The Breastplate of Righteousness

When we were doing our sermon series, planning for this series in particular, we were in our meeting and the creative team showed us that bumper. At the end of it, somebody in the room, and I don't remember who, just simply said, man, dudes are gonna love this. And I don't know if that's true for you, but as a dude, I love it. There's just something about the cadence and the pace that kind of begins with these ominous tones and they give way to this more triumphant vibe, and it just elicits so much emot. And one of the things I love about this bumper is that I feel like it reflects the dynamics and the emotion of the passage that we are looking at in this series, which is the armor of God.

Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 10. And following to about verse 20, 21, when it comes to the darkness, we're talking about standing up against the darkness. I just want to talk scientifically for a moment, and I'm not a scientist, so I'm going to throw those cards on the table right now. You'll know that about me. But as I study light and darkness, here's something that I've come to understand is that light is more powerful than darkness.

You may say, Craig, how do you know that? Well, we measure darkness by measuring the absence of light. So light still dictates. You can't take a room like this and just decide to pump more darkness into it. But we can turn on more lights and make it brighter and brighter and brighter.

And here's something else I know is if we were to turn down every light in this place, and if I only had one small candle at the back of the stage, it would still push back the darkness. Light is more powerful than darkness. And so we talk about standing up against the darkness. It's fitting because God uses light and darkness to describe light. Life lived his way as he intended it.

That's the light and life lived in opposition to as he intends. That's the darkness. Satan and his forces are often associated with darkness, whereas God and his kingdom are associated with light. We're encouraged to live as children of the light, to shine like stars in the heavens, like it's light over darkness. In the very beginning, when God creates the heavens and the earth, the earth is formless and void.

God's spirit hovers over the waters of the deep. And what's the very first thing that God creates? He speaks into existence. Light. The psalmist time and time again tells us that the Lord is his light and his salvation.

Isaiah, the prophet tells us that that in God is everlasting light. One of Jesus disciples, John, his beloved disciple, close friend, tells us this of God. He says that in him is light and there is no darkness at all. And what about what Jesus himself says of himself? He says, I am the what of the world.

I'm the light of the world.

It's light being more powerful than darkness. And so as we look at Ephesians 6, we see that we want to be children of the light. We want to stand up against the darkness. While we're looking at individual pieces of armor and the armor of God in this series, one of the things we want to do is continually set the context for where this armor occurs. In Ephesians, Paul's writing at the end of this letter, he's writing to the believers in the churches all throughout the ancient city of Ephesus, which would be in modern day Turkey.

And he's writing to encourage them. But he's kind of summing up the things that he's already mentioned throughout the letter. In fact, every element of armor, every character trait of God that we see in the armor that he wants us to put on ourselves, it occurs earlier in the letter. He speaks about truth, he speaks about righteousness, he speaks about the gospel of peace, he speaks about salvation, he speaks about faith. He speaks.

He speaks about the word of God, the sword of the spirit. Like, he speaks about those things earlier. And then he kind of draws the whole letter to a close. But it's all in the context of this battle against the darkness. And so I wanna set the stage for you.

Look at Ephesians 6, verses 10 to 13. And I'm gonna read from my hard copy of the Bible. And I'd encourage you, if you have yours, to do the same or look it up in your Bible app. It just helps to be able to be familiar with how to find these things for ourselves when we're not in this space. But if you don't have that or you're not able to, the verses will be on the screen.

Here's what Paul says in Ephesians 6, 10, 13. He says, 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 have done everything to stand, to keep on standing, to hold up underneath the pressure of the enemy.

A few things to keep in mind every week as we linger in the armor of God are these. We are up against a very real and relentless enemy. Satan is powerful, but he's not more powerful than Jesus. And that means that we can have victory as we stand in Jesus, but only as we stand in Jesus. And that's part of the reason why I think the bumper is so fitting, is because this war is ominous.

It is foreboding. There is an intensity there, and yet there also is triumph. So the enemy is real, he's relentless, and yet we can resist. Another thing to remember throughout this series is that we're talking about the armor of God. Like every aspect of this armor that we talk about is something that God himself has exhibited and continues to exhibit.

