Priscilla Shirer: YOUR Spiritual Battle & the Armor of God (Full Teaching) | Praise on TBN

Priscilla Shirer speaks at the 2018 Passion Conference for TBN’s Praise. Gain strength and wisdom for your spiritual battles as Priscilla boldly calls out the schemes placed against you, and the distractions we all fall into when we don’t know how to effectively wear the armor of God.

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he wants you to point fingers at him or

at her at your boss

at your parent at that particular

professor or your r.a

in your dorm he wants you to think it’s

that advisor or it’s that financial

problem anything

flesh and blood because he knows as long

as we’re looking at the flesh and blood

we will direct all the wrong weapons at

the wrong culprit

i cannot even begin to tell you how

excited i am

to be here

thrilled finally to be a passion this

is my first time being at passion

i i’m the new kid on the block

thank you for making the new kid feel

welcome it is a privilege to be a part

of what god has already been doing

through this movement for these years

these decades that god has been sowing

seed into the lives of

of you y’all don’t even know

what it is that the lord has in store

you can’t even imagine i’m trying to

tell you that whatever is in your mind

right now about what god

might do with your life it is too

small for what he’s actually planning to

do

too small you cannot fathom

what god has in mind for you the reason

why i can say that

with that much boldness

is because while there are 30 plus

thousand of us that are gathered

together in these three arenas and then

those that are on the other side of the

screen in their homes

thirty thousand sounds like a big number

unless you consider the fact that with

seven

plus billion people on the planet

the fact that he’d let us be the ones

that are recipients of what he’s done

over these last

few weekends really it’s just our last

few days really it’s just a drop in the

bucket 30 000 sounds like a lot but in

the grand scheme of all the people

that could have been here y’all he chose

us

that means he intended for you to know

you’re an arrow that your expectation is

that you’re getting ready to go places

the likes of which you could never

imagine oh i like y’all y’all talk back

to me

i go to that kind of a church where they

talk but you know i go to the kind of

church where

if the preaching gets really good to us

we might throw something

at the pastor a shoe

a baby anything might go flying up there

y’all are my people y’all came to have

church

so i have three boys um it’s a little

bit scary to me that they are

nearly and will be very soon in the next

few years will be

about your age three sons the

distinguishing characteristic about my

boys

is that they are giants they are huge

boys

my 15 year old is six foot two inches

tall

he wears a size 14 men’s shoe my 13 year

old is about

six one he wears a 13 men’s shoe

and uh they tower over me i have a nine

year old who’s coming up in the ranks

with his brothers they are

tall boys somebody can help me feed

these people

and one of the distinguishing

characteristics about or what makes

their size

work for them rather is that they do

love sports so whatever sport is sort of

in season that’s what we’re playing at

the time

my second son for a lot of years he’s

into basketball now but for a lot of

years

baseball was this thing and i enjoyed

that i enjoyed baseball season

i liked going out there for spring ball

i liked spring ball because you go

sit in the cool of the evening while

your kid is practicing i remember all

those years of

of little league when he was just coming

up and we’d sit out there in the

cool of the spring evening under the

lights of the bleachers watching and

practice and enjoying just

uh that whole atmosphere i like spring

ball so much the only problem with

spring ball is that it is going to

become summer ball

and i don’t know what happens where you

live wherever you’re coming from but i

can tell you in dallas texas which is

where i still live

and where i was born and raised in

dallas

texas in the summertime it doesn’t warm

up slightly

it gets hot i’m talking about slap your

mama hot

that kind of hot the kind of hot where

you feel like

the sun must be mad at you about

something like you did something to the

sun and the sun is trying to get you

back

all summer long that’s what it feels

like and you’re sitting out there at a

game trying to enjoy your kid’s game and

it really still is okay when there’s

just

one game the problem is that at the end

of every season there’s a tournament

so you got to be out there on a thursday

at 8 00 am and 10 a.m and noon and 2 p.m

and then depending upon how your kids

team did you’re gonna have to come back

on friday at 8 am and 10 a.m and then

they give you a little lunch break but

you got to come back

for the 2 p.m game the 4 p.m game and

then if your kid’s team had the nerve to

do well

you got to come back again on saturday

for the 8 a.m game and 10 a.m

and noon and 2 and man you’re sitting

out there under the blazing sun

trying to be happy that your kid is

doing well

really you’re wondering if it’s ever

