THE ARMOUR OF GOD

LESSON SEVEN - THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT

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: This week we will discover that we need to use God's word as our weapon to protect us from Satan and to help us prick people's conscience.

GOALS

To teach the children that:

• God's word is our weapon against Satan.
• We need to hide God's word in our hearts.
• God's word helps us to avoid falling to sin.

PRAYER

Children will gather with their pod groups for a time of preservice prayer. Encourage the children to take turns praying for the service and for a move of God. Pod leaders should close in prayer and quietly escort children back to their seats.

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

Kids need to see the leaders involved in worship before they will be bold enough to worship. Don't be afraid to demonstrate your love for God while you worship. Take time to encourage the kids verbally to really 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 king is listening to the radio. He explains to the kids that radios are very useful. They can warn us of danger like tornados, or tell us what the weather is like so we know how to dress, or cheer us up with music, or give us information we need like when school is cancelled. We have to be tuned into the right station though. Show the kids how you only get static when you aren't tuned into the right station. The Bible is a lot like this radio. It can warn us of danger, give us information we need, cheer us up, give us direction, etc. We need to read it to enjoy it's benefits just like we need to tune a radio to enjoy it's benefits.

The damsel in distress is caught by the evil one once again and carried off to the tower. The knight in shining armour has a toy sword. He tries to save her using his toy sword only to discover that he is defeated by the evil one. The king can then help the wounded knight and explain to him that his weapon was inadequate. He can explain a little about weapons and explain that God's word is our weapon against the evil one called Satan. He then can give the knight a bible and tell him to go try once again to fight the evil one. This time he wins and defeats the evil one and rescues the damsel from the tower.

CARMEN SONG

Carmen song is done as a puppet song.

OBJECT LESSONS-SKITS

The cook comes out to tell the king about the wonderful cookies he is going to prepare. He then brings out a dictionary he is going to use to learn to make them. The king informs him that a dictionary will not help him. He then goes out and comes out with a phone book; then an encyclopaedia and a story book. Each of these the king rejects as being useless to help you make cookies. All books have a function and to cook you need a cook book. The cook then brings out his cook book. He reads the recipe once and then tosses it aside to go off and bake the cookies. The king stops him and asks him if he is forgetting his cook book. He informs the king that he read it once and that is enough and goes off to bake the cookies. He comes back in the room with a plate of really gross looking cookies. The king samples the cookies and starts to choke and cough and carry on about how awful the cookies are. (Allow a child to sample the terrible cookies.) The king asks if he is sure he followed the recipe. He stutters about and says that he thought he did, but, well, maybe he forgot something. They get the cook book out and review what was put in the cookies only to discover he forgot the sugar. The king can explain that we have cook books to guide us while we cook. Looking at a recipe once isn't usually enough to know the recipe. We need to memorize the recipe before we try to make it without looking.

That can remind the king of how the Bible is our guide. We need to memorize it and hide it in our hearts. Some people think it is enough just to read the bible once. We may not always have a bible handy so it helps if we memorize God's word. We can use God's word to defeat Satan when he attacks us. The king calls for the court jester to come and tell a story about using God's word as a weapon against Satan.

BIBLE STORY

The court jester comes out and tells the story of Jesus being tempted on the mountain. He stresses how Jesus used the bible to defeat Satan. Satan tried to distort scripture to cause Jesus to fail. However, Jesus has God's word hidden in his heart and so he wasn't fooled.

OBJECT LESSON

The damsel brings out a back pack full of hiking and camping equipment. She talks about how she is going camping and she is getting ready. She has filled the back pack with all the things she needs. She is now equipped for her camping trip. She then tells the kids that God's word equips us for living. It tells us how to live and gives us all that we need to keep from falling to the devil's evil tricks. By hiding it in our hearts we will always be ready when Satan attacks.

MEMORY VERSE

Over the next eight weeks we will be memorizing Ephesians 6:10-18 This week we will be focusing on verses17 and reviewing verses 10-16. 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 come up. Allow them to shoot a toy bow and arrow at a target to win a prize if they hit the target.

GAMES/ POD GROUPS

Play hang man to discover the Bible verse that says Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.

OBJECT LESSON/ ALTER CALL

Take this time to review the importance of reading and memorizing God's word. Challenge the kids to read their Bibles each day. Give them a take home sheet with seven Bible references on it. Ask them to read one passage each day for one week and return it next week. Each child who returns the sheet completed will receive a reward.

Copyright 1998, Sheryl Coats