What The Bible Says About Guilt and Shame

Welcome to church today, everybody. We're so thrilled, so thrilled that you're here in the house with us in Yorktown, Newport News, Virginia Beach. Of course, the men at Indian Creek and our extended family today joining us online from all over the world. We're so thrilled, so thrilled that you're here. And I know we took a moment earlier to honor those fallen, giving the ultimate sacrifice for our country. What I'd love today, if you'd help me, just show some love, honor, and support to the men and women of our military, those who serve on this day and their families. We're thankful for you joining us from bases all over the world online. We welcome you. My goodness. Well, I think you chose a great day, a great day to be at church today. I'm so glad, so glad you're here. By the way, fellas, can I just say to the men in the room, you can get a buy one, get one free special this week. All right, we're running it. This week, you can get two for the price of one. You came to church today, and we invite you back on Friday night. It's men's night. It's a special event just for the men of our house. You don't wanna miss it, fellas. We're gonna throw back some shrimp.

We're gonna throw some cornhole. We're gonna have some competition, so we might throw some fist. I'm just saying somebody's probably getting hurt on Friday night, and we're gonna get together, get to know each other, and go after God together. And so I say, come on, fellas. It's gonna be a good, good time together. You don't wanna miss it. By the way, when I say, come on, fellas, what I really mean is, come on, ladies, sign your fellas up to come on Friday night, because you don't wanna miss Friday night. Well, I wanna ask you just to remain standing for a moment longer. Today, we are in week two of a brand new series of messages. We're calling this series Battle Ready. I'm trying to teach you how to stand firm when the enemy attacks you. And this is such an important series, because, well, hey, let's just call it like it is. Some of you walked in this place today under attack. And you might not even realize it, but that anxiety you're battling, that division in your home you're fighting, some of you, it's been so hard over these last few moments for you to even focus in on the songs we're singing and the words we're declaring, and there's an attack happening right now. And I'm gonna teach you today how to stand firm

when the enemy attacks your life. I promise you today, today, if you feel like you're being knocked down by the devil, when we're done in about, I don't know, about 45 minutes, you're gonna walk out of here ready to charge hell with a water pistol and punch the devil in his throat. I'm just telling you, it's gonna happen. This is a good message today. I'm fired up about it. But to get there, let me do this. Let me read with you our theme scripture that sets up the whole series. We kicked this off last week. And here's what I'd love for you to do. I'd love for you to get this scripture down deep into your heart. And we're gonna be reading this every week, it's a six week long series. So you're gonna hear the scripture at least six times, maybe by the end of it. I don't know, maybe by the end of it, most of us will have it memorized. That'd be a good goal. Let's try to memorize this scripture. We'll just take the microphone, pass it around the room, put you to the test on week six, and we'll see how you do. But maybe to help us get started, why don't we do this today?

Would you read the underlined phrases, the words that are underlined and in bold? Would you read those out loud with me when I get to them? I think it'll help the word get into your heart a little bit more than just hearing it today. You'll be speaking it with me as well. The scripture says this, finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you've done everything to stand, come on, put your hands together for the word of God, everybody. And now you know, and now you know, when you read a scripture like that, you can't sit. All right, you got to stand because it's so powerful and it's so applicable. And I believe today God's gonna use it to speak to our hearts and to our lives. Let's jump into the word today. Why don't you take a seat and let's get after it. I think today's gonna be a meaningful word for your life

that'll help you stand. against the schemes of the enemy. When I was in middle school, my best friend's name was Chris, and Chris introduced me to a world that I had previously been sheltered from. Chris introduced me to the world of WWE wrestling. Come on, somebody. And this was back in a day when wrestling was real. I'm just gonna tell you. Chris taught me about guys like Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, and Jimmy the Boogie Woogie Man Valiant, and Hulk Hogan, and the American Dream Dusty Rhodes. And then, of course, Chris introduced me to his all-time favorite wrestler. You might have heard of him, Rick the Nature Boy Flair. Woo! Oh, this is gonna be a fun sermon. I can tell already. Let's go. So I didn't know anything about wrestling, but Chris taught me about all these guys. And so we spent a lot of time, a lot of time watching a lot of wrestling. We watched a lot of matches. We watched a lot of fights. We watched a lot of battles. And, of course, naturally, because the Nature Boy was his favorite, we watched a lot of the Nature Boy.

