Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer – The Armor

Priscilla Shirer (born December 31, 1974) is an American author, motivational speaker, actress, and Christian evangelist. Her father is Dallas mega-church pastor Tony Evans and her brother is Christian entertainer Anthony Evans.
The daughter of Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas,[1] Priscilla grew up well acquainted with the Bible. As a freshman at the University of Houston, she interned with a Christian radio station. Soon listeners were calling the station, inviting Priscilla to speak at their Bible study groups and other events. Soon she was invited to lead a weekly Bible study at the Zig Ziglar Corporation and then to join its speaker team. Priscilla has worked as an independent contractor for CBS and hosted a local television show, but recently she has focused solely on Christian ministry opportunities. She calls Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of evangelist Rev. Billy Graham, her mentor in ministry.

Together the Shirers established Going Beyond Ministries, a speaking bureau featuring Priscilla. The parents of three young boys, the Shirers share ministry and family responsibilities. While Priscilla continues to minister full-time, Jerry manages his schedule and other business aspects of Going Beyond Ministries.

Priscilla speaks around the world at churches and other events, including the LifeWay Christian Resources-sponsored Going Beyond conference and Deeper Still: The Event, where she shares the stage with Beth Moore and Kay Arthur. She has also authored several books.

Shirer graduated from Duncanville High School and Dallas Theological Seminary, earning a master’s degree from the latter in Biblical Studies.

In 1993, Shirer was a freshman at the University of Houston. Shirer was married in 1999 to Jerry Shirer, former Hilton Hotels executive. The couple has three sons.

In 2013, Shirer was a speaker at the 2013 Women of Faith conference. In 2015, Shirer made her film debut in the Kendrick Brothers film War Room. In October 2016, Shirer was recognized as one of four prominent women of faith during the 10th anniversary of God’s Leading Ladies Life Enrichment Program at The Potter’s House.[1] Shirer also featured at the 47th GMA Dove Awards.

[Applause]

[Music]

today we are so blessed to be able to

have with us one of the great gifted and

blessed speakers on the face of the

planet I mean she could be anywhere she

wanted in the world but today by God’s

purpose God’s design she is here she and

Jerry her husband have three sons gifted

communicator of the word God how many

people saw war room you you saw war room

come on

was that not like the greatest movie I

mean just challenged we took our whole

staff and it just so motivates you to

pray to call on God

she’s a gift to the kingdom we are

blessed to have her to today would you

join me in welcoming priscilla shirer

come on give it up we got priscilla

shirer

[Music]

well hi y’all it’s great to be here food

from Dallas last night the privilege to

be able to come and be with our

Springfield family we’ll just go ahead

and y’all didn’t adopt me but I adopted

my own self into James River because we

just love your church so much we love

what God is doing through you to

minister to the lives of so many people

outside of your walls see sometimes when

you’re in a church you don’t actually

realize the extent of what what you’re

doing how it’s impacting others but

those of us on the outside are blessed

because we see what God is doing through

you in many aspects in my life

specifically through the women’s

ministry at this church very few

churches minister to women the way James

River does and I’m so thrilled about

that and excited about that and it is a

privilege to be able to share with you

on this Sunday under the leadership of

your your pastors and your leadership

team at this church I want to share

God’s word with you but before I do I

want to tell you this I I have the

privilege to be in a lot of different

settings a lot of churches and y’all

need to know that every Church does not

have leadership that actually has

integrity like I mean the person you see

when they’re standing on the platform is

a completely different person than the

person that is in the back of the greet

in the green room or at their home and

the fact that at this church you have a

couple leading a team of people who are

walking in integrity and have character

and all are the real deal come on y’all

that’s worth celebrating right there

that’s worth celebrating right there

yeah

[Music]