okay to pray they lose so you can go

home

i will never confirm nor deny that i

have ever done that

but i will tell you that we were sitting

out there at a tournament so several

years ago

sun was blazing we were so excited for

the lunch break just because that meant

we would be able to go to a restaurant

where there would be air condition

and ice water that actually had ice in

it

we got refreshed we came back

we drove our suv up into the parking lot

opened up the back of the suv so that we

could pull out all the gear that we

needed

to go to the next game in the tournament

we were three days into the tournament

hot

sweaty they were doing well we were

trying to be excited about it

ready for the next game i was walking

behind my son

to get from where we had parked the car

over toward the dugout where the next

game was going to be played and so

i gathered up all the stuff you know the

ice chest that you have and the um

the umbrella that you might have to go

over your head and you know the water

bottles the

the backpacks the the baseballs the

mitts all that stuff and i was following

behind

my son my second son jerry jr is a

fairly gregarious personality

he’s outgoing he’s excited for a

challenge

so i could see that in his step as i

followed behind him i could see a skip

in his step his chin was up his

shoulders were back he was excited about

the next game

and i got to tell you he’s pretty good

in baseball he has a natural

knack for it i remember at 10 years old

was the first time

he got a good hit and sent it sailing

over the fence line at 10 years old

and i think it’s partly because of his

size just a lot of power behind the

swing a great as a first baseman

so we were really excited about his

success in baseball and

and i watched him as he kind of hopped

and skipped over to the next game

just excited about the next challenge in

the tournament

but because i was following behind him i

had my eyes glued on him and i could see

when something changed i could see that

as we took the short walk

from where we parked the car over to the

dugout i could see that his shoulders

started to hunch over and his

head hung down i could see that that

that skip that had been in his step it

changed he was kind of

walking like he was nervous he was

wringing his hands a little bit i saw

that he was looking around his eyes

darting and

looking a little bit sketchy i was

trying to figure out what happened to my

boy it was a short walk

from where we parked the car over to the

dugout and all of a sudden his

countenance had completely changed so i

started looking around trying to figure

out what was going on why

did he look so insecure and fearful all

of a sudden

i realized that as we were going toward

the dugout we were walking past

some kids from another team they were

all laying

on the grass underneath the shade of an

oak tree getting ready for the next game

as i passed them i could see this was

the team we were about to play next

kept walking and i kept getting a look

at these boys

and when i looked at them i realized

what my son’s problem was

we had faced this team before we had

faced them earlier in the season

and when this team had played my son’s

team earlier in the season they had

annihilated us it had been a complete

embarrassment a complete upset

this team right here y’all they were

serious baseball players

but we had to walk right by them to get

to the dugout as we walked past there

were two players they were talking to

each other one was whispering to the

other

i think he thought he was whispering but

we could hear him

he leaned over to the other one and he

said there goes that big kid from the

red sox team

is he the one that hit the ball and it

went over the fence

yeah he was the one at first base the

one that caught any of the outs that we

got in the game that was him

so that’s jerry shire

when my boy heard his name cross the

lips of the opposing team members

those shoulders that had been hanging

down all of a sudden i watched him pop

back again

i watched his chin go up i watched him

get a little swag

back in his step as he headed over

toward the dugout

in fact we had to bring him down a few

notches before the game started

it’s amazing really how your countenance

changes

when you really overhear and understand

what the enemy thinks about you when he

sees you coming

it doesn’t mean that the challenge goes

away it means that in the face of it

you’re different your stance is

different because you recognize

that when the enemy sees a daughter or a

son

of god coming his way he’s shaking in

his boots not because of you

but because of the holy spirit of god

that lives on the inside of me

i came to tell somebody today that even

if you don’t believe what it is that the

word of god

declares to be true about you you need

to know that the enemy does

he knows that every single thing that

god’s word

declares to be true about you every word

that has been declared

over you in these last few days of this

conference even if you’re not

convinced about it the enemy is he knows

that you have been 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 given the

