See everyone this morning. Let's go ahead and stand. Let's worship the Lord because he is worthy. Amen. Let's hear it. He is worthy. Amen. Amen. He's worthy and worthy to be praised. Grace is rising, eyes are turning to you. Returns with you Hope is stirring Hearts are yearning for you Because when we see you, we find strength to face the day. In your presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away. You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises. Hosanna! Hosanna! Come find your way among us. We welcome you, dear Lord Jesus. Hear the sound of horses returning to you Return to you In your kingdom, broken lives are made new. You make us new. When we see you, we find strength to face the day. In your presence, all our fears are washed away. Washed away. Hosanna. Hosanna. You are the God who saves us. Worthy of all our praises. Hosanna. When we sing, we find the strength to face the pain. ♪ In your presence all our fears are washed away ♪ Sing it church. ♪ Cause when we see you we find strength to face the day ♪ In your presence all our fears are washed away ♪ Washed away Hosanna! You are the God who saves us. Worthy of all our praises. Hosanna! Hosanna! Come, love your way among us. Hosanna! Hosanna! You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises. Hosanna! I'm glad you're weighing all among us. We welcome you here, Lord Jesus. Hosanna. Amen. Give him praise this morning. You may be seated. Hey, just want to shout out a welcome to all of our faith family congregation. Glad you guys are here today and if you're a guest, we're so glad you're here joining us and I hope And we sure love to meet you if we haven't, someone hasn't talked to you yet, you know, just bump fists with somebody and introduce yourself. And if, Faith Family, if you recognize somebody you don't recognize, then do the same. Please, just say hello and make them feel welcome. It's an awesome day to be in the house of the Lord today. And, you know, worship takes on different looks and different appearances. I know I was, Thinking about this song as we were singing, I was thinking about Job. Wouldn't that be something Job would sing? Like, in the men's ministry, we've been studying doctrine, and we were to read the end part of Job this week. And that's why Job came to my mind. And everything Job experienced, he praised the Lord through it. And he defended the Lord, and he never denied the Lord. His life, is a great example to the times we live in, like we face such horrible things at times, and through it all, we can praise him. We can feel his presence and walk with him through whatever we're challenged with, and we're not in this alone. We're not. God loves us so much. Psalm 92 also comes to my mind. It's good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, oh most high. To declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night. To the music of, and he goes on to speak about the instruments of the day, the lute. and the harp, the lyre, that could be the bass, the drums, the piano, the electric guitars, the keyboards. You guys are awesome, okay? And bringing praise to God. And worship also resembles baptism. Worship resembles giving of our tithes and offerings. Worship is breaking of the bread of truth to us. Man, that's what we need. We can't grow without it. And so I just wanted to plug that into the welcome and love you guys so much. And if you're a guest, you'll find these connection cards that are scattered about. Some of them are wrinkled up a little bit. The humidity gets up in here sometimes. But if you'll connect with us, we don't want you to just breeze in and breeze out, and we don't connect with you. So fill that out. Just drop it in the offering box in the back. And we'd love to hear from you. If not, we have all kinds of communication ways. Find us on Facebook. Hey, you guys on Facebook right now. Send us a shout out, okay? And we'd love to hear from you, okay? neglect to do that, okay? We love to connect with you. Hey, also, I wanted to plug in, I have an Awana table in the back there. We've done the Awana ministry for years. We've done it on Sunday nights, and it's been a blessing. I hope your kids have been blessed through the discipleship of that. These days call for changes of different things that we do, so God impressed me to move it to Wednesday nights. We'd love to do that ministry. not because of the glitz of it or anything, but because it is awesome doctrine that we teach in the Iwana curriculum. It is systematic theology, and it is really good stuff, and our kids learn all the attributes of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, scriptures, how we got the scriptures, and it's a great discipleship. material for kids and for adults. So I'll be in the back at the end of the service. If you want to connect with me on that, I'd love to hear from you. Because we would really love to get that started up soon. We're just trying to hear from our church and see what you guys want to be a part of and what your kids want to be a part of. That is all I have to say. Let me pray, and then hopefully baptism is ready. If not, maybe Josh can lead us in another song. Let's pray together. Father God, thank you for being the awesome God that you are. Father, thank you for being the lover of our souls. You love us so much, and you desire for anybody on this planet full of people that are your creation to come back to you in repentance. And Lord, help us to examine our hearts and see if there's any way in us that we need to repent before you. Help us to do