The Whole Armor of God
This Week: The Breastplate
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Sunday, September 30, 2012
Led by Eric Gintert
- The Whole Armor of God
Isaiah 59:16-17
- This is what God wants us to be clothed with... the very thing He clothed His Son with!
Ephesians 6:14
- The breastplate protects the heart and desires.
1 Thessalonians 5:4-9
- Your heart represents your desires. Are you desiring your own righteousness or His righteousness?
- Jude 3 says, "... ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" yet we're doing the same things as the world. We say that we have our armor on, but really, we're sleeping.
William Booth's Breastplate of Righteousness
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was not concerned with thrift stores, food lines, and raising money (while all this is a good work and nothing is wrong with the cause). He guarded his heart by having a concern and urgency for the lost rather than focusing his eyes solely upon the cares of the world.
Having God's Desires & Not Our Own
"Faith is not receiving from God what you want. Faith is accepting from God what He gives." - Adrian RogersThis is the Breastplate of Righteousness: To desire what God gives and not what we want.
Psalm 51:10
- When our desire is not matching God's Word, we need God to create a clean heart in us.
- At the time when David wrote this, He had just come out of gross sin (adultery, murder, lies, etc.) and he knew that his sin was against God and Him alone.
- David was not wearing the breastplate when he was drawn to sin... he wasn't guarding his heart and his desires.
Guard Your Heart
We need the breastplate now more than ever because we've become so numb to the wickedness of the world. Things that were considered gross immorality 50 years ago are now common and generally accepted in our culture.
Romans 10:10
- The difference between believing with your heart and believing with your mind is righteousness.
- If you walk around with the helmet on but not the breastplate, you are still naked.
Matthew 6:19-21
- This is what the breastplate is for. We need to guard our heart from the treasures of this world: money, possessions, recognition, etc.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" - Jeremiah 17:9
1 Corinthians 1:30-31
- It's not our righteousness. It's Gods' glory... God's righteousness.
- We cannot attain our own righteousness, our own breastplate. He gives it to us to protect us from the wiles of the Devil.
2 Timothy 2:3-5
- This is why we need the armor. We need to endure hardness, that we be not entangled with this wrold but stive to please him who appointed us to be good soldiers for Him.
Prayer Requests
Joel & Melissa F. & family - trials, unemployment
Lamont - recovering from surgery
Ed G. - continued radiation treatment, effects
Mallory family - approved for house, building
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