And his favorite fights were always the one that ended when the Nature Boy would pull out his signature move. Now, if you aren't familiar with this, this was called the Figure Four. I thought about demonstrating it for you today, but I wore my skinny jeans. So I decided I'd just tell you about it. But basically, when the Nature Boy was ready to end the match, he would take his opponent. He would throw him to the mat. He would announce for the whole audience to hear, now we go to school, woo! And he would, in some convoluted way, twist his body around his opponent's legs, calling it the Figure Four. And no matter what the opponent would do, he could never get out of that submission hold, the Figure Four. It's over, Rover. He's down for the count. And anybody who was matched up against the Nature Boy knew, watch out, watch out for his signature move, the Figure Four. Now, today, I wanna submit to you that you and I are in a wrestling match, that you and I are in a battle. We learned last week that we have an enemy, and that the enemy is not who you probably think it is.

That some of us are fighting the wrong person. That you think you're fighting your spouse, or you think you're fighting your boss, or you think you're fighting your two-year-old toddler, or your 16-year-old teenager. You think you're fighting against the political machine, or fighting against the man. But the Bible actually tells us, in the scripture we just read, that we are fighting, but we aren't fighting, we aren't wrestling, we aren't struggling against flesh and blood enemies. That we have an unseen enemy. That our true enemy, and our true fight, the battle that we're really in, is with the devil and his hordes of demons. And Jesus warned us that the devil, our enemy, has a signature move. You need to know this. We need to expose it so you're aware of it, so you can watch out for it. So that you aren't pinned down by it. I'm calling it the Figure Three, everybody. The devil has a signature move. It's called the Figure Three. Jesus described it like this. Jesus said, the thief comes only to, one, steal, two, kill, and three, destroy. That's the enemy's Figure Three move. He wants to steal from you.

And he wants to kill anything God's doing in you. And he wants to ultimately destroy the work of God in and around you. And if you aren't paying attention, and if you aren't aware, and if you don't know, the enemy will take you to school. And he will put his signature move on you. And when he does, it's over, over. There's no getting out of it. And that's exactly what's happening in many of our lives today. Many of us are in a battle. And not only are we not fighting it because we aren't aware of it, we certainly aren't winning it. And this is why today, if you came here battling addiction or battling sickness or disease in your body. or you came here battling something in your finances, if you came here today battling anxiety or battling depression or battling insecurity or battling anger or battling fear, or maybe there's some battle at home, some tension or division or disunity, or maybe you just feel hopeless or maybe we're singing these songs of great faith and you feel overwhelmed with doubt or overcome by insecurity, that's all an attack of the enemy. He's attacking you right now.

And it's a battle that most of us aren't prepared to fight. In fact, the enemy has convinced even some of you that your life doesn't matter, that it's not even worth living, and that's a battle with the enemy. And all day, every day, the devil puts his signature moves on God's kids. And rather than us fight from a place of victory, which is God's desire and design for our lives, most of us succumb to the battle. Most of us get pinned to the ground and most of us struggle from a place of defeat. And that's why in that theme scripture, the apostle Paul writes to us and says, you need to put on the full armor of God so that you can stand. I don't know if you saw it, multiple different times, at least, let me look at them, at least three different times in our theme scripture, Paul said, stand, stand, stand. And the only reason Paul would need to tell you to stand is because he knows your tendency is to fall. This is a message today for every one of us who've been knocked down, a message today for all of us who feel like the fight has taken us down. And I want you to know there is a way to stand. So we learned last week that the apostle Paul is writing this theme scripture to us from a Roman prison. He's in jail and he is likely, most scholars agree,