that. Help us to understand that it's so important to you for us to desire your righteousness, to desire the cleansing that only you can provide. God, I pray that you would show us that through your spirit And Lord, we look forward to the blessings and the worship that we're about to experience. God, I pray that your spirit would fill this place, and Lord, that we would experience your presence right now. Jesus, in your awesome and holy name, I pray because you are the King of kings, and you are the Lord of lords, and you deserve your Lord, Jesus. Amen. Jason, would you come and join me? Jason Sly is the chairman of our deacons. and that we talk to the day that the chairman of the kids ought to be scripturally baptized a man , and that's, you'll laugh at that OK as good as it can take quickly the story number one, we're glad to have his dad hears that you can see that they're right there that's what we're waiting on is that they'll be here But he wasn't converted until an adult. He wasn't born again of the Spirit of God. And when he was born again, it was a radical change that happened in his heart. This came to him, the need to be baptized came to him by reading the scripture and the Holy Spirit opening his eyes to say, I need to get my baptism and my conversion in the right order. When Jesus was baptized, you might remember John said, I don't need to baptize you, you need to baptize me. And he said, no, in order to fulfill all righteousness, you must baptize me. And that's what we're doing this morning is we're fulfilling all righteousness as we're putting things in the right order. This is Jason's confession of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through believers baptism. And you do trust Christ and Christ alone to save you. And he has saved you. Amen. So we've got a baptized and saved the chairman of Deacons. That's good. I would say not every church has that, but I'm not going to say that. I'm sorry. This has really been a delight to watch Jason growing and maturing as when he meets scripture and the Holy Spirit shows it to him, he says, I must obey what the scripture says. And so if you would, at this time, we will baptize you, my dear brother. Because of your public confession of faith in Christ, and because Christ died for your sin, it's my joy to baptize you, my dear brother, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We're buried with Christ in baptism unto death, raised to walk in newness of life. Amen. Come around just a second. I know you've noticed the T-shirts. We want to thank Brandy Pittard for making these for ours. It says, Not Ashamed, and it's coming from Romans 116, that I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation. God bless you. What a wonderful thing to watch, amen? Let's stand, let's worship the Lord this morning. Some of you are gonna recognize the hymn that's in this song, and be overjoyed by it. I love this song, one of my favorite songs, My Savior's Love. Let's sing out, and let's worship the Lord, and listen to the words of the song, and listen to the doctrine in it, and allow your heart to lift up in the worship of this Lord. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful Is my Savior's love for me Oh, tears for his lowly grace, but sweat drops of blood Marvelous! Oh, how wonderful! And my song shall ever be Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. Oh, when my song shall ever be Oh, how marvelous Oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me His face I at last shall see, To be my joy through the ages, To sing of His love for me. and my soul shall never be. How marvelous, oh how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. How marvelous, oh how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. How marvelous, oh how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. Amen, give Him praise. How wonderful, how marvelous is His love. Our Father everlasting, the all-creating One, God Almighty. Through your Holy Spirit conceiving Christ the Son, Jesus I I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. Our judge and our defeat Suffered and crucified Forgiveness is in you Descended into darkness You rose in glorious light Forever seated high I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. ♪ That Jesus Christ is Lord ♪ I believe in you That Jesus Christ is born. I believe in God our Father. I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. I believe in the name of Jesus. I believe in the life eternal. I believe in the virgin birth. I believe in the resurrection when Jesus comes again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. I believe in life eternal. In the saints communion and in your holy church. I believe in the resurrection when Jesus comes again. I believe in God our Father. I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again. For I believe in the In the name of Jesus. Amen. Give Him praise. He is worthy. Amen. You may be seated. There's a mute button on here. I need unmuted if you're going to hear me, right? Well, we are glad that you are here today. Let me take just a quick moment to tell you, because we're trying to just make sure everyone stays well as best we can, are socially distancing during our service and we are right at capacity with that going on and so we kind of struggle with what do we do and we could do some things that take a lot of physical work or we can just work the preacher a little extra and so we decided to work the preacher a little extra. Thank you, I like it. I like it, love it. It's the way it ought to be. And