Modern Day Knight

Matthew 16:24 "IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

New Stuff

• Impress on boys that this is a new concept not being done anywhere else in the League to our knowledge. It needs to feel special and unique to them so they feel like they’re in an exclusive “club” so to speak.
• Impress on the boy’s that they’re entering a unique time in their lives in that they will shortly be teens (if not already) and then all sorts of changes start taking place physically and emotionally. They are not “boys” anymore, but “young men”….”Knights” in training and as such, that’s how they will be treated. When they walk onto these fields each day they are to act like Knights, to look their coaches in the eye and shake their hands and say hello because that’s how Knights say hello to each other.
• Briefly review 1 Cor. 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, and I made plans like a child. When I became a man, I stopped those childish ways. ERV It’s time now to begin putting childish things aside and start focusing on manhood and what that means.

Talk about it being the motto or the idea we want to live by which is to be a disciple of Christ.

• Also important to define for the boys what a disciple is - a disciple is someone who follows the example that Jesus gave us someone who does what God tells us to do who takes care of thee weak, stand up for the truth and defends the truth of God's word, and he is someone who seeks God's option and truth and his approval over man's.

Work on memorizing the verse. (This would be fun for the kids to do it as a chant with their husky sports voices.)

• Discuss what a disciple does. - Seeks the truth in God’s word which means we have to read God's word and hide it in our hearts and we need to pray and talk to God and we need to take time to listen to God when he speaks to us.

Matthew 16:24 - “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review

Review what a disciple is and what they do.

• They are not “boys” anymore, but “young men”….”Knights” what a disciple is - a disciple is someone who follows the example that Jesus gave us someone who does what God tells us to do who takes care of thee weak, stand up for the truth and defends the truth of God's word, and he is someone who seeks God's option and truth and his approval over man's.
• what a disciple does - Seeks the truth in God’s word which means we have to read God's word and hide it in our hearts and we need to pray and talk to God and we need to take time to listen to God when he speaks to us.

New Stuff

Open Discussion on How the “World” defines what a “Man” is

• What’s a man’s responsibilities?
• What does a man believe?
• How does a man behave?
• What should a man try to achieve? Rich’s? Fame? etc..

Talk about what it means to deny oneself - saying no to things that aren't right for us so that we can be better. Relate this practically in how we deny ourselves as athletes:

• We eat healthy food to build our muscles.
• We exercise to build our stamina.
• We obey our coaches who see the whole picture and our strengths. We run plays so that we can play our best and win.
• We get proper rest so we can play our best. We practice so we know what to do and are ready to play.

Matthew 16:24 - “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review

Review what a disciple is and what they do.

• what a disciple is - a disciple is someone who follows the example that Jesus gave us someone who does what God tells us to do who takes care of thee weak, stand up for the truth and defends the truth of God's word, and he is someone who seeks God's option and truth and his approval over man's.
• what a disciple does. - Seeks the truth in God’s word which means we have to read God's word and hide it in our hearts and we need to pray and talk to God and we need to take time to listen to God when he speaks to us.

Review what it means to

• deny ourselves - saying no to things that aren't right for us so that we can be better.

New Stuff

Introduce key phase of the day Take up Our Cross.

Discuss how Jesus took up his cross and denied himself and come to earth in obedience to his father's will fully knowing and understanding that he would then go to the cross and die for our sins.

Talk about the fact that Jesus says that if we are his disciples we have to take up our cross as well, discuss how in our lives we will be faced choices to either do what is right or what is not and that sometimes we will be the only ones who even care bit Jesus wants us to do right.

Open Discussion on How Does One Become a “Man” like Christ?

• When do you become a Man?
• When do you know you’re a Man?
• How does a boy grow into a man, a godly man w/character, conviction, vision?

This is a great time for the person speaking to share a personal real life example with the boys.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review

Review what a disciple is and what they do. 

• What a disciple is - a disciple is someone who follows the example that Jesus gave us someone who does what God tells us to do who takes care of thee weak, stand up for the truth and defends the truth of God's word, and he is someone who seeks God's option and truth and his approval over man's. 
• What a disciple does - Seeks the truth in God’s word which means we have to read God's word and hide it in our hearts and we need to pray and talk to God and we need to take time to listen to God when he speaks to us.

Review what it means to

• Deny ourselves - saying no to things that aren't right for us so that we can be better. 

Review what it means to Take up Our Cross

• Take up our cross - we will be faced choices to either do what is right or what is not and that sometimes we will be the only ones who even care bit Jesus wants us to do right.

New Stuff

Open Discuss on Why the “Knights” Theme of the Curriculum

What images does a Knight conjure up?

• Bravery
• Loyalty
• Unselfishness
• Gentleman
• Courtesy
• Powerful symbol of virile manhood
• Exclusive (few were selected)
• Best of the Best (i.e Army Rangers, Navy Seals, Top Guns, etc…) 
• Noble Character
• Protection of the weak
• Romantic sensibilities (treated women with dignity and respect)
• Committed to a code of conduct “Live pure, Speak true, Right wrong, Follow the King” (Tennyson)
• Model of hope in a dark age (just like today!)
• Embodied a well defined set of ideals (pledged themselves to their Lord, King and God)
• Their word was their honor
• Chivalry exacted a heavy toll for it demanded submission, obedience & courage
• Knight’s life was a well-defined process (something missing today). 
• Page, age7-8, helped around the Knights home
• Squire, age 14, learned right along side the Knight.
• Knighthood, age 21, followed by an elaborate almost religious ceremony to seal the event in his mind forever

Discuss what it means to come after Christ. 

• Talk about the importance of hiding God's word in our hearts to committing to do what is right even when no one else does. 
  