These are character traits of God. First and foremost. It's his armor that he allows us to put on through his grace to stand up against the enemy and fight against the enemy, just as he has defeated the enemy. In fact, several pieces of the armor are described in the Old Testament. It's likely that when Paul is writing about the breastplate of righteousness that we'll look at today, he's thinking back to Isaiah, chapter 59, where he talks about God himself putting on the breastplate of righteousness.

So there's a real and relentless enemy that he equips us to resist.

It's the armor of God himself. And the third thing we have to keep in mind is he wants us to put on the full armor twice in these few verses, verse 11 and verse 13, he tells us to put on the full armor of God. He doesn't say it's okay to get half dressed, it's put on the full armor. One of the challenges to preaching a series like this, when we look at one piece each week, the Belt of Truth last week and the Breastplate of Righteousness this week, and fitting our feet with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of Peace next week, and then the Helmet of Salvation the following week, is that we can lose sight, that all these pieces of armor are intricately and intimately connected. As an example, as we explore the breastplate of righteousness today, how do I know what's right in the sight of God unless I hear and listen and read his truth that communicates what's right about God?

How do I trust what's true about God and live rightly unless I'm believing in faith? Being certain of what I hope for and sure of what I cannot see. How can I continue to live in faith and live by truth and live a right life unless I'm protected and under the helmet of salvation and understanding who I am in Christ and what he's done for me? Do you see how they're all intricately and intimately connected? And so, as we move through the armor of God, know that God's intent is that we put on the full armor of God.

And so, with that in mind, we want to look at the breastplate of righteousness. We hear about it in Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 14. The belt of truth and breastplate share the same verse. It says, stand firm. Then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, how does the breastplate of righteousness help us take our stand against Satan and the spiritual forces of evil?

How does the breastplate of righteousness help us resist the enemy's schemes and strategies and methods? So to understand that, we're going to look first at the breastplate. Like, what was that in the Roman soldier's armor? What's a modern equivalent? We'll explore what righteousness is, what it means.

And by the way, that won't be exhaustive because we could spend hours across days unpacking all that God has revealed in his word concerning righteousness. And then we're going to kind of distill it all down the end. The two words that help us know how to resist the enemy by putting on the breastplate of righteousness. So let's start with the breastplate. What is the breastplate?

The breastplate in the Roman soldier's armor was a, like, leather vest, a fairly thick piece of leather that would cover at least the front, but often covered the front and the back and the sides. And then that leather was plated with metal, sometimes strips of metal, sometimes whole plates of metal. And so it would form this kind of double layer, double wall protection around those critical organs contained in our chest cavity, in our torso. Think lungs and liver and kidneys and heart, bowels, stomach, all of that stuff, because one wound from an arrow, from a spear, from a sword to those organs, and it likely was fatal. Whereas you could suffer a wound to an arm or to a leg and get treatment, maybe not be able to continue to fight, but you likely would live.

But the breastplate protected those critical organs of your chest cavity, of your torso. And because it protected those things, the breastplate inspired confidence in the soldier that wore them. The soldier could be more courageous to go into battle because he knew that he was protected by his breastplate. A modern equivalent to the breastplate would be like a tactical vest with body armor that are law enforcement police officers. SWAT teams are soldiers in the military that they wear.

There's different levels to body armor. And if you have the top level body armor, then that can give that soldier, that law enforcement officer, confidence as they go into situations where they face danger. So that's the breastplate. What's righteousness? The most simple definition for righteousness that I could find in preparation for this message is this.

It's doing right in the sight of God. It's doing right in the sight of God. It's choosing to do what God has told us is right and what God himself has exhibited through his own actions and his character. And when it comes to righteousness, there are two implications. There are relational implications and behavioral implications.

Relational implications. First, when we live rightly, it keeps us in a right relationship with God and with other people. God has given us a standard that leads to a better relationship with himself and a better relationship with those around us. But there are also behavioral implications. Because to live in that right relationship with God and with others, I have to behave in those right ways that God has told me.