so we're on the 13th. We're going to start an early service. And when I say early, it's 8 o'clock. and we've asked you to respond and many of you have done so. Our expectation isn't that we'll receive a lot of new people. A lot of people will be in that early service and you've kind of indicated that. We will pick up some people that are staying at home because of their health reasons and so they'll be joining us at eight o'clock And we're going to practice strict social distancing at that hour, which means you're going to have to wear your face mask the whole time. That means coming in, walking around, during the song service, everything else. And I've got a helper that is going to help me. Alex Moore is going to be leading the music during that time. And so I guess we're making you work a little extra too, aren't we? Yeah. Okay. But we're looking forward to it. We'll be finished by 9 o'clock. We have a couple of classes that meet either online or in person and we want to make sure we're finished by that time. So just kind of let you know what we're doing. Hope to see you at 8, if not at 8 then here at 1030, if not 8 or 1030 then online. The 8 o'clock service will not be recorded, it will not be online, so it'll just be the 10.30 service, just to let you know. Well, we're talking about spiritual warfare, and I'm ready to quit. Because I don't know about you, but doesn't it seem like when you start in on something, it seems like everything that you're studying about is happening around you? And we're talking about spiritual warfare. And today we are looking at putting on the whole armor of God. Last week we looked at putting on the belt of truth. And this morning we're looking at the breastplate of righteousness. And as I've looked across the news this week, and maybe you have, you see where people who claim to know Christ and walk with Christ fail. And that happens. And when you look at your own life, there are times that you and I can fail and behave or think in a way that is inconsistent with the nature of who Christ is. and sometimes people say well you guys are always judging the church is always judging and the reality is we judge ourselves and then as Paul said well I really can't judge myself because there is one who judges righteously and that is the Lord now we make judgments and we have to make judgments it's wise to make judgments about who are good teachers and who are false teachers, about those who are living a life that is contrary to the ways of Christ and yet continue to present themselves as Christians sold out to Christ. So there's times we have to make judgments and we have to make judgments about ourselves in the same kind of regard. But we're reminded this morning that Christ has been judged for you. I'm going to say that one more time. Christ has been judged for you. Christ has been judged for you on the cross of Calvary. And so, see the judgment as the one that Christ has made where He has judged our sin on the cross of Calvary. And to refuse to bow the knee of our lives and surrender to the Lordship of Christ would be for us to not receive that judgment, but to receive our own judgment for our own sin. Christ bore our sins in the cross on Calvary. when he died for us Ephesians chapter 6 beginning in verse 13 just kind of as a foundation therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand so verse 14 says stand therefore so God this is what God has done for us now what are we to do we're to stand And we're reminded, having done all to stand. stand therefore having fastened on," and this is something that we do in conjunction with the Lord, fastening on the belt of truth. He is our truth and the Word of God is our truth. So we're talking about putting on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and the promises that He has given to us and has purchased for us and His written Word of God so that everything is true in God's Word, so that God, let God be true in every man. a liar. So if we go contrary to the Word of God, then it's not the Word of God that's at fault, it's we who are at fault. And so we must come and move ourselves in compliance with what the Word of God says rather than try to somehow change the way we view Christianity or the way we view Christ or Scripture. The Scripture has been given to us as the Holy Writ, the Holy Scripture, the Word of God. And Peter talked about it when he said, Holy men of God wrote when they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, no interpretation of Scripture is left to one man's interpretation. So we are to study the Scripture, let it say what it says, let it mean what it means, and then we adjust our lives to it. God is sending us out as soldiers at the head of a battle. You know, I never was a soldier. I can't identify with what a soldier must have to go through in basic training. I did do two-a-days in football. And two-a-day practices in football was, you know, I signed up to play on Friday night. I did not sign up to play to throw up my breakfast and then throw up this morning and then throw up my lunch this afternoon and then not be able to sleep at night. Okay, that's not what I signed up for, but the reality is that is what you signed up for. And so it is in the Christian life. Sometimes we want to say, well, I really didn't sign up for this battle thing, but if you are in Christ, you are aligned with Christ and he reminds us we are in a battle. It is a warfare. The belt of truth is given to us as a girdle, a skirt to protect the loins. It is something that provides, it holds