Sermon Central
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Prevailing In Righteousness Series
Contributed by Kent Kessler on Aug 30, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: This spiritual warfare series handles the topic in a different way: using Paul’s teaching on each piece of the armor from the previous chapters helps us to see the meaning of this war--less about attacking Satan and more about pursuing God! Righteousness
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“I WILL PREVAIL” Spiritual Warfare Series, Part 2.
Spiritual Warfare: Finding the Strength in Your Struggle to Stand for Jesus. Ephesians 6:10-18
Review:
A life that is right with God is what threatens the enemy the most. When you are right with God, God is right in you!
A prevailing person is one who has strength in their struggle to stand for Jesus!
When you desire to get closer to God, HE moves closer to you! And Satan HATES a moving target! If you are under attack, know this: YOU MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT and you must be on your way closer to God!
Everyone of you has an assignment for you and against you. For you = from God, against you from Satan.
Right thinking produces right acting. Spiritual warfare is more about getting closer to God than it is about battling the Devil!
To give us strength in our struggle to stand for Jesus…Paul told us first of all to buckle up with the belt of
1. TRUTH buckled around our waist.
In BUCKLING THE BELT OF TRUTH, we are told to order our lives to 1. HEAR the Truth, 2. TRUST the truth, 3. LIVE the truth, 4. SPEAK the truth, 5. Be TAUGHT the Truth.
To give us strength in our struggle to stand for Jesus Paul tells us to put on the 2nd piece of armor as he sat there starring at = the breastplate of
2. RIGHTEOUSNESS and have it in place.
But what does {R} mean?
-4:24 and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
-5:8-9 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
-6:1 Children obey your parents for this is righteous. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
I think 6:1 is a significant verse because it tells us two of God’s ideas of what obedience should lead to: going well and enjoyment of long life.
Putting this verse and understanding alongside of the other two verses, we can get the idea that {R} is something God intended us for us to be when he created us but it was lost and it can only be recreated in Jesus Christ! Darkness hides {R} from us and keep us in the dark; but light causes things to grow.
This re-created “new” self life + lived in the light + obedient as a Child = right with God.
[Gk.] Dikaiosyne = means being in the state you ought to be; being in a condition acceptable to God.
My question is, How do I put on such a thing?
I need to remind myself of three things:
1st, Where this armor is supplied from: GOD! So all of the armor I put on comes from Him.
What righteousness do I have from God? Is there such a thing? Where do I go to find out about it?
There is a {R} that has been placed upon every believers initially justifying them before God = making them right with God and enables the believer to walk with God. There is also a sanctifying {R} that a believer has developed in his or her life by making new choices = choices the Holy Spirit now empowers them to make in their new life. This is the {R} Paul is talking about here.
But 2nd, we are to “take up the breastplate”! God supplied it, but you and I must take up this righteousness that is given! How do we do that?
As children! We put on the breastplate of {R} by obedience to God! Obedience is how we stay with {R} with God! And that can only happen because of the NEW creation we have become and that could have happened through the {R} Jesus Christ came to give us!
Look at that list of “WHO I AM IS WHO GOD SAYS I AM”. Just look it over; does one of those NEW ID Cards help you!? This is the truth! Walk in it! This is the new you—believe it! This is the created you God wants for you to know and become! That’s RIGHTEOUS living!
3. Paul could have used any other piece of the armor to describe righteousness, but he chose the breastplate. Why? How is the breastplate similar to righteousness and vice-versa?
When you put on the NEW SELF, LIVE IN THE LIGHT, and are being OBEDIENT to do the right God has for you to do you are armed and will have the strength to stand against the enemy!
