The Armor of God

Ephesians 6:14-17 - Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

We continued in Ephesians tonight.  We are going back to old-school G, where in we are taking the verses Pastor Mike teaches on Sunday and breaking them down for the kids on Wednesdays...making them applicable to them and on their level.

We are using the discipleship training method taught to us by Pastor Billy a month ago.  We begin each night now with praise and prayer reports and then pray before we continue.  

Next, we are having a time of praise and worship with YouTube songs that include the lyrics on the screen.  It just seems to get the kids ready for the lesson and get their minds focused on God's Word and off their school days or what went on before they got to youth.

Then we read the passage from Sunday and ask one of the kids to tell it back to us, but in their own words.  We proceed to talk about what captured their attention or caught them off guard, what bothered them and why, what does the passage reveal to us about God/Jesus, what does it reveal about us, and what lessons does the passage reveal about being disciples of Jesus.  We discuss what the passage tells us about living to honor and please God and what God wants us to obey from the passage.  I can't tell you how rewarding this method of study has been for us.  Instead of me doing all of the talking and teaching, the kids are digging deeper to discover truths and nuggets of wisdom for themselves.  They are teaching each other!  It's awesome to listen to them.  And ALL of them are sharing now, even the more shy ones.  This is how we plan to conduct youth every week from now on.

After our discussion, we follow up with an object lesson if God gives us one and maybe a few YouTubes.

Tonight was all about the armor of God.  We showed this clip from Avatar and talked about the unseen war we are in every single day and who our enemy is.  We talked about the Roman soldiers' shields that protected their entire bodies from arrows soaked in pitch and lit on fire by the enemy.  We talked about how important each part of a soldier's armor is in protecting him from danger.

Then we discussed with the kids what those fiery arrows might represent in our lives, Satan's arrows.  We talked about doubting who we are in Christ, temptations, parents who are divorced or who fight all the time, bullies at school, struggles learning, distractions, etc...  We did a little experiment then to show the importance of our spiritual armor from God.  We showed the kids that an orange can float in a bowl of water as long as it has it's peel still on...its armor, which helps it "stand" in times of tribulation.  Then we peeled another orange.  We named a weapon of Satan's for each section of the peeled orange and then dropped it into the same bowl of water with its armed brother.  This time, the peeled orange sank.  It could not withstand the fiery arrows from the enemy because it was not properly armed.

To really show the kids how important the sword of the Spirit is as a part of their armor and how, even they can use the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, we gave them scenarios and then had them read Scriptures that applied to each situation.  Here are a few examples:

• You're feeling so discouraged because you were supposed to go camping this weekend and the weather is calling for tropical storm weather.  Proverbs 19:21
• You know you're a Christian, but you can't stop feeling like you'll never be good enough because of your past sins.  2 Cor. 5:17
• If one more bad thing happens to you this week, you'll explode!  James 1:2-4
• You're so mad at yourself for blowing it with your attitude at home last week and how upset your parents were with you.  Phil. 3:13-14
• You hear all the crazy stuff happening around the world and on the news and start to freak out about your future.  John 16:33
• Your parents have been fighting a lot lately, especially over money.  You are starting to worry too.  John 14:27
• There's this group of kids at school that keeps trying to get you to hang out with them.  They seem cool, but have a reputation for always getting in trouble.  Psalm 1:1-3
• You are so nervous about your math test this week!  1 Peter 5:7
• You feel like you're the only one whose parents gives them so many chores and like you'll never get them done so you can hang out with your friends.  Col. 3:23
• You're trying to stay positive and be thankful, but it's so hard when all you can think about is the difficult situation at home.  Phil. 4:4-8
• You are really nervous and scared about your upcoming performance in band or a school play.  Joshua 1:9
• You really like this girl/boy in your class and find yourself daydreaming of what it would be like to kiss him/her.  Psalm 119:9-11
• Everyone has the new ipod touch it seems.  Yours is the older version and still works fine, but still....  Hebrews 13:5
• Your brother or sister borrowed your favorite shirt and got a stain on it!  James 1:19

And those are just a few!  Anyway, it was a great night and we ended it with this YouTube on the Armor of God in the Life of Teens.

The Circle of Blessing

Tonight we discussed Ephesians 6:1-9 with the kids and the importance of obedience in our lives.  Both kids and adults fall short of this command.  Our hearts have not always given honor and love to our parents...or to God, our heavenly Father.  We used an object lesson from Ted Tripp's Shepherding A Child's Heart book for tonight's lesson.

