THE ARMOUR OF GOD

LESSON THREE - THE HELMET OF SALVATION

Theme: Prepare yourself for the spiritual battles of life, putting on the whole armour of God

The Set: Medieval times. Turn the puppet stage into a castle. Obtain a suit of armour if possible or make one.

WEEKLY THEMES

1. The battle zone: we face many spiritual battles in life, we must be prepared. V.10-12
2. Belt of truth: The belt was the first thing a soldier put on. It was very important because it gathered together his tunic and insured that he could march without restriction. Truth of heart is the foundation of your spiritual armour. Sincerity in your relationship with Christ is crucial. This relationship is based on doctrinal truth. Truth of heart holds things together like a belt holds a soldier's tunic together.
3. Helmet of salvation: The helmet safeguards your mind with the hope of salvation. We must be cautious what we fill our minds with. It is our saving help from the power of sin. (mind your mind video by Carman)
4. Shield of faith: Your faith can see you through...avoid the devil's darts of doubt. It was a very large shield that protected the whole body.
5. Breast plate of righteousness: Guard your heart with righteousness. To neglect what we know to be righteous action is to leave a gaping hole in our armour.
6. Shoes of peace: Walk the walk. The soldiers shoes were designed for long hard marches. The shoes give us the ability to stand firm against the devil. The shoes are also for the readiness to spread the gospel.
7. Sword of the spirit: God's word is our weapon. It is our weapon to cut through defences and prick peoples conscience. It also helps us to avoid temptation.
8. Radically saved and ready for battle on our knees (It's War by Carman)

CHARACTERS NEEDED

A knight in shining armour, a court jester, a beautiful damsel, king, kings cook, and the enemy, etc. Bobo the puppet and a town crier puppet are also needed.

This week: we will discover that the helmet safeguards your mind with the hope and assurance of salvation.

GOALS

To teach the children that:

• They need to be careful of what they fill their minds with.
• Filling your mind with corruption can rob you of your salvation.
• An idle mind is the devils workshop.
• By safeguarding our minds from sin and evil we have assurance of future salvation.

PRAYER

Encourage the children to find a place of prayer to prepare their hearts for God's message. This a great time to model the importance of prayer by gathering the leaders together to pray for the service. Remember that prayer is vital to our ministry. Open the service in a group prayer.

RULES

It is very important to review the rules on a weekly basis. It is also good to remind them of the reasons for the rules occasionally too. We need to pay closer attention to enforcement of rules as a controlled environment fosters a better learning environment. Pod leaders should pay special attention to monitoring their children's behaviour.

1. No Walk: This includes fingers, feet, hands, and heads.
2. No Talk:
3. Have fun: a good attitude is imperative.

WORSHIP

Worship is a very special part of our relationship with Christ, not only for adults but also for children. They need to experience that same intimacy with Christ. Encourage them to demonstrate their love for Christ through their worship.

Theme song: God's got an army marching through this land.

OPENING

Introduce the theme and the characters, the knight, the damsel, the enemy, the king, and the cook in the King's Court. The court jester doesn't respond right away when he is called out to be introduced.

SKITS

The damsel is stolen by the enemy once again. The knight in shining armour is sitting in the castle without his helmet on. When he discovers she is missing the enemy approaches him and begins to deceive him and to shoot him with darts in the head (koosh ball darts). Because he doesn't have his helmet on he is deceived into believing that he doesn't need to save the damsel. The king can describe to the children that a soldier should never go to battle with his head unprotected. When Christians leave their minds unprotected it gives the enemy a chance to attack us with temptation and sin. We need to guard our minds and be careful what we allow in.

CARMEN SONG Mind your mind paisano. Carmen has a video out called Yo kidz! This song is one of the videos.

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MEMORY VERSE

Over the next eight weeks we will be memorizing Ephesians 6:10-18 This week we will be focusing on verses 13-14a and reviewing verses 10-12. The town crier comes out with a royal decree again that all citizens of the Celebration kingdom must learn the verse. The new portion is posted on the castle wall and the knight in shining armour attempts to teach it to the children showing off his armour as he does. Once you have practiced it several times allow two volunteers who can say the verse to come up. Allow them to shoot a toy bow and arrow at a target to win a prize if they hit the target.

