Sermon Based Curriculum
Sermon Date: Sep. 19, 2010
Sermon Title: The Army of God
Sermon Text: Eph. 6:10-11 & Tim. 2:1-4
Small Group Text: Eph. 6:10-11, Tim. 2:1-4, 1 Peter 5:8-9
Introduction
What happens when our county comes under attack from outside forces? What would we want to know? What immediate and longterm actions would we expect to take as a nation? How might a “war effort” affect your individual life? How might everybody be involved in the war effort, even those of us who are not among the fighting forces? The Bible tells us that we are involved in spiritual warfare! Not one nation against another, but a serious war against a very dangerous enemy. Let’s take a look at: • Who the war is against. • What is at stake in this war? • Why don’t we seem to care?
Discussion
1. Read Eph. 6:10-13. According to these verses, who is at war? Who is 2.
3. 4. 5.
the enemy? Read 1 Peter 5:8-9. What is our enemy’s mission? How do you think the enemy tries to defeat the individual Christ-follower? The Church? What evidence do you see in the world around us that there is a spiritual war going on? Since there is a spiritual war going on all around us, what is at stake? Read 2 Timothy 2:1-4. How are we, soldiers of Christ, supposed to handle our difficult mission? How do we, the church, endure the hardships of this spiritual battle and complete our mission?
6. After Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the man who planned and commanded the attack, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, had private fears about what he had done. The admiral had lived in the United States as a naval attachĂŠ in the 1920s, and the experience had left him with an abiding respect for American dynamism and power. "I'm afraid we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled it with terrible resolve," he said. What do you think it will take to “awaken the sleeping giant,â€? we, the church? 7. If the sleeping giant - the church, were to wake up tomorrow fully engaged in this spiritual battle, what would be different? In me? In my community? In the world?
Application
1. Why do we, (the church) seem to not care about the spiritual war that is raging around us? 2. What will it cost you to endure for the sake of the gospel? 3. Where in your life are you struggling to be a faithful soldier of Christ? 4. How can this small group support you in your struggle?
Sermon-Based Curriculum