yeah we salute you we salute you and

your whole team for your integrity for

we do we salute you I appreciate

integrity my parents have integrity I’m

so glad I want to share with you God’s

Word this morning because I believe in

the power of the Word of God I believe

it is living and that it is active and

sharper than any two-edged sword and I

believe today he’s going to give

somebody a word what that means is you

don’t just hear the general simple

little message I’m going to share with

you it takes the Holy Spirit to take one

little word and divide it 2,000

different ways so that all of us in this

room all of you at the West Campus and

the two or 300 of you that are here with

us but in the building across the

parking lot that all of us hear it

together and I’m gonna pray for that

this morning Lord Jesus thank you thank

you that we your daughters your sons can

hear you speak we are I am moved Lord I

am beyond shocked that you the God of

the universe would let us hear from you

so today Lord our ears are open because

we need a word speak where your servants

and we’re listening in Jesus name Amen

in light of the happenings of our week

I’m from Dallas so it has hit

particularly close to home this week I

ran across this post from Natasha I do

not know her but I reposted it because

one of my friends posted it and I read

it and were moved by it an

african-american lady named Natasha

wrote this so this morning she says I

went into a convenience store to get a

protein bar and as I walked through the

door I noticed that there were two white

police officers one about my age and the

other several years earlier older they

were talking to to the clerk at the

store who was also an older white woman

she was behind the counter and they were

talking about the shootings that have

gone on in the past few days not only in

Dallas but in different parts of our

nation

so when I walked through the door

Natacha writes they all looked at me and

then fell silent I just went about my

business to get what I was looking for

and as I turned back up the aisle to go

and pay the oldest police officer was

standing at the top of the aisle and he

was watching me as I got closer to him

headed toward the register he looked at

me and said how are you doing

I replied I’m ok how are you he paused

for a moment looked at me again with a

very strange concerning look in his eyes

and he asked me again no really how are

you I looked at him and I said I’m tired

actually his reply was me too then he

said I guess it’s not easy being either

of us right now is it I said no it’s not

and then the police officer hugged me

and I cried

scheanette setup’ says I have never seen

that man before in my life I have no

idea why he was moved to talk to me all

I know for sure is that he and I a white

police officer and a black woman in a

convenience store in the middle of

Dallas in an early morning hour shared a

beautiful moment together no judgments

no justifications we just knew that it

wasn’t easy being either of us right now

it occurs to me

[Music]

