Body Armor #4 - The Sheild of Faith

You just gotta believe it

A shield is a big piece of wood or metal that you hold out in front of you and hope that it will be strong enough to stop whatever weapon your enemy has. The stronger the shield, the more faith you have that you will be protected.

In that clip we saw Captain America when he first saw the shield. it was made out of the strongest stuff on the planet ad offered near 100% protection. Could you imagine having a shield that would protect you from anything? would you feel more confident? what if you had a shield that you knew could stop cars, and bullets and everything else? would you be a little more confident? would you be a lot more confident?

Captain america was a great fighter and super hero… don’t get me wrong he has skills, but the thing that makes him great is that sheild of his. He trusts that shield to protect him. he trust that if he puts that shield in front of a bullet that the shield will stop it.

How well do you think Captain america would do if he didn’t have that shield at all, or if he wasn’t sure if the shield would stop Everything that came its way? Do you think he would be as confident?

We’ve been talking about the Armor of God and showing you how all the roman military equipment that Pal is talking about in Ephesians equates to how we prepare, protect, and arm ourselves to be great Christians.

One of the reasons that this is so important,e specially to you kids is that you have to live in the same world that us adults to. you have people telling you that God isn’t real, just like we do. You have people telling you that Jesus isn’t the only way to heaven, just like we do. You have people telling you that you should keep your religion out of everything you do… just like we do. So we can’t continue to simply leave you unprepared. we have to get you ready to face many of the same attacks that we do as adult. And that’s why the Armor of God is so important.

Who remembers what the armor of God it?

Belt of Truth (Hands on Hips)

Breastplate of righteousness (hand to heart)

Shoes of the preparation of the gospel (kneel to tie shoes)

Shield of Faith (hand out in front holding shield)

Helmet of Salvation (2 hands over head downwards)

Sword of the Spirit (hand held high with sword)

Prayer (2 hands together)

Do this a few times to reinforce

So here we are at the Shield of Faith What is faith? (allow for answers)

Faith is believing in something you cannot see.

I could talk to you about how faith means fully trusting in God, but non of you have ever seen him… just like you’ve never seen the wind. Faith is all about how much you trust in god… the more you trust in him the bigger your shield is. Let’s try a demonstration.

As for volunteer who is “ brave” Bring them up

Explain to the class that you are demonstrating what faith is like.

Faith is not being able to see (like your helper can’t see). Faith is listening to God and trusting Him that He will help you and lead you where you should go.

First, spin them around a few times so that they are now disoriented and don’t know which way is safe to walk.

Then, give the blindfolded kid instructions where to walk as she makes her way across the room. Give her instructions every once in a while so it looks like she might run into something, but when she gets close have her turn and avoid running into anything.

The object here is to have everybody watching a little worried whether or not your helper is going to make it without falling down or running into something.

As your helper nears the other side of the room tell her that when you give the command you want her to sit down. She is not allowed to feel if there is anything to sit on, she just has to have faith and sit down.

As you are explaining this very quietly bring out a chair or stool and position it so she will be able to sit in it. Cue your audience not to make any noise. Remember, when your helper started there was no chair to sit, she doesn’t know if there will be a chair when she sits down.

Lastly tell your helper to sit down. When she is safely seated in the chair take off the blindfold and have everyone give her a big hand.

Blind Faith

So let’s talk about what just happened

Did ______ Have to have faith in me? Why? Could I have done whatever I wanted to them? I could have made them crash into people. or trip over cords. I could have actually caused them to really hurt themselves, right? but I didn’t… of course not, because I love you and I would never want you to be harmed in anyway… in fact after all that you went through something good even happened right? you got a prize!

Same thing with God. we can trust God because he loves, and how do we know that he loves us? because we’ve read it in the Bible and we’ve seen it in the loves of others. and God doesn’t want to see us hurt, or harmed. and sometimes when we go through all of lifes stuff… sometimes there’s a real prize to be gotten… now I’m not saying that you’re all going to get candy if you trust God, but good things happen when you trust God.

And that is what the shield of faith is all about. It’s about you trusting God so much that even if someone tells you that He’s not real, you’ll still believe in him.

Even if someone tells you that their religion is right and yours is wrong. you will still believe in him because you have a BIG shield.... of faith.