“I Will Shout!” | Sunday AM | Pastor David K. Caruthers

Original Broadcast of Sunday Morning 11 AM Worship, 04/26/2026 

Speaker: Pastor David K. Caruthers

Message Title: "I Will Shout!" 

We invite you to join us in person 

Sundays at 10am & 11AM 

Wednesdays at 7:30 PM

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Psalm 47, verse number one says, Oh, clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with a voice of triumph. Now, I would like for us to read that together. I'd like for you not to miss the O part at the beginning. Don't say just clap your hands. Let's say it the right way. Let's read it together. Oh, clap your hands, all ye people. Shout to God with a voice of triumph. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for every person here. Thank you that we can lift our hearts and voices to you today. We praise you. We thank you. We love you. We exalt your holy name today. You are great and greatly to be praised. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. I want to preach to you. I will shout. You know, shout really just means to speak loudly. It doesn't. Sometimes when we're Pentecostals, we say shout, we mean shout and dance both, you know. We just don't like to call it dancing. And if you do like I do, you certainly don't want to call it dancing at all. So uh but we often sort of associate shouting. We use other terms, yelling, screaming. I don't really like those terms as well, because they have sort of implications that's built in there. But uh we usually associate that with anger or frustration or some kind of aggression towards others. That's often how it's viewed or said. And on the other hand, sometimes it just means to raise your voice to show urgency, maybe an emergency situation, or your child is about to dash out into the street. You know, no one's gonna say, you screamed at your child as you stopped them from dashing in front of a car. So that's a little different. No, it's a lot different. It's in fact on the other end of the spectrum of that. Uh but it can also be uh a raised voice of joy or even to motivate others. So there's positive things, and I want to kind of focus on those positive for a little bit this morning. Psychologically, um, this positive sort of shouting of joy, of motivation, of affirmation, it does some things to us. It it first of all it releases endorphins. You've heard of that sort of thing. It's the chemicals that produce feelings of happiness and reduce sensations of pain. And so those are good things that help us. But it does something else. It releases another chemical hormone. I won't try to pronounce it because I would probably say it wrong. But that hormone is sometimes called the bonding hormone because it produces a feeling of connection, it produces a feeling of trust among individuals. There's something about that doing it together, that shouting together in a joyful way that tends to enhance our mood of happiness and excitement, and the shouter and those around them both benefit from that because it creates a positive atmosphere, a positive uh joining together, and it creates this sense of community and connection one with another. And uh I needed to give that kind of example today just to give you some foundation. But I think probably all of us can uh can imagine, remember, we can uh know what it's like, maybe you've experienced that too, what it's like to participate in some kind of sport, some kind of ball game. So you you kind of have an idea of what I'm talking about. You have a sense of what I'm talking about. So when you go and you participate in this event, maybe it's for you it's baseball, maybe it's for you it's football, maybe for you it's little league, maybe for you it's T-ball. You know, it doesn't have to be a big stadium somewhere. And you get together and it's an exciting moment, and it's terrible. I mean, it makes everybody feel bad if somebody's screaming, scolding a child, right? We don't want to uh, you know, those multi-million dollar baseball players maybe we don't feel so bad about, but don't do it to our children, you know. But everybody comes together and and they're they're gonna have a great time. Now uh uh they're gonna have fun together. You you can't really replicate the sensation, the the activity, the atmosphere of being there if it's just you watching it. There's something powerful about being in that crowd, and uh I won't start naming teams because we'd all get in trouble, and someone would insist equal time. But it doesn't take much intelligence, it doesn't take much observation, it doesn't take much just being aware of what's going on to know that that cheering together elevates everyone's emotions. It it causes everyone to celebrate more, it causes everyone to feel part of the community of people doing that. You can see that community of people expressing their community by painting their faces or other things we won't get into. Wearing all the paraphernalia of their team, jumping up and down. There's people that get paid to run around in costumes. There's people that get paid to dance and jump around and show signs, and you see the I sorry to say thousands, I think it's hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of dollars for the big screens to tell you to celebrate and tell you to do all this, because everyone understands that there's something happens in that environment as everyone begins to celebrate. And another thing happens too in that community is we all go home after that, and if they won, we won. If they lost, they lost. But we claim we claim the community, right? We claim a part of it because it's sort of bound us together and lifted us up, and you can see just in that environment how that affects people. And you don't have to have a scientist tell you the psychological chemicals and all that that's going on. I just did that for some of you that needed that. I felt like I needed to start here today in some ways, because some of us are not as prone to express that emotional excitement as others. I saw you looking at them. You know, for me, even when I go to some kind of ball event, even if I like being there and enjoy it, which I rarely do, because the seats are too small. I I will clap my hands and occasionally I will, you know, join in the the noise, if it's something really good. I usually sit there and wish I were watching it on a screen so I could see it better. If it's