The Breastplate of Righteousness

Take a few minutes to catch up, tell stories, and laugh together. Trust and friendship take time to build. If you’re launching a new DNA, one person should tell their story — what do we need to know about you? Next week, have another person in your DNA share their story.

This Sunday, we continued on in our sermon series on “The Armor of God," looking at some of the offensive and defensive tools God has given us to overcome the challenges we face as we follow Jesus. This week, we focus in on The Breastplate of Righteousness.

Why is this significant? The breastplate of righteousness stands as our position with God which cannot be touched by the enemy.

The Roman soldier would fasten the breastplate around his chest. It was a large piece of leather, bronze, or chain mail that covered both the front and back of a soldier from his neck to his thighs. It protected the vital organs. This was an essential piece of armor because if a soldier's vital organs were damaged, they would bleed out within minutes.

Paul is writing to those who are in Christ and as a result have been enlisted as soldiers in Christ army. He is providing them with the resources that are required for spiritual warfare.

Pastor Chip Ingram lists 5 things we need to know about spiritual warfare:

1. There is an invisible world as real as the visible world.
2. All of us are involved in spiritual warfare against good and evil, Satan and his demonic forces, and we are fighting for the souls of men and women. 
3. Our foe is formidable, powerful, and his goal is to destroy us, deceive us and to ruin the cause of Christ. 
4. We must respect our foe, but not fear him, be aware of his schemes and tactics, but not be preoccupied with him.
5. We do not fight for victory, we fight from victory. This is essential to understand. The battle has already been won! In Christ, we are invincible!

Armor is God's protection against the schemes of the devil. We have to remember that the enemy's scheme is to deceive us, causing us to sin against the Lord and ruin our witness. His armor is our protection!

Our identity in Christ is rooted in our position in Christ, which is accomplished through the cross of Christ by His Righteousness! 

Questions to Discuss:

1. What do you think of when you think of spiritual warfare? Is it something you are actively aware of or often forget?
2. Are you wearing the breastplate of righteousness today? What does it (or could it) look like for you to put it on?
3. Are you guarding your heart from the schemes of the devil? How so? If not, what it could this look like for you practically?

Dear Heavenly Father,
Please remind our hearts to put on the breastplate of righteousness today. Would you shift our perspective to be more aware of the schemes of the enemy? We thank you that through YOUR righteousness we get to experience freedom today!  Thank you, Lord.
In Jesus’ name, AMEN.