Join us for this special program featuring special interviews and guest speaker Priscilla Shirer from the 2021 Hawaii Prayer Breakfast.

and i’ve got

two lovely ladies here what’s your name

missy and how about you

christina now you’ve got some books

there in front of you

tell me what they are uh this is uh the

armor of god study that priscilla wrote

as well as elijah

so um i’m here with my women’s group and

our group actually formed doing this

study

five years ago and we’ve continued to

meet

at weekly or bi-weekly and um

right now we are on week six of elijah

and we’re so excited to see priscilla

that’s great she’s coming up next so

yeah that’s why i keep listening i don’t

want to miss her

i’m very excited to hear tony evans and

priscilla shire too really

i’m surprised yeah she’s my

very favorite communicator of the bible

woman

how many bible studies have you done

using priscilla’s

material every single one of them oh

you’re kidding me

been involved with the prayer breakfast

for some time we’ve been involved with a

national prayer breakfast

for about 38 years and

the hawaiian prayer breakfast since we

moved here from washington d.c

18 years ago so we’ve been on

the committee for a long time i’m

currently in two different studies with

priscilla shire

she never ceases to expand the universe

of my knowledge of jesus christ

i don’t worship a person but i love to

worship with people who worship him

and even though she’s expanded my

knowledge of jesus christ i expect for

it to get blown up today

even more there’s an old saying you can

only get what you expect

and i think god is going to confound

people’s expectations today that’s

perfect but here’s the bigger question

are you a waffle guy or a pancake guy

you know do i look like i need waffles

or pancakes

but thank you

french toast that’s not even on your

menu it’s the secret item on the menu

but it’s a great day and it is a miracle

day i was so stoked for priscilla shire

i did not sleep so i see your eyes

darting around because you don’t want to

you don’t want to be missing priscilla

what are you expecting

to hear from priscilla no i’m going to

freak out and scream

she’s just i love first of all i love

how she’s always so well put together i

love the way she speaks

i just am moved every time i hear her so

yeah how about you what are you

expecting for her i’m i’m just attending

with my mother-in-law actually i’m not

sure

yeah get away no i’m not sure i’m just

excited to be here

i saw him this morning in his jesus

chair he had

his eyes closed he had worship and he

was just praying out loud

and it’s just being anchored as that son

and as that daughter

that we connect with him that’s that’s

hang time with jesus

amen well listen i have a big question

for you but i’m going to have to pass

the question

because you got to get up there we got

to get ready all right

god bless you guys enjoy

good morning everybody it’s so great to

be here to have an opportunity to see

all of you

that stayed for the second half of

the morning i know that every time i

hear

dad i see you way back there waving high

every single time dad preaches which the

four of us there are four siblings i

have three siblings so there are four of

us all together

we all attend oak cliff bible fellowship

church in dallas

that is our home church where dad and

mom

started the church that we all still

attend and all of our children their

grandchildren

we all still attend there they started

that church when i was one year old

so i’ve known i’ve known nothing other

than being underneath the teaching of dr

tony evans at

every single time i’m like lord have

mercy

i’m so grateful for him and i’m so

grateful that you all would

give us the privilege of being here all

together

our dad my brother anthony i get to be

here with my husband as well

and we brought one of our sons the other

two had a couple of things going on

my older sister crystal i thought i’d

let you lay eyes on her

i know she doesn’t want to be pointed

out but crystal just stand up over there

so that they can see you because dad

talked about you in the message this

morning this is my oldest sister crystal

right there who just stood up

she is sitting next to her husband jesse

and then my aunt is here as well who is

my mother’s

sister she is here as well and then our

beloved miss sylvia who’s been serving

at our church for about 30 years now or

more

and so just a whole posse of us came up

from dallas texas

and it feels like such a gift to be able

to participate in this

42nd annual prayer breakfast with you

i hope that what i can do for just a few

moments is share something that will

just add a layer of thought

that the holy spirit might be able to

cement in your heart on what dad already

said this morning

and that it will just help to cement it

and maybe even put an exclamation point

on it in your life

as was just mentioned a few moments ago

i do have three sons

and they are not little anymore they

once were but

around the age 12 years old or so my

boys all start sprouting up very quickly

so by the time my oldest was about

13 years old he was nearly six feet tall

he already wore a size

14 men’s shoe when he was 13 years old

all three of my sons have followed that

path so now at 18

and 16 and then my youngest jude is

getting ready to be 13 years old

my oldest two stand about six foot three

inch tall

everybody in the house is now towering

over me all i do is feed people

all day long every day that is my

full-time job

and one of the ways that their size

works on the behalf

is that they are athletes they like

football and

basketball and at one point my second

son was mostly engrossed in baseball

that was the thing that he did american

baseball is what he loved

and we enjoyed watching him play he was

actually pretty good at it