children, I will get a little more excited than that. You know, especially if it's your own children or grandchildren, you'll get a little more excited about that. But I'm not the one that's gonna be acting really goofy. I'm not the one that's gonna be painting my face. I'm not the one that's gonna be running down to scream at somebody and yell, and and I don't even have to sit on the front row. I just like to be able to see the game. So you may be in my camp today and not think that much about it and not really be your thing. Maybe your neighbor, your spouse, somebody across the way, they're getting they get really excited about it, but maybe not you. I'd still remember growing up, and you know, I'm old, so it was different then than it is now. But I still remember as a teenager going to high school and uh they would have pep rallies. Good for me they had them the last part of the day. Because sometime after lunch they would call the whole school together, you gotta come to the gym and cheer on the team. Good. I get to go home early today. I'm I'm pro I'm pro having a pep rally as long as I can leave. You know, that was sort of my mentality. Y'all win the game, that's great. I'm going home, or I'm going to work usually. Uh because that's sort of my nature and attitude. But there is something valuable here. There is something important here. It's important for us to recognize the value of making that expression, of raising our voice. And for some of us who aren't maybe as prone to that, I need to share with you today that it's biblical. So we can get past ourselves a little bit. It's important for us to realize the value of that in our experience with God, the value of lifting our voice, the value of shouting to the Lord and in praise to the Lord. Something important about that within us that we need in our lives that breaks through in ways that the silent prayer can't, that that helps us in ways that the silent contemplation and the quiet time, which you need. You need that too. But but there's something different that we need. There's a value that's that we receive by lifting our voice in excitement and praise to God. You know, in the Old Testament, God instituted these feasts. They were uh prescribed with the guidance of God. The activities of them was usually commemorating some important event from history. But the idea was not just to remember what happened long ago, but to again join together and celebrate what God had done and thereby glean the power of what was done sometimes decades and hundreds centuries ago to remember that again and to glean the power from God and the strength from God, even from something that happened long ago. And so they would come together and they would celebrate that event. Some of those, at least some portions of those, were uh very sober and quiet and remembering in a quiet way, but oftentimes, many times, they included very noisy celebrations. Loud singing, shouting, raising their voice to God, dancing. And those celebrations were great celebrations to remember because there's something powerful about lifting our voice and celebrating and proclaiming what God has done that helps us and joins us together as part of the group. God's goal, I would say, if we can see it in scripture, is not just to not just to celebrate a past event, but to connect people to that event, connect the community to the event, and to connect the community to the shared history of that event. So it's much more powerful than just a celebration. It's just more powerful than just a day off from work. It's just it's more powerful than whatever food you ate. It's much more powerful than that, it's much more important than that. And so God instituted from the very beginning that people need to remember and they need to joyfully celebrate what He has done. So I'm saying to you today that even if you're not prone to lifting your voice, we have to decide that we're going to anyway. We have to decide that we're going to do it anyway. There are some things in life. I know some of you don't need to hear this. You're wondering why I even need to say this. I understand that. But for some of us, we realize there's some important things in life that we need to do that we really don't want to do, but we know they'll help us. We know they're good for us, that we know they will make us better. And shouting and raising our voice to God may not be your forte. It may not be what you normally do, but sometimes we need to say, you know what? I need to lift my voice to God. I need to raise my voice to God. I need to do something more than just be quiet and silent and passive. So I want to tell you some reasons why that we decide that we will shout to God. We will shout unto God and not shout at God. Don't get that in your mind. That's not what we're talking about. Why do I need to shout to God? Why will I shout to God even when I don't feel like shouting to God? I will raise my voice to God. First of all, I will shout in affirmation to God's word. I will shout in affirmation of what God has said. What God has promised. Now you've heard the story of God's people as they were led by Jehoshaphat. You know that story well. I'm sure I'll mention it here in another place too. They won the victory as they went out singing and praising God. But there's a preface to that. There's a backstory to that that you need to understand if you're going to really get the whole depth of what's going on here. When they heard that the Moabites and the Ammonites were coming to conquer Judah, they were afraid. This is going to be happening to them. They're going to experience this. This great armies that have come together in order to conquer this tiny little country. Really, tiny little nation at this point. And this is just Judah. This is not the whole. And they've come to conquer, and they're afraid of what's happening. And their response was to immediately cry out to the Lord. In fact, they all came together, and Jehoshaphat the king led them in prayers, and they they sought God, asked God for his help. What are we to do? And God responded to them in verse number 17 when he said, You shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not nor be dismayed, for tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you. That's the word they got from the Lord. But don't forget that you're sitting on this side of that. You're after you've seen. It's after you, you