victory he knows that you have been made

competent by the spirit of god

he knows that there is therefore now no

condemnation for you

or for me no shame no guilt he knows

that you have not been given a spirit of

fear

but a power and love and of a sound mind

and y’all he knows that in the end

we win

and i’m saying what ashamed it would be

for the enemy to believe more about your

potential than you do

what ashamed it would be for us to go

out of here

with all of this inspiration that we

have been given this

investment of god’s word that he has

gathered us together over the course of

these days

to worship in spirit and in truth and to

hear his word declared

true over our lives what a tragedy it

would be

for us to walk out of here and still

live like we were

before we came through these doors

so what the enemy will do is scatter

challenge in front of your life because

listen you’re going back home to

challenge y’all do know

we going back home in a little while

right and don’t we wish we could wake up

to this

every single day don’t we wish that we

could

have god’s word spoken over our lives

with this much authority and power every

single day and be in the presence of

leaders who can

lead us into the presence of god and

worship every single day

like this but the reality is we’re going

back home

the challenges of your university campus

the challenges of your home your

relationships your friendships

on your job those challenges will be

sprawled out in front of you with

you get home and let me tell you

something what the enemy hopes

is that the sight of them will cause you

to shrink back in so much

fear and insecurity that you’ll never

step up to the plate of being who god

has called you to be

listen if you’ve placed faith in jesus

christ i hope you know

that the enemy understands he cannot

destroy you

he knows his chances are over of

destroying you so he is going to spend

the rest of his time

and the rest of his energy just trying

to discourage you

trying to distract you so that you’ll

shrink back in fear and insecurity and

not

step up to the plate and be

who god has called you to be

it is at least in part to this end that

the apostle paul gives us a passage of

scripture

that has become a lifeline for me

in fact i was talking with christine

yesterday chris and i have known each

other for a very long time very close

friends and she was asking me

what i was going to speak on i had

several thoughts of directions that i

was

leaning toward but in the end we

as we were talking the question came up

if there was only one thing you could

say to them

if there’s only one message that you

ever have the opportunity

to tell these students these young

people that will be gathered together on

this occasion what

would that message be and there was one

thing that immediately popped into my

heart

and my mind for you at the end of this

year’s passions

passion conference it’s the words of the

apostle paul

he writes them in the book of ephesians

listen let me just tell you quickly

before i read this passage you got

if you’ve not read the book of ephesians

you’re gonna have to read the book of

ephesians

y’all listen it’s it’s like for real

the apostle paul y’all know he was a bad

boy he gave us most of what would become

the new testament

letters written to first century

believers that now disciple us and help

us to mature as believers and as the

body of christ

and scholars say that of all of paul’s

writing really the cream of the crop the

cherry on top of the cake

is ephesians because in the book of

ephesians y’all he just spends the first

half of the book just rehearsing who you

are as a daughter or a son

he wants to make sure you step up to the

plate rise to the occasion of who

you’ve been recreated in christ to

become those of you

who place faith in jesus christ last

night who stood

to your feet at the end of pastor

louie’s message and you place faith in

jesus

listen the old has gone and the new has

come

you’re a daughter your son and you have

full rights and privileges that have

been granted to you

the apostle paul wants you to know what

is the hope of his calling and choosing

you

he writes in the first and second and

third chapter about the treasure that

you have

he wants you to know about the mercy

that has been lavished upon you

the grace that has been given to you he

wants you to know that if you’ve been

rejected by everybody else

you’ve been hand-picked chosen and

adopted by the one true god

he wants you to know that if you’ve dug

a pit of sin for yourself

that is so deep you can’t find your way

out of it

that the mercy of god is so great and so

grand

that it can reach down into any pit and

snatch you up out of it once and for all

in fact paul gets so worked up that by

the time he gets to the middle of the

first

chapter he bursts out in a prayer and he

says

i’m praying that the eyes of your heart

would be open

so that you would just know what is the

hope of his calling and choosing you

and after going over and over and on and

on about the lavishness the richness the

grace

the mercy the goodness the adoption that

has been poured out over us the

forgiveness

that has been granted to us he’s trying

to figure out how do i

close this letter to make sure they step

up to the plate

how do i put an exclamation point on

passion 2018 to

make sure that what god has given them

they don’t hand

over to the enemy as soon as they walk

out the door

and the apostle paul writes these words

to us

in ephesians chapter 6 beginning in

verse 10.

he says finally

you be strong in the lord and in the

strength of his might

he says put on the full armor of god

so that you may be able to stand firm

against the scheme somebody say schemes

against the schemes of the devil he says

we wrestle not we struggle

not against flesh and blood but against

the rulers against the powers

against the world forces of this

darkness against the spiritual forces of

wickedness that are in the heavenly

places

he says so therefore you might as well

just go ahead and

put down all the weapons of this world

that aren’t working for you anyway

and take up some weapons that actually

have some power

he 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 these few verses of scripture the