at a fairly young age probably because

of his size

he could get a lot of power behind his

swing and when he would swing

he would send the ball sailing i

remember at 10 years old was the first

time

he sent the ball sailing over the net we

were so proud of him seeing the

potential that he could have

as a baseball player i enjoy watching my

sons during

spring ball baseball during the spring i

like it i like going to practices in the

evenings

i like sitting down there on the

bleachers with the other parents

underneath the lights of the baseball

diamond and watching my kid

practice i like the saturday morning

early games

in the spring here you are at 8 a.m in

the morning or so

and you got this game you know you’re

sitting there with the other parents

starbucks

in hand as you watch your kid play i

enjoy that very much

the only problem with spring ball though

is that it is going to become

summer ball i’m not exactly sure what

happens to the climate here in hawaii

but i would assume

that it might be fairly similar maybe

maybe not to what happens in texas all i

can tell you all about texas

is that it does not warm up slightly in

the summer

it gets blistering hot in the summer

and so you feel like actually the sun is

mad

at you about something you’re just

sitting there trying to enjoy your life

but the sun is

beating down on you you’ve probably been

at your children’s

athletic games before where you’re

trying to enjoy it

but you are just plain old flat out hot

anybody know what i’m talking about

and you just are feeling the sweat

bristle up on your brow

and then roll down your face and it’s

the kind of hot in texas

where the sweat doesn’t just roll down

your face it’s rolling down your t-shirt

and down the back of your shorts

and your jeans and you really want to

enjoy this but really all you can think

is

is it okay to pray my kids team loses so

we can go home

and i will neither confirm nor deny that

i have ever done that but

on occasion at the end of the summer

when there’s not just

one game on a saturday at the end of the

summer there’s going to be a tournament

that’s where the problem sets in

because it means that you’re going to be

there not just for one game but for a

second

and then if they have the nerve to do

well you’re going to have to be there

for a third

and then they’re going to make you come

back the next day and they’re going to

put your kids team in a whole new

bracket of teams you’ll face that

those teams at 8 a.m and then 10 a.m you

get a little lunch break and then you

come back at 2 p.m then you got to come

back

the next day for the same and i remember

on one particularly hot summer day

we got that little lunch break between

games and we were so relieved

because we got to go sit in a little

restaurant where there was some

some air condition and some ice water

that the ice stayed in for a little

while

and then we came back and parked in the

parking lot for the next game

we opened up the back of the suv and we

took out all of the gear and supplies

and the bats and the

you know the the tent that we had to sit

underneath and all of the gear that we

had for the game and we started walking

back over towards the game

i was following behind my second son he

might have been 11 or so at the time

i’m following behind him you need to

know he is a fairly

upbeat gregarious courageous personality

he’s always looking forward

to the next challenge he was excited

about the game i remember as i followed

my boy

that i could see the skip in his step i

could see his chin was lifted high his

shoulders were back

he was excited about the game that he

was about to play

but as we walked just the short distance

from where we parked

to the baseball diamond i saw his

countenance completely change

i watched my son’s shoulders that had

been back

i watched them sort of hunch over i saw

his head

start hanging down i saw him get a

little bit fidgety he looked like he was

worried or concerned i watched his eyes

start darting around and here i am

following him and i’m trying to figure

out as i’m carrying the

the uh bat and the bag that i had in my

hand and i’m watching him and i’m trying

to figure out what is happening to my

son

that is making this courageous go-getter

of a young man

feel and look so differently as he makes

his way over to the baseball

diamond then i looked beside us and i

realized that as we were walking

we were passing players from another

team they were laying in the grass

underneath the shade of a big tree and

as we passed these players who were

sprawled out in the grass

i realized that i recognized these boys

these guys who made up the team that we

were about to play next

these guys were a part of a team that

was an excellent

team we had faced them earlier in the

season and when we had played them

earlier in the season these boys had

annihilated my my son

and his team these were a team filled

with serious

baseball players you know the kind of

team that has the serious parents

these were the kind of players that when

these boys were born

at birth their parents put a baseball in

one hand

and a mitt on the other and they’ve been

waiting on this their whole lives

that kind of team and i remember these

boys they are excellent players we’re

about to face them next

my son as he passed them and realized he

was about to have to play this team

his countenance changed he became a

little riddled with anxiety and fear

because he knew he was going to have to

face this team

but as we walked past them two of the t

team members from the opposing team

leaned over and started whispering to

each other

having played our team before they

remembered jc

my second son one team member leaned

over to the other in what he thought was

a whisper but we could overhear him

he leaned over and he said there goes

that big kid from the red sox team