know what the end of the story is. You already know what's happening. That army is still waiting out there for them. And God speaks this word. When God spoke the word, the Bible says in verse number 19 that the Levites, the children of the Kohethites and the children of Korites, they stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel, and with a loud voice they began to praise God. When God simply told them that He was going to give them the victory, that was enough for them to stand up to affirm the word of the Lord. And they began to lift their voices, they began to celebrate as if it had already happened because they believed the word of God enough to celebrate before they saw the results. And they had a celebration. They began to sing, they began to worship, they began to affirm what God had spoken to them. And they just started the celebration then. I want you to know that the singing and praising didn't start at the battle. The singing and praising started at the word of God. It started when God spoke. What happened in the battle was just a continuation of what started when God made the promise. When God made the promise, they began to worship, they began to celebrate. They said, We will shout to God in affirmation of his word, in agreement with his word, in saying, Yes, God, we believe you will do that. We believe you will say that. We can do that today in one simple word. One simple word. That's what we say when we say amen. That's what we're doing when we say amen. When you give a shout of amen to the word of God, you're not just, you're not sort of uh uh egging on the speaker. You're affirming your agreement to the word of God. You're lifting your voice to say, yes, amen. I believe the word of God, I trust the word of God. I won't wait until I see results. I will trust God right here, right now. I will say amen to the word of God, to the voice of God, to the promise of God, to the calling of God in my life. I will affirm it, I will believe it, I will shout, I will raise my voice in affirmation because I believe what God says. I believe that He's gonna keep His promise. So I say that I will shout in affirmation because I believe God's word. I believe what God has promised. And I can say amen to that. Not only that, I will I will shout in the power of God. I will raise my voice to celebrate the power of God. It was common and it still is that people shout to project power. They shout to project, to make themselves. I mean, it's not just people that do it either. Animals do it. They they make a loud noise to make themselves appear bigger than they are. Right? To make themselves feel powerful, to make themselves feel project that power, project that authority. They raise their voice to do that, and people do that too. I know some of you are military people, and so you know what it was like in the military. They don't just softly tell you to do things. We want to be kind, we don't want to hurt your feelings, we want to suggest you do something. That doesn't happen. There has to be an authority, a power that's represented, and so they raise their voice and speak it firmly. And that's common. That's common in human history. And we see that happening over and over again in the Word of God. That God says, you need to lift your voice and shout in power and strength and authority, and I'm gonna respond to that. Probably the most well-known part of that is is, of course, the walls of Jericho in Joshua chapter 6, when they receive those uh promise from God, but God gave them what they should do. And not only are they gonna march around this wall, but at some point they're gonna all shout. And so when they've walked around on the seventh day the seventh time, then what do they do? They all shout. Not just the people that they're the priest, not just the people that's blending blowing the horns, not the soldiers, everybody. Everybody. They lift a shout, a great shout to God, and they lift their voices loudly. And when they did, the Bible says the walls fell down flat. The walls fell down flat. I still, I still would like to have more information about all those things. The walls fell down flat, and the people went in the city straight before them, and they overtook the city. Because they lifted their voice in a shout to God. There's something about that. It's like God took the reverberation, the sound reverberation of their voices, and somehow rattled the foundations of this entire city until the walls themselves fell down. But God said, When the moment comes, I want you to shout. I want you to shout. And they did. They shouted in the power of God, they shouted in the voice of God, they shouted in the expectation from God. And this is the same way that Jehoshaphat and his army, when they went to face the Ammonites and the Moabites that would have gathered against them, they went out and they began to sing praises to the Lord. They just started singing out loud and worshiping God as they went in that direction. And something about that God took and made it a powerful victory for them. And because they shouted in the power of God. Now it wasn't their individual voice that did it. It was the faith and confidence in God, and it was the moment that they could just lift their voice. Something sort of opened up from that experience, shouting the power of God in the power of God expresses a faith and a boldness in God that He will perform a miracle. There's times when we are quiet, of course. There's times when we we we quietly pray, but there are times. When we need to pray out loud in the power of the Holy Ghost, we need to pray out loud in the power of the Holy Ghost. You can read the Word of God silently, and that's good. But there are times we need to read the Word of God out loud, raise our voice and read the Word of God because we believe in the power of God's word and the power of His promise. And so we trust in that and we lift our voice in that, and somehow God amplifies that and makes it a powerful tool that He uses to give us a victory. If you've been struggling for a while, it may be time to lift your voice. It may be time to get a little more animated than you have been, a little louder than you have been, and put a little more into it than you have put in it, and really express that faith in God. It may be time to lift that voice. You can choose. I will shout to God.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