GAMES

Hats off game: This game is played like musical chairs. You will need a hat for each child. Give each child a hat but one. When the leader yells hats off, all the kids throw their hats up in the air and scramble to get a new one. The child without a hat is out and a hat is removed from play. Play continues until there is only one player remaining. Spiritual application is that we need to always keep our minds protected. If the devil catches us with an unprotected mind he will be waiting to fill it with sinful things.

BIBLE MESSAGE

The court jester comes out to entertain the king with a story. He tells the story of how Samson should not have been involved with a philistine lady and how Delilah nagged Samson until he gave into temptation. He can focus on how Samson failed to guard his mind. By letting down his guard he fell to temptation and his life was ruined.

OBJECT LESSONS

Funnel lesson: You will need a large funnel. Allow the cook to explain how a funnel works. Show how whatever you pour in is what is going to come out the other side. Our minds are like a funnel. What we put in our minds is what is going to come out our mouths and hands. If we watch violent TV, it is much easier for us to feel mean and be mean. If we listen to bad words then bad words are going to flow out of our mouths more easily.

The damsel and the knight are playing dominos on the floor. The enemy comes along and knocks over the first domino causing all of the dominos to fall over. The knight in shining armour can explain how sin has a domino effect on our lives. One sin easily leads to another.

PUPPET SKIT

Bobo can be heard back stage yelling and carrying on. He is obviously watching television backstage. When he comes up he is wearing a garbage can on his head.

Leader: Hey Bobo, will you come up hear please?

Bobo: (sounding very rude) Not right now. Can't you hear I'm busy???

Leader: It is very important Bobo.

Bobo: (sounding VERY rude) Are you a dummy or something? Maybe you're so old you can't hear. I SAID I'M BUSY!!!

Leader: Bobo, come up here right this minute or I'm going to have to punish you.

Bobo: ( comes up with a garbage can on his head and sounding sarcastic) Yeah, hurry it up. What do you want?

Leader: You are being very rude and selfish today. It looks to me like you have been filling your mind with trash. It appears to me you have been watching some bad TV.

Bobo: Oh yeah!! What would give you a dumb idea like that?

Leader: well, if your bad behaviour didn't give it away the garbage can on your head sure would.

Bobo: What garbage can on my head? I don't have a garbage can on my head.

Leader: oh yes you do. You see Bobo, when we fill our minds with bad stuff then our actions begin to imitate that bad stuff.

Bobo: (suddenly realizing he does have a garbage can on his head) Oh no, what am I going to do? Life is over for me. I will never be able to show my face in public. Oh me, oh my, ooooohhhhhh.......

Leader: Now let's not get carried away here.

Bobo: Help! You mean the garbage man is coming to carry me away???? Help!!

Leader: No Bobo. The garbage man is not on his way to carry you away. What I mean is that the situation isn't hopeless. You see, you can ask God to forgive you and you can stop filling you mind with garbage and start filling it with Good stuff.

Bobo: Oh that would be so much better. I don't want to be a trash head.

Leader: (lifting the garbage can off Bobo's head) God doesn't like us to fill our minds with sin and evil. He wants us to fill our hearts and minds with good. Then good will come out of our mouths and actions. Whatever goes in is going to come out.

Bobo: thank you for decanning me. I am going to stop watching yucky TV and listening to awful music. I need to go rest now. This has been a terrible ordeal.

POD ACTIVITY

Hat towers: place a large pile of hats in the center of the play area. A player is selected from each pod and they run up and begin to pile hats on their heads to see who can get the most on without them toppling over. After you have finished playing have pods gather together and discuss today's lesson with them making sure they understand what it means to guard your mind.

OBJECT LESSONS

The cook has a basket of beautiful red apples. He is so proud of them. Then the enemy comes along and sneaks a bad apple into the basket when the cook is out of the room. The enemy tries to hide it deep enough that he won't find it. However the cook comes back and discovers the apple and explains to the kids that just one bad apple can spoil the whole batch. (Just a little sin can spoil your whole mind).

ALTER TIME

Take time to review what has been learned today. This can be done by reviewing the goals for the week. Using an empty soda bottle ask the kids if this bottle is empty or full. The bottle may look empty but it is actually full. It is full of air. Our minds are like this bottle. They are going to be filled with something. If we don't fill them with pure things then Satan will come along and fill them with bad stuff. A mind is never empty. It always is filled with something. Ask the kids if they have been filling their minds with good or bad.

Copyright 1998, Sheryl Coats