Session 1: Be Strong In The Lord

• 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.