chained to a Roman guard responsible for his oversight. He's in prison, guarded by a Roman guard and he's writing to us these words about a spiritual battle. But as he writes about a spiritual battle, he's looking at a physical Roman soldier. This is fascinating. He's writing about a spiritual battle, but he realizes this physical soldier who's guarding him is armed for battle with six pieces of physical armor. He would have looked something like this and his six pieces of armor would have included a belt. We learned about that belt last week. It would have included a breastplate, a helmet, a shield. Some shoes and a sword. And so Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he uses this visual metaphor of the physical armor from the soldier to teach you and I about spiritual armor that we need for a spiritual fight. Because Paul would say this, if you want to be battle ready, you must put on the full armor of God. And that's what this series is really all about, six weeks, about the full armor of God and each week a different piece of the armor. If you were with us last week, we learned to put on the belt of truth. The belt of truth, we buckled it around our waist, we cinched it up tight. The belt of truth. By the way, if you missed that message

or you missed any of the next messages, they're all available on our website, all available on our YouTube channel, all available on our Water's Edge Church app. You don't want to miss any one of these six pieces. You need all of them, the full armor of God. Today though, in part two, I want to take you to the second piece of armor that Paul says we need. Some have suggested it is the most protective piece of armor there is. Let me show it to you from the scriptures. Paul writes this, stand firm then with the belt of truth, buckle it around your waist, we talked about it last week, and with the breastplate of righteousness in place. Today we're going to learn about the breastplate of righteousness. So the breastplate would have been a metal shield worn by a soldier. It would have covered his entire midsection, usually from his neck down to his thighs. It would have provided protection, not just to his front, but likely to his backside as well, because how many of you know, the enemy comes in all directions. So he's protected on both sides. That Greek word in the Bible for breastplate is the... the little word thoraca. Thoraca is where we get our word thorax, which means chest or means trunk. And so think about this. The breastplate would have protected the most vital organs

of the soldier, particularly his heart. Now for us today, this is maybe the similarity, it would have been something like the body armor or the bulletproof vest that our first responders wear. But by the way, I borrowed this from one of our amazing first responders in our church. Aren't you thankful for the men and women who serve in our police forces? So awesome. And as I put this on, I'm really thankful for them because this is heavy. Can I just tell you, I'll just testify for a moment. All right. If you ever see a police officer with a bad back, now you know why. All right. This is heavy. It is not comfortable. It is not convenient. It is weighty. It is cumbersome. It's a challenge to wear this breastplate, but this breastplate provides protection. And because this breastplate provides protection, now I can do what I'm called to do with confidence. So I'm protected. And now I can step into battle confidently because I'm protected. In fact, if you're taking notes today, and I hope you are, there's so much content today that's going to help you. And it's all, I promise you, it's all going to be applicable and relevant to your life. As you learn to fight the battles, you might write this down. The breastplate protects and provides confidence to fight. That's why Paul says you need this as part of your armor. Because it protects you and it provides confidence to fight. So I put this on and I'm like, hey, hey, no, no, no figure three being put on me. No, sir. I'm protected. And because I'm protected, I have confidence. And Paul makes a big deal, a big deal about the breastplate, because it guards your heart. And let me show you what the Bible says about your heart. The Bible says above all else, like most importantly, guard your heart. Because everything you do, everything you do flows from there. And so the heart's incredibly important. And if you leave your heart vulnerable and unprotected, the enemy is going to attack your heart. And for a lot of you, a lot of you, that's exactly where the enemy is aiming. And so you've got to have something protecting your heart if you're going to be battle ready. And Paul says, if you want to protect your heart, put on the breastplate of righteousness, because that's what's going to protect you and allow you to stand against the evil schemes of the enemy. In a nutshell, here's what Paul's saying. He's saying righteousness is what will guard the most important part of who you are from the attack of the devil. Let me say it again. So you get it. Righteousness is what will guard the