everything together. Remember we see where the breastplate of righteousness is actually attached to the truth. And so we know the truth of whether or not we have His righteousness based on what the truth of God's Word says. The breastplate, it protects the heart, the vital organs as well. The breastplate of a Roman soldier, it protected not only the heart, it protected the lungs, all the other organs that we have in there, which I will not name. And then we'll go back to even the kidneys. It wrapped around to the back to cover the kidneys. Because in this kind of battle, any kind of blow to any of those organs could mean the end of your life. And so we're in a battle for life and death, heaven and hell. I think about the work of a surgeon, you know, a skilled surgeon, maybe a neurosurgeon, a brain surgeon, and we think about the greatness of the work that they do, and indeed it is great, but the reality is the work that a Christian does in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ is even at a higher level. It's on a higher plane. Because we're talking about eternal life and eternal death. And so it's necessary that we get these things right. So he's writing this to us so that we can know to protect the vital organs. And let's speak of the heart. Because a soldier has a heart. He either has a heart to fight or a heart not to fight. And if a soldier doesn't have a heart to fight, then he is of no value. She is of no good in the battle that's coming. If the idea is, I don't want to face this enemy and I'm going to turn and I'm going to run or I'm going to hide, then we're not of any value in the battle to which we have been called. And we Christians can fall into that. We can find ourselves not having the heart to be in the battle of the Christian life, to somehow saying, I want it easy, I want the easy Christian life. Well, vanish that thought. There is no easy Christian life. The Christian life is a death to self. It's to come and follow Christ. How many times did Jesus use that term to say, if you want to be my disciple, follow me? And if you follow Jesus around, was his Christian life an easy life? Absolutely not. And he's called us to walk with him. And those soldiers that walked with him, at times the disciples said, we don't want to do this anymore. Lord, this is too hard. This is too difficult for us. And at times when they saw the power of God at work, they said, oh, let's just stay here. Remember when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration and they saw Jesus transform before them, they said, listen, this is the Christian life. It's kind of like going to a revival meeting or a Bible conference and saying, man, it's good here. I don't want to go out there. And yet, Jesus wouldn't allow him to say that. The battle is down in the valley. And so the heart of the soldier is protected by this breastplate. And I want to just say three simple things this morning about the breastplate. Number one, the breastplate of righteousness, it pictures for us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So when we talk about the breastplate of righteousness, understand it is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's not necessarily here talking about your own righteousness. We'll talk about how it results in righteousness in our lives. But to be declared righteous is something that happened on the cross of Calvary, and you and I enter into that by faith alone in Christ alone. That is salvation by grace through faith. So he says, stand there having put on this breastplate of righteousness. Romans 3.22 says, the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all who believe. That's a summarization of the gospel. How do I get this breastplate of righteousness? Through faith in Christ Jesus for all who believe. Remember our condition in Adam is, in Adam we all die. We're all sinners. but in Christ are all made alive. So to be just a son or daughter of Adam and that alone, that is meaning having only a natural birth and not a spiritual birth, will always result in spiritual death. But to be in Christ and to have his righteousness so that one day he will present us faultless and blameless before the Father with great joy, Jude said. With great joy, he's excited to do it. I want to pick out some of you by name, but I don't want to embarrass you. Wouldn't it just be great, just to say, man, this, I can't imagine him saying, this is Joel. He's mine. I paid the debt for his sin. I can hear the old enemy, the old accuser of the brethren saying, yeah, but you don't know about. Well, no, I don't. I remember his sin no more. And He's excited to present us faultless and blameless before Him in love. That is the Christ who offers this breastplate of righteousness. We're reminded the scripture says in Romans 3.10, there's no one who is righteous, no not one. We look at that and we We want to say, well, I'm not quite as bad as somebody else. You know, I know I've shared this story before. I'll just do it again. Most of you are new. So I was living down at Orange Beach at Bear Point. And it was in between churches. Janet and I had a house cleaning business. That's how we were making money at the time. I'm up on Sunday morning early. I get up early every Sunday morning. I was up early Sunday morning. Sun hasn't risen. I looked over. There are piers behind the houses. I look over at one of the piers. It's two or three piers down from us. And I look and I see a man getting ready to go fishing. And he's going to all that, and I didn't say it out loud, because I was by myself. I probably would have, had there been somebody in there. But I said in my heart, Lord, at least I'm more spiritual than that man is over there. It's Sunday morning, he's going fishing, and I'm going to church. Now you say, you really didn't think that, did you? I really did. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and who can know it? And I was really sitting there, having one of those moments of, you know, self-pity, and I saw that, and I said, at least I'm not going fishing. Sun kept coming up, and I look over there, and he's still over there at it, same place. Hadn't moved around very much, still loading that boat, I guess. And finally the sun comes up enough, I can look over there and see there was actually nobody over at that boat. It was a trash can. It's all it was. It was a garbage can. Big old garbage can sitting by the boat. My mind's doing tricks on me. I don't know if yours ever does that. You see things that aren't really there in the dark, you know, if you're a deer hunter. I don't know how many deer I've seen before the sunlight has come up. But all of a sudden, I look over there and I'm saying, you're as spiritual as a trash can. I was right on target except for Christ. You see, our righteousness doesn't come out of our performance. Our righteousness comes from Christ, which comes through faith. It is a grace thing. It is a gift from God where God graces you with His righteousness. He imputes it to you. That's a hard word for us to understand. Graces it to you. That's really not a word that we use. We know the word grace, but He gives it to you as a gift. It's a free gift from God. So while there is none righteous, not even one, how then do I become righteous? I become righteous by faith in Him. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, and because of Him, you are in Christ. Because of what Christ has done, you are in Christ who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. All of these things come through the free gift of eternal life. And yes, you can be five years old and come to repent of sin. You can so be aware of your brokenness before God and know that you are undone. And to know that you cannot become what God intends you to become, but that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin as a five-year-old. And with the simplicity of repentance of heart, that you can repent. And repentance is to turn, it's an opposite direction. To turn from saying, you know, I'm going to go be the best little boy I can be and somehow please God and God will accept me, to I know I can never be the best little boy I can be. That's why God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for me and I surrender to Him and I trust Him as my Lord and my Savior. But you know, you can be 30 and not understand that. You can be 40 and not, you can be 100. There aren't very many. You can be 100. My mother is 96. You can be 100 and still not understand that, except by the Spirit of God. He becomes our righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, He became sin for us who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Who's the Him? Christ. We might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You and I receive that by faith. We trust Him. We look at what's going on around us, in us, before us. Maybe the things that occasionally come out of our mouths. And we as believers have to repent of that sin. Not for eternal forgiveness, but for walking with Christ and walking with others. So it is in Christ that we have salvation. Abraham believed God and it was put to his account for righteousness, right? So even people in the Old Testament were saved in the same way people in the New Testament are saved. He believed God, he trusted in God, he put his faith in God that what Moses and the others would see, there was blood painted on the doorpost of my life by the Lamb of God and my salvation is secured in that. Their faith was in Christ, God's provision of salvation in the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the One who is to come. He believed God, it was put to His account for righteousness. And you and I look to the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross and we believe God, it's put to our account for righteousness. But there's a second truth. Jesus is our righteousness. But notice also the breastplate of righteousness pictures the righteousness of the Christian as well. Because notice what it said, you must put on this righteousness. It's something that you wear. Now, I don't know about you, but if you were sitting in a Roman soldier's outfit today, right where you are, you probably would be very uncomfortable. Wouldn't you? I mean, could you imagine all that metal sticking into you? It's not fit for sitting. It's not fit for doing nothing. It doesn't work for reclining in the recliner or in a hammock or anything like that. It's fit for what? A battle. And we're in a battle. And we need to realize that we wear the righteousness of Christ everywhere we go and we're to live out of that righteousness. It is a practical righteousness. You might call the first part the positional righteousness of the Christian. I am in Christ, I am righteous. But there's a practical outworking of that, of every day, of walking in that practical righteousness of Christ, where 1 John 3, 9 and 10 says, no one born of God makes a practice of sinning. For God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he's been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 1 John goes into a lot of detail into many