apostle paul begins to introduce to us

a concept that has not been

at least in the context of thus far in

church

development at that time had not been as

overtly described as it is right now

in paul’s letter he brings up the topic

of spiritual warfare he says

you have an enemy he says i want to make

sure that it’s loud and clear there are

other places in the old testament and

throughout throughout the new y’all

where we can infer that we have a

spiritual

unseen battle going on but this is the

first time that an

author comes right out and says you have

an

enemy and he is scheming against you

that when you leave this place in just a

little while when i leave this place in

just a little while

you need to know that there is an enemy

he is against

you he is not for you he plans to do

anything and everything in his power

to stir up challenge in your life enough

to cause you to shrink back and not rise

up and stand

firm in the victory that you have been

given in christ jesus that’s why the

apostle paul says

stand firm

because you have an enemy an enemy that

wants you to think that just because he

is invisible he is also fictional

he wants to be chalked up to nothing

more than a caricature

a cartoon picture a myth a

character for a kid’s nursery rhyme he

doesn’t want you to recognize

the influence that he has over your life

possibly to

to cause you to never walk into the full

expression of god’s grace and goodness

in your life

he is sinister he is a master

illusionist and he is a deceiver

and he hopes to cleverly disguise

himself

behind life’s most pressing problems to

where you will forget he is even there

he wants you to point fingers at him or

at her

at your boss at your parent at that

particular professor or your r.a

in your dorm he wants you to think it’s

that advisor or it’s that financial

problem anything

flesh and blood because he knows as long

as we’re looking at the flesh and blood

we will direct all the wrong weapons at

the wrong culprit

we’ll think our money will work we’ll

think our rationale and logic

will actually work we think that the

diploma we’re about to

to achieve and receive we’ll think the

diploma will be work worth it

we’ll think that the connections will

work anything

natural cannot take care of the

supernatural

when your problem is unseen and

spiritual you need

weapons that work in that realm

so the apostle paul says you got to know

first of all that your enemy is not the

person you are sitting next to today

that your enemy is not your parent at

home your enemy

is not that professor that is difficult

to work with your real enemy

is not your boss on your part-time job

your real enemy

is unseen he is hoping y’all that we

will forget he’s there

he is the master deceiver so there’s a

little church around the

corner from my house in dallas

i’ve been taking my kids there since

they were little to harvest festival

that’s basically this church’s answer

to halloween so we will go there for

harvest festival

and this church has a good old-fashioned

trunk or treat

does anybody know what i mean when i say

trunk or treat

okay all right so trunk or treat for

those of you who are not

clear on what that is that’s when

members of the congregation volunteer

they volunteer to bring their cars into

the parking lot on harvest festival

night

so that they can open up the trunk of

their car so you go into the parking lot

all the trunks are open

and each person has basically crafted a

carnival game or some sort of fair game

out of the trunk of the car

so kids line up one trunk after the

other they play whatever the game is

and then most of the time whether they

win or lose the person that owns that

car gives them a whole bunch of candy

and sends them home we’re always so

grateful

so we stand in line one car after the

other waiting on bags of candy

and we play one game after the other a

few years ago

the biggest line the longest line at the

carnival wasn’t behind

a car it was behind the bed of a truck

it was really clever

a huge truck had been parked in the

parking lot

and they’d put a step ladder right at

the bed of the truck so that a kid could

walk into the bed of the truck

they had attached a tabletop which was

about the same size as the bed of the

truck

they had attached it to the side of the

truck cut six holes into it

put some fabric some drapery over it and

out from those holes every few seconds

a puppet would pop through they gave the

kid a huge plastic mallet and the job of

the kid

was to run up and down the inside of the

bed of the truck as he tried to

hit the puppets on top of the head it

was a homemade whack-a-mole game is what

it was

and it was the longest line me and jude

at the time he was like four jude is my

youngest

me and jude are standing in line we’re

waiting on our turn behind us there’s

another kid

he’s with us his mom he’s probably four

or five as well

