Armor of God: Breastplate of Righteousness
Notes
Transcript
What do I believe God wants us to know? We have a breastplate that protects our vital organs
Why? Whatever has our heart has us
What do I believe God wants us to do? Keep on the breast plate by worshipping God
Why? What we worship has our heart
INTRO
We have been wrestling with and walking through how we have VICTORY in the battles we are facing….HOW DO WE GET VICTORY OVER THOSE THINGS THAT YOU AND I FACE…some thing we have been facing for years.
THE GOOD NEWS IS GOD GIVES US VICTORY in the war and FOR THE BATTLE….HE DOESN’T SAY FIGURE IT OUT OR OH WELL...
HOW DOES HE GIVE US VICTORY BY
TWO THINGS
HE GIVES US HIS MUSCLES
HIS ARMOR
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
God gives us
His MUSCLES
HIS ARMOR
We are walking through the 6 pieces of armor God gives us
There are 6 pieces of ARMOR and last week we looked at the pivotal piece of armor that we don’t often think is pivotal but without it we will have little to no offense or defense.
What piece is that?
Belt of TRUTH
We need the belt of TRUTH
Now we will turn to the next piece of armor that is VITAL for us and what is that VTIAL piece of armor?
The breast plate or righteousness
What is it VITAL? (two vital pieces: 1a and 1b vital)
Because a breastplate protects your VTIALS, lungs, kidney, liver, heart.
If you go to REAL BATTLE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS OF YOUR BODY IS YOUR VITALS
You can lose a finger, a toe, an arm and still fight or be able to STAND…BUT IF YOU ARE STRUCK IN A VITAL AREA IT CAN HAVE DEVISTATEING OR DEADLY consequences…it is not flesh wound.
How people are trained to go into battle is to aim for the vitals
How does this apply in the spiritual realm? What’s the transference
Similar to the physical world in our spiritual world our hearts vital to our life.
- ALL OF LIFE FLOWS FROM OUR HEART: Your heart, my heart is VITALLY IMPORTANT TO ALL ASPECTS OF MY LIFE, the direction, the desires, dreams of your life, what we worshp
- 830 times heart is mentioned and only few refer to physical heart
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
You are what you love? You become and take on what you love, we are primary lovesrs Whatever has your heart, has you
Some will say what our our head? Enlightenment said we are thinking things…RENE DECARTE
I think therefore I am
Our minds our also vitally important but they are like 1b and the heart is like 1a in have we live our life.
Let’s tease this out a little bit
Anybody every know the right thing to do or not do. Have all the knowledge and information and then fail to do that thing?
Relate to Paul
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
WHY DID THIS HAPPEN???
HEART WANTED WHAT IT WANTED
Let me give two examples of who this plays out of the power and desires of the heart.
Let me give in an example in my own personal life.
I would like to be in better shape, lose some weight
And I know what I should do simplicstically (eat less than I burn off), sleep better, exercise
So what’s the problem???
I LOVE FOOD
I LOVE CHOCOLATE, BURGERS, PIZZA, ICE CREAM
Similar with the sins that we struggle with.
We know we shouldn’t lust but our heart says I want THAT
We know we should’t lie but IF WE TELL THE TRUTH what will they think of us? Our heart will be crush
HOW DO WE AND GUARD OUR HEART AND CHANGER OUR HEART LOVE SOMETHING MORE?
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
THE QUESTION IS HOW DO WE GUARD OUR HEART, LOVE SOMETHING MORE, AND HOW DOES THE ENEMY ATTACK US? HE’S NOT COMING WITH A LITAR SWORD
HOW DOES HE GET TO OUR HEARTS?
TWO THE WAYS HE GETS TO YOUR HEART IS THROUGH YOUR EYES AND EARS
Your eyes and ears are avenues to your HEART
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
WHAT IS THE ENEMY TRYING TO GET YOU TO DO?
There are 3 things the enemy is trying to get your to do.
Fear
Unforgiveness…..
Folly…sin
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
WHAT ARE THE FOLLIES PRICIPALTIES D TRIES TO GET US TO DO
- THE LUST OF FLESH
LUST OF THE EYS
PRIDE OF LIFE
We see this in the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, pride (just like God)
We see this come about with
David and Bathsheba
Solomon
Many of the judges (pride)
What the enemy does is He comes
The enemy comes after us through our EYES and EARS to get us to partipate in the things of darkness.
HOW DO WE STOP GUARD OUR HEARTS, KEEP OUR LOVES ON JESUS
5 BRIEFLY
PUT ON GODS’S BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTOUSNESS
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
GUARD OUR HEART AND EYES
“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?
Guard our eyes and ears
There are certain things we shouldn’t be looking at or listening to
Many sinful acts of man start with a look that we don’t take captive
CONFESS
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
WORD
How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
Preach to the heart
GROW IN OUR LOVE WITH GOD: TIME
OUR LOVE CHANGES BY WHAT OR WHO WE SPEND TIME WITH.
What we need is a as THOMAS CHAMLERS said is just simply trying to stop something by sheer will will not work, we need a new affection for our heart to go after.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.