it occurs to me that in a group this

size with black people and white people

with Hispanic people with Asian people

with every Creed and class and

background and culture and color that no

matter if you’re single or married and

taller or short no matter what side of

town you live on where you came from

how well-educated you may be or may not

be it occurs to me that no matter who

you are it’s not easy being any of us

right now

not only because our culture and our

country is in trouble but the reality is

our own homes are in trouble that our

marriages are under assault that our

sense of peace of mind and peace of

heart our financial stability every part

of our lives is being shaken up and if

you and I is the Church of Jesus Christ

if we keep our attention zeroed in on

the people or on the physical tangible

occurrences or difficulties that are

right on our face every day if we turn

our anger and our frustration and our

attention on to the physical tangible

things we can see and forget that we

have an enemy that is underneath the

surface that has a hand in it all if we

forget that he is there we will waste

all our time and energy offering the

wrong solutions in the wrong places and

it is to this end that I believe the

Apostle Paul wrote to us in the book of

Ephesians the book of Ephesians scholars

say is the highlight of all that Paul

wrote y’all know the Apostle Paul he was

a bad brother he gave us most of the New

Testament he penned incredible words

letter after letter to people that he

hoped would read them and their lives

would be changed and transformed that

they would know who they are but

scholars say of all that he gave us to

teach us who we are in Christ the book

of Ephesians is like the cherry on top

of the cake because he spends the first

half of the book just rehearsing who you

are as an adopted daughter or son into

the family of God he just wants you to

know that you were

rejected that you were hand-picked and

chosen by God above he wants you to know

that you have been lavished upon with

all the Grace and the glory and the

riches of God our Father he wants you to

know that you have been completely

forgiven that you want chosen he says

I’m praying that the eyes of your heart

would be open so that you would know the

bigness and the greatness and the depth

and the riches of his choosing of you he

spends most of the book just telling you

who you are then it gets to the end and

he offers fair warning he says these

words and Ephesians chapter 6 the last

chapter in the book beginning in verse

10 he says finally you be strong in the

Lord and in the strength of his might he

said you put on the full armor of God so

that you may be able to stand firm

against the schemes somebody say schemes

against the schemes of the devil

he says for our struggle that is not

against flesh and blood but it is

against the rulers against the powers

against the world Force’s of this

darkness against the spiritual forces of

wickedness in heavenly places he says so

therefore you better lay down all your

earthly weapons that do not work and

take up some weapons that will actually

have benefits in your life it says take

up the full armor of God so that you may

be able to resist in the evil day and

having done everything to stand firm he

says you ought to just stand firm

therefore in this passage the Apostle

Paul introduces almost for the first

time at least this overtly he introduces

the concept of spiritual warfare he says

I want you to know that the enemy that

you think you have the one you can see

the person that is sitting next to you

maybe that you think is the cause of

your difficulty or your frustration or

that co-worker that one that if she says

one more thing to you you go knock her

out that one

or your boss or that person that you

have contention with or that financial

struggle even the struggle you have in

your own mind and even your heart your

own heart the Apostle Paul says would

you realize that your real problem is

not flesh and blood it is nothing you

can see it is not the white police

officer or the black police officer it

is not the Asian person or the Hispanic

person it it’s not the government it is

nothing that you can see there is an

invisible enemy and he is banking on the

fact that you will forget that he is

there he so wants to disguise himself

behind the tangible physical problems of

your life that you will forget he’s

often the one that is influencing some

of the most difficult circumstances not

only in our nation but in our own homes

the Apostle Paul says you have an enemy

and he’s very very real and he’s banking

on the fact that you will forget he is

there so I have I have three sons my

husband just text me and said that their

home watching right now hi guys three

boys three giant boys listen I mean

giant boys my 13 year old wears a size

14 men’s shoe somebody come help me feed

these people

so I have Jackson I have Jerry jr. and I

have jooge a C is 11 my middle son is 11

here is a size 12 shoe already my

seven-year-old stands up tall to me and

these boys are just getting so big and

one of the things we like to do around

the Halloween time as we go to a harvest

festival that’s at a small church right

down the street from us and we go there

cuz it’s just kind of fun and quaint and

we like it I can keep an eye on

everybody at least when they were

smaller and I needed to really see

everybody as they’re running around this

small church environment gave me the

chance to do that and and what it is

that the church does is a trunk-or-treat

does anybody know anymore what I mean

when I say trunk-or-treat okay some of

you remember that not a lot of churches

do it anymore but this church still does

it’s where they get volunteers from the

