Sermon 11mar: Living Right with the Breastplate of Righteousness

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10 Mar 2007
'Know God's Standard! - Living Right with the Breastplate of Righteousness'
Key Verses: Ephesians 6:14

Ephesians 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).'

How to live as Children of Light -> ***Ephesians 4:17-5:17

Ephesians 4:21-24 'You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.'

1. Put off the Old Man/Self!
a. Ephesians 4:17-19 'So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.'

b. After Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said (John 11:44) "Take off the grave clothes (symbolises old life) and let him (the old self) go!"

Colossians 3:8 and James 1:21 use the words "Rid yourself of..." & "Get rid of"!

2. Be Renewed in the Mind
- God does not just want to change our ways, but the attitude of our minds.

- It is a Passive Process, meaning it requires us to be willing.

Romans 12:2 'Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.'

3. Put on the New Self
- Live like the Lord will live.

- Romans 13:12-14 'Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.'

- Living a holy life is more than not sinning. Being righteous means

>stopping the sin

>and working with our all to do what God wants us to do for others.