and y’all he was hysterical because he

was annoyed at this whole situation and

he was making sure she knew it

he was first of all annoyed because mom

i don’t understand why i got to stand in

this long line didn’t we come to the

carnival to have fun this ain’t fun

standing in line ain’t fun i have an

idea mom how about this

how about i go play all these other

games while you stand in line and hold

our place and then when it’s our turn

i’ll come back and join you in life

but he was not only annoyed about the

line the four-year-old was also annoyed

because mom i don’t even understand this

game

why in the world would i waste all my

energy running up and down the inside of

that truck to hit the puppets on the top

of the head if when i hit them on the

head they’re gonna disappear but then

they’re just gonna come back as soon as

i hit them on the head what’s the point

of this game

so everybody in the line is laughing

hysterically because this four-year-old

this five-year-old is

talking so much about all of his

frustrations finally

he gets so frustrated that he works

himself into a frenzy to where

all i saw out of my peripheral vision

was a four-year-old flash

running past me as he ran forward and he

grabbed the drapery off of the table

top and pulled it clean off underneath

there were three adults with puppets on

each hand

that day we all got a good laugh but we

also got a good lesson

there is always something you can’t see

influencing what you can and if you

spend all of your time your energy your

effort trying to hit

at what you see popping up in your life

you’re gonna be so frustrated

and by the way exhausted because as soon

as you take care of one thing another

one is coming back

unless you do what the apostle paul says

pull back the curtain and let the enemy

know we got our eyes on you

and we’re going to use some weapons that

actually work back there behind the

curtain

y’all i wish i had learned this when i

was 18 19 20

21 years old that that person that

physical problem

isn’t really where you need to invest

your energy

pull back the curtain use the weapons

that actually have power

the apostle paul wants you to know that

the tactics of the enemy are serious

business and so he uses a specific word

to describe them

he says schemes

listen to me he knows your weaknesses he

knows how to dangle what carrot at the

right time

in the right way to make sure you are

snagged in particular

have you ever wondered or found curious

that that particular carrot is always

dangled in front of you when you are

most

tired when you are most vulnerable

when you happen to be most hungry

most alone most weak that particular

carrot the one that wouldn’t mess with

your friend because it’s not her deal

it’s not

his deal he’s not enticed by that but

the one that entices you

always shows up at the right time y’all

that’s not coincidence that’s a scheme

the enemy is trying to derail you he’s

trying to make sure

that you don’t walk in a manner worthy

pleasing of the lord that you

come in here but that you don’t go out

of here

the purpose to live for the glory of god

he’s trying to trip

you up not only for his own benefit but

because he does not want you having

access

to everything that you are privy to as a

rightful heir to the king of kings and

the lord of lords

it’s a scheme so if he’s got tactics

we need tactics the apostle paul

outlines them for us i’m just going to

read them to you because he says in

verse 13

you need the full armor and here’s what

they are verse 14

he says make sure that your loins are

girded with truth

then he says you need a breastplate and

the breastplate is called righteousness

and then he says in verse 15 you got to

have something for your feet if you want

any hope of being able to move forward

successfully

so your feet need to be shot with the

preparation of the gospel of peace

and then not only that but he says there

are some flaming missiles of the evil

one

that he fully intends to send sailing

into your path

you’re gonna need a shield and the

shield is your faith

and then you know there are lies there

are strongholds that he’s going to try

to erect in your mind you’re gonna need

something to protect your mind

he says you need a helmet and the helmet

is your salvation

but not only that he says that you are

going to need

a sword really a dagger of the spirit it

was about 18 inches long or so the one

the apostle paul

is referring to you need a dagger so

that when the enemy is all up in your

space you’ve got something close at hand

to make sure that he stays at bay you

need a dagger of the spirit

and the dagger is called the what

the word of god but y’all he doesn’t

stop at those six can i just say that

there is one more in 18

verse 18 traditionally it’s taught as

six i really believe there are seven

pieces of armor

because in verse 18 he says pray

it says pray

[Applause]