• Talk about how one of the ways we follow Christ is to read our Bibles and to pray every day.  

Opening prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men reject passivity.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

New Stuff

Discuss and define passivity (Webster’s: “lack of action”, “non-resistive”, “inactive”).

Talk about and introduce who a knight is and what his job was, what he did:

• a knight was a man who developed noble character
• he protected the weak and defenseless he was faithful to his leader
• he was faithful to God
• he lived a pure life and walked in integrity and honor
• he spoke the truth always
• understood right from wrong and always chose right no matter the personal cost
• men who did what they said they would even when I t wasn't convenient
• they were obedient
• they were brave and courageous

Ask the question who are the men in our lives today who are knights those setting a good example for us to follow?

• policemen
• firemen
• Pastors
• doctors
• judges
• teachers
• coaches
• our fathers and grandfathers and uncles

Talk specifically about dads and how they are like knights. Focus on how dad work really hard every day even on days they don't feel well or would rather be doing something else to provide for their families, so that they have what they need. They:

• Take care of their wives and children
• Put themselves in danger to protect their families and kids from harm
• Work really hard to raise up their sons and daughters to be men and woman of integrity who follow Jesus.
• They teach us right from wrong
• Hold us accountable through discipline when we do wrong, just as God does. Hebrews 12:6 (paraphrased) God disciplines the son he loves and he punishes the one he accepts as a son.
• They help cultivate/develop character in our lives and they set an example for us to follow. God calls us to honor and respect them, Ephesians 6:1 tells us to honor our father and our mother.

Encourage them to thank someone who sacrifices and provides for them as they go home. Talk to them and share with them how we honor our fathers, we show them respect, we obey them the first time they ask something of us, we help them and serve them when they come home from a long day providing for us.

Opening prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men reject passivity. 

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review

• who a knight is and what his job was, what he did
• who are the men in our lives today who are knights

New Stuff

Help Squires understand that passivity is the natural tendency of the Flesh Man

Talk about how a knight worked hard on behalf of the one whose authority he served under.

Tell them how a knight began his training at a very early age when he was just 6 or 7 years old. He worked hard every day he developed character in his life while working in the home of an accomplished knight.

Relate this to how God wants us to be men in training working hard daily, not just lazing about or slacking off but working and developing character in our lives.

Galatians 5:22-23 gives us a list of character qualities that we can work hard to develop in our lives so that we have Godly character.

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self control

We work to develop Godly/noble character so that we can know what is right and wrong and so when we are faced with a choice we know what is right and just do it. God doesn't want us to be passive and turn a blind eye to wrong He created us to stand up for truth and righteousness.

Share a time when you (speaker) were faced with a choice to do what was right or to do nothing, and what you did or didn't do and what happened including how you felt if they did nothing.

And a great time to let them know that when we do what is right it opens a door for God to bless us.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men reject passivity.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review

• who a knight is and what his job was, what he did
• who are the men in our lives today who are knights?
• Who did he serve?
• How old were they when they started training?
• Traits of Godly Character

Remind them that a modern day knight works hard to serve those in authority over them. Remind them a modern day night obeys, does what is right and stands up for what is right and for those who are weak.

New Stuff

Introduce the story briefly of Adam and Eve and how God provided everything they needed, a home and food and even came down every day to walk and talk with them in their beautiful garden home.

Explain how there was only one thing God asked of them, obedience to not eat from one particular tree, everything else was theirs to enjoy. Satan questioned God's love for them and questioned God's authority to tell them not to eat from the tree, now Satan was talking with both of them not just Eve, she was the first to reach out her hand and take and eat the fruit, but Adam stood there passively and did nothing to stop her but then he chose to join her in her predicament***. Satan took the words that God has spoken and twisted them so they didn't sound like the words that he originally spoke, he later uses this same tactic with Jesus when he tempted him in the wilderness. The difference is that instead of standing there passively listening to Satan, Jesus aggressively counters his lies with the truth of God's word and Satan has no choice but to leave because he cannot stand against the truth of God's word.

• Have Squires read aloud and discuss the responsibilities that God gave Adam in Gen 2:15 - A will to obey (don’t eat the fruit), A work to do (cultivate the garden & name the animals), A women to love (Eve)
• Have Squires read aloud and discuss Gen 3: 1-6, 8-19 - Emphasis the verse where it was clear that Adam was not elsewhere in the Garden, but right there next to Eve and he did NOTHING to stop her sin, Note that “die” is a spiritual death, or separation, from God in addition to an actual physical death
• Contrast Adam’s passive response to Satan’s temptations versus Jesus aggressive reaction to the temptations he faced by having the Squires read aloud and discuss Christ’s wilderness temptation in Matt 4: 1-11. - Note how cunningly Satan twists God’s words when tempting Eve & Jesus, but contrast Jesus response versus Adam’s

*** Interesting side note::: adam messed up by doing nothing, but through his love for Eve he chose to join her in her suffering - just as Jesus chose to join us in our suffering. (Adam had a choice Gen 3:6) - therefore Adam becomes a TYPE of Christ - the First Adam (1 Cor 15:45)

To be modern day knights we need to know what God's word says and to know what it says we must read it, think about it, memorize it and pray asking God to help us have wisdom to understand it and to know when Satan is lying to us or twisting the truth. God promises us that if we ask for wisdom and understanding he will give it to us.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men reject passivity.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review

Review all the lessons from the week, but spend most of the time reviewing yesterday's lesson about not being passive about defending the truth but to respectfully and aggressively defend it.

• Who a knight is and what his job was, what he did
• Who are the men in our lives today who are knights?
• Who did he serve?
• How old were they when they started training?
• Traits of Godly Character

New Stuff

Talk about how Jesus calls us to be strong and not weak defenders. Relate it to men in the New Testament who bravely and courageously stood and fought for truth even when it cost them everything.