most important part of who you are from the attack of the devil. Now I get it. Righteousness is a word that might be a little difficult to understand for some of us. It's not a word that we toss around a lot. Not a word that we use a lot. I'll give you another 1980s reference because we did use the word back in the 80s when we would say righteous dude. Righteous dude. Come on. All those of you my age or older, say it with me. Righteous dude. And all the teenagers can roll their eyes all they want, but you got dumb phrases too. All right. When we would say righteous dude, we meant, oh, that's awesome. Or, oh, that's cool. Not really the meaning though, of the word righteous. This word righteous literally means justice or it means to meet a standard. Now, maybe you're thinking, well, what's the standard? Who's standard? Well, we learned that last week. The belt of truth taught us that it's always about God's standard. He's the originator. So it's always about God's standard. So righteousness means to live up to or to meet God's standard for our lives. And according to the apostle Paul, righteousness is what will guard the most vital parts of my life. Okay. Y'all with me so far? Huh? Because we're about to go to the deep end now. Y'all know what I mean when I say the deep end? Like blow up your floaties. Here we go. Like, like, like we're about to take this word righteous and really understand how it applies to our life. And this is, this is, this is the deep end of the, of the theological swimming pool. And I'm gonna take you there. Some of you look a little hesitant. You're like, I don't know. I can't swim that well. I don't know. I don't know if I really want to go to some of y'all. I've seen too many people belly flop off the diving board. You're like, I'm not sure if I want to go there with you. You do, you do want to go there with me. I'll tell you why. If you struggle with shame, guilt, condemnation, if you ever feel like I'm not good enough, or I don't measure up, if you struggle with your identity, if you, if you struggle understanding your worth or your value, if you struggle with insecurity, lean in. I'm talking to you now. I'm describing this struggle. Some of you deal with every day of your life. That's an attack from the enemy to your heart. And it happens because you ain't wearing this yet. So you need to go there with me today. So you can learn how to put on the breastplate of righteousness. We're going to go to the deep end together. Some of you don't look convinced. Okay. Okay. If some of you, this is your story. When you come to church, it's awesome. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Thank you that we have an

awesome church, Lord. I love that. I love that. It is awesome. It's awesome. I know. I know it is. I'm grateful. But when you go home, it's a dog fight. It's true. You come here, right? Man, it just feels like, gosh, finally, everything's like the chaos calms. Then you pick up your two-year-old and you're like, oh, chaos is back. Like, there's a lot of us, we come here and it's why you came today. Because down deep inside, you want to live for Jesus. You want to live the life Jesus desires for you. It is the deepest desire of your life. It's why you came. But when you leave from here, you'd say it's a dog fight. It's hard. It's not easy to walk out these doors and follow Jesus. It's not easy to walk out these doors and follow Jesus. It's not easy to walk out these doors and do what he tells me to do. And the moment you walk out, you're met with temptation. And so often you give into that temptation. And the moment you walk out, you're met with the circumstances and the chaos. And the moment you walk out, it feels like the peace you had for 45 minutes has now been stolen away. And you're like, I don't know why. Why is it so hard? Why is it a dog fight? Why do I struggle saying no to temptation? Why do I struggle saying yes to Jesus? Why can't I get up to go to work, but I can't get up and read my Bible? Why do I have a hard time showing my kids the way of Jesus? It's so hard. This is how you're feeling. It's an attack of the enemy on your heart. And you're not wearing the breastplate of righteousness. And so the enemy keeps attacking in the same old ways. So if I just read your email, or if I just listened to your last phone call with your therapist, then you come on with me to the deep end. Because there is something the scriptures tell us that allow us to stand even amidst the enemy's attacks. I want to teach you today, if you're a follower of Jesus, if you know Jesus, if you have a relationship with Jesus, I'm not talking about the fact that, hey, you grew up going to church. I'm not talking about you being a good person. None of that matters with what I'm talking about today. I'm talking about you know Jesus Christ. He's your personal Lord and Savior. If that's you, there are two ways today that putting on the breastplate of righteousness protects you and provides you confidence to fight the enemy. I want to teach them both to you. Here's the first one. The breastplate of righteousness reminds you of what you already have. Paul says this. Paul says, put it on. Put it on like the armor. You got to put this piece of armor on. You got to put the breastplate on. And when you put it on,