different things. The Scripture goes into a lot of detail about different things that are in our lives that shouldn't be a part of the believer's life. We're reminded that the deeds of the flesh, though they are self-evident, they're not to be a part of the Christian life. This falls right into the Corinthians. He says, such were some of you, and he names off a whole litany of evils. And we look at that and every once in a while we say, well, I may not have done that, but you know, Jesus said if a man looks after a woman to lust in his heart, after her he has done what? He's committed adultery already in his heart. And so when I begin to look at all the list of sins that the scripture says, there are times I look back and I go, man, I didn't make it very far this week. Before I broke that. But the question is, is there a practice of me seeing that I have sinned by the Holy Spirit convicted me of sin, that's his job, he comes and convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And he has convicted me and therefore I come under his Lordship and yield him in repentance and faith and ask for forgiveness for that sin so that I walk in continual fellowship with Christ. It helps me walk in continual fellowship with my wife, by the way. It's very practical because sometimes I sin against my wife and some of the things I don't do, I don't see, I don't say. Things I do say, things I do, And I can go on. And I have to repent of that, but I have to also go to her and say, you know, what I said, or me neglecting you, seeing you do all that hard work and me sitting there just enjoying myself, that was sinful on my part. and I need to confess it to you as well as I've confessed it to God and I've received forgiveness. So there's a practical outworking of, I'm in Christ, therefore I should continue to practice righteousness. I like what Paul told young Timothy in 1 Timothy 6.11, he says, but as for you, O man of God, you flee these things. He gave a list of things that he needed to run from. Run from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. It kind of makes me think of Joseph. Remember Joseph in the Old Testament when Potiphar's wife came after him? The husband was gone. No one was in the house. Who would know? She comes after Joseph and she says, you're going to come and commit adultery with me and he leaves. She grabs a hold of his cloak and he doesn't hesitate, he leaves it behind and he runs for his life. Even though he is accounted guilty by man, he knows he is not guilty by God. And that's the outworking of having the righteousness of Christ in us, so that we do flee the things of this world and pursue the things of God. You see, there are consequences to our lives when we're not pursuing righteousness, but we're pursuing the things of the world. Now we have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. So you're in a battle with one of three of those, or all three at the same time. It's a constant battle and there are consequences when we're not walking in righteousness. One is that we're an open target for Satan's attack on us. We've taken a position that a believer is never to take, and that is one of being fearful, being afraid, not getting in the battle. My heart has lost its desire to walk with Christ. What's the remedy for a heart that's lost its desire with Christ? Jesus talked to a church, the scripture won't be on the board, but it's found in Revelation chapter 2. He's talking to the church at Ephesus, and remember what he says to them, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. So when I find myself not having the heart to follow hard after God and pursue the things of God, it's a revelation that I'm not following Christ. I'm not looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of my faith. And how easy is it for you to get your eyes off? It's so easy. One of our Christian leaders was outed this week because of sin in his life. And I looked at it and I said, oh man, God, I just bowed my head and said, oh Lord, this is the worst thing that could happen for yet another and another and another. And I have to remember that's not to whom I look. I don't look to another person. I don't even look to myself for this righteousness. I look to Christ and Christ alone. So we become open targets when we're fearful or discouraged or we're refusing to fight. God is calling us to look unto Jesus who is the champion of the army of the saints of God. He is our champion. And if we see Him as the champion, I'm not the one sitting on the white horse riding at the front. Praise God! He is. I'm just one of the peons in the back. But I've got to have my breastplate of righteousness on, which is Christ. And I need to get in line with Christ and say it's His battle, it's not my battle. It's His war, it's not my war. Actually, He's won the war. He won it on Calvary. We're just battling until we get to glory. We look at the struggles here and part of the reason why God has left it that way for us, if not the main reason, is so that we could trust in Christ here and know that when we get there how good it is to be in the presence of the Lord. There's a consequence of doubting your salvation. when you're not living practically in the righteousness of Christ. I don't look like a Christian. Therefore, when Satan comes and says, you don't look like a Christian, you know what you do? You go, you're right. I'm not sure I am. Some of us are believers in Christ and we're struggling because we've gotten sin in our lives. Sin is like kryptonite to the Christian. Except the good news is sin is easily overcome because it was overcome on the cross of Calvary. He requires of you and I the same thing he required for conversion. Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you and I sin, we come to Him that same way. Repentance toward God. God, I can't. I can't change my life. I can't get out of this hole I've placed myself in. But, oh God, I confess it to You. If there's somebody else I need to confess it to, I'll confess it to them. But, oh Lord, fill me with Your Holy Spirit. Help me to know that the Word of God has given me clear direction. It's a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I know exactly what to do because of You. Not walking in this practical righteousness will also not allow us to have any peace. When you're not at peace, You know, sometimes we are not at peace because we're in the battle and we think, again, time out, I didn't sign up for this, and we just need the truth. What's the first thing we put on? The belt of truth. We just need to go back to this truth and say, wait a minute, that's falsehood that I thought I wasn't signing up for, going to the ends of the earth to tell everyone about Jesus Christ, even my neighbor, okay, or family members. The truth is, He's called us to do that, and so there won't be any peace until I surrender again to the Lordship of Christ in my life. And another thing it'll make us do, it'll make us be afraid to share the good news of Jesus Christ. See, if we're not being consistent in our walk with Christ, we don't want to tell anybody else we're Christian. Because they're going to look at us and they're going to say, what, you? You are a believer. I'm just like you. You're just like me. Why do I need what you're talking about? I don't need it. So it's crucial that we as saints of God walk practically and the righteousness that is ours through our positional relationship with His righteousness through faith alone in Christ alone. And then lastly, and I've kind of said it all, there's a breastplate of conflict. The breastplate of righteousness pictures righteousness of conflict. Stand, having done all to stand. We're in a battle. He has fought the battle for us. 1 Peter 2.24 says, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin to live to righteousness. By His wounds we have been healed. He has given us everything that we need that pertains to life and godliness. We are fully outfitted by Christ. We're putting on each piece of this armor one at a time, but the reality is we've got it what? All. Every bit of it. Head to toe. Ready for battle. In Christ Jesus. It impacts us, it impacts our prayer life, righteousness does in the war and the battle we're in. Remember in James 5, 16 it says, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed and the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Now, he's not talking about the righteousness, just the righteousness that you receive by faith, but it's the righteousness you outlive, live out into the life by obedience to Christ, walking with Christ. Who do you want praying for you? A Christian who's standing, walking with Christ, or one who's in rebellion against Christ? Well, I know who I want praying for me. There were certain ladies back at the church where I pastored in Arkansas that, you know, when push came to shove, you just went to those ladies. And I can remember we were headed to a youth camp. up in Northwest Arkansas, and it was a heat wave going on. The youth camp had no air conditioning in it whatsoever. It had cabins, but no air conditioning. It had a place to meet, but no air conditioning. And it was like up here. I'm sweating. It was like over 100 degrees every day. And we went to one of the ladies in the church, and we said to her, We've just got to ask you, it's going to be so hot on us, so unbearable, I'm not even sure the kids are going to be able to hear the gospel because it's going to be so hot. Can you pray for cooler weather? This is the end of July, okay? 100 degree weather, northwest Arkansas, almost in Oklahoma. We woke up the next morning, it was in the 60s. We called her up, thank you for praying for us, praise God. Next morning, it was in the 50s. We called her back up, quit praying. You see, it impacts everything that we do, it impacts the way we pray, it impacts the way that we serve God. You look at Samson, and I'm gonna kinda, I've got two verses to share with you after telling about Samson, so I'm kinda giving you a heads up, coming to the end. Look at Samson, he was a man who God had blessed, he had all the righteousness of God in him and what did he choose to do as a follower of God, a follower of Christ? He chose to love women above his love for God. And in doing so, after God had used him so greatly, so greatly, he falls into this sin in his life, and all of a sudden the power is gone. And he's useless to God, and he's a servant of the enemy. And it's not until his death that he turns his heart back to the Lord. He says, oh, what a fool I have been. I have been such a fool and I turn my heart back to you God. God would you work in me yet one more time. And the scripture tells us that when Samson yields his life to the Lord God does more through him in that final act of death than all of his previous time of service. Let's remember that our righteousness is from Christ. Titus 3.5 says, and he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. In Revelation 22.14 it says, it's talking about heaven, blessed are those who wash their robes. in Christ. That's a continual daily washing, the way I see it. Those