Speaking as he wants me to speak, thinking like he wants me to think, acting like he wants me to act. So there are relational and behavioral implications to that righteousness. So if we are going to put on the breastplate of righteousness, how do we best understand this righteousness that God wants from us, demonstrates for us, and gives to us? I'll give you four ways to think about righteousness that will help you. The first is the most important, and that's that God is righteous.

God is righteous. God establishes what righteousness is. It's revealed in him, in his person, in his actions. God alone is the epitome, the pinnacle, the picture of what righteousness is. And that's reflected from the beginning of God's story, revealed in Scripture all the way through the end.

Multiple times it's declared that God is righteous, that God does nothing wrong. One of the ones I want to show you is in Psalm 145, David, who, we're told elsewhere, was a man for God's own heart. David, who recorded many of the Psalms, who gives us this intimate picture of how he came to understand God and who he knew God to be. He writes this in Psalm 145, verse 17. He says, the Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways. Not some of his ways, not a few of his ways. But the Lord always does what is right. He sets the standard. And it shouldn't surprise us then that Jesus, who is fully God and fully man, Jesus, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth, that Jesus himself was righteous.

In fact, Jesus tells us in Matthew, chapter 3, verse 15. Matthew records us that he came to fulfill all righteousness, like Jesus was righteous. Just as God is righteous. And so God sets the standard. Jesus sets the standard.

They reveal to us what is right in the sight of God. But we also can understand from what God reveals in Scripture that God desires for humankind to live righteous lives. It's not just that God is righteous, but he wants those of us created and made in his image to also live righteous lives. He wants us to make choices in keeping with the character of God. And again, we can see from beginning to end in God's revealed word that he challenges Israel.

In Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, he tells them, this is how I want you to live. He gives them commands, not just the 10 biggies, but 613 in total. And he says, this is how I want you to live. He shows us through the words of the prophets, this is how I want you to live. This is what it means to live rightly.

And then in Jesus, Jesus builds upon that he came not to abolish the law and the prophets, he says, but to fulfill them. And what does Jesus tell his disciples in the Sermon on the mount? Matthew 6:33. To seek first his kingdom and his what? Righteousness.

And then everything else adds onto that and is added unto them. So God is righteous. He desires for humankind to be righteous.

But we can only be righteous as we express our faith in Jesus. So while God is righteous and he desires for us to live righteous lives, something has gone awry. And that we can never get to the level of God on our own. The way Paul words it In Romans chapter 3, verse 23 is that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. To sin is to do wrong.

To sin is to fall short. To sin is to miss the mark. And so all of us who breathe life in this world have sinned and will sin. We will do what is wrong. And so if God sets the bar, if God is righteous, if God is perfect, then no matter how many good things we do, we can never get there.

Cause we've fallen short. In fact, this is how Isaiah the prophet says it. Isaiah, chapter 64, verse 6. He says all of our righteous deeds like filthy rags. Now our NIV translators, they do us a favor, they clean it up, they make it rated G for us.

But that phrase, filthy rags, do you know what its direct translation is from the Hebrew? That all of our righteous deeds are like used menstrual cloths.

That's an appealing picture, right?

Like all the right things that we can do because we're sinful, like, they just look like used menstrual supplies compared to the greatness and the rightness and the perfection of who God is. So that means we can never attain to what God desires for us on our own. But this is where the good news, the gospel comes in. Because Jesus enables us to be counted as righteous with God. We've sung about that through multiple songs this morning.

I want to show you one of my favorite verses. And honestly, if I had to create a catalog of favorite verses, it might be about 66 books worth and tens of thousands of verses. But here's one of my favorite verses. It's Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 21.

Paul writes, and he says, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So God made him who had no sin. Who is him who had no sin? It's Jesus. Hebrews tells us. The writer to the letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way.

We are. But he was without sin. He never messed up, he never fell short of God's glory. So God made him who had no sin, Jesus, to be sin for us. When Jesus went up onto the cross willingly on our behalf, he took upon himself the sin, the unrighteousness, the wrongdoing of the world, past, present and future.