Men like Stephen who stood before the religious leaders and spoke the truth costing him his life. Men like Peter, James, John, Paul and Silas who were put into prison for defending God's truth and wouldn't stay silent even on the promise of release if they would. They stood before leaders, and city officials, governors and even kings and gave a strong defense for their faith. ExplaIn that this too is what God wants from his disciples/knights of today to do.

Have Squires read aloud and discuss Phil 2:5-8

• Emphasis that this is the ultimate rejection of passivity in that Christ actually set aside his Deity to become flesh so he could die in our place to provide for our salvation. A truly heroic, noble act, an act of unselfish love, an act of submission and obedience to his Father, a Knightly act!!
• Emphasis the action words in the passage (i.e. “emptied”, “taking the form”, “humbled”, “becoming obedient”) in lieu of passive language.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Accept Responsibility.

Review 

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review James 1:5 (erv) “Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom.”

Review last week's theme that real men reject standing by and doing nothing, they are men of action to do what is right and to protect others.

4 Pillars of Manhood

• Real Men Reject Passivity
• Real Men Accept Responsibility
• Real Men Lead Courageously
• Real Men Expect the Greater Reward – God’s

New Stuff

Introduce the idea of of responsibility; ask the question what are some of your responsibilities?

• Do you have chores that you are supposed to do at home?
• Do you have homework that you need to do so that you get good grades?
• What about tests?
• If you don't study for a test and you fail it whose fault is it?
• Would it be your teachers fault that you were not prepared and did not study?

No, it would be your fault. To blame someone else for your lack of action would be wrong and is an example of not taking responsibility. This week we are going to spend some time talking about some men in the Bible who also didn't want to take the responsibility that God had entrusted to them. It is a by product of man's sinful nature to want to run away from our responsibility, but that is not what God wants for his people.

Ask Squires to tell about their own personal responsibilities at home and at school and how they feel about responsibilities in general.

Let's first take a look at Moses. We know that Moses was raised in Egypt and as a part of Pharaoh's own household. He leaves after he kills an Egyptian man who is beating an Israelite slave.

Now in this instance while it was wrong for him to kill the Egyptian we do see Moses stand up for the man who was being unfairly beaten. He lives in the desert with his wife's family and tends his father in laws sheep and taking care of them, when one day he has an encounter with the God of Israel. God talks to Moses and calls him to go back to Egypt and confront the king and to tell him to let God's people go.

Moses tries to get out of the assignment.

• He first says the people will not believe that God sent him, God gives him his own name and tells him to use His most holy name to tell them he has sent them.
• Then he says Pharaoh will not listen to him. God tells Moses to thrown down his staff and it urns into a serpent, scares Moses and he runs away, God then tells him to reach out his hand and take the serpent by the tail, at the point in which Moses obeys and touches the snake it turns back into a stick.
• Moses again says that Pharaoh is a stubborn man and will not believe him. God tells Moses to stick his hand into his coat and then take it back out when he does his hand is white with leprosy. He on God's command returns his hand to his coat and it is healed.
• Moses then tells God he cannot go because he doesn't speak well enough to do what God is asking and asks that he send someone else. God gets angry with Moses and will not allow him to walk away from the responsibility that he has. He tells him he will go and that he will send his brother Aaron with him to speak the words that God gives to Moses to Pharaoh, at which point Moses finally agrees to go.

Moses was called and anointed by God from birth for a task, to be the one that would lead God's people out of Egypt. He tried to run away from his responsibility but God wouldn't let him. When we are not doing that which God has called us to we will never be truly happy. It is important that we do not try to put our responsibility on someone else, we need to obey and do what we are called and created to do.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Accept Responsibility.

Review 

Matthew 16:24 "IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME"- Christ Jesus The King

Review James 1:5 (erv)

“Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom.”

Review previous days lesson briefly, including motto/creed and review memory verse from last week James 1:5. Review the concept that real men accept responsibility and have responsibilities and they do not try to pass them off to other people.

New Stuff

Introduce Jonah and his story.

Jonah was a Prophet of God, and God spoke to him and gave him important messages to speak to the Kings of Israel and to the people of Israel. One day God spoke to Jonah and told him to go to the King and people of the nation of Nineveh and tell that that God was going to destroy the city of Nineveh because of their sinfulness.

Now it is important to understand that Jonah is the only prophet in the Bible that God sent to a foreign country and a country that was not a friend to Israel. Why was this? Because God is a compassionate Father and Nineveh was one of the biggest cities in the then known world and God wanted to give them the opportunity to repent before he destroyed all those people, who literally knew no better.

While Jonah doesn't tell God no out right, he doesn't want to go, so he decides that he will quietly run away from the responsibility that God has given him and let God just destroy the city. Poor Jonah, didn't understand that he couldn't run away or hide from God, but he tries. He goes to the water and gets on a boat headed for Tarshish and hides below the decks. A really bad storm overtakes the ship when it is in the middle of the sea and it cannot make headway, it cannot move forward nor can it make its way back to land. The sailors throw everything, all of the cargo overboard, and cry out to their false gods and all the while Jonah is hiding below deck. They find him and the captain demands that he come up on deck and cry out to his God to save them. Jonah tells the captain that it is his fault they are caught in the storm, because he is running away from the responsibility that God had given him. He tells the sailors to throw him overboard if they want to be saved. They don't not right away anyway, because they are honorable men, but eventually they are left with no choice and they throw him into the sea, at which point the storm immediately stops. Jonah is then swallowed by a big fish. He sits in the belly of the fish for several days and considers what he has been through. From the belly of the fish Jonah cries out to God and acknowledges his wrong, after three days the fish vomits Jonah onto the land.

