 Are you looking at me? You're here to be enlisted in God's army. Well, I'm the military commander, but you can call me MC. What did you say your name was again? Squad, brigade regiment, battalion, platoon, fleet. Oh, well, welcome to the adventures of the military, where we take a stand, and not just any lousy stand, but a stand for God. The children's ministry has an amazing week planned, just for you. Full of daring escapes, amazement, excitement, and of course, a whole lot of fun. While we explore the military base, we will also learn how to put on the full armor of God. Now, I've had the bad guys here to catch us. Before we sort that out, how about we pray and then join the military band? Let's bow down forward of prayer. Our kind and heavenly father, we thank you a lot for this amazing day. We ask you a lot to be with us through the week as we learn to be a soldier for God. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. My shield, prayer protects me from me. Cry to your daddies, and make sure they join your village at the end of the week who wins a special gift. Isn't that easy? What are you doing? How many fingers am I holding? So you can't see I'm reading a Bible. But Samson, it has Elijah, it has prophets, it has miracles, it has everything you could think about. The Bible tells me what to do, how to act and how to live for God as a soldier. Okay. You see, we are in a battle between good and evil. Just like Minecraft, between two villages, one is good, one is bad. Now God is good. He rescues us and saves us from everything. And Satan, in this case, is our enemy. Yikes! He's trying to kill me. Yes, he's trying to steal you, he's trying to steal me, and he's trying to steal you too. Satan is our enemy and he's out to get us. But I know I want to be prepared. I want to be the best soldier of God. One way we can be the best soldier of God is training our brains. Now, we train our brains with something we call God ideas. We get these God ideas from the Bible. The more we practice and train our brains with the God ideas, the better of our soldier we become. Well, let's see what's there for us today. Today, God's idea is, God wants me to read the Bible. Now, any time today when you hear God wants me to, I want you to reply and say, read the Bible. Let's try that. God wants me to read the Bible. One more time. God wants me to read the Bible. Well, did you know that the Bible tells us to put on the full armor of God? Yes. Each day we will look at a different piece of armor this week. Let's see what the Bible has to say for us. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 to 11. It says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that we can take your stand against the devil's schemes. How about we repeat that one more time? Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 to 11. It says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Well, all week long, we will be memorizing this verse and a special gift for whoever will be able to say the verse by the end of the week. Now that we know and we've learned our Bible verse today and we know what God wants and our God idea today. Who wants to know the piece of armor we will be learning today? The sword of the spirit. I hope you can see the sword. Now the sword is the word of the Bible. What I'm trying to say is, my Bible is a sword. I know shocking, right? Yes, but my Bible is a sword. Let's see what the Bible says about it. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. Wow! If the word of God is alive and active, no wonder God wants me to read the Bible. Now today, as you read the Bible and shout it out, let's all remember to hold our swords up high. Now, let me introduce you to our lieutenant Michelle, who will help us learn something that will help us understand why reading the Bible is important. Hi, Michelle. I'll ask you a question. How do you spend your life? Do you know that what we do in our day-to-day lives affects our life? We have a choice. Say this towel represents us and this water represents what we do. We can choose to soak up our lives in things of the world, like TV, bad music, bad friends, or we can choose to soak up ourselves in good things, like reading the Bible, going to church, and worshiping God. Now, let's see what happens when we soak our lives in bad things. As you can see, dirty water is coming out, which means bad things will come out of our lives if we do that, if we do all these bad things, things that make God sad. But let's see what happens when we soak up our lives in good things, like reading the Bible. As you can see, clean water is coming out, which means good things will always come out of our lives and God will always be pleased with us. Which one do you want your life to be? As you figure out your answer, let me introduce you to the first play of the camp. I was just making a new balance beam for our obstacle course. Yes, Tessie, we got this straight. Ivan, wouldn't it be easier if you had a tool belt? The current is coming, the current is coming, we have to clean the camp. Sir, sir, it was me. I was just building a new balance beam for our obstacle course and- What issue? My, my? Right, explain to Private Issue why he needs a tool belt. A tool belt holds all the necessary tools you need to get a job done. It keeps them close to you so that you don't have to go up and down a ladder to get them. Sir, sir, so just need the belt of truth. In order. Thank you, Stacey. Private Goody, show this kid the tool belt. Ah, yes, sir. Ivan, Private Ivan, take the tool belt. Yes, to put on the belt of truth, we must memorize the Bible and the good news of Jesus so we can win again soon. Remember to invite our fellow soldiers, because soldiers who fire together win together. Right now we are breaking, right now we are breaking into our villages. We are talking about the sword of the spirit. Have some fun hearing about, read my Bible. Let's pray. Oh God, please bless us as we break into our villages. As we go to spread your word, O Lord, please make people get the message, O Lord. For it is in Jesus, and I pray, Amen.