the other one leaned back and said is

that the kid that hit the ball and it

went over the fence

yeah that’s him that’s the first baseman

he is jerry shire

when my son heard his name crossed the

lips of the opposing team members

those shoulders that had been hung down

all of a sudden they popped back

up again i watched my boy with his chin

hanging down all of a sudden his chin

went up and i watched my boy get a

little swag back in his step as he

started heading over to the baseball

diving

in fact we had to pull him down a few

notches before we got

to the next game because it is actually

amazing in that short moment i saw

the difference that can take place in a

person when you just

really overhear and understand what the

enemy thinks about you when he sees you

coming

even if the challenge remains when you

know who you

are when you know who you’ve been called

to be

and when you recognize that the one who

is against you

even if you don’t believe every single

thing that the word of god declares to

be true about you

and about me even if we don’t believe it

y’all the enemy does

he knows that you have already been

given the victory

he knows that you have already been

completely forgiven

he knows that there is therefore now no

condemnation for those of us who are in

christ jesus

he knows that you have been made

competent by the spirit of god

and y’all he knows that in the end

we win what a tragedy it would be then

if he could just sprinkle out a little

challenge in front of us and that be

enough to cause us to back down in fear

and insecurity

to the point that we won’t even step up

to the plate

of being who it is that god has called

us to be as sons and daughters of the

most high gods

but when you and i remember who we are

it changes the way we face the battles

and as dad mentioned earlier today and

as we all know very well there are many

battles that you and i are facing

on the global stage but also underneath

the roof of our own houses

in our marriages and in our parenting

and at the schools at which we teach and

the offices where we work and the

churches where we serve

and the classroom students that we are

in there are challenges that we are

facing and i

came to just reiterate to you this

morning that no matter how deep or wide

or big or vast

the challenge that you may be facing or

the challenge that i may be facing

don’t back down the spirit of god lives

on the inside of you

and has called us to walk in victory it

is at least in part to this

end that i thought i might um

i was going to say end our time together

but i know we have another session

after this but at least put an

exclamation point on what dad

shared with you this morning by

reminding you of a portion of scripture

that the apostle paul wrote in the book

of ephesians

the book of ephesians i know many of you

most of you probably are

incredibly familiar with because the

apostle paul of

all of his writing scholars say that the

book of ephesians really is the cream of

the crop of

all of his writing and y’all know the

apostle paul was a bad brother

he wrote a whole bunch of letters that

made up for us the majority of what

would become the new testament

but of all of those writings theologians

say that the cherry on top of the cake

is the book of ephesians and that’s

because he spends more than the first

half of the book

just telling you and reminding you as

sons

and daughters who you are

he wants you to know in the first

chapter and then the second chapter and

then the third chapter

that even if nobody else has chosen you

and even if you felt rejected he says i

want you to know

that you’ve been hand-picked and

hand-selected adopted

into the family of god he trips over

himself to make sure you know

that there has been grace that has been

lavished upon you

so that you can walk in freedom and

victory every single day of your life

he wants you to know that you are

completely forgiven he wants you to know

that you have been sealed by the holy

spirit of god

he wants you to know that you have so

vast an inheritance

available to you that you and i will

never be able to grab hold

of the fullness of the riches that we

have as adopted sons and daughters into

the family of the most high god

in fact he is so

dead set on making sure we know the

power of who we are

as the sons and daughters of god that he

just burst out in a prayer in the first

chapter and he says

i’m praying that the eyes of your heart

would be opened

because if you would just know who you

are it will change the course of your

life

and then he’s trying to figure out how

do i close this book

i have gone out of my way to share with

them the lavishness of the grace of god

poured over them and the inheritance

that is available to them and the

victory

that is theirs by virtue of their

relationship with jesus christ

the apostle paul picture him would you

sitting at the time in a roman prison

probably was sweat bristled up on his

brow

leaning over parchment paper with an ink

quill in hand

he’s trying to figure out how do i put

an exclamation point on this letter

to make sure that the people of god will

walk in victory

every single day of their lives

and he finalizes his letter with these

words in ephesians chapter 6

verse 10. he says finally

you be strong in the lord and in the

strength of his might

put on the full armor of god

so that you may be able to stand firm

against the schemes

of the devil he says i want you to know

that we are not wrestling against flesh

and blood

but against the rulers and against the

powers and against the world forces of

darkness

and against the spiritual forces of

wickedness that are in the heavenly

places

he says in verse 13 so therefore 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 for

he says you ought to just go ahead and

stand firm

[Applause]