Again God speaks to Jonah and tells him to go into Nineveh and tell the people that he was going to destroy them for their wickedness. Jonah obeys God this time and heads into the city proclaiming God's words to the people. They whole city immediately began humbling themselves and crying out to Jonah's God and repenting for their wickedness. God shows his great compassion and forgives them and spares them, this is in part because of Jonah's obedience to the responsibility that God had given him.

If he had not obeyed hundreds of thousands of people would have died.

It is important that we speak God's word to those he asks us to sometimes it is the word that will save their lives.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Accept Responsibility.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review

James 1:5 (erv) “Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom.”

Review the Motto/creed of a knight; and review the previous lessons and the life of Moses and Jonah and how they rejected and ran away from the responsibility that God had given them.

New Stuff

Look at the New Testament events on the night of Jesus' arrest.

Jesus took his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane so that they could keep watch with him and pray for him and with him. He had just finished warning Peter that he would deny him and he took Peter with him along with James and John to a separate place and charged them to pray to be strengthened for what he and they were about to face.

Jesus goes a little way off from them and prays earnestly to God, asking him for strength to face the things that were coming, and told God that if it was possible that the cup would be taken from him, but he quickly adds that he doesn't want his own will but God's will to be done. Jesus returns to find his closest disciples asleep on the ground.

He wakes them up and reprimands them for sleeping and not praying, he warns them sternly that they needed to pray and strengthen themselves so that they would not fall into temptation. He goes off again and prays, this time acknowledging that he was willing to do what God was asking him to do, he prayer reverently and passionately. He returned to the disciples and again found them asleep.

He leaves them and goes back to His Father and prays a last time. When he finishes he goes and wakes his disciples, the same ones who were supposed to be watching and praying and says the one, who was betraying him was there along with the soldiers to arrest him. This betrayer by the way was also one of Jesus' disciples.

These men were the Knights who served and ministered and did Jesus' will while he was on earth, they lived with him, they ate with him, they witnessed every miracle he did and when he asked them to pray they slept, they failed him. When the soldiers arrested him they ran, they failed him, one even denied being his disciple.

But in spite of all of this Jesus loved them and they were the first ones he sought out after he rose from the dead, and they all would later be mighty knights of valor, going to prison and giving their lives defending their King and Lord.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Accept Responsibility.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review

James 1:5 (erv) “Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom.”

Review Motto, memory verse James 1:5 and previous lessons focus on yesterday's lesson about the disciples.

New Stuff

Today let's take a look and compare Jesus' response to the responsibility that he was given from the Father, compared to his disciples in their responsibility to watch and prayer from our last devotion.

Jesus asked the disciples to pray for him and for themselves and the trial they were about to face. Jesus goes off and prays for an hour during that time, he has a conversation with God asking him to reveal to him if there was any other way to redeem mankind other than going to the cross and suffering the cruelties of a crucifixion, but he also says Father if that isn't possible I want to do your will and not what is easiest for me.

Jesus sought to do God's will over his own comfort and over his own will. He knew what he would face to fulfill the will of God and yet he sought what his Father wanted not what he wanted. After he returns to his disciples and wakes them up and admonishes them to pray so that they can withstand the trail that Satan would put them through, he returns to pray once again. The disciples fall asleep, but Jesus returns and prays and asks God to strengthen him for so that he can drink the cup that God needs him to drink so that man could be redeemed. He comes back to find the disciples once again asleep and he returns and prays a third time for God's will to be done in the situation, not his own and when the soldiers come to arrest him he doesn't fight them, he doesn't run, he doesn't deny who he is, he willing walks into the plan of God for him.

We need to be the type of Knights who follow our Heavenly Father's will even when it isn't comfortable or easy, we have to be willing to take Joe hard road, knowing that God will bless us when we walk in his will. Psalm 40:7-8 tells us that Jesus would come and would declare that he was written about and that he came to do the will of God, and that his law is written in his heart. That is what a modern day knight needs to be a man in training, willing to do God's will and having God's word hidden in his heart.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Lead Courageously.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Psalm 40:8 - ”My God, I am happy to do whatever you want. I never stop thinking about your teachings.”

Briefly go over the concepts covered last week about taking responsibility and living in a responsible way.

4 Pillars of Manhood

• Real Men Reject Passivity
• Real Men Accept Responsibility
• Real Men Lead Courageously
• Real Men Expect the Greater Reward – God’s

New Stuff

Ask the question - what is courage?

Answers to this question will vary and the boys will describe courage in different ways.

Ask another question - if you are courageous does that mean that you aren't afraid? 

Take several answers, again the answers you get will vary, but try to impress on the boys and explain to them that just because you are courageous it doesn't mean you are not afraid, in fact most people who are courageous are also afraid, but instead of allowing their fear to paralyze them and keep them from acting they use it to drive them into action. Let's take a look at a few men from the Bible over the next few days and see how they acted courageously.

Num 13: 1-2, 16-20, 27-28, 30-33 & 14:1-10.

Let's start by looking at the story of Joshua and Caleb. Moses sent 12 spies into the Promised Land and told them to bring back a report on the land and let the people know if it was truly the way that God had told them it would be. Joshua and Caleb were two of these 12 spies.

All of the spies went into the land and all of them saw the same things, when their assigned time was over they returned to the camp of the Israelites and reported to the people ten of the men reported all the wonders of the land but reported that the people were a mighty people and large and that they shouldn't go up against them, because of their might, they report that the people were large and the 10 men say we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to the people living in the land. They spread a bad report among the people. Only Joshua and Caleb stood courageously and while they reported the same things about the land and the people, they stated that they should all go up and immediately take the land, because God was with them and was mightier than the people who lived there.