congregation who agree to pull their

parked car into the parking lot on

Harvest Festival night and they open up

the trunk of their car and they prepare

a game of some sort a carnival game or a

fair sort type of game so that kids can

line up and do the game and then whether

the kid wins or lose they load the kid

down with a bunch of candy and we the

parents are so grateful so anyway a

couple of harvest festivals ago I’m

standing in line with my boy behind one

of the games this one was in the bed of

a truck this was the longest line

everybody wanted to play this particular

game the proprietors of this particular

game what they did was they put a

stepladder right there at the bed of the

truck so that a kid could climb up into

the bed of the truck turn to the side

and they had placed a tabletop or a

wooden board that’s basically the same

size as the bed of the truck

they had attached it to the side of the

bed of the truck cut holes in the top

about six of them draped it with some

fabric and then out from the underneath

the holes every now and then a puppet

would pop through the hole they would

give a huge plastic mallet to the kid as

the kid would stand there and try to hit

the puppets on the head it was a

homemade whack-a-mole game is what it

was

so this line so long we can’t wait for

our turn little Jude was maybe four at

the time he was so excited about this

game behind us there was probably a four

or five year old that was talking to his

mom and it was hysterical all of us in

the line were laugh

thing long line and this four-year-old

was so frustrated mom I came to this

carnival to have fun I can’t believe I

have to stand in this line mom how about

you stand in the line while I’ll go over

here and play some other games then I’ll

come back when it when our turn is next

mom this is not what I came to the car

before mom are you sure I have to stand

in this line and wait my turn but he was

not only frustrated because he had to

stand in the line he was frustrated as

he watched the game because Mom I don’t

understand this game why in the world

what is the point of me popping these

puppets on the head if when they go down

they’re just gonna come back up in a few

minutes I don’t understand why I would

even do this why are we playing this

game mom I don’t understand what the

point is in this game so we are laughing

at this four-year-old just going off as

he’s waiting in line and before any of

us could really think or see straight I

just saw a four-year-old flash by my

peripheral vision as he ran forward

grabbed the drapery off of the tabletop

and pulled it clean off underneath there

were three adults puppets on each hand

y’all we got such a good laugh but we

also learned a good lesson that there is

always something you cannot see

controlling what you can and if you

spend if I spend all of my time and all

of my energy popping at all of the

symptoms of the problem just dealing

with those things that are occurring and

erecting in our marriage and and our

finances in our struggle and we spend

our time and our money and our resources

and our human rationale to figure out

the problem we will at best exhaust

ourselves when we haven’t even begun to

tap into the root of where the world

real problem is stemming the Apostle

Paul says in Ephesians chapter 6 he says

come on y’all pull back the curtain and

let the enemy know we got our eyes on

you

but it’s not your spouse who is the

problem there’s an enemy it’s not your

boss who is the problem there is an

enemy it’s not even your own personal

internal turmoil that is the main

problem there is an enemy who lives to

stir dissension and division in to see

jealousy and envy to call to you and I

not to have any peace of mind and peace

of heart and the enemy wants her Paul

wants you to know how strategic the

enemy is y’all because he says listen

the enemy is scheming against you

somebody say scheme

listen if I find out that somebody has

done me wrong I mean I’m upset but I can

get over that but if I find out somebody

has been planning to do me wrong now

that’s a whole nother story I find out

you’ve been scheming against me meaning

you’ve been sitting back studying my

tendencies in my patterns you’ve been

watching for where I come and what I go

and you’ve been trying to take advantage

of what the weaknesses of my flesh are

you’ve been looking into my personality

to figure out what would be the best way

to throw me off course when I find out

that not only have you been studying me

but you’ve been studying my husband

trying to look into his history so that

you can figure out given my history and

his history the best way to make

explosions of anger happen in our family

when I find out you’ve been trying to

explore his weaknesses so that you can

tempt him away from his heart and his

emotions being at home with me when I

find out that not only have you been

studying me and my man but you’ve been

also looking into my three boys these

little men

has given me to raise in the fear of God

and you’ve been trying to figure out the

best way to sort them from reaching the

destiny that God is assigned to them

you’re trying to figure out the best way

to take advantage of their fears and

their weaknesses and their deficiencies

when I find out you’ve been studying me

and the people that I love you got to

believe that now a holy indignation

rises up on the inside of me

I’m just gonna stand back and let you

run roughshod over my family I’m not

just gonna stand back and let my city

decline continuously and just act like

you were not there playing us for the

fool I will be the one and I pray the

Church of Jesus Christ will be the one

that will stand as gatekeepers in our

community and say God today

[Applause]