therefore

the apostle paul introduces really what

dad already described

so eloquently this morning he introduces

the concept for us

of spiritual warfare he says i want you

to know

that every single battle that you are

facing

every single struggle that you are

having in your finances and in your

relationships in your health

in your own peace of mind and peace of

heart

and the relationship with your coworker

or your bowels with

spouse with your teenager or your

toddler with your adult

child every single issue that you and i

are facing the apostle paul says

i want you to know that that person or

that tangible issue

actually isn’t really your real enemy

he says you have an enemy that cannot be

touched

that cannot be seen that cannot be

detected with the five senses

and the whole goal of the enemy is get

is to get you to forget

that he is the culprit behind much of

what we are facing in this life

his whole goal is to shift your

attention stage left

so that you forget often he’s the one

standing just off stage

pulling the strings of much of what is

disturbing us in our existence

because he knows that if you are focused

on the wrong person

or the wrong issue or the wrong thing

then you will direct

all of the wrong solutions at the wrong

issue

and you will never actually hit him

where it hurts the apostle paul says you

have an enemy

and your enemy is not the person that

you are sitting next to today

your enemy is not the person that gives

you the most grief or struggle or strife

in your life

your enemy is nothing that you can see

or touch

or feel or detect with your five

physical senses you have a very real

enemy

and the apostle paul says to the

believers

in his day and by virtue of the power of

the holy spirit he says to us

today right here in the year 2021

open up your eyes

and see that there is an enemy who is

hoping

he’s banking on the fact that you will

forget he’s there

he wants you to think that just because

he is invisible he is also

fictional he wants you to chalk him up

to no more than

a caricature for a kid’s storytime

story time adventure book he doesn’t

want you to think

that he is a very real enemy when i was

my children were very very young we took

them to a harvest festival

at a small church around the corner from

our house it’s called faith bible church

we would take them there because it was

a really small church and so in this

parking lot they would have a festival

and i could keep my eye on all the boys

my sister has five children but her

youngest three are the exact same ages

as my three so we have

six boys that are the exact same age and

we would take them to this harvest

festival because we could keep our eyes

and our hands on everybody in close

proximity

i remember taking them there for the

harvest festival and this church would

have a

trunk or treat does anybody know what i

mean when i say trunk or treat

okay churches don’t do that that much

anymore but it is when a church

will have volunteers from their their

membership that will come they will put

their cars in the parking lot

open up the trunk of their car and

create some sort of carnival or

fair game outside of the trunk of the

car kids will line up behind the trunk

of one car after the

after the other they will do the game

and then they’ll get some some bit of

candy or a gift

for um their achievement in that

particular game so we just go there for

harvest festival every fall

i remember one particular fall my

youngest was four

i was grabbing him by the hand as we

waited in what was the longest line of

the night

it wasn’t behind the trunk of a car it

was behind the trunk

of well the bed i should say of a truck

it was a truck

so this was the most exciting game that

night and i remember the people that

owned this truck they had been very

creative

they had taken a table top a big wooden

piece of board

they had placed it beside the bed of the

truck

they had cut six holes in the top of the

board draped it with some drapery

they put some stairs right there at the

bed of the truck so that a kid could

walk up into the bed of the truck

turn to the side they would give the kid

a plastic hammer

a plastic mallet and out from those

holes would pop

up a puppet every couple of seconds and

the kid had to run

up and down inside the bed of the truck

trying to hit the top of every puppet

that popped up out of the side of the

board it was a homemade whack-a-mole

game is what it was

the line was long here we were standing

there waiting our turn

behind us there was another little kid

about my son jude’s age

and he was also waiting in this very

long line and he was very annoyed

about the whole situation he was

vocalizing his annoyance to his mother

and all of us were laughing out loud as

we were listening to this little kid

tell his mother how annoyed he was that

he had to stand in this long line mom

this carnival supposed to be fun for me

and standing in line ain’t fun for me

how about mom i go do all these other

games while you stand in the line and

hold my spot

and then i’ll come back when you get to

the front of the line we giggled at that

but not only that

we giggled also because this kid went on

to describe how annoyed he was at the

whole prospect

of this game because he was looking

forward to it but he didn’t quite get it

he said why in the world would i spend

all that time and energy

running up and down the inside of the

bed of that truck to hit the top of

those puppets that keep popping up

through the holes

when mom every time a kid hits the top

of that puppet it disappears but then

another one pops up over there

then the kid runs over and hits the top

of that one but another one pops over

there over there

mom what is the point of this actual

game

he was so annoyed at the whole prospect

of the game that before any of us could

think or see straight

we just saw a four-year-old flash by our

peripheral vision

as he ran forward grabbed the drapery

and pulled it off of the tabletop

underneath there were three adults with

puppets on each hand

and we laughed long and hard but we also

learned a lesson

that there is always something you

cannot see

that is influencing what you can

and if you and i spend all of our time

and energy

and our solutions and our own rationale

and our resources

dealing with everything that just keeps

popping up in our marriages and in our

finances and in our relationships and

on our jobs and in our ministries and in

our churches and in our society

if we just keep racing around using our

own rationale and our own resources

to deal with everything that’s coming up

to the surface if we only do that we

will find

at best we are exhausted and our

solutions are temporary

the apostle paul says pull the curtain

back

and let the enemy know we got our eyes

on you

we see you back there behind the curtain

and the apostle paul wants you to know

that everything we’re seeing happening

in our culture the struggles i’ve had

in my own home this year that you’ve had

in your home this year

the division the seeds of jealousy or

envy or strife

that maybe you’ve experienced in some

area of your life the apostle paul uses

a very

key word that i wanted to make sure you

heard and did not skip

over when i just quoted and read through

that passage of scripture

he says i’m going to describe for you

the warfare tactics of the enemy

he says he schemes

come on y’all somebody say schemes

i want to tell you something uh about my

personality

i am a fairly easy going person

fairly easygoing it’s very difficult for

someone to offend me

if they do something to me and it was

hurtful or whatever i can get over it

real quick i’m not an easily

offended person if someone apologizes to

me for something

i’m the kind of person that i kind of

can forgive easy i’m just wired that way

i’m not

easily offended it is hard for someone

to hurt me

but if i find out that someone didn’t

just accidentally hurt me

but they were planning to hurt me

well now that changes the playing field

because when i find out that you were

scheming

that makes me look at this whole

situation a little bit differently

when i realize and recognize that you’ve

actually been taking time

and attention to study my habits and to

see when i come

and when i go to figure out what my weak

points are so that you can actually take

advantage of them

and when i discover that not only have

you been scheming against me but you’ve

been doing the same thing with the

people that i love most

with the man that god has given me to be

married to for the past 22 years when i

find out

that not only have you been skimming

against me but you’ve been scheming

against him

you’ve been looking into his history

where he came from and what he’s done

and what he’s been through and

the hurts that he’s suffered maybe so

that you can see how to make what’s in

his history

and to make what is in my history become

a point of contention between us

so that we can have peace and stability

and health in our relationship

when i find out that you’ve had your

eyes on him to try to detect

what weak points he may have so that you

can dangle

certain carrots at certain times in a

certain way

to very strategically draw him away

and when i find out that not only have

you been doing that about me and my man

but you’ve actually had the nerve to

have a scheme

in place about these three boys that god

has given me

to rear and raise prayerfully to

becoming the warrior men of god that god

has called them to be

when i find out you’ve already been

looking at my boys

trying to figure out how you can trip

them up as they become who god has

created them to meet

be well listen if i find out you’ve been

scamming against me and the people that

i love

well if it’s a war you want it’s a war

you gonna have

[Applause]