The Israelites were ready to kill Joshua and Caleb and Moses and his brother Aaron, and while Joshua and Caleb could have remained silent they did not, they insisted that the Israelites could take the land in the power of their God. They knew, as did all of Israel that God had promised the land to them and they judged everything they saw through God's eyes and not mans. They were courageous and stood their ground even though everyone else was against them.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Lead Courageously. 

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Psalm 40:8 - ”My God, I am happy to do whatever you want. I never stop thinking about your teachings.”

Review what it means to be responsible and review what it means to be courageous, that even when we fear we act.

New Stuff

Introduce courageous character two, Gideon.

Judges 7:1-7,12,16- 18 & 20-22.

Gideon was one of the Judges of Israel, who were being attacked by their enemy the Midianites. God comes to Gideon and tells him to go and attack the Midianite army.

Gideon questions this request, and then God's messenger tells Gideon to take a bull from his father's flock and cut down the altar to the idol in front of his fathers house and make an altar to God and sacrifice the bull on it. Gideon because he is afraid, but wants to obey, he waits until it is dark and then goes and does it.

He gathers an army then of 22,000 men to go out against the Midianites. God tells Gideon that he has too many men, and to send home all the men that are afraid. They leave, and God tells Gideon he still has too many men and to take them down to the water to drink and that God would show him who to send home.

When God is done Gideon is left with only 300 men to go out against the huge army of the Midian's. Gideon is scared, and God instructs him to go with his servant down into the camp of the Midian's and listen to what they are saying. He is afraid so he and his servant go into the camp and hear the men talking about a dream they had and how the dream indicated that they were going to be defeated by Gideon and his army of Israelites.

Gideon goes and gets his army together and they go down in the middle of the night and blow trumpets and smash jars which cause the Midian's to awaken and in their confusion and fear strike down each other, those that ran, were attacked by the rest of the Israelites and defeated. Gideon was afraid, but he listened to God, made sure he heard from God and double checked that, and then obeyed in spite of his fear. He was courageous.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Lead Courageously. 

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Psalm 40:8 - ”My God, I am happy to do whatever you want. I never stop thinking about your teachings.”

Review what it means to be responsible and what it means to be courageous - the idea that we act even though we might be afraid, we don't just do nothing nor do we run away. Review the stories from this week of Moses and Gideon (briefly).

New Stuff

1 Sam 17: 4-7,32- 33,37-39,45-48.

Introduce the character of David, state that he would eventually become one of the greatest Kings in Israel's history, because he was a man who obeyed God.

Talk about how before he became King, and when there was another King who ruled in Israel, the army of Israel faced off against their enemy the Philistines, you can explain this further by talking about how this looks just like the offense facing off against the defense in a football game.

Talk about how for forty straight days the Philistines had sent out a champion to taunt the Israelite army, stating that if just one of them could come down and defeat him then they would serve the Israelites and the war would be over. The man would come out and say terrible things about the men of Israel and even worse he would come down and insult the God of Israel.

The problem was all these warriors were scared and afraid of the Philistine champion. One day David shows up to deliver some supplies to his brothers from his father and he hears the man come out and insult God, now David loved God more than he loved anything or anyone else and he was angry and cried out "How dare anyone defy the God of Israel." His brothers became angry with him and explained to him that this was no ordinary man, but that he was a giant who stood over nine feet tall. The fact that the man was a giant didn't even cause David to think about the situation, he knew that his God was more powerful than any man and David volunteered to go and fight the giant.

Now many tried to convince him not to go, they pointed out that he was just a boy and Goliath was a warrior, but David had confidence in his God. David in fact on the battlefield told him that he was coming out in the name of the living God and then without hesitation he ran toward the enemy while putting a stone into his slingshot. He threw one stone and killed the giant.

David knew the secret of courage, he knew that if he stood up for God, God would be mighty and save him and he ran toward the battle and not away from it. God honored David and his courage that day and the giant was not defeated by the efforts of the king or the army of Israel, but by a young boy.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Lead Courageously.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Psalm 40:8 - ”My God, I am happy to do whatever you want. I never stop thinking about your teachings.”

Review what it means to be responsible and courageous and briefly review the concepts taught in the stories of Moses, Gideon and David.

New Stuff

2 Corinthians 11:22-29.

Introduce the story of Paul, who was called into ministry by Jesus to go into the then known world to tell people of the life, ministry, death of resurrection of Jesus.

God warned Paul that he would face many hardships in order to take God's message to the world. He warned Paul that he would stand before Governor's and Kings and that he would be beaten and imprisoned for God's sake in order to do what God was calling him to do.

Now many people who would receive a job offer that told them they would be hurt, beat up, spend time in prison and hungry without food would walk away and turn down the job. But that wasn't Paul, he had something called grit, he had the ability to see the greater good in his suffering and to not give up, but to keep pushing forward in the mission that he had been called to. And this warning was not simply a warning. Paul was beaten several times with whips and rods, he was stoned once and left for dead by those who attacked him, he was shipwrecked several times and held in prison, he was attacked by his fellow Jews and run out of cities and finally he was taken to Rome where he would stand before Cesar and testify to him about Jesus and the way of life, Paul could have turned his back on this assignment, but he didn't even though he was warned, he took on the calling of Christ for him and believed and operated in the knowledge that God was the one in charge of his destiny and God would see him through and protect and provide for him, and he walked in courage.

Paul's courage came from knowing who he was in Jesus' eyes and knowing that what God had called him to do, God would equip him for and that he didn't go in his own strength, but in the strength of the one who called him.