not like you know a prayer or a day to

keep the devil away

not like a prayer over your meal just

cause

that’s what your mama did and your

grandmama did and that’s what you’re

supposed to do

not something quick and casual

fervent prioritized prayer

y’all you can’t have victory if you

don’t pray

do you hear what i’m saying to you

prayer is the key

that unlocks the resources of heaven so

that they can be unleashed

on planet earth prayer is the key he’s

actually given you

to get all the good stuff down here

because i don’t know about you but

i don’t want to wait to get to heaven to

experience all that god has for me any

bits of heaven

he plans to give me on earth i want it

right now

prayer accesses the bits of heaven he

intends to give you now

and prayer listen prayer is what pushes

the kingdom of darkness back

it’s what pushes it back that’s why

jesus said my house shall be called not

a house of good preaching

not a house of good singing not a house

of great spotlights and production

not a house of great cafes i hope you

have all of that

enjoy it but jesus said at the end of

the day my house better be called a

house of prayer

because spotlights and fog machines and

great singing and great preaching

that won’t necessarily push the kingdom

of darkness back

but when my people who are called by my

name when they will humble themselves

and when they’ll pray he says then i’m

gonna hear from heaven

i’m gonna heal the land the enemy will

have to bend the knee at the name of

jesus in prayer

so pray

there’s one other piece of armor i

couldn’t get by without talking to you

about it for a few moments

y’all still awake everybody again

it’s in verse 14. he says

put on a breastplate called what

righteousness righteousness

jerry and i live in a fairly rural part

of dallas fort worth

we like it that way close enough to the

city we can get there quick

but it’s quiet and lazy we live on a

little two-lane sleepy road somebody’s

got some horses over there

there’s some cows over there and one of

my closest friends

lives across the street that’s why we

like it because she’s got a pond

in the front of her property so i’ll get

the boys and the two fishing poles i

bought on sale at the local walmart

i have a tackle box too that i got on

sale there because and you know we need

things we need extra hooks because the

boys always lose the hooks

extra bobber thingies you know because

we need extras of those

i also have gloves in the tackle box

because you all know i don’t mind going

fishing but i ain’t gonna actually touch

no fish

so we walk across the street with

whatever hot dog meat we’ve got left

from the week because you know we’re

professional fishermen so our hot dog

meat is our bait

we walk across the street we stand in

this little cove underneath some trees

and we fish just right there most of the

time

just a little sun perch stuff like that

we can catch quick in an hour we can

catch like 10 or 12 fish just a little

quick

easy little fishing trip every now and

then though i’m feeling adventurous

what that means is is that we will get

into my friend’s little row boat they

bought on craigslist it’s metal

it’s not a big deal it’s just a little

it’s sea worthy it can hold us up that’s

all we need

i’ll swim we’ll uh row out into the

middle and we’ll fish from there every

now and then

but i always think twice before i do it

and here’s the reason

because in order to get in it we first

have to turn it over

they leave it upside down as they should

to drain water while nobody’s using it

so i gotta turn it over to get in it and

what i do know for sure

is that when i turn this thing over

something is either gonna hop out from

underneath it

something’s gonna waddle out from

underneath it or worst of all oh

something’s gonna slither out from

underneath that boat because the

environment under there is moist and

damp and

perfect for critters do you know what

i’ve noticed every single time we turn

it over something comes out

and never once have i had to write a

golden sealed invitation and send it

into the brush nearby

to invite the critters to come and join

us at one o’clock today you’re welcome

never 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 upon your life

unrighteousness

is upside down behavior that is out of

alignment with the truth of god that

you’ve been sitting underneath

for the last few days it’s behavior that

is out of alignment with the truth of

god

to where you don’t have to invite the