it's going to remind you of what you already have. The problem for a lot of us is we don't remember that we've already got something. called righteousness. And if you know Jesus today, you've already got righteousness. You already are righteous if you know Jesus today. Now, to fully understand and appreciate that, you have to get this. Without Jesus, you are unrighteous. Okay, the Bible says it like this. The Bible says there is no one righteous, not even one. So without Jesus, remember what righteousness means? It means justice, and it means to meet the standard. So without Jesus, you don't measure up. You don't meet the standard. I know, pastor, but I'm really good. Are you? Well, I am really good. I'm in church on Memorial Day weekend, aren't I? Yes. Yes. So that would make you better than 50% of the rest of the people who come to this church. That's good. Is it? Yeah, but I try really hard. Do you? That's awesome. But this isn't like one of those sports that gives you a participation trophy at the end for trying. You understand? Yeah, but I'm better than my next door neighbor. I bet you are. I bet you are. Yeah, I'm way better than my college roommate. Aha. Yes. How many of you are better than your college roommate right now? Come on, raise your hand. Yes. Yes. That should make you feel good. The problem is you're measuring to the wrong standard. So the standard isn't the 50% of the people who aren't here today in this church and standard isn't your next door neighbor. And the standard isn't your college roommate. The standard is God. And the scripture says this, for all have sinned and we fall short of the standard. We fall short of the glory of God. I know some of you are like, oh my gosh, pastor, what are you doing right now? What are you doing right now? I brought my friend for the first time today. And this is what you're going to lead with. You're going to tell, all you're going to tell them today, pastor, all you're going to tell my friend, who's a first time guest today, is that they are a dirty, rotten, unrighteous sinner. Let me clarify. No, no, that's not all I'm going to tell them. That's just what I'm starting with today. All right, everybody. Just so you know, I'm just starting there. There's good news coming. It's okay. So listen, and if that's you today, you're in good company because without Jesus, all of us are dirty, rotten, unrighteous sinners. That's true. That's true. But there's good news.

There's good news. And you better get ready to lose your mind for this scripture. Because the Bible says, even though without Jesus, we are unrighteous. The Bible says that God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him, we might become, look at this, the righteousness of God. So you are righteous if you are in Christ. This is so important for you to understand that you have righteousness when you have Christ. How does that work? Okay, I'll tell you. On the cross, Jesus took something away and Jesus gave something to us. I think that's why the cross is both a plus sign and a minus sign. Because the minus sign shows us this, that Jesus took away our sin. God made him who knew no sin to become our sin. God takes our sin and puts it on Jesus and Jesus pays the penalty for our sin. That's the minus sign. He takes your sin away. But the plus sign is he gives you something. You know what he gives you? He gives you his righteousness. He gives you his right standing with God. He gives you his measurement. He is measured up because he is righteous. The Bible describes this, excuse me, the theological term for this is called imputed righteousness, imputed righteousness. What does that mean? It means the righteousness of Jesus is legally credited to the believer, placing them in right standing with God. That's imputed righteousness. Oh, I feel like I'm having fun in the deep end today. I feel like I just did a cannonball off the diving board. This is awesome. Imputed righteousness. That it is imputed to you the righteousness of Christ. This is how we get it. Look at what the scripture says. This righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, it is given how? Through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, not to all who work harder, not to all who are better than their next door neighbor, not to all who come to church on Memorial Day weekend. Thank you for coming to church on Memorial Day weekend, but not to all who do those things. just to all who believe. So I'm already wearing righteousness if I know Jesus. And I didn't earn it. I just received it. I'm already righteous. And Paul says, because you're already righteous, boy, you better put on that breastplate of righteousness

to remind you of what you already have, because I am righteous. And I'll forget that tomorrow morning when I wake up, because the devil is hard to say things to me to remind me of how bad I am. So that's why I put on the breastplate of righteousness. Because when the devil tries to hurl his attack at my heart, and he tries to say things like, oh, remember that sin you committed? Remember that time you hurt that person? Remember that time you used those words? And he tries to hurl that at my heart to make me feel shame and condemnation and guilt. I look back at the devil. I'm like, oh, no, no, joker. I got on the breastplate of righteousness. You're talking to the wrong guy. I am righteous. That's what some of you need to learn to do because you're being attacked. At your heart, being reminded of your past sin, being reminded of your mistakes. And the devil comes to you, and he makes you feel like in those moments of worship, like, oh, you can't sing that song because remember what you did last night? And he tries to make you feel disqualified. Well, you're not disqualified. You are righteous in the sight of God.