To demonstrate why obeying parents is so important, we put a 3' diameter circle on the floor in our room.  We asked kids to take turns standing inside the circle, which represented the place where they were safe because they were walking in obedience to their parents, and ultimately God.  Outside of the circle of blessing, danger awaits us, which always leads to negative consequences....or in this case, a squirt bottle!

We read several case stories then to give the kids actual examples of obedience and disobedience.  Here are a few of the stories we read:

• Kristy’s Story:  Kristy is a nice little girl in the second grade.  She loves horses.  She loves them so much she has big posters of horses in her room.  Down the road from her house there is a farm that has horses, but her parents don’t know the owner so she’s never seen them up close.  Her mom says that it would be wrong to try to pet those horses without the owner's permission.  [Is she still in the circle?]  One day, when Kristy is playing outside in her front yard she decided to walk down to see the horses – she knows her mom will say “NO” so she doesn’t bother to ask.  [Is she still in the circle?]  Kristy walks down the road and gets very close the horse fence.  She thinks about turning back and running home.  She feels like God wants her to do the right thing and run home, but instead she decided to get close to the horses.  [Is she still in the circle?]

Bobby’s Story:  Bobby doesn’t like his math class.  For some reason it just seems too hard for him to do all that work.  Everyday he comes home from school and his parents have him do his math homework before he gets to play his video games.  On one Tuesday after school, his friend Joey comes over to play for a few hours.  [Is he still in the circle?]  He knows he needs to do his homework, but really wants Joey to help him beat the new level on his video game.  His parents might let him save his math work for after dinner, but Bobby doesn’t want to take chances.  He decided to leave his math book at school and pretend that the teacher did not give out any homework.  When the get back to his house he looks his dad in the face and lies about it.  [Is he still in the circle?]

• Joey’s Story:  Joey loves it when people pay attention to him.  His favorite thing is to tell a funny story at recess when kids gather around to listen.  It makes him feel important.  [Is he still in the circle?]  One day he started telling a funny story about his dog.  Everyone laughed and asked him to tell another one.  He couldn’t think of any, but he did remember something embarrassing about his grandfather.  His grandfather had been sick and sometimes had accidents using the bathroom.  He knew is was something his parents wouldn’t want him to spread around, but as he told it the kids kept laughing more and more.  [Is he still in the circle?]

• Sara’s Story:  Sara is so excited that her new school has a vending machine.  The best part is that it has her favorite snacks that her mom never buys at the grocery store.  As soon as she discovered it she spent all her allowance money in one day.  [Is she still in the circle?]  That night she asked her mom for more money, maybe even an advanced payment of next week’s allowance.  Her mom said no and reminded Sara to be more careful about how quickly she was spending her money.  The next morning she found some money layout out beside her dad’s favorite chair.  She was certain it had fallen out of his pocket the night before.  Without asking, she took this money so she could have more snacks the next day.  [Is she still in the circle?]

Each time the kids stepped out of the circle of blessing, they received a blast from the squirt bottle.  We talked about why and how each of these kids was or wasn't obeying.  We discussed what they could have done differently to remain in the circle of blessing.  We also talked about how ignoring these instances of disobedience and chalking them up to "no big deal" could lead to bigger cases of rebellion and what some of those might be.

Then we quizzed them a little with some trickier True/False questions and discussed their answers:

• Disobeying is okay if you know your parents will say NO.
• Since your parents put the school in charge of you, to honor your parents means to obey your teacher too.
• If you always obey your parents, your life will always be perfect.
• Once you disobey, you can’t get back inside the circle.
• God doesn’t care if we have a bad attitude when we obey.
• God promised a better life for those who obey.
• It’s not really disobeying if you parents didn’t actually say NO.

We also let the kids know that it was not solely up to them to try and remain in the circle of blessing.  They need help every single day.  That's why God gave them parents to train and encourage them.  That's why God gave us His Son, our Savior.  And it's not just about kids obeying parents.  It's ultimately about all of us obeying our heavenly Father.  We talked about what that looks like in the life of a believer and some of the consequences/rewards for walking or not walking in that obedience to Him.

Spirit-Filled Living

Ephesians 5:18-20 - Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So tonight we discussed living a Spirit-Filled life and what that looks like.  We talked about how we can do nothing apart from being filled with the Spirit and how Christ has to increase as we decrease.  To show what that looks like in our lives, we gave the youth a familiar visual....with a ZG twist!