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Expect the Greater Reward, God’s Reward.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review the three key concepts that we have studied

4 Pillars of Manhood

• Real Men Reject Passivity
• Real Men Accept Responsibility
• Real Men Lead Courageously

Talk briefly about and highlight one concept we have learned about in each of these subject areas. Review the memory verse from last week:

Joshua 1:9 - ”Remember, I commanded you to be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid, because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

New Stuff

Introduce the key concept that we will focus on this week, that God rewards those who honor him.

Begin by talking about some of the rewards/awards that the boys might have earned in different things, may recognition for a character quality in chapel or a specific toy or thing that the received from their parents for working hard or getting straight "A's" on their report card, or even an A on a test that they studied hard for, etc. Ask them how long did they have to wait for the reward? Did they perform the task just to receive the reward, or was the reward just the “icing on the cake”?

Also talk about some of the rewards that men get for doing a job well; these could include

• recognition in their work
• a raise or a promotion
• if they play sports it could include a medal or trophy or even a Super Bowl ring, etc.

Explain that these rewards are temporary and and will be forgotten over time, but the reward that is given to us by God for our obedience to him lasts forever and has no end to it.

Last week we talked about the 12 spies who went into the land that God had promised to Moses, and ten of those men came back and gave a bad report of the land to the people and drew their attention away from the promise of God for them.

Let me ask you this question, can you name any one of those ten men? No, we can't without looking it up and reading it right from the Bible, but we do remember the names of the two men who stood on God's promise and received God's blessing for their obedience, don't we? We all remember the names of Caleb and Joshua, because of their obedience to God, and because he promised them through Moses that out of all of the current people that were alive and we adults none of them would enter the land God promised them, except for Joshua and Caleb and that not only would they live they would be strong and lead the people in and settle the land, in fact they were given their choice of where they wanted to settle in the land.

God's hand of blessing was on them, they received the reward of their courage and obedience in the responsibility that God had given them and they received what God had promised them. They were also raised up into positions of leadership within the community of Israel because of their responsibility to take God at his word and trust his way and for their courage to not doubt that very word.

Have Squires read aloud and then discuss:

• Matt 6: 19-21 &31-33
• 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27
• Phil 3:12-14

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Lead Courageously.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Joshua 1:9 - ”Remember, I commanded you to be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid, because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Review the idea of a blessing that comes from God to his men is a lasting blessing and not one that quickly fades, remind the boys that we don't remember the names of the ten men who advised the people of Israel to not go into the promised land, but we do remember the lives and the history of Joshua and Caleb because they received the blessing of God for their courage.

New Stuff

Today let us look more at the life of David. Last week we talked about the story of David and how he courageously slew the giant Goliath because he dared to come out and speak against the Holy God of Israel. Now David was the youngest of his brothers. Yet because of his dedication and obedience to God and his courage, it is David over all of his brother's who God chooses and anoints to be King of Israel in Saul's place.

David knows he is to be King and yet when Saul seeks David's life, David doesn't raise his hand to kill the anointed King of Israel, he hides and leaves Israel. Even when he is encouraged to take Saul's life and it appears that God has placed Saul in his hands, David refuses. In fact David states that he will not raise his hand against God's anointed king of Israel and that God would cause Saul to be removed from his throne in God's time and until then he would just continue to grow and learn the things that God wanted him to learn during his time of wandering and hiding from Saul.

David wouldn't speak against Saul and he would not harm Saul. He allowed God to deal with Saul. David knew he was God's chosen one to replace Saul but because he was a real man a man of integrity and a man of obedience, responsibility and courage, he waited for God to work in his perfect will and his perfect time. God does deal with Saul and David is put on the throne of the nation of Israel in God's time. David is known as the greatest king who ever ruled in Israel and the people of Israel loved him, but more importantly God loved him. In fact God says that David, even when he made mistakes and made wrong choices, was a man after God's own heart. That means that David had God's heart. God rewards David by promising him that he would always have a descendant of his sitting on the throne and ruling the nation of Israel. David received God's blessings and everything that David did prospered and succeeded, unless he did something out of disobedience to God or something that showed a lack of trust in God. But even the couple of times that this happened, David repented and trusted in the grace of God for his people and God always relented and spared him. David's story shows us that while we are warriors for our God we are not perfect, but we can trust in God's goodness, grace and blessing, when we do make mistakes, because he loves to bless his people.

Have Squires read aloud and then discuss:

• 1 Tim 4:8
• 1 Tim 6:6-16
• Heb 11:24-26
• Heb 12:1-2

Opening Prayer: Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word that Real Men Lead Courageously.

Review

Review motto/creed. Review the three concepts of real men that we have been looking at, and review a key component of each of these concepts as we have talked about them in our devotional study.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Joshua 1:9 - ”Remember, I commanded you to be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid, because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Do a brief review of the blessings that Caleb and Joshua received and the blessings that David received. Reiterate that as real men we will not be perfect, but that when we make a mistake, we own it and repent and this allows God to bless us and reward us.

New Stuff

Tonight we will take a look at the life of Paul a bit more. We know as we learned last week that Paul was called to a job that wasn't going to be easy he was told that he would suffer and go to prison and be hungry and have to go without many things if he told the job that God was calling him to.

The interesting thing is, is that Paul, started out as a man named Saul, who persecuted the Christians and put them in prison and had them stand trial, many times resulting in their deaths. But Saul had an incredible encounter with Jesus while he was traveling and his life was literally turned upside down.

It is during this encounter that Saul's name is changed to Paul and Jesus tells him that he will suffer for his name and calls Paul to preach the gospel that Jesus himself preached while on earth. Now interestingly enough Paul doesn't shrink away from this assignment, he steps into the plan of God for his life, and his life is never again the same.