So you better lift your hands and open your mouth and say, I am righteous. I'm gonna worship Jesus Christ, the one who imputed righteousness to me. Y'all get it? The problem for most of us is we aren't living with the breastplate of righteousness. So we don't remember that we are righteous already. I put on the breastplate to remind me of what I already have. This, by the way, is called positional righteousness. Positional righteousness. You didn't earn it. It has nothing to do with the way you live. It just has to do with your faith and belief and receiving what Jesus gave you on the cross. By the way, this is what, this righteousness, this positional righteousness I'm describing to you, that's what gets you into heaven. Don't think you're getting into heaven because you're a good person. Don't think you're getting into heaven because you're better than somebody else. Don't think you're getting into heaven because you came to church a lot. That's not gonna get you there. I'm just, hey, I'm preparing you for the pop quiz at heaven's gates. Because when you get there, if God were to say, hey, why should I let you in? Don't, hey, don't give him your resume

because he won't be impressed. Because your resume doesn't meet the standard of God. Here's all you gotta say. The blood of Jesus has forgiven me and his righteousness has been applied to my life. I am righteous. You know what God's gonna say? Oh, I know, I know you are righteous. Enter into the gates. That's how you get in. This is, good people don't go to heaven. Nice people don't go to heaven. Smart people don't go to heaven. Hardworking people don't go to heaven. Religious people don't go to heaven. Forgiven by the blood of Jesus, righteous people go to heaven. Let me just ask you the most important question you've ever been asked then. Have you ever received Christ's righteousness? That's the most important question you could ever be asked. Have you ever received Christ's righteousness? Because there's a moment in time for all of us where we have to look at ourselves and say, I'll never measure up on my own. But there's a standard I can measure up to. If I have the righteousness of Christ in my life, I am righteous. If I've said yes to a relationship with Jesus.

The Bible says it like this. I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself, it depends on faith. It depends on faith. So faith in what Jesus did for me makes me righteous. And Paul says, okay, if you're a righteous already. You better get up tomorrow morning, put on this breastplate of righteousness so that you remember what you have. Because the enemy's gonna try to remind you of what you did. But no, no, no, I am righteous because of Jesus. Now, if you have righteousness already, in other words, you know Jesus, then there's a second way that the breastplate protects you and provides confidence for you to fight and it's this, number two, the breastplate of righteousness aligns my actions with what God's word says. I'll say it to you like this, it reminds me, that's point one, and it aligns me, that's point two. Those words rhyme, almost. They're almost rhyming words. You're welcome, you can remember it that way. It reminds me and it aligns me. So I remember what I have when I put the breastplate on, but here's the challenge for most of us, and let's just be honest about it. Most of us don't act like who we are.

That's a real struggle. Most of us don't have actions that align with the righteousness of Christ in us. So righteousness is something we are, but righteousness is also something we do, it's both. It's received, yes, you receive it, and you live it, both. It's positional, that's what I was teaching you earlier, but it's also practical. Righteousness, I gotta live it out. Priscilla Shryer says it like this, righteousness is in you, now it needs to be on you. That's good. The moment of your salvation, God sees you as righteous, and that's awesome. Righteous, dude, that's awesome. But after your salvation, God wants your actions to be righteous. And I'm gonna tell you why. Because unrighteousness is an invitation for the enemy. Unrighteous living makes it easy for the enemy to attack. And some of us right now, we live our lives in such a way, we make such decisions, we literally invite the enemy into our lives through the things we do. We make such decisions, we literally invite the enemy into our lives through the things we do. We invite the enemy into our lives through the things we listen to, the shows we watch, the media we consume, the things we expose our kids to. We're like, come on, enemy, we just make it easy. And we don't have a breastplate of righteousness up.