enemy and come and make himself at home

in your life you just keep living upside

down

and the environment created by upside

down behavior is invitation enough

listen to me you can pray against the

enemy till you’re blue in the face

but if you and i leave passion and we do

not walk in holiness

we do not live in a lifestyle that is in

alignment with the truth of god we will

have wasted our breath in prayer

paul says somebody’s got to live right

it’s flat out straight up

holiness it’s holiness

it’s a word that our our grandmothers

and our grandfathers back in the good

old days when you went to church and you

sat on a wooden pew

it’s before some churches became so

pre-seeker sensitive

i remember y’all i went listen i’m off

track listen i went to a church

and they said we are a pre-seeker

sensitive church and so we actually

want to sort of uh in a way they said

dull

down the actual literal name of jesus

just so we can get people

in first then we will we will be more

direct later on i said oh you have

invited the wrong person

because there used to be a day in time

where it was just black and white

where there were fewer gray areas and

tolerance yes come as you are but don’t

stay as you are

holiness brothers and sisters i implore

you by the mercies of god

to walk in a manner worthy of this

calling by which you have been called

that every bit of truth that you have

received this weekend to align your

lifestyle to it

to not determine that you will still dig

your heels into the ground

and live immorally or speak immorally

or do the things habits and lifestyles

and choices and relationships that you

know

are outside of alignment with the truth

of god turn the boat right side up

so that you can invite the favor of god

on your life

the apostle paul says righteousness is

your breastplate

the roman army in the first century they

had many pieces of armor as you know

but the breastplate would have been one

of the most critical

the reason why was because it obviously

protected the most vital organ they had

their heart

the heart is the lifeline for your

physical well-being

all of the blood flow the vitality the

energy that you need to function

in every level of your life comes from

the vitality of your physical heart

what the physical heart is to the

physical life your spiritual heart is to

your spiritual life

all of the vitality the energy that you

need to be

who god has created you to be to have

fervency in your prayer life

to follow him with passion and with fire

to read the bible and not just be ink on

a page

but you hear his voice speaking to you

to have clear reception

between you and the holy spirit you need

a vital

spiritual heart that’s why if i were

your enemy more than

all else i’d be after your heart

because one shot to the spiritual heart

will wipe you out

your spiritual heart is comprised of

four things your mind the way you think

your emotions the way you feel your

ambitions what you purpose to do

and your conscience your conscience is

not

the voice of god but your conscience is

like this wiring

that helps this microphone amplify my

voice the the conscience

is the microphone that the holy spirit

uses to help you

hear the voice of god so if i were your

enemy i’d be after your heart because if

i could get to your heart that would

mean

i would have automatic access to your

mind now i could tinker with your

thinking

i’d have automatic access to your

emotions i can mess with the way you

feel and make sure

they’re out of alignment with the truth

of god i can mess with your ambitions to

where

what you want to do is totally out of

alignment with what god

wants you to do and more than all else

i’d want to make it sure i have a shot

to your heart so that i can

short-circuit the wires between you and

the holy spirit

now you can’t even hear god speak to you

because you didn’t have a breastplate on

the apostle paul says holiness is your

breastplate

holiness blocks you from a full frontal

attack of the enemy

holiness keeps the enemy at bay to where

when he comes looking around for some

people

that he can infiltrate some upsell side

down

environments that he can fester in he

can’t find that with me

or with you because we’ve chosen right

side up living

aligning ourselves with the truth of god

breastplates in place securing us

against the schemes of the enemy

holiness is your breastplate

i came to tell you to live right

i came to tell you not to just have

heard all of this