He has amazing encounters with Jesus, he preaches the way of salvation and hundreds and even thousands of people are saved. His journeys bring the Gospel to the Gentile people and he travels through the then known world spreading the message. Every where Paul goes, people are changed, people are healed, he does many miracles in Jesus' name.

Many times when Paul should have died, Jesus miraculously saves him so that he could continue to fulfill the plan of God for his life. Paul wrote much of the New Testament and most Christians know his name and his story, but Paul writes several times that he wants to run the race set before him in a way that will allow him to win and receive the prize, he also tells us that for his life to continue it is good because he then has more opportunities to spread the message and the hope of Jesus to others, but for him (Paul) to die is of great gain to him, because he would be with Christ.

Paul's story is interesting because he is rewarded in a way that seems different to us, he is rewarded in what he gets to do for Christ, that he is entrusted with the plan of God to take his Word to all nations and to make sure that all men have the opportunity to be saved. He is entrusted with God's Word, to write down the very thoughts of God and God's message to mankind, and he has the honor of being a witness for Christ and he knows that ultimate reward will be found in the very presence of Jesus. We remember Paul, he is not forgotten, he is known as one of the great heroes of our faith and someday when we get to heaven, he will be there worshipping and fellowshipping with Christ! Amazing!

Have Squires read aloud and then discuss:

• James 1:12
• Rev 21:6-7
• Rev 22:12

Review

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review the three key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved
• Real men are responsible
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans

Talk briefly about and highlight one concept we have learned about in each of these subject areas.

As discussed in previous weeks lessons one of the two “women” all true Knights pray for daily is the Kings bride (the Church), so pray for each of the prayer requests highlighted in the BCBC weekly bulletin this Sunday. As warriors for our “women”, all true Knights defend their women and we do that through prayer.

Review the memory verse from last week:

II Timothy 4:7-8a ” I have fought the good fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith. The victor’s crown of righteousness is now waiting for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on the day that he comes,[a]”

New Stuff

Introduce the topic for this week by asking the question: Who is it that as real men we are fighting?

Let several of the boys offer answers, knowing that depending on their backgrounds and ages these answers will vary greatly. After several answers guide the conversation by stating that as knights and real men the person that we are fighting for is God and He is real and he calls us all to be his witnesses to our world and to stand for what is right.

God's word the Bible tells us that God has a real enemy and his name is Satan and he wants to distract and get God's warriors off course and distract them from what God has called them to do. But God in his wisdom didn't leave his knights defenseless, he left us with armor so that we could fight God's enemy, with these tools.

When Jesus was taken to the wilderness as we talked about several weeks ago, we saw that He used God's word to fight the lies of Satan and to win. God tells us in the Bible the His Word the Bible is a sword that we wield in our hand and in our mouths to fight the arrows of his enemy. He gives us a shield of faith in God and his word to act as a shield against the lies of Satan. While we cannot see or feel an actual sword or shield, we have them in our hands and in our hearts and minds, when we develop our faith by believing what God says is true and standing on his word and by reading and memorizing it and putting it into our hearts and our minds and as Knights we need to be sure to do this and to ask God as we pray to help us understand his Word and as a gracious father he will.

Review

Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word. 

Matthew 16:26 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

II Timothy 4:7-8a ” I have fought the good fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith. The victor’s crown of righteousness is now waiting for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on the day that he comes,[a]”

Review the key points to yesterday's devotions, that God is real and that he is a living God, and that he has an enemy, Satan who wants to draw us away from God and from serving him. Review the fact that God has given us armor to help us stand firm against his enemy Satan. God gives us his Word the Bible that is the sword that we fight his enemy with, and a shield of faith.

Recite the Four Real Men Principles of Manhood

New Stuff

Today we want to talk more about the King whom we serve, we want to talk about the fact that even though we cannot see him and look at his face, we can see him when we look at each other and at the world around us. You see the Bible, God's own Word, tells us that our God is omnipotent!

That is a really big word but its meaning is simple, it means that God is all powerful. There is no person, nor is there any created thing that is more powerful than God. God tells us in his Word that everything we see in the world was created out of his spoken word. He said let there be light, light up until the point that God said it had never existed, but when God thought it and said it the simple power of His speaking caused it to exist.

The first few chapters of Genesis take us through the story of creation and tell us how on each of the days of creation God imagined, and spoke and what He spoke existed. It also tells us that God created man in his own image. Now that means that God created man to rule over the created things, the earth and animal etc, but it also means that we were created in a way that represents God, his ability to form relationships and love people and his church and to reason and to live in a moral way and to follow truth.

God's enemy Satan doesn't want man to form good relationships, to love people and to live in a moral way, so he tries to take God's Word and twist it and turn it around so there is only a little bit of truth, with a lot of deception and lies. That is why God wants us to know his word and what it says so that like Jesus we can combat the lies of Satan with the truth of God's Word. I also want to point out that a really interesting thing happens when we read God's Word, and take time to pray and talk to God and listen to Him, we began to develop wisdom and we begin to recognize the lies that Satan tries to tell us, which is one of the reasons that Satan will try to get us to be "too busy" to read God's Word! But as Knights and Real Men we need to spend time with our King so that we can recognize his enemy and ours and fight the good fight of faith, walking with a belt of truth fastened tightly around our waist.

Review

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

II Timothy 4:7-8a ” I have fought the good fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith. The victor’s crown of righteousness is now waiting for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on the day that he comes,[a]”

Review the key concepts of day 1 and day 2's devotions, about the fact that we serve a real and a living God and that he has an enemy who is also our enemy. Review the fact that our God is omnipotent or all powerful and the fact that Satan wants to lie to us and tell us that he is mightier than God he isn't. God is mightier than Satan and while God rules the universe, Satan will be condemned to hell for all eternity.