So the enemy just sees a free for all with your heart. I think it's why, I think it's why this generation is the most anxious generation we've ever known. Because there is nothing guarding their heart. There is an opportunity to attack. When we live unrighteous lives, the enemy has a free for all. If you've normalized any sin, you've invited the enemy in. That does rhyme. And that's why Paul says, put the breastplate of righteousness on, because you are righteous. But now you need to protect the most important part of who you are. And the best way to protect it is with righteous living. And if you're protected with righteous living, you can walk into a battle with confidence. A few weeks ago, Tabitha read this book and she put us on a detox diet, a 30-day detox diet. Do I look less toxic to you today? And so the premise of the book is you cut out bad things and you put in good things to get healthier. The problem is that what I call good and bad and what the book calls good and bad have different meanings. That's the problem. So I call Diet Coke good, but the book calls it bad. And I call kale bad, but the book calls it good. And so for 30 days, you go on this detox diet. At the end of the 30 days, when you detoxed from all the bad, according to the book, and you put in all the good, according to the book,

you're healthier. And I just think some of us need maybe a 30-day detox in our spiritual life. Because some of what you're calling bad, the book, the Bible calls good, and some of what you call good, the Bible calls bad. And what if for 30 days, you detox the bad and you put in the good, it made me healthier, it'll make you holier. And guess what happens when you get holier? You got up the breastplate of righteousness, which means you're protected to stand against the scheme of the devil. And this is why before Paul ever even introduces us to the breastplate of righteousness, he talks a whole lot about righteous living. Now he's talking to people who are already righteous, remember that. But he says, if you're already righteous, remember it and now live like it. He says things like this a few chapters before the breastplate. He says, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received. And then he says, be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. And then he says, put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. And then he says, therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor.

And then he says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up. And in case you aren't convicted just yet, how about this one, get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. And I saved the hardest one for the last. Paul says, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other. Just as in Christ, God forgave you. What's Paul saying? He's saying, why don't you align your actions with your righteousness? And why don't you put on the breastplate of righteousness? And why don't you step into Monday with holy living? Oh, that's hard. That's uncomfortable. That's inconvenient. It's what allows you to stand. The way some of us live is what's causing us to get knocked down. So this foul language flies out of our mouth. You know what happens? You just took off the breastplate of righteousness and now you're left unprotected. You just let any old thoughts come through your mind. You don't control them. You don't submit them to the mind of Christ. What happened?

You just took off the breastplate of righteousness and now your heart's unprotected. See, some of you have been thinking about righteous living in the wrong way. Like it's some legalistic, oh, I have to do that to please God. No, no, no, no, no. No, you are pleasing to God already. You are righteous if you have his son's righteousness imputed to you. Righteous living, holy living, is about being protected from the schemes of the enemy so you can stand. So here's what I've asked the Lord to show us. I just said, Lord, show us. Is there any action in my life that does not align with your word? Because if so, I want to take, I got to take that off and I want to put on the breastplate of righteousness. So I can stand against the schemes of the enemy. Put the breastplate on. It will remind you and align you. So here's the homework. When you wake up tomorrow morning, before you put on your socks and shoes and your pants and your shirt, put on the belt of truth. We learned about it last week. And put on the breastplate of righteousness.

I am righteous. So I'm going to walk in righteousness today. You watch, you watch. The devil's still going to attack, but you will stand firm. I want to pray for two people today. Somebody who needs to say yes to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is not on your own. It is through Jesus Christ alone. I'm going to lead you to a relationship with him today. And I want to pray for somebody who needs to put on righteousness in their life and take off some sinful pattern and leave it behind. So bow your heads, close your eyes, and open your heart. We're almost done. Have you received the righteousness of Christ? If not, this is your moment. If that's you and you say, pastor, I'm ready today to receive his righteousness. I'm tired of trying on my own. I know I can never measure up alone. I want the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to my life. I want you to shoot your hand high in the air and hold it up because we're going to pray together now. I'm not going to embarrass you or call you out. You can pray this prayer silently right where you are. who are, God bless you.

In the chat, let us know that's you. And just pray this and really mean it. From your heart, say, Jesus, oh, I wanna know you. And I want my sin forgiven by you. And I wanna receive your righteousness to be in right standing with God in heaven. Come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. That's the best decision you could ever make. And for the rest of us today who would say, I need to leave something behind and pick up righteousness today. Let me pray for you. Father, give us the courage, give us the strength, empower us through your Holy Spirit to step aligned with your word so that our lives are in tune with what you say. And show us this week, as we put on the breastplate of righteousness, that we can stand in the scheme of the devil. Lord, we love you and we worship you today. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen, amen. Come on, everybody. Thank God for his word today. ♪♪