Session
1: Be Strong In The Lord
Ephesians
6:11: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil"
By this end of
this lesson, youth should realize the following:
-
God
gives us His Holy Spirit to strengthen us.
-
We
need to ask for God’s help and guidance.
-
Be
able to read and comprehend Ephesians 6:10 – 20
-
Realize
that there is spiritual warfare in our lives and how it is manifested to
us so we can recognize it.
-
Understand
why we need to “Be Strong in the Lord”
-
Teach
the youth the camp song: “Father I adore you…”
-
Talk about the Holy Trinity and how much God loves us.
-
Ask: How can we love Him? (Tell them to think about the song… “lay my life
before You.” We love God by giving Him ourselves.
- Introduce the
topic: Spiritual Warfare… What is it? Who does it involve? If it helps use
the War situation that has been going on in Iraq to explain. Conclude your
discussion by saying: "God loves us and will never let the devil gain
control of our lives if we pray to Him and ask for His help and guidance."
Activity
2:
- Now say: "In
war we need weapons to fight our battles… What weapons do we need to fight
battles for Jesus? We are going to read a chapter in Ephesians, can you pick
out the weapons used?"
- Read Ephesians
6:10-20
Write out the weapons of truth, righteousness, Gospel of Peace, faith, and
salvation out for all to see. Can they think of any other spiritual weapons
we can use to fight off our enemies?
Activity
3:
- Craft: If you
have time, you can make spiritual weapons. Ahead of time, make some cut out
swords, helmets, belts, anything but guns or modern ammunition, use construction
paper, and have them trace the weapons onto construction paper and write their
favorite weapon they would like to use in their journey toward Christ.
- Conclude by saying,
"We have learned that Jesus loves us and that we need to give our life
to Him. By giving our life to Him, He protects us from those who want to hurt
us, and by praying to Him He makes us become… Stronger in the Lord."
- You might want
to also discuss that this is our theme for the week.
Grades
6 - 12
Using a large piece
of paper or black board write all their responses to the following question
for all to see.
Ask: What does it
mean to you to be Strong in the Lord?
Now break them
off into subgroups… at least 4 groups of 5 in each group.
They will need Bibles. Have them choose a secretary in the group to write down
answers to discuss
Have them read Ephesians
6:10 - 20 and discuss these questions:
- List all the
weapons used in spiritual warfare as described by St. Paul in Ephesians?
- How can we use
these weapons in our struggle against evil today?
- How will these
weapons make us Stronger in the Lord?
- How can the Holy
Spirit help us in our warfare?
- List 3 situation
where we could be involved in spiritual warfare… Ex. Peer pressure
Have them come
back into the larger group and discuss. The leader should ask the question
again and have each secretary talk about their answers to the whole group.
