox. I got y'all attention now, don't I? And when he outruns the fox, he starts just a jumping and doing flips. And the Holy Ghost spoke to me — Brother Brian — when they said, 'Go check out what that is.' I started looking it up, and this is literally what it's called: when a rabbit outruns his enemy, he does what's called a binky. And it literally just looks something like this. You know what the devil — you need to do when the devil gets on your trail? Do the binky, baby. It looks crazy..." He goes to the Bible for the same motion: "My lawyer delivered — this is just — I know there's always that one in every church: 'I wish you'd explain that with your smart-aleck voice. Stay in the Bible.' Okay, I will. Exodus chapter 15. Can we put that up there? Exodus 15 and 20. You want me to stay in the Bible? I'll stay in the Bible. 'And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand. And all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing.' Now, you go and you study this, you'll find that this Hebrew word here for 'dance' literally means to jump and spin. Now say something. And every year at the Passover, three to six million Jews, history says, would grab a timbrel in one hand — 'What you doing?' 'This is my victory dance.' 'Why are you jumping?' 'Like the horse and his rider—' You can be — stay awake, doctor — brought — you know how you can sit back — I don't know if you can tell it, but I'm having a whole lot of fun right now. Know why? Because every time you dance, it just reminds the devil of what should have happened and could have happened."

Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 2:14

Victory swallowed death

"Let me just tell you something. I know there's people here — you've been in the way 15 years, you still can't figure me out. You ain't ever gonna figure me out. And the moment you do, I'm gonna change, just so you don't — let me just tell you something. I know you don't understand why we shout. But if you'd had my problem, you wouldn't understand that either. You see, I've been in situations in my life when I didn't understand what I was going through. But because God's good, and His mercy endureth forever, something in me just wells up. I gotta give Him glory. I've gotta give Him praise. Magnify the name of the Lord in — charter — if you've been through what I've been through, you'd be praising too. My story: I got two of the best kids in the whole world. But they're kids — meaning, in Cajun French, I lived in Louisiana for a number of years, and they call it 'canaille.' And me and — some — stevia — my little boy has a PhD in canaille. That baby's got — he got it figured out. And you know, it doesn't matter who's right or who's wrong, but he's got to get the last word in. I would say he gets it from his mama, but I'm afraid God'd give me — then he's just got to be the last one to say something. And the Bible says, lest you become as a little child. You know what? Sometimes you take the devil too serious. You need to be petty with him, like he is with you. And when he comes out against you, just need to laugh: 'Victory delivered. Last, highly favored. Still here.' All the time, I invite trouble. And I will openly admit it. Yes, with open arms. Sometimes I get up in the morning, and I just tell the devil — and I say my prayers to the Lord, and then I'll start talking to the devil. I'm telling the devil, 'I just want you to know, I'ma walk on your head today. I'm gonna live in victory.' Victory — let me just say this: if my shout gets on your nerves, you're probably playing on the wrong team. Because victory has a big mouth. 'How do you know, preacher?' Give me First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 54. Did you know the Bible says that victory has a big mouth? Don't say it just like it says it. 'So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.' Victory's mouth is so big, it swallowed death. I don't think you heard me. I said, it's so big, it swallowed death. And if it can swallow death, then victory can swallow your marital problems. Victory can swallow your financial problems. We can swallow — you can't — victory up. And you begin to lift your voice up, let's shout. It begins to put back up the forces of the— The thing about victory is, it's a lot like joy. Sometimes you don't shout because you got victory. Sometimes you shout because you need victory." He is trying to quit and can't: "I'm trying to quit. I told y'all I wasn't gonna hold you long, but that lion spirit got on me. There's an old southern gospel song that says, 'I just throw up my hands and start praising the Lord. I start standing on His infallible Word. When God sees my hands raised, He just comes down and inhabits my praise.' And I like the last line. It says, 'I got a dynamite praise Satan just can't stand, when I throw up my hands.' Look at that. As a — pudding didn't know it. You ready for this? You can still praise your way out. 'You need a miracle.' You can still praise your way out. 'You preach that all the time.' Yeah, and you're still in that same spot she was in last time I preached it. You can still praise your way out. 'But I've got new problems.' Yeah, but He's the same God. And He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. You can still praise your way out. He inhabits the praises of His — Israel. If you want God to come down in the midst of your problem, you need a miracle. I dare you right now to praise. You need a — tree up — I dare you to give a shout of victory. Clap your hands, O ye people, and shout unto God with the voice of triumph. You know what triumph is? It's victory. Victory's got a mouth. That means victory's got a voice. 'I'm still struggling.' Somebody shout — shall — because you know He's — devil working out — the sound becomes — you believe He's already working a home — shall become — pseudo — He's the same yesterday, today — man, the — that's a — know that — He's gonna work it. It's what the Holy Ghost just told me. You can call me charismatic if you want to. I really don't give a rip. But the more you shout, the abundance of victory that you need — that's how much you gonna get. You stay home if you want to, do what you want to. But I'm here to tell somebody tonight, going into 2020: the more you shout, the more victory you gonna have. The more you dance, the more victory you all have. The more you run the aisles, the more victory you gonna have. I'm telling you, you ought to be like David tonight, huh? And look at the devil — let's say, 'You thought I was crazy in 2019? Then, baby, wait till 2020.' Because I'm going into this new year with a made-up mind. I'm gonna have more victory. A more deliberate — 'How much victory you want? How much deliverance do you want? How much breakthrough do you want?' The more you do it, the more you get. The more you shout, the more you — victory. You — I'm telling you right now, I know it's crowded, I know you don't have a lot of room, but I wish somebody, just in the double space, would just start leaping a little bit and turning around in circles. 'The horse and his rider, the —' Captain doesn't see — it doubled — 'This is my binky.' Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, it's wild. But when you wake up in the morning with victory, you won't be thanking God you got rid of your pride and just started a shout, and started dancing it up, and started giving God praise. Oh—" The cut ends there, mid-altar-fire.

Scriptures: Exodus 15:20; 1 Corinthians 15:54