It's why God had to turn away, which made Jesus cry out in a loud voice, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's bearing the weight of all the sin of all of humanity, all of our unrighteousness. So God made him who had no sin to be sin for, for us.

So that in Christ, through Christ, through him, we might become the righteousness of God. That as we express faith in Jesus, as we climb into his life, when we express faith in Jesus, we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he died for our sins. And that true life is only found not only in trusting and believing him, but acting according to to what Jesus taught and believed. And our faith expresses itself not just through confessing it before people, but our Faith expresses itself in baptism. And so when we're buried with Christ in the waters of baptism, our old self dies and we are buried into Christ.

We take on Christ ourselves and we rise in new life. And so then God sees us not through the lens of our brokenness, not through the lens of our sinful choices, not through all of our undoing, but through. But the lens that God sees us through is the lens of Jesus. And so you might look in the mirror and you might see your past mistakes. You look in the mirror and you might see your failures.

You look in the mirror, you might see all the ways that you've fallen short. But when you look in the mirror, you don't see what God sees. Because when God looks at you, God sees Jesus because you are in him.

God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us. So in him we become the righteousness of God. So God is righteous. God desires that we as humans live righteous lives. We only can live that righteous life in and through faith in Jesus.

And here's the last thing I want to share with you about righteousness is that God intends for us to live our lives in righteous response to that new identity. And so God fills us with His Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit convicts us. We hear God's Word taught, we hear Jesus commands, we listen to his teachings, and we are compelled, we are catalyzed, we are propelled to live lives that reflect our righteous standing. So we want to talk different, act different, think different.

So we have the breastplate, this piece of armor to protect the core that gives us confidence. And we have righteousness kind of described by all the things I've just mentioned. So how does this breastplate of righteousness help us stand up and resist the spiritual forces of evil in this dark world? It comes down to two Identity and action. Identity and action.

Identity is who we are and whose we are.

At the beginning of this series, our senior minister, Matt Giebler, as he unpacked these first verses of Ephesians, he just shared with us some truths about the enemy. And a couple of those truths about the enemy that he shared with us is that our enemy Satan is a liar and he is an accuser. In fact, Jesus tells us that Satan is the father of lies. Revelation chapter 12, verse 10 tells us that he is the accuser of of God's people. And so one of the enemy's chief strategies and one of the chief strategies of his spiritual forces of evil, his demonic kingdom is to lobby and just assault God's people with accusations and Lies.

And most often those lies and accusations attack our identity. Because Satan understands that we are people who have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. He understands that he's been successful at times in getting us to give into temptation. He understands that when we look in the mirror, we see somebody who's failed, who's made mistakes. And so he and his demonic forces of evil kind of broadcast these thoughts, and they plant them in our mind, and they get us to think things that aren't true about ourselves and about God.

And here's how some of those accusations sound. And I will tell you, I would guess that every single one of us has thought a variation of these thoughts at some point in our lives. Have you ever had the thought, and my past is just too messy. I'm not sure God can use me anymore or God could ever use me. Maybe you've had the fleeting thought, I'm unlovable, or I'm a failure, or doing things the way God wants to do them is just impossible, so why try?

Maybe you've had the thought, can God really be good if these things are going on in the world that are so difficult.

Lies, accusations, and they come in a variety, thousands of different varieties of those lies and more. And it's all aimed at getting you to tear down your identity. Because if you believe you're a failure, if you believe you're unlovable, if you believe God can't make a way, if you believe God can't use you, then it makes you vulnerable to more and more attacks of the enemy. But if I put on the breastplate of righteousness, if I put on the tactical armored vest of righteousness, then I can remember that while I am nothing apart from Christ, in Christ, I am everything.

Because Paul tells me I was bought at a price. God paid a high price for me. I'm not nothing. I'm everything to him. One of the challenges I'm gonna have here at the end of the message is this week to go through Ephesians, chapter one and just make a list of all the things that it declares about you when you are in Christ.

And there are all these powerful truths about being chosen and being adopted and being loved and being given every spiritual blessing in Christ. And the list goes on and on and on. So when you put on the breastplate of righteousness and you recognize you're standing in Jesus, you recognize that, yeah, your old self was a mess. And you may still make awful choices today, but you are a new creation in Christ. You are held firm in him.