I will shout. I will shout.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

I will raise my voice unto the God of heaven because I trust in his power and his strength for deliverance. I will do it. You can choose to do it. And of course, sometimes we want to shout to God in praise. And that's what we usually talk about is shouting unto God in praise. The story is told of David bringing back the ark, and you know the story. It's a beautiful story. Bringing back the ark of the covenant is the representation of God's Spirit. They brought it out of Obed Edom's house. 1 Chronicles 15 tells it this way. It came to pass that God helped the Levites that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord. And they offered seven bullocks and seven rams. David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites bare the ark and the singers, and Chania the master of the song, with the singers, and David also had upon him an ephod of linen, and thus all Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of a cornet, and the sound of the trumpets, and with cymbals making noise, with psalteries and harps. They're making a big deal out of this. Because it is a big deal. But this is too important for that kind of approach. This is too significant for that kind of approach. This is too too much, too, too great, too awesome. We're too honored to take that kind of approach. Not everyone's gonna understand that. Not everyone's gonna understand that. When David got home, his wife did not understand that. He was embarrassed. She was embarrassed by the way he behaved. That was an embarrassing behavior. I like that it's written in 2 Samuel. Because when he got home, he came to the house, and she made a Michael's her name, she made sort of sarcastic remarks from him about him, to him. How glorious will the king of Israel today, she said, who uncovered himself in the eyes of all the handmaids of his servants. Like one of those vain fellows that shamelessly uncovers himself. That was her retort to him. Sarcasm. Because the way you're behaving. Well, I will tell you as it often is, sometimes sarcasm gets a very blunt response. And so David said, It was before the Lord who chose me, before your father. And before all of his house. I will yet do even more than what I did today. I will choose to do even more than I did today. I will choose to worship greater than I have before. I choose to be louder than I've ever been before. I will choose to do more because God is worthy. God has put me in this position. God has put me in this place. And I don't care what anybody else says about it, but I will lift my voice and shout to God. I will shout to God whether you like it or not. I will do it. I will be more vile. I will be more base. I will be more humble as I worship God. If that's humiliating, he said, then so be it. I will be humiliated in the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I'm not afraid of that. Not, ironically, the Bible says that Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child until the day of her death. That's not just a random insertion of a fact. There's a connection. Because she would not worship God. She was not productive. No matter her status, no matter her lineage, no matter her heritage, no matter that she was born, excuse me, married to the king, she had no children because she would not worship. And the Bible says they cast their garments upon the colt that Jesus sat on, and as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when he was come near and was at the descent of the Mount of Olives to come into Jerusalem, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the king that comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. They began, they chose to worship him. This is worship to Jesus. This is not just saying, Thank you for that healing you gave us, or thank you for that recovery you gave us. But now they're worshiping Jesus as he comes in and they're shouting, quoting Old Testament phrases in order to recognize Jesus and to honor him. They lifted their voice and of course again the Pharisees. You need to rebuke them. You need to stop them from because they knew exactly what was happening. And Jesus said, I tell you that if these hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. We lift our voice in worship because it is due for that and even more for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We don't do it for you or for you or for somebody else or because somebody else. No, we lift our voice out loud to God because He is worthy. And what and a passive sort of maybe kind of maybe if we get to it attitude that laissez faire if whatever happens, happens, and maybe if somebody else does, I will. That does not work in the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That's not appropriate. That's not that's not what should happen. That defeats all the moment. That's so contrary to what's happening. This is Jesus who we're worshiping. We've got to raise our hearts, our voices, our eyes fall down on our face. We have to do something that expresses the glory and the wonder of God. I will praise God. I will shout unto God. I will lift my voice in worship to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I'll just cover one more for the sake of time. Psalm 35, verse 27 says, Let them shout for joy and be glad. That favor my righteousness, my righteous cause, yea, that let them continue. Let the Lord be magnified, which has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants. Let them shout for joy. In Psalm 32 it says, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice and be righteous and shout for joy, all ye that are of an upright heart. There is a shout, there is a shout that recognizes and increases our joy. There is a shout that recognizes the joy that God has given us, but it also amplifies that joy that God has given us. It doesn't just recognize that God has been good to us, but it amplifies our joy, our delight, our our feeling of contentment and satisfaction of what God has done in our lives. There's something that's important about shouting for joy, about lifting our voice to enjoy what God has given us and to enjoy what God has done. There's something critical about that. Have you ever noticed that the more ungrateful you are, the more unhappy you are? Haven't you ever noticed that the more grateful you are, the more happy you are? It works the same way in the spirit. Don't get so fixated on asking God for something else that you forget to lift your voice in joy and appreciation to God for what He has done already in your life. It is absolutely appropriate, absolutely biblical to lift our voice and rejoice in the Lord. When the Bible says to rejoice, that's what it means. It means to take joy in what God has done. Take joy in what God has done. To celebrate what God has done in your life. Celebrate the joys that God has great. How many of you have received joy from God? He has provided for us. He has multiplied his blessings to us.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