and so I’ve got the word the enemy once

it’s a war he will have not by our

strength and not in our power but by the

power of God’s own spirits the victory

is already won and we have the privilege

to claim that victory and experience it

as a regular part of our lives so would

you know everything that has happened

this week y’all all the devastation and

all the tears that have been cried all

the lives that have been lost underneath

it all it’s not about officers and it’s

not about racial division there is an

enemy trying to stir up trouble and if

we turn our attention on each other

instead of pulling back the curtain and

say uh-huh we got our eyes on you and

we’re coming after you with weapons that

work the Apostle Paul says put down all

of the weapons that are futile they’re

just popping it’s symptoms and they may

take care of them in your marriage or in

your city or in your home they may take

care of them for a while but you better

believe when one goes away there’s

another one coming right back up Paul

says I’m gonna give you some weapons

that work and he gives us traditionally

people say six but really I believe

there are seven pieces of armor I want

to tell you briefly what they are he

says you need to make sure that you

stand firm in verse 14 gird your loins

with truth he says then you need a

breastplate call righteousness but he

doesn’t stop there he says you need

something for your feet they better be

shod with the preparation of the gospel

of peace then he says you need a shield

and it’s called faith he says in verse

17 you need a helmet you need something

to guard your mind you need a helmet

called salvation and you need a sword of

the Spirit which is the word of God and

while most people stop there the Apostle

Paul does not he says even though these

six things aren’t important you need one

more thing in verse 18 he says and pray

prayer is the divinely ordained

mechanism y’all that our God has given

us it’s like a key that

lux the heavens and allows all the

blessings that are gone already has for

us to actually be dispensed to us prayer

doesn’t manipulate God it accesses what

God has already aligned to us in our in

our lives here on earth and so pray if

you want victory in your marriage would

you make sure you are a man or a woman

of Prayer if you want victory teenage or

in your high school or student at your

university then you gotta become a

person of prayer and if you say you want

to live victoriously and abundantly and

yet you don’t pray that I don’t believe

you because prayer is how we live in the

abundance of our God I wish I had time

to go through all of the pieces of armor

but just a couple of them that I thought

you and I could talk about today in

light of everything that has happened

over the course of this week in

particular but in general for our lives

so the very first to urge us to I wanted

to highlight to you in verse 14 Paul

begins by saying stand firm having

girded your loins with a belt called

truth somebody say truth can I tell you

that we will look to at a picture of the

Roman soldier the Roman soldier was a

ubiquitous presence in the first century

meaning they were everywhere every

civilian could look and see a Roman

soldier just walking down the street so

they would have known what these pieces

of armor looked like on a Roman soldier

so we’ll look to that in a second

but what I do want to tell you is

something else that the first century

believers would have known that you and

I don’t necessarily go to when we read

this passage a very familiar scripture

that I’m sure in this Bible teaching

Church you guys have heard before the

first century believers when they

converted to Christianity when they

placed faith in this Messiah Jesus

Christ and became a part of the church

they automatically began a rigorous

study of the Old Testament

so they study the prophets and they

study the the words of all the works of

old so that they could know what had

come before them and what they were

looking forward to in these prophecies

and so they would study the Old

Testament and can I just tell you that I

love the jewels and the riches of the

New Testament but if in your life in

Christ

you are neglecting the study of the Old

Testament you are missing out on so much

of what the Word of God is designed to

offer because the Old Testament is like

an arrow and a spotlight that points

more fully to Jesus Christ and so in the

New Testaments these believers would

immediately start studying the Old

Testament so as soon as they read this

part of the letter the breastplate the

belt the shoes they would have

immediately recognized something that

most often we do not in the Old

Testament in the book of Isaiah chapter

59 the prophet Isaiah talks about our

God Yahweh the one true God he paints a

picture of him as a divine warrior

coming with righteousness has his

breastplate and with truth girded about

his waist and with salvation as a helmet

on his head he paints a gorgeous picture

of a divine warrior in the Old Testament

but in the Old Testament

Yahweh came as a warrior against his

people because of the rebellion of

Israel so when Paul comes along in the

New Testament and says uh huh you get a

breast place of plate of righteousness

you get a belt of salvation you get a

helmet on your head

when he describes it in the New

Testament he’s basically reminding us

that the same armor that God used

against us in the Old Testament now

under the New Covenant of Jesus Christ

blood shed on Calvary that same armor

that was used against us is now given to

us as a gift to stand firm against the

schemes of the enemy let me tell you why

this is good news because it means what

we have to war against the enemy in our

lives it is not some secondhand

second-rate hand-me-down stuff that may

or may not work if it was good enough

for God in the Old Testament it’s good

enough for you in the New Testament my

friend

and that’s the primary picture Paul had

in his head when he wrote this it wasn’t

about a Roman soldier although we can