y’all we can’t just lay back and let the

enemy run roughshod over our lives we’ve

got to be the people of god who rise up

and stand in the gateway of our homes

and say not today satan not on our watch

we’ve got to be women of god and men of

god and church leaders who

will stand up leaders in the community

and in business

who will stand up in the gates of our

community and say not today satan

we see you back there behind the curtain

behind the curtain with all this

political unrest that pops up and

racial unrest that pops up and financial

instability and

concerns in our health both both

emotionally and mentally and physically

we see you and we’re gonna use some

weapons that actually work

against you and so the apostle paul

he says to lay down all the other

weapons that we’ve been using that ain’t

been working

anyway and pick up some weapons that

actually have

some power and in the remainder of these

verses in ephesians chapter six he

begins to tell us

what are the traditionally taught six

but i believe seven

weapons that will actually push back the

kingdom

of darkness he says you need a belt

called truth

and you’re going to need a breastplate

called righteousness and if you want any

hope of being able to move forward with

any stability you’re going to have to

have something for your feet

your feet are going to need to be shot

with the gospel of the preparation of

peace

he says then you’re going to need a

shield because the enemy has flaming

missiles that are going to be sent your

direction

in hopes of setting a flame the course

of your life you’re going to need a

shield erected over your life and that

shield is called your

faith and then he says you’re going to

need something for your mind

because the enemy is going to try to

detract you and deter you

with lies that will become strongholds

and strongholds will stand against the

knowledge of god

in your life so you’re going to need

something to cover your mind

he says you’re going to need a helmet

and the helmet is called salvation

and then he says not only that you’re

also going to need a sword you’re going

to need something so that you can be on

the offense

against the schemes of the devil you’re

going to need a sword and the sword

is the word of god but then he does not

end with those six he says in verse 18

there is a seventh weapon and the weapon

is

pray

do not discount the power of the seventh

weapon

and as dad said earlier don’t just pray

once a year at the annual prayer

gathering

prayer has to be a regular priority in

the course of your life

as women and as men as husbands and as

wives as parents as an entrepreneurs

as ministry builders and church leader

church leaders and

congregants within the church a priority

of all of our lives have got has got to

be

to pray pray prayer does not manipulate

god

what prayer does is access all of the

things that god

has determined to do for us anyway

prayer is the key that god has given us

to

unlock the resources of heaven and have

those re

resources unleashed onto the landscape

of our lives

why wouldn’t we use a key like that

prayer is actually what activates all of

the other pieces of armor

so that they become operative and

functional and powerful

in our lives and so i ask you brothers

and sisters at this prayer breakfast

have you prioritized prayer

the victory you are looking for is

directly correlated to whether or not

you have prioritized prayer

and i have prioritized prayer in our

lives

if you tell me that you want victory in

some area of your life or mine where you

remote where you or i are most

struggling or some area of our country

or culture where we most feel a burden

and a compassion

about seeing god bring resolution in

that area if we say we want victories in

those areas

but we do not prioritize prayer we will

never

ever see the victory that we are looking

for if

my people who are called by my name

if they will humble themselves listen if

they will do it

this doesn’t even require a brand new

evangelistic effort to get a whole bunch

of other folk to pray

it’s just if the people who are already

called by my name

if i could just get them to prioritize

prayer

he says that i will hear from heaven and

i will heal

the whole land i wish i had time and i

don’t i don’t want to spend too much

time i know we have something else to do

but there are two

other pieces of armor that i thought i’d

just share a couple of thoughts with you

regarding

the very first one in the list that the

apostle paul brings up

is the belt of truth

now in the first century a roman soldier

was a ubiquitous presence meaning

people would just saw soldiers all the

time walking up and down the street it

was a normal part of everyday life

and most of the time when you saw a

soldier coming you would first be

uh take note of the brightly colored

colored feathers that

would be at the top of the helmet or

you’d see the huge breastplate that was

guarding the major vital organs or you

might see the boots

the boots had hob nails or big steel

points that would be at the bottom of

that to help them

in their terrain you would take note of

maybe the huge

broadsword that was about three or four

feet long there were so many

impressive parts of the uniform of a

roman soldier

but when the apostle paul was trying to

write for us

about the importance and priority of

being people who are

girded in truth he did not pick the most

impressive parts the flashiest parts

the most easily noticeable parts of the

roman’s

soldier’s uniform rather he chose

just the piece that the roman soldier

put on first