And so you can stand up against the attacks and the schemes and the war that's being waged against you by the enemy. I think this is reflected well in an old hymn, dates back to 1863, I think. It's called before the Throne of God Above. And here's what verse two says. It says, when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within upward, I look and see him there.

Jesus, who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free for God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.

When we put on the breastplate of righteousness, we are standing firm in the righteousness not of our own, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so it stands to protect us against the lies and the accusations of the enemy. But it does more than that. I told you there are two words, identity and action. Because they're actions that should flow through from that identity.

While our righteousness is first and foremost a matter of our identity being sealed with Jesus, that identity should orient us to actions that reflect that new reality. There's this journey within the life of a follower of Jesus. The fancy English word for it is sanctification. It's this process of being made holy. And it's a lifelong process.

It'll go on. We're all in the process of being formed more and more into the image of Christ. Like every day, even in me. I've been following Jesus since 1989. God reveals something in me that is not quite as he intends for it to be.

And so through his power, I want to strive to have my life more and more reflect who Jesus wants me to be. And that will continue on until I breathe my last. And then when Jesus returns, he'll renew the heavens and the earth and he'll give me a new body. And guess what? I won't make those mistakes anymore.

And I'll be fully like Jesus as I worship him for eternity. But until that day, I'm gonna continue to be made new in his image, even as I'm already declared righteous in Jesus. And so I want to respond to his righteousness by choosing to pursue what? Living right in the sight of God. And so when I choose to act in a way that reflects my righteous standing in Jesus, a few things happen.

One of them is that I begin to limit the pain that comes from living in a sinful life or making sinful choices. I wanna illustrate that for you. Just a few examples. And before I do that, I Do wanna preface it with this? If I mention a sin that you have either struggled with or are struggling with, that's purely by accident and it shows that there's a place for all of us to experience the grace of God and continue to grow and be made new.

But it's just for illustrative purposes. The first one, drunkenness. There's a lot shared in God's word about how drunkenness is not God's intent for us, that to get drunk is to sin. If you choose not to get drunk, if you choose not to have your senses dulled by alcohol or another substance, you limit some of the pain that you could experience in this world. How is that?

Well, if you don't ever get drunk, you don't have to worry about getting a dui, do you? You don't have to worry about losing your job because you got pulled over and got a DUI and you can't come to work. If you choose not to get drunk, if you choose to abide God's by God's instructions when it comes to substances, you don't have to worry about waking up in the bed of a stranger not knowing what happened or how you got there. You don't have to worry about having regrets after a party because you lost all control of your intellect and your faculties and your behavior. Those are pain points you don't experience when you pursue righteousness.

And so you limit the destructive blows of the enemy. He wants to tear down the joy and the hope and the peace and the life that God intends for you. Another example, if you choose to pursue God's desire designed for sexual intimacy between a man and a woman in a monogamous marriage relationship, you will limit some of the pain that you experience in this world. Someone who pursues that doesn't have to worry about sexually transmitted infections and sexually transmitted diseases the same way someone that abides with it doesn't have to worry about the pain points of a breakup that comes after you've shared sexual intimacy with someone you're not married to. It limits the pain we have when we pursue the righteous way of Jesus.

If I, in my relationships with other people, choose to tell the truth and to be honest, if I choose not to gossip, if I choose to be kind, if I choose not to let anger get the best of me and yell in a fit of rage because all that honors God in a righteous life, it limits some of the brokenness that I will experience in my relationships with other people. If I don't get mad, yell hurtful things, at my boss. Chances are I'm not gonna get fired for getting mad and yelling hurtful things at my boss. Do you get what I'm saying? And so there's a way that our righteousness protects us against some of the pain in this world.

Not all of the pain, but some of the pain. And we could go on and on through every possible sin, every instruction that God has given when we pursue his righteous way not to earn our identity in Christ, but as a response to our identity in Christ. It protects us like a breastplate and gives us confidence as we move in a world where the enemy is fighting and waging war against God's purposes. Another thing that righteous actions do for me, it prepares me for eternity. Here's what 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 13 says.