He has given us joy. We want to amplify that joy by lifting our voice to God in thanksgiving and praise and honor to him.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Yes, hallelujah. Nehemiah 8:10, the one you all know. Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, send portions unto them for whom there is nothing prepared. For this day is holy to the Lord. Neither be you sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And how do you amplify that joy? You amplify that joy by rejoicing in what God has done, by lifting your voice and giving God praise by thanking Him for what He has done in our lives. Would you stand with me? It's important that we recognize the value of shouting, of lifting our voice. Now, I didn't say screaming. I'm talking about just lifting our voice to God. Get out of your normal voice. Get out of your normal voice. Raise your voice to God. Raise it up to God. Project your voice loudly to God and speak a praise and a worship and a thanksgiving to God, an acknowledgement, an affirmation of his power, of his pre uh of his presence, of the joy that he has given us. It will encourage our souls, it will lift our faith, it will unite us together and leave us refreshed. No wonder the culture around us says to be quiet. No wonder the culture around us says that's not appropriate. Don't speak up. We're okay as long as you stay in your quiet corner and contemplate somewhere. But what we need to be doing is we need to be raising our voice and praise to God at the church house, in our house, in every other house we get to. We need to lift our voice to God in thanksgiving for his goodness, for his kindness. Besides, if you don't know how to do that, you're gonna be very uncomfortable in heaven. You're gonna be very uncomfortable. I'm just telling you, it's gonna be noisy. It's gonna be filled with not just you, not just me, but the heavenly host, everyone giving praise and honor to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, lifting your voice to God, bowing before God, giving worship to God.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

So I wanna I wanna I wanna lead you for a moment.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

I know it's 1215, I'm trying to wrap up. I wanna lead you for a moment. I want us to shout, first of all, an affirmation to God that we believe in God's word. Would you lift your voice and shout an amen to God? Amen to God!

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Amen to his word, amen to his promise, amen to its formation, amen to all your amen to his glory and his wonder. We affirm you, God, we confirm what you're doing. We shout to God with a with a shout of power to God, a shout of victory to God, Lord, we give shout to you and creator! Are you that in us? That's a world that you have the power and the strength, and we still get the power! We still in honor Will you give us down a praise to God? That's your boy! I'm not gonna start! I'm not what it's doing! I will I will not put the gun to the ball, but you don't want to be a bad time to do that.