the very first thing that a soldier

would put on

was this belt of truth and the reason

why

was not only because it brought

stability to their core

but the belt was actually the hanging

place for every other piece

it was connected in some form or fashion

and brought stability and

centralized everything else that the

soldier would have on

he says to the believers if you want any

hope at all of being able to stand firm

against the scheme of the enemy

then you’re going to have to be first a

person who has chosen to be girded in

truth

and just because you attend church on

sunday and just because you’re a part of

the bible study

group and just because you’re an active

part of um

organizations and events like this one

does not

also automatically mean that you have

chosen

to gird your life in truth in other

words

for the word of god to actually be the

compass for your life

for you to have made a decision that as

for me and my house

what we gonna do is we gonna serve the

lord that whether or not it is

politically correct or whether or not it

is applauded and appreciated by the

masses

whether or not high school student i

have to and you will have to

walk alone i will stand for the truth of

my great god

you’ve got to decide that you will be a

person

who knows god’s word and then aligns

your whole life to it

so i want to tell you this about about

dad

my father is many many things he joked

earlier at the beginning of his message

about being a great orator and an

intellectual and all those things he

actually is all of those things

he is a great man but here’s what you

need to also know about daddy

he is incredibly technologically

challenged

it’s embarrassing how technologically

challenged he is

and i remember this from like 15 or 20

years ago we had a a la

we had a um a monitor you know a

computer in the guest bedroom of our

parents home

they still live in or my dad now lives

in the exact same house they raised us

in they’ve been

in that same house since i was seven

years old when we moved there

and in that back room i remember we had

a computer there

and i also remember when laptops became

a thing everybody had i remember dad had

a laptop it was in the drawer

of his desk in the office so he had this

technology

available he had no idea how to use any

of it

still to this day my father writes out

his messages using a

yellow legal pad you know those yellow

pads he actually hand

writes in chicken scratch his messages

none of us except our wonderful miss

sylvia over there

who’s been dad’s assistant for 30 years

you are the only person that can read

whatever

dad has written down on those legal pads

he does not type anything

out i remember many years ago

when my brother our youngest brother he

was playing

football for baylor university dad was

so excited

when one of his sons went to go play

college level

football and so one day he said

i need to get on this computer so that i

can go to baylor university website

and find my son’s photo in this roster

at the time my sister crystal was at the

house with dad

he said crystal come back here and show

me how to turn this thing

on she commenced to go back in the back

with him with the computer we had there

in the house she showed him how to turn

it on

and then he said okay how do i get to

the page crystal showed him

how to put in the url address that would

get to baylor’s homepage

just as he was about to ask or he did

ask how do i maneuver around this page

so i can get to where i’m actually going

the phone rang crystal had to run out to

another part of the house

to get the phone and and he said how do

i maneuver around this page

she said as she left the room use the

mouse

so there’s this little thing there with

a tail sticking out of it he assumes

that the mouse

the way i understand it my sister

returned to see our relatively

intelligent father

with the mouse up in midair just waving

it around trying to see

if it was gonna do anything when that

did not work y’all i kid you not

he put the mouse flat on the computer

screen and was dragging it up and down

so here’s this man with a computer at

home with a laptop and another computer

available to him at the church

in the offices he had all of these

computers available to him but he did

not know how to use it

and because he didn’t know how to use it

he couldn’t receive the full benefits of

it

and the thing about you and i sometimes

as believers and churchgoers

is that y’all we have so many bibles

available to us

because we’ve got that nice big pretty

one that we put on the coffee table or

on the mantelpiece

and then we have the little small one

that we keep beside us on the nightstand

then we have one

with all the marks and the tatters and

the and the the torn pages and the edges

that looks like we’ve really used it

that’s the one that makes us look holy

we take that one

to church with us we have all these

bibles available to us but

having them does us no good unless we

know how to use them

and david said here’s how you use the

thing

you hide it in your heart

so that you will not sin against him

paul says if you want any hope against

the scheme

of the enemy you’ve got to make sure you

are girded

first of all in truth

the reason why is because the enemy’s

main calling card y’all

is deception it’s like

a bait and switch he pulls the wool over

your eyes

and the problem is when you’re the one

being deceived everybody else may know

but you don’t

has within it a blinding agent that

somehow

causes you not to not be aware of your

surroundings

rightfully aware of your surroundings so

if you’re the one being deceived