We had a bunch of objects sitting on the floor to represent all the activities, interests and possessions that have a place in our lives and in which we spend our time and money. One by one, we explained what each object represented and placed it in the jar.  We had a baseball for sports, some toys for stuff, a pencil for school, a small camera and paintbrush for hobbies, a few plastic animals for pets, some jewelry for fashion and our looks, an old iphone for technology, some fake money, a small airplane for travel and vacations, a plastic flute for music, a video game and a DVD....you get the idea.

We asked the kids if the jar looked full to them then.  It was, but believe it or not, there was still space for several more items.  At this point, we began pouring in some small stones.  No matter how full our lives may seem, we always manage to add even more activities.  These smaller items represented events in our lives that aren’t constants, that aren’t an everyday part of our lives, youth group, birthday parties, band practice, etc...

We asked the kids again if they thought the jar was full.

We thought the jar was full after adding the objects, but it was still able to hold quite a few small stones. Now it looked full again, but if we poured in sand, what would happen?  Obviously, the jar would still be able to hold a fair amount of sand particles, meaning that no matter how full our lives, a schedule can always be readjusted and events moved because of emergencies or unexpected events, such as getting sick and having to go to the doctor, a forgotten science project due, getting last minute tickets to a sporting event or concert, etc...

We asked the kids again if they thought the jar was full.

Next we poured water into our jar, which represented the Holy Spirit.  At first, the kids were surprised by how much water the jar appeared to hold.  While it appeared to be a lot of water, we considered the following.  Because our lives (jar) are so full, and we are so busy, the Holy Spirit (water) is only able to fill those small areas that are left over.  In and of themselves, none of the items represented here are evil or bad.  Actually, most of them enrich and give our lives fulfillment.  But, like the scientific law that says no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time, the Holy Spirit (water) isn’t able to co-exist with the activities and possessions already in our lives.

Ephesians 5:18 doesn’t direct us to give the Holy Spirit our leftovers, or to only fill, or control, the crevices!!

Next we removed all the items that were in the jar and placed them in the sink, which left only the water, the Holy Spirit.  Now that the jar had been emptied of all the activities and events in our lives, we could really see just how much influence of the Holy Spirit (water) had been allowed into our life….not a whole lot.

Let’s go back to Ephesians 5:18.  To allow the Holy Spirit more influence in our lives, what has to happen? Since the activities and possessions in our lives are to be filled and controlled by the Spirit, then the Holy Spirit has to be the dominant occupier of the space.  God is the creator of this world and the author of science, so in His law two objects CAN occupy the same space.

Instead of replacing the objects as they were, because we knew it would put us back in the same dilemma of a self-controlled life, our activities would now be represented by sponges, which will allow the Holy Spirit (water) to be absorbed and co-exist in the same space.  We had a piece of sponge with each category represented by the objects that were originally in the jar.

As the activities/possessions were placed back in the jar, we asked the youth for their input as to how each activity could be filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit.  It’s really important that they understand how each object can have a spiritual use and that every area of their life can, and should, glorify the Lord.  For entertainment, remember to "be careful little eyes what you see,” or use the Entertainment as an outreach, or to disciple another, Music (that the music would be edifying and uplifting, i.e. praise/worship music), Pets (don’t abuse it, care for it as God would), Food (eat food good for the body), Security (place your fears and trust in the Lord), Sports (use it to exercise and care for the physical body God gave you or use it as an outreach), etc...

Now that the objects had been replaced by the sponges in the jar, and were co-existing with the Holy Spirit, we asked the youth what’s different?  There is a lot of room left over!  That means that we can allow the Holy Spirit even more control over our lives.  We poured the remaining water into the jar to illustrate this point.

This object lesson not only illustrated the significance and difference in our lives when we hand over our control to the Holy Spirit, but it was also a great illustration of Romans 12:1-2, focusing particularly on verse 2:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Now that's Spirit-filled living!!

Fun Night!!!

We had a blast tonight bowling and playing laser tag at the Terrace Sports Complex.  An hour of bowling, laser tag, drinks and nachos, and tons of fellowship made this evening so much fun for everyone.  Thanks parents for being patient in waiting for us to finish.  Sorry we ran over!!

Be prepared because we're going to do this again in November.  We bought two Groupons to cover all 12 kids in ZG and they only let us use one tonight.  So guess what?  We're using the other one before it expires in November!  Double the fun!  We'll let you know the date with the release of the November calendar!