use it as a realist illustration it was

really about God’s own armor now being

given as a gift to us to wage war

against the enemy so he says truth the

very first thing they need if they’re

gonna stand against this enemy is truth

he picked it first the very first thing

of all of the litany of things he is

going to give us as weapons against the

enemy

he says truth is where it starts when

you saw a Roman soldier in the first

century the first thing you would have

noticed was a helmet with those brightly

colored colored feathers that would most

of the time be at the top of those

helmets or you might notice the enormous

breastplate or the huge shield that was

big enough for two or three soldiers to

get behind or the big broadsword it was

about three to four feet long and they

would carry it at their side there were

so many other more noticeable parts of

the uniform of the Roman soldier and yet

when Paul was trying to figure out what

is the best piece to correlate with the

belt he did not are with yet with the

belt he did not choose that which was

most impressive that which was most

noticeable or that which was most

applauding when you saw a Roman soldier

walking by but he didn’t choose the

piece that the soldier put on first

before anything else the soldier would

put on the belt because the belt really

was the central hanging point for every

other piece of armor without the belt

nothing else would be in place for very

long Paul says if you want any chance of

standing firm against the schemes of the

enemy you must first make a decision to

be a man or a woman committed to the

truth of God can I just tell you that I

am so glad you are in church this

morning and that you were at the West

Campus or you’re in the overflow here on

this campus I’m so glad you were in

church on Sunday I pray that you are a

regular part of the family of God that

you are planted in the house of God that

you don’t just dip in when it’s

convenient then dip out when you don’t

feel like it

but that you are really here fully and

completely completely devoted up

you are but just because you’re in Turks

does not mean you are girded in truth I

hope you’re in Bible study regularly

y’all but just because you are studying

the Bible listen you can study it know

it a product tell you were blue in the

face but that does not mean you have

made a commitment to it that you have

pledged your allegiance to the truth of

our great God which means you may not

always be politically correct but you’re

okay because you’ve decided like Joshua

as for me in my house what we gonna do

is serve the Lord that’s what we gonna

do

and it’s a choice you’ve got to make for

yourself that when the tide of the

culture change who changes when the

philosophies and new ideas that they are

suggesting rise to the forefront of

everyone’s mindset in their legislating

new ways of thinking and new ways of

living we must be a group of people who

don’t just celebrate the Word of God on

a Sunday when it’s convenient and

everybody’s applauding along with us

we’ve got to decide that when we walk

out of these doors even if we have to

stand alone we will pledge our

allegiance to the truth of our great

gods I do not describe myself as a black

woman because that gives too much power

to my blackness

I don’t want black my race to be the

describing adjectives the defining

adjectives of who I am as a woman I am

NOT a black woman I am a Christian woman

who happens to be black

because it’s the job of your adjective

to describe the noun of who you are and

if there’s gonna be an adjective

describing me it’s not gonna be my race

and it’s going to be that I am a woman

who believes in every single thing that

my word but that my God has declared to

be true and I will stand firmly on the

promises of his word because I will be

girded in truth so you may be a black

woman a black man a white woman a white

man but that should not define you so

that if your race or if your political

group is going in a different direction

than the Word of God you don’t choose

your blackness or your whiteness or

whatever culture you are you do not

choose that or your political persuasion

over what it is that God’s Word declares

to be true

I hate to tell you this but God doesn’t

ride the backs of donkeys or elephants

he did not come to take sides he came to

take over he came to take over

the reason why this issue of truth is so

important is because the enemy’s major

calling card is deception it’s how you

can see them coming a million miles away

the tragedy of deception y’all is that

there seems to be embedded in deception

there’s a blinding a blinding agent so

that the person that is being deceived

doesn’t know it see what makes what

makes deception so scary is that when

you’re the person being deceived you can

be standing on the very edge of a

precipice and everybody around you knows

that if you take one more step you are

headed into despair if you walk one more

piece into that relationship or down

that path if you do it everybody out

there around you can see that you’re

going to fall into a pit of despair but

the person being deceived can’t tell oh

you’ve had this happen before cuz you’ve

had a friend tried to describe to you

why they were choosing this relationship

and this relationship made sense to them

and this is where they needed to be and

wanted to be and this was why it was

better for them to choose this path and

as they’re talking to you your eyebrow

continues to raise higher and higher

because you cannot see for the life of

you how in the world they don’t see this

is not good for them it’s because

deception blinds you and the reality is

some of us don’t even have to look to a

friend to remind to see a picture of

deception the truth is if most of us

just look back to a different season of

our life there’s a whole season in my

life y’all where I look back now and I

realize that I can’t even believe why I

would have allowed those kinds of

relationships are those kinds of

thinking patterns or those kinds of

