Week 2: The Breastplate of Righteousness

Memory Verse for this week:
Ephesians 1:17 – I pray that the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him

Review Last week:
1. Jesus made the right choices because His desire to please the Father was more important than anything the enemy offered.
2. Jesus knew the Word in order to respond to the Devil’s attacks

Piece of Armor:
Breastplate of Righteousness

Day One Summary: Wearing the breastplate of righteousness means that we live like Jesus did – a life of obedience to the Father’s Will

Jesus is our model of righteousness

1 John 2:1 – If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ the righteous One
1 John 2:29 – If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well; everyone who does what is right has been born of Him
1 John 3:7 – Little children, let no one deceive you!  The one who does what is right is righteous just as He is righteous
Philippians 3:9 – and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
Isaiah 59:16-17 - And He saw that there was no man, And was astonished that there was no one to intercede; Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, And His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head;

We can’t be righteous because of our sin, so God makes us righteous in His eyes through the death of Jesus who paid our debt of sin in full.

Romans 5:19 Just as through one man’s disobedience that many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
2 Corinthians 5:21 He made the One who did not know sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Question: If God makes us righteous, do we really need to worry about the way we live? (Romans 6:1-2)
We who have been saved and made righteous by God’s grace must daily choose to make righteous choices.  God gives us the armor so that we can live the way He expects us to live.

List words or phrases that you believe describe how Jesus lived

Jesus came to earth with a clear goal:  To seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) fulfilling the Father’s will that He would save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21)
Nothing in this world would deflect his attention from the Fathers will

Question: What kinds of things keep us from doing all that God expects from you?

If we choose to wear the breastplate of righteousness, we must confront the distractions and obstacles that we face.

Day Two Summary: The Enemy Attacks Righteousness

Strategy One:  The enemy begins a conversation with Us.  (Genesis 3:1-7)
The longer we discuss the temptation with the serpent, the more likely we will give in and sin.  The more we think about the temptation, the closer we get to failure.

Question: What are some excuses you have used to convince yourself to give in to temptation?

Strategy Two: The enemy directs our attention to what we are missing.
We we focus our attention on what we don’t have, we place ourselves in a dangerous place of temptation
Worry – We get so caught up in what we can’t control that we lose our focus on God’s provision (Matthew 6:25-34)

Question: What are some of the blessings that God has given you?  Why do we tend to focus on what we don’t have?

Strategy Three:  The enemy makes sin look good.
Satan makes sin look inviting.  Fun.  But, only for a time. (Hebrews 11:25)

Question: What are some practical steps to take when  dealing with temptation

Day Three Summary: Wearing the Breastplate means thinking properly

Joseph and Potiphars wife in Genesis 39:1-23 (page 34)

Question: How would you react if you were Joseph?

Wearing the breastplate of righteousness helps us know the difference between what is right and what is wrong.  If we think wrongly, if we wrongly define what sin is and what its not we’re much more likely to act wrongly.

Wearing the breastplate means choosing to do right.  We must engage in right thinking.
Genesis 39:10 – As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her.

The Temptation process:
The enemy is relentless in presenting us with temptations
The enemy has an intentional strategy – offering little compromises that lead to greater sin.
The potential power of evil words
The potential power of the flesh (a woman’s beauty)

Wearing the breastplate means fleeing temptation
Read: 1 Corinthians 10:13 then 1 Thessalonians 5:22

Day Four Summary: Standing against temptation

The Story of David
Even a Man of God can fail
David’s story reminds us that we are one bad decision away from falling.
David allowed his humanity to lead him.
David tried to cover up his sin

Through all of David’s story – God did not give up on David.  Even though David was forgiven he still had consequences for his actions

One basic rule of spiritual warfare:  The enemy works in hiddeness,
Adam and Eve hid themselves in their shame
Josephs brothers tried to hide their sin when they sold him
Ananias and Sapphire hid their sin in their hearts until Peter called confronted them.

Wearing the breastplate of righteousness helps enable us to live righteously so that we have nothing to hide
If you know that you will need to hide your actions you know that you are not wearing the breastplate of righteousness.  Think before You act.

Day Five Summary: Tough Choices in the gray areas

Question: What are some examples of the gray areas that you face?

Question: Do we know enough of the Bible to be certain it doesn’t speak about these gray areas?

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work

We must know the bible well enough to be able to make decisions for the gray areas.

Question: What Biblical principles might guide me?

My actions should not be a stumbling block to others – 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
My actions should build up others.  1 Corinthians 10:23-30
My actions must glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Glorifying God means denying our self and focusing on Him.  Willing to sacrifice your desires on behalf of others.

Wearing the breastplate means that we live as Jesus did.  The breastplate can’t be separated from the belt of truth.  The way that these two are connected will become more evident as we progress through this study, and you will start to understand why Paul said we must wear the full armor of God.

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