who know what to do with the righteousness that God has given us, we're clothed in the righteousness of God. And kind of like when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and he came to Peter and Peter said, don't wash my feet. He says, if I don't wash your feet, you don't have any part of me. Then Peter says, give me a bath. That's in the text of the New Testament. That's what it says. And Jesus said, a man who has had a bath doesn't need another one. For all you hunters out there, okay? If you've had a bath, you don't need another one. All you need is what? Your feet to be washed. The picture is, as we walk through this world and we do sin, we don't dwell on our sinfulness, we repent of our sinfulness and we come to Christ. And we turn to Him and ask His cleansing. We wash our robes in the blood of Jesus Christ. We come to Him daily. I'm not all that I should be, but I'm not what I once was apart from Christ. And He's begun a good work in me. And that's exactly what Paul told the Philippians. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in you, both to will and to work. for His good pleasure. I don't know if the message has hit you at any particular point but I just am confident that it has. That's what the Word of God does. The Holy Spirit has spoken to you about something. Either it's a need to be born again to the Spirit of God As we were reminded, you can be 15 years of age and be baptized and not be saved. Okay? We had another young lady that was going to be baptized this morning, and she had been baptized as a child, and it wasn't until she, a couple of years ago, she was looking up into heaven, and she saw the Creator God who made all of that, and she said, when I saw that, I realized He became my Savior and I had yet to yield my life to the glory of His great salvation. Instead, I yielded my life to Him. She's down at the ER right now having a test for COVID, so she didn't show up for baptism this morning. But that's what it may be that that's what God's telling you to do. It may be that you just need to come to grips with the fact that God has called you into a warfare as a Christian. You've been saved, but you say, I want it easy. I don't want it hard. I don't want my friends making fun of me. All that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. That is the life. You're here to please one person, and that is God himself. The Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, that's who we're here to please. And so if God is telling you today, get over your fear and trust in Christ, then today you need to trust in Christ. Maybe there's sin dwelling in your life. The counsel of the Word of God is, it doesn't matter what the sin is, you need to come to God with a heart of repentance. and faith that Christ will do what He says He will do, and obedience to the truth of what God says. Get the encouragement of the saints around you. Get a praying woman, like I mentioned to you a moment ago, praying for you. And let you see God lead you out of that pit into victory. Out from under the slavery of sin and into the victory that is ours in Jesus Christ. And it may be God just saying, I need you to be a part of this church family. You need to be a part of a church body that believes the scripture, tries their best to live the scripture under the power of the Holy Spirit, and try to encourage one another along the way. Would you bow your heads together with me? Father, we do thank you for the clarity that you have given to us through faith alone and Christ alone. as a gift from yourself, the holy righteousness of Jesus Christ. Everyone who will come to you in repentance of heart and mind and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, your word says, will be saved. They'll come to receive the salvation of Christ, which includes the righteousness of Christ. He became sin for us, who Himself knew no sins, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And then, Father, we pray for saints of God, children of God, that we would practically live out that righteousness. every day so that we're not fearful that we're not losing our usefulness that when we pray you do hear so that Lord we're not open to trials and temptations that otherwise would not be there and then father help us today to know you have clothed us for a battle. We're not fighting, as it's been said so many times, for victory, but from victory. Christ has won the war. But until Satan has been bound into a timeless place of torment for Him, prepared for Him and His angels, Father, we'll be in a fight. Or until death calls us home. So Lord, help us to be soldiers of the cross. Help us to be in the fight and in the battle. Fighting for each other. Fighting for the gospel. Fighting for true Christianity. Help us to know that You're the one that's at the front, and we have joined you in this fight by grace and through faith. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. There's a text that is available to you that if you have a response that you would like to make, you can text that number, and we will get it, and we'll get back in touch with you. Helping you know what you need to do next in following Christ. Our offering, we don't take up our offering. This weekend is Labor Day weekend. The Geralds will be here next Sunday morning, our former minister of worship and his family. So maybe that'll entice you to stay at home and come to church, okay? So I look forward to seeing Jay and Jill and the rest of the family, okay? God bless you as you go this morning. Bye! you you you you you