influences while I walk down those kinds

of paths if it were not for the grace

and the

working delivering power of our God

where would we be

and I love it about how many witnesses

in the house being able to stand outside

of a season of your life and look back

and realize that you were being deceived

anybody and so since there is a blinding

agent in deception since you can’t tell

when you’re being deceived you’ve got to

have a standard that is outside of

yourself that you can look to to

determine whether or not you’re being

taken for a ride y’all remember the

movie called inception Leonardo DiCaprio

was in this movie I did not see this

movie because when I go to the movies I

don’t really want to think I came to

enjoy some hot buttery salty popcorn a

coke and I just want to feel good for

two hours I don’t want to use my brain

space anybody know what I’m talking

about ain’t nobody got time for that I

came to just relax from the day so

that’s why I didn’t see inception dad

told me about it he told me that about

how complicated it was great movie he

says but it was complicated

Leo’s character would be in the real

world but then he fell asleep and have a

dream and he’d be in a dream and in the

dream everything was so real and so

tangible that he thought he was in the

real world so he would make choices and

decisions in his dream world that would

get him in trouble because they want

designed for this world so he would be

in trouble all the time and if that

weren’t complicated enough sometimes

when he was already in the dream world

he would fall asleep have another layer

of dreaming so now he’s two layers deep

in dreams but in the dream world

everything is so tangible and so real so

touchable that he thinks he’s in reality

so he’s making decisions in that realm

that don’t work there and if that wasn’t

complicated enough sometimes when he is

already in to deep layers of dreaming

this brother has the nerve to dream

again

so now he has three layers deep and

everything is so tangible and so real

that he thinks he’s in the real world

but he’s not he’s in a dream that is

within a dream within a dream within his

reality so he learns about midway

through the middle movie to take a

spinning top with him everywhere he goes

he finds a flat surface he spins it and

he watches it if it spins endlessly and

it never slows never topples over then

he knows he’s in a dream because gravity

isn’t working

but he knows if it slows down and it

falls over at some point that he’s home

because gravity is at work what he has

learned to do is no longer lean to his

own understanding he no longer trusts

his own perceptions he has stopped

believing that what his eyes can see

your ears can hear is exactly how it is

he has decided that for his own safety

he better have some objective standard

that he takes with him that is outside

of himself that he can look to as the

determining factor to determine whether

or not he’s being played for the fool oh

the enemy hopes you will trust how you

feel he wants more than anything for you

and I to trust what our eyes can see or

what our mind perceives what our ears

can hear he does not want there to be a

body of believers who have an objective

standard the truth the whole truth and

nothing but the truth

can I just tell y’all because this is

the second service so that means that I

have like more time

they said they said you have 40 minutes

I was like that’s just my introduction

we tell y’all something

second Corinthians I believe chapter 15

verses 3 & 4 it’s like Israel is in

turmoil

it’s basically America brother fighting

against brother murder and deception and

lies and horrendous culture it is

America and there are several reasons

why that are listed in those verses and

one of them is that there was no

teaching priests it does not say that

there were not priests it says that they

weren’t talking about nothing it doesn’t

say that their want leaders it says that

the leaders were not teaching the truth

let me tell you why I love James River

well I love this church because you have

leaders that do not share with you their

opinions and their ideas they do not get

up here and just try to tell you what

sounds good for the day or what will be

politically correct or what will put

their church in the right limelight in

the media they are concerned about that

what they’re concerned about is making

sure that you have the true

and can I tell you father and mother

your home needs a teaching priest that

your toddlers and your teenagers that

ministry the enemy has downgraded

ministry in our mind so that we think

unless you’re on a platform with a

little microphone attached to your face

that you’re not administered but if

you’re sitting around the dinner table

with your three-year-old and your

four-year-old or your 17 year old or

your 15 year old I’m telling you you’re

in ministry and you feed them the truth

while you feed them chicken lasagna for

dinner so Paul says you decide that this

book is the compass for your life you

wrap it around you you gird yourself in

it you stand firm even if that means

University student that you’re gonna

stand alone high school student

everybody might not be your friend you

say it’s okay because I believe what my

God has said

just one more y’all okay everybody all

right he says stand firm gird your loins

with truth and then he says now you need

you need a breastplate and the

breastplate is called what righteousness

Jerry and I live in a fairly rural part

of Dallas Fort Worth we like it that way

because I got three boys so I believe

they need to go outside and play anybody

still believe in outside so we

purposefully moved there not for the

house really our house is a really small

little little house and it’s just been

cozy and great for us but it’s small

little house but I moved there cuz the

backyard there’s trees and bugs and mud

and things boys need in their life and

anytime my boys come to me and say mom

I’m bored I say oh no you’re not you see

that tree right there go play with it

[Applause]