It says, but in keeping with his promise, we're looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. Eternity is going to be characterized by righteousness. And so I prepare for that now. So let's be people who put on the full armor of God. Let's be people who put on the breastplate of righteousness.

And when we do, we will stand as children of the light. I told you that in Ephesians that these character traits of God are mentioned elsewhere. Here's one of the places righteousness is mentioned. Ephesians 5, verses 8 and 9 he says, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light.

Look at verse nine, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.

We want to live for the light. The light is more powerful than darkness, and the light is evidenced in part by righteousness. So what are some practical next steps? I alluded to this earlier, but I would encourage you if you are not firm or if you find the enemy planting thoughts in your head that are destructive and tear down the goodness that God sees in you, then I just linger in Ephesians 1 this week. That could be a next step for you.

I'd encourage you. This is my specific instruction. Read Ephesians 1 every day for the next seven days. And as you read it, open up your notes app on your phone, grab a piece of paper, and I want you just to mark on everything that God declares about you and your identity when you are in Christ. Just as an example, verse 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

You could write down or type I've been given every spiritual Blessing in Christ. If you Ephesians, chapter one, verse three, then move on. What does it tell you in verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, verse 7. And then just cultivate this list and see how that list grows over the course of a week. And then just prayerfully ask God to remind you of who you are in him.

And you'll find yourself putting on this breastplate of righteousness to stand against the devil's destructive actions towards you and towards God's kingdom. Another next step for you might be that you don't yet stand in Christ. You've not yet expressed your faith in Him. And so maybe for you, this is the day that you go all in and you accept that he is God's Son and that he died for you. And that life is found only in him and through Him.

And you decide that you want to be buried with him in baptism, raised a new life. So you are covered in the righteousness of Jesus. Maybe for you it's just examining your life and asking yourself, where are those places in my life where I'm intentionally going against what God intends? I'm inviting the enemy to cause destruction. So I'm gonna draw a line today.

I'm gonna pursue his righteous actions in this way and in that way. And if you don't know what ways you're doing that, just quiet yourselves and pray and God reveal to me where I'm not living in accordance with your will. As you've been a mature follower of Jesus for an extended period of time, another way to ask the question is God, show me the good I should be doing that I'm not doing. Cause James tells us that if any of us know the good we ought to do and we don't do it. We sin and then commit to pursuing righteousness in those areas.

Maybe there's another personal application that the Lord wants to make in your life. We have a Next Steps team that's available at the front of our room each week that wants to help you with these decisions and more. And I'm gonna invite them to come to the front of the room now. They want to pray with you, they want to start conversations with you. And so take advantage of that Next Steps team.

We also have Next Steps classes for you. Classes designed to help you on your spiritual journey. This week at 11 o' clock in room 502A&D, there's a big Next Steps banner out in the commons by the classroom. We're gonna be offering Next Steps. Follow Jesus if you want to know more about what it means to Follow Jesus, who he is, what he's done, and what it means to follow him.

Then you want to go to Next Steps. Follow Jesus. Next week at 11 o', clock, we'll offer Next Steps Engage. If you're looking for how you can get engaged at Greenwood Christian Church and in God's kingdom, you want to come to Next Steps Engaged. That's next week at 11 o' clock in room 502A and D again, where the Next Steps banner is.

You might want to text us about your Next Step. You can text the word next to the number you see on the screen. 317-707-997. We want to help you with your Next step. Let me pray for you and let's together put on the breastplate of righteousness.

Father God, thank you. Thank you for being perfectly righteous and true. Thank you for sealing victory over Satan and his forces when you triumphed over them through Jesus Christ on the cross. Thank you for inviting us to walk in victory. Father, would you compel us to be intentional and purposeful about putting on the breastplate of righteousness, to stand in the identity that is ours through you and to respond in righteous action?

God, we know that we cannot be apart from you. You make us whole. God, lead us in that and give us courage in that. And it's in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Go in peace.