you can be standing on the edge of

disaster and everybody can see

that if you take one more step you’re

gonna fall

but somehow you can’t tell that you’re

in that position

and the truth be told that if we were to

really take time and i took this

microphone

and we just started passing around the

room i know i could start

by telling you about a time and a season

in my life that i can

look back on and realize in hindsight

that i was being deceived can i get one

witness

that knows what i’m talking about

because it’s

some at some points in our life it’s not

until we are outside of those seasons of

our life

that we can tell in hindsight that we’re

being deceived but

in the moment you don’t know you think

you are seeing correctly

you think you are judging correctly you

think your feelings are correct you feel

like the opinions that you are

receiving are correct you have no idea

that you’re being deceived

that’s the reason why we have to have a

standard that is

outside of ourselves

that continues to remain true and solid

and that we align ourselves to

regardless of the way we feel

the enemy is hoping that we will trust

our feelings

he is hoping that we will trust our own

understanding

he is hoping that we will depend upon

and lean

into the opinions of everybody else that

is around us

what is most of threat to him is not

someone who

just goes to church or someone who just

attends the gathering what is most a

threat to the kingdom of darkness

is a believer who is standing firm

on the truth of god and uses god’s word

as the moral compass

for his or her life the apostle paul

says you need a belt of truth and then

finally

he says you also need a breastplate and

the breastplate

is called righteousness

jerry and i live in a fairly rural part

we have lived

up until recently in a fair rural rural

area of the dallas fort worth

metroplex it’s close enough to the city

to get there quick

but it’s it feels like it’s worlds away

i like it on a little quiet lazy

two-lane road

the house we were in was a pretty small

little home but we loved it so much

because it had a big backyard and i

already told you guys

i got three boys and i’m one of those

parents that believes in

go outside and play

anytime they had the nerve to come to me

and say

mom i’m bored i’d say say what

no you’re not you see that tree out

there go play with it

i don’t care if you eat it i don’t play

if you play play tag with it you can do

whatever you want but you’re not bored

out here in the country

i enjoy that by boys being able to spend

time outside

our neighbor across the street she’s one

of my closest friends

still to this day has been for 20 years

she has a huge

pond in front of her property it’s big

it’s several acres

big so we can row out in a little little

row boat they got got on craigslist

we can row out to the middle of it and

fish i’ve taken my boys fishing a lot

most of the time my sister lived next

door to me as well so we take all six

boys sometimes

we stand on this little cove right on

the side of the pond most of the time

we just fish right there in an hour we

can just catch two or three fish really

easily

little sun perch nothing nothing major

we would take the two fishing poles that

we bought on sale at the local super

walmart around the corner the same

walmart that my dad detests going to

the tackle box we also got from the

walmart um you know i’ve got like

some scissors in there in case we need

to cut the line i have

some extra hooks we always need extra

those little ball bobber thingies

we need extras of those so i have extras

in there and i also have gloves on the

tackle box because you all know i don’t

mind going fishing but i ain’t gonna

actually touch no fish

so we grab whatever hot dog meat is left

over from the week

that’s our bait because you know we’re

professional fishermen and we go to the

edge of the pond

we drop our line in and we fish but

every now and then we’re feeling

adventurous

and this little rowboat that my

neighbors got on craigslist

sometimes we’ll say let’s let’s paddle

out to the middle of the pond

but i have to feel adventurous to do

that and the reason why is because

my neighbors when the boat isn’t being

used we’ll leave it upside down right

there on the bank of the pond

rightfully so because it needs to drain

all the water that may have been in it

or

or if it rains it would fill up so

they’ve got to leave it upside down but

the problem is to get in it now i have

to turn it

over and i just know that because the

environment that has been created under

the upside down boat

is dark and moist and damp

that when i turn this thing over

inevitably

something is either going to hop out

from underneath it

something’s going to waddle out from

underneath it or worst of all lord have

mercy

something is going to slither out from

underneath it

so whenever we decide to do this i

always stand way

back at the tip of the boat the boys

stand on the side so that they can catch

whatever’s coming out

and we turn it over and inevitably

something comes out here’s the deal

never once have i ever had to send a

golden sealed

invitation into the brush nearby to tell

the critters hey we’re coming at one

o’clock today if you want to join us

feel free

never once have i had to stand there and

call out and say hey

we’re here come over and make yourself

at home never one

once have i had to invite them because

the environment created by the upside

down boat

is invitation enough

righteousness is right side

up living that invites the sunlight of

god’s favor

and blessing on your life

[Applause]