so one of the things we love is our

neighbor across the street she’s one of

my closest friends she has a pond so she

would let us take the two fishing poles

I bought on sale at the local super

Walmart

I bought a tackle box as well you know

we got extra bobber things and extra

hooks in there because we catch little

fish on the side of the pond I also have

gloves in the tackle box cuz y’all know

I don’t mind going fishing but I ain’t

gonna touch no fish so we get all that

stuff and we walk across the street and

we fish normally just standing on the

edge of the pond we just catch a little

Sun perch and stuff like that but my

neighbors bought a little metal old

rusted rowboat off of Craigslist so it

sits there turned upside down on the

bank of the shore there the shore of the

UH the pond and so every now and then

I’m feeling adventurous and I’ll say

guys let’s not just fish from right here

let’s take the boat oh yeah out into the

middle a little bit it’s a huge pond

maybe five acres or so in the front of

their property so you can grow a little

boat out toward the middle and fish out

from there so sometimes I’m feeling

adventurous and I want to do that but

every time I’m feeling that I actually

have to think twice cause in order to

get in this boat that means I have to

turn this sucker over and I know that

because the environment that has been

created under this upside-down boat was

moist and cool and damp and shaded that

inevitably when I turned it over

something’s gonna hop out from

underneath it something’s gonna waddle

out from underneath it or worst of all

lord help me something’s going to

so I always brace myself I stand way

back at the very edge while I let the

boys get the sides so that we could turn

the boat over and inevitably something

comes out it has always been interesting

to me that never once have I had to

write an invitation and send it into the

brush nearby and say critters you are

welcome to join us we’ll be here at 1

o’clock today if any of you’d like to

come please feel free to make yourself

at home

I never had to do it I’ve never had to

stand on the shore and call out and say

hey we’re here come on never once have I

had to invite them the environment

created by the upside-down boat was

invitation enough righteousness is right

side up living that invites the Sun up

God’s favor and his blessing on our

lives unrighteousness is upside down

behavior that creates an environment

that invites the enemy to come and make

himself at home to where you don’t have

to ask the enemy to come you just choose

not to live in alignment with the Word

of God and you have just created an

environment that has invited him and

encourages him to flourish in your life

righteousness is not being perfect it is

just choosing as a lifestyle by the

power of God’s Spirit to live your life

in alignment with the word garden ears

guarding yourself and truth means to

affirm God’s standard for your life but

being right just means aligning your

behavior to the truth that you say you

affirm there are so many of us y’all

that are saying we love Jesus and we

love His Word and then we go out of

these doors and live and

have attitudes that are completely

incongruent with the truth of God and so

we wonder why we’re prying against the

enemy we’re in our war worms praying

against the enemy but then we walk out

of our rooms and live a raggedy

lifestyle and wonder why the enemy is

running rampant through our lives so if

you’re finding the fingerprints of the

enemy in your marriage or in your own

heart and mind if you’re seeing jealousy

and division and divisive miss and your

organisations or in your school if

you’re finding that you can see the

enemy’s handiwork around you ask myself

is my burnt boat turned upside down in

any way that I need to realign my

behavior with the truth of God so that I

could invite his favor upon my life

[Applause]

the armor of a Roman soldier weighed

about 70 pounds

can you imagine trying to do battle

trying to move nimbly and quickly with

70 pounds of extra weight on you most of

that weight was in the breastplate most

of it it’s right there mostly because it

needed to be the heart is the most vital

organ of our bodies pumping life and

vitality it didn’t matter how smart the

soldier was didn’t matter how many

muscles he had how much experience he

had if he didn’t have a breastplate on

one blow to the heart would wipe him out

that’s why more than anything the enemy

is tempting you toward unrighteousness

because he wants you to have no

breastplate on because then it doesn’t

matter how smart you are how many verses

you read a day to keep the devil away

then it doesn’t matter how much

experience you have how much you go to

church how many Bible studies you do one

blow to your spiritual heart when you

are not protected in the most vital

spiritual organ that you have that which

pumps life and vitality and passion and

gives you the fervor to continue to

follow God the enemy just wants a group

of people who say there are believers

but have no breastplate on and so it

needs to be strong and it needs to be

intact in our lives and and of all of

that the 70 pounds that a soldier

carried most of the weight was in the

breastplate if the soldier had to carry

all of that weight on their shoulders he

would be so tired and so exhausted

before the battle even begun all that

weight hanging on their shoulders was

just it was just too much too much for

him to carry part of the job of the belt

was to take some of the weight of the

breastplate off of the shoulders of the

soldier so that all that weight they

weren’t having to carry on their own it

was the belt that took that weight off

and set him free to be the soldiers God

had called them to be

can I just tell you that if you’re

trying to carry your own righteousness

it’s too much weight for you to carry oh

man if the enemy can’t shackle you to

sin or addictions in some part of your

life

he’ll shackle you to perfectionism to

where you’re carrying this righteousness

all by yourself and you can’t live free

and fully and abundantly because you’ve

got too much weight on you listen you

and I we weren’t meant to carry our

righteousness alone righteousness is too

heavy a weight to carry God’s standard

of righteousness is perfection it’s like

the sealing here in the boardís building

you all have here it is so high it

doesn’t matter if you’re more

athletically inclined than I am either

none of us in this room could jump and

reach that standard it’s just too high

doesn’t matter how good you are how high

you can jump how high I can jump none of

us can reach that standard that’s the

righteousness of God it’s too high a

standard it’s too heavy a weight and if

you’ve been carrying it you know what I

mean because that perfectionism will

keep you up at night it’ll rot your soul

from the inside out but I got good news

for you

there’s some truth that’ll take the

weight of that right off your shoulders

and here here is the truth here’s the

truth that can set you free and set you

on a path to finally pushing back the

enemy and your marriage or in your mind

or in your heart or in any area of your

life where you really feel like you need

to stave him off here’s the truth that

will begin to set you free

the truth is the 2,000 years ago Jesus

Christ came and He shed his blood on

Calvary and let me tell you when you

accept his gift let me tell you what it

does it does not just withdraw sin and

the debt the wages you and I are

supposed to pay for our sin and our our

dis repaired relationship with God he

not only withdraws that from your

spiritual bank account he doesn’t leave

you empty then he deposits the

righteousness of God in Christ Jesus

which means his righteousness is already

in you now it just has to be on you