to go home and live in accordance with

it

be ye holy

not by your power not by your might but

by the spirit of god

there is no relationship you’re in that

if it is out of alignment with the truth

of god that the holy spirit himself

won’t help you to sever so that you can

walk in holiness

there is no lifestyle you are living

that is too uh that you’re too wound up

in that you can’t break free from no

matter how you feel

in this moment you can walk in holiness

there is no way you have been speaking

no addiction that you have

no habit that you have been festering in

your life that you have been harboring

in your life that the holy spirit won’t

empower you

to break free from so that you can walk

underneath the banner the

favor of holiness in your life be ye

holy y’all listen

listen back in our grandmama and our

grandparents days

great-grandparents

they wanted to honor god more than they

wanted to impress people

see the problem with instagram and

twitter and social media if there’s a

problem y’all the problem is

we want this

we want to be impressive

and if i’m worried for our generation

it is that we are impressive

but we don’t have breastplates on

it is that we have the applause of

people and our selfies are perfectly lit

and we have a whole bunch of friends and

a whole bunch of instagram likes and

people are following us and the enemy is

thrilled because we have

sacrificed holiness

on the altar of impressing people

you gotta live for the applause of

heaven

you gotta decide i will not be

politically correct before i will choose

to be holy

i will not be impressive before i will

choose to be holy

i may not be the the person that

everybody wants to be around i may not

be

the most impressive but what i will be

is holy

because a time is coming y’all where we

are gonna see our savior face to face

and when we see him he will not ask us

how many instagram followers

we had he will not ask us how many

friends liked our post

he will not want to see the selfies that

we took when we see him

face to face he’s going to ask us did we

do business with his son jesus christ

and then

and then we’re gonna give an account

and i don’t know about y’all but i’m

looking for

well done

[Music]

i want a well done

i want jesus to look at me and say you

did the thing girl

not because they bought the books they

bought the bible study they saw the

movie

no you did the thing because you honored

me

whether with an audience of one or an

audience of 30

000 you honored me

i came to tell you brothers and sisters

walk with integrity

be in the dark who you are in the light

everything that your god has entrusted

to you over these last few days

the enemy does not mind he doesn’t like

but he doesn’t mind that you heard him

he didn’t mind you

came here what he minds is if you leave

here

and live by what you heard

[Music]

crazy father

if you’re here

[Music]

if you’re in this room stay standing if

you’re in this room or one of the other

arenas that were at home

and you know you were living in a way

that is out of alignment with the truth

of god your breastplate is not

in place you are open to full frontal

attack

by the enemy because you haven’t girded

yourself with

holy living and maybe you’re in a

situation where you’ve been trying to

live right but by your own strength and

power you just can’t seem to pull it off

and you need the holy spirit to do what

he does

to set you free to empower you to rise

up in victory to step

up to the plate and hit a home run for

the kingdom of god

[Music]

y’all remember y’all remember in the

lion king

[Music]

simba’s messing with the hyenas and he’s

like where and they’re like

seriously and he does it again

and they’re like you gotta be kidding he

does it again

[Music]

and they’re like no you’ll never take

us down you’re too weak you’re too small

you’re too puny

by yourself

he tries it one more time he lets out

his best roar but it sounds like

something big

and giant and it echoes off of the

mountains nearby and the enemy enemies

go running away not because he was the

roar

but because his daddy had come up behind

him

and mufasa had let out a great roar

the roar of the father is behind you

walk in victory

in jesus name amen

[Applause]

at tbn our mission is to use every

available means to reach as many

individuals and families as possible

with the life-changing gospel of jesus

christ thank you for helping

make the gospel of grace

go around the world without you we

couldn’t do it god bless you