unrighteousness is a lifestyle

a pattern of upside down

behavior that is out of alignment with

the truth of god that you say you affirm

in your life

it’s upside down living that creates

an environment for the enemy and his

demonic influences to make themselves at

home

in your life and in your relationships

and in your heart and even in your mind

and

on your job and in your ministry and in

your churches

and in our culture unrighteousness

creates an environment where the devil

can just play

us for the fool that’s why

he hopes that god’s people will no

longer prioritize

holiness i want you to know the apostle

paul says

that living right not perfect but

honoring god as a lifestyle actually

becomes

a breastplate that protects your vital

spiritual organs from the advances of

the enemy because if a roman soldier

had on every other piece and was strong

had muscles and was smart and had

experience

in battle but if that soldier went into

battle with

all of that but without a breastplate

one shot to the heart could wipe him out

even though he was so well equipped

the enemy wants there to be people who

will prioritize

everything except plain old flat out

living right i want to encourage you

sons and daughters

of the most high god brothers and

sisters

pursue holiness it’s not

old school or something that was just

for our grandmothers and our great

grandmamas

you and i have to have integrity we have

to have

character we have to walk in a manner

that is

worthy of the calling by which we have

been called

i’ll tell you in closing that the

breastplate was the heaviest

piece that a roman soldier would carry

70 pounds

heavy if all of that weight was on the

soldier’s

shoulders as it was draped over the

shoulders to be carried

if all of that weight had to be

shouldered by

the soldier can you imagine how much

energy would be depleted before they

ever even got to the battlefield

they wouldn’t be able to move nimbly or

quickly or easily

with that much weight on them

and so the belt one of its

responsibilities

was to take some of the weight of the

breastplate

off of the shoulders soldiers so that

all of the weight didn’t have to be

shouldered by them there was something

else that would carry

and take off some of that weight so that

they would still have enough energy

and vitality to perform well on the

field of battle

here’s what i want you to know if you

are trying to carry your

righteousness all by yourself that is

too

heavy a wait for you to bear

but there is some truth that will take

that weight off of your shoulders

because if the enemy can’t saddle us and

destroy us

and distract us with sin or rebellion

or addiction he will try to saddle you

and slow you down with perfection

to where you’re trying to pursue

perfectionism and pursue your

own righteousness and you don’t

recognize that you don’t have to carry

all that weight on your own

and here is the truth that will take

some of the weight off

the truth is that 2000 years ago a man

named jesus christ

came and he was the perfect one we don’t

need another perfect one the perfect one

has already come

and he sacrificed his life on calvary’s

tree

and then three days later he was raised

from the dead once and for all sealing

the fact

that we would never again have to carry

our own righteousness

and the scriptures say that the moment

you accept that gift

that not only does he withdraw from your

spiritual bank account the wages that

you would owe that i would owe for our

own sin

but he then credits our spiritual bank

account with

the righteousness of god in christ jesus

so righteousness then is already in you

now it just has to be on you

and so really quickly before we go to

this

time of question and answer i just want

you to bow your heads for a moment

because

having spiritual victory in your own

personal life

or in our communities in our cities in

our

in our world it begins with making sure

you

have made a decision to wear the

righteousness of jesus christ and it

would be

remiss of me and our family to have come

all this way and to assume

that just because you’ve attended this

prayer breakfast that you have

accepted the gift that jesus has given

you

and so even here yes at the prayer

breakfast i just want to ask you

have you accepted jesus christ

as your savior and if you’re in this

room as every

head is bowed and eye is closed and you

know that you have not made that

decision

would you just raise your hand up really

high if you want to

because today can be the day that

changes the course

of the rest of your life you can start

living in victory starting

today if there’s anybody in the room

that has not made that choice and you

want to

just raise your hand and wave at me

until i see it

anybody

anybody

lord i thank you at the assumption that

i’m making in this moment father that

every single person in this room knows

you as lord

i thank you for the victory that is ours

in jesus name

i praise you father for the armor that

you have given us so that we can stand

firm against the schemes of the enemy i

thank you father that we are

already walking in victory i pray that

it would be our experience every single

day for the rest of our lives

we honor you father and we thank you for

everything that you have already

accomplished on our behalf

in jesus name i pray amen

so how was the prayer breakfast for you

it was extraordinary

there’s no question that this team

of evans the team evans

is just what we need in today’s

environment they’re articulate they’re

representative

they’re current and they’re certainly

the godly influence that we’re missing

in our community conspicuous i know

you’re a big priscilla fan

along with my wife and karen yeah well

i’m expecting that she will be like

danielle

i’ve missed you that will not happen

because she does not know me

but she did shout me out on her

instagram yesterday so

here’s oh no i’m just kidding priscilla

just spoke about

the the truth the girding the truth

around your waist

sorry i’m getting emotional about this

because it just really touched my heart

she talked about the armor of god

of god and i love the way she puts it

into perspective

and how the belt of truth is the one

that really holds everything else up

she said the truth is the core and that

it actually holds

everything else and holds the weight of

everything else and

it was something i just really needed to

hear because everything that i’m going

through right now

is just it just it just touched on a lot

i am so sorry i’m getting emotional

for her willingness to just share her

heart with the passion

and the purpose that she comes with

don’t surrender to the enemy

uh we’re at war we know that we wrestle

not against flesh and blood

but against principalities rules in high

places and so we how can we forget that

yeah we forget it we forgetting she

reminded us hey listen we have an unseen

enemy you know i’m not fighting against

you brother

you’re not fighting against me but it’s

the enemy that wants to separate us and

divide us

how exciting is this for you to see all

these people

there’s like 1200 people here or plus

what do you think about that

oh i’m thrilled i love that we’re

together gathering i love that we’re

able to pray together to me praying in

numbers is so powerful

and you’ve been involved with the prayer

breakfast for some time we’ve been

involved with a national prayer

breakfast

for about 38 years and

the hawaiian prayer breakfast since we

moved here from washington dc

18 years ago you know we need to

represent

right we need to live out our faith and

we need to

not be ashamed of that and make that our

our lead story

when you pray often for us

we have learned to be silent

and let god speak to us before we

even offer prayers but

it is such a connection with our lord

it’s a personal

prayer life and tell me how important is

prayer in your life

oh vital vital there was definitely a

period of time in my life where i

neglected prayer where i didn’t

plug into that power but actually

priscilla schreier’s war room was

something that triggered

something in me that i realized i was

not activating the power that i had that

i wasn’t calling upon the power of jesus

christ and wasn’t

just wasn’t tapped into that what do you

think is going to happen after this with

all these people praying

together christine i’m hoping it’ll be a

catalyst

you know for us to just seek god more

and because that is really the key to

everything is

seeking god first and so i’m hoping that

this will be a catalyst for all of us

and of course i’m hoping for good coffee

yes yeah well that was my next question

are you a coffee person or a tea person

coffee i’m i’m okay i i like good coffee

as well but

she’s she’s the connoisseur yeah yeah a

coffee snob as we say yes i’m right next

to you don’t worry about that

hey aloha everybody we are the kalo team

we’ve been doing production here at the

hawaii prayer breakfast

and you’re watching

you