Recite the Four Real Men Principles of Manhood

New Stuff

God is not only Omnipotent, but God is a Holy God. He has standards and as we talked about yesterday, he has given us morality, but not the morality of the world. You see Satan has come into the world and he has corrupted truth. The Bible tells us that God is truth and that God is righteous. Satan has deceived man to make us believe that we all can determine what is truth for us and he has convinced many people in the world today that it is okay to tell a "little, white lie".

The problem is, is that God says in the commandments that he gave to Moses, that man should not lie, in fact many places in God's Word, it tells us that no one who lies will go to heaven, it also tells us that lying is a sin and that sin separates us from God. So who is right Satan or God (wait for a response)?

That's right God is right and so is his truth, which is found in his Word. If we study God's Word we will recognize Satan's lies for what they are, and we will be able to resist them, because God's Word is more powerful than Satan or his lies. God give us in our armor a belt of truth and a sword of the Spirit, his Bible. He also gives us a breastplate of righteousness, so that we can guard our hearts and so that we can walk in righteousness and the holiness that he wants for us. Now what is really, really cool about our King is that he actually wants to be with us and fellowship with us as his children face to face, so much so that he has created a kingdom for us to enjoy and live with him in that is so amazing and wonderful that our human minds can hardly even imagine what it will be like! Jesus told his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for us so that we could be with him forever.

John tells us about some of the amazing things that we will see in heaven in the book of Revelation. He talks about gates made of pearl, streets made out of pure gold, walls that are made of precious jewels, and how buildings will be made of gold and that the foundation of heaven will be made out every kind of precious jewels. It also tells us that God will be sitting on a throne in the middle of heaven and will be surround by those who will proclaim his holiness day and night! Our King is amazing and his love for us is never ending!

Begin in a word of prayer, inviting the King into the discussion that you will be having; as well as the practices that you will be having this week.

Review 

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review the three key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved
• Real men are responsible
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Do a quick review of last weeks devotions hitting the highlights from each of the devotions through the week; that God has a real enemy his name is Satan and that we follow the King, Jesus in how we fight him, we use God's Word and our faith and prayer to fight the battles. We battle Satan's lies with the truth of God's Word. We also talked about needing to establish a time to spend in God's Word each day so that his truth would be in our hearts and minds so that we would not accept Satan's lies as truth; we further discussed the fact that when we live in wisdom and God's truth our reward comes from him and not the world and God promises us his reward.

New Stuff

Today we will begin to look at who the Bible says that our God our King is. Let's begin by reviewing the special word we learned last week about God. Does anyone remember that special word? It was the word omnipotent; and it means that God is all powerful. We looked at the word in Genesis where it tells us that God spoke and there was light, darkness, sun, moon, stars and all the planets were placed in their orbit. By the power of God's spoken word, the sea's and land was formed, each flower, plant, tree and shrub came into being, and each kind of fish and animal, bird and reptile, they were all created by God's spoken all powerful word.

Then God used his hands and formed man out of the dust of the earth and put his character and ability to love and reason in each one of us. The Bible also give us a couple other Omni words to describe who God is. Now the word Omni means all potent means powerful so omnipotent means all powerful, another word for God is omniscient. If we break this word down Omni means all science means knowing or knowledge so it means that God is all knowing, this means that God knows all, there is nothing that we can do or think that God doesn't know about, nothing is hidden from him.

God knows how all things work and he has the answers for all things. It is a little bit hard for our minds to understand this because our mind is finite which means it is limited in what it can know and understand however God's mind is infinite, which means that it has no end or no limits, He has all knowledge. The last Omni word that the Bible uses to describe God is omnipresent, we know that Omni means all, and we all pretty much understand what it means to be present, if you are present you are here at practice with us right now, if you weren't present you would be absent. God however, goes beyond just being present, he is all-present, he is everywhere all the time. This means that there is no place that you can be that God is not there with you, there is no place or problem that you can walk through that God isn't there walking through it with you and even guiding your steps as you walk through it. In the dark he is there, in the car he is there, while you sleep he is there, as you ride your bike or skateboard he is there, as you practice on the field, God is there with you. What this means is that God will always be with you, he will never leave you not even when you are in trouble, he is right there and he will see you through it.

God is interested in your life and he wants to be involved in your life. (Note, this might be a good time to give an invitation in your closing prayer for those that may not have asked Jesus into their hearts, and lead them in the sinner's prayer.)

Review

Open in prayer. Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Review the three key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved
• Real men are responsible
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans

Also take just a few moments to review that our King, is Omnipotent (all powerful), Omniscient (all-knowing) and Omnipresent (always present).

New Stuff

Today we are going to talk a bit more about the King that we serve and the fact that he is King over the World, but not of the World in other words he is not a mere man that has a beginning or and end. He is not like you or I where he was born and will grow up and live a life and eventually die. Our God is eternal he has always existed and he created us to live in fellowship with him, he also created our world for us to live in, take care of and enjoy.

Let's look at what the Bible itself tells us about God. In Genesis 33:18-20 and in Deuteronomy 6:4 we are told that the Lord God is the one and only God of Israel and that he is the God of all gods, and the Creator of the Universe. In other words we are told that God will not share his place as God with any other, he is not a god made out of wood or stone, but he is a living God, who speaks to his people and will direct them and protect them and will provide for them. He also lets us know that he will not share their affection with other false gods or idols, he is God alone. In Genesis 14:17-20 that God is give the name El Elyon, and he is praised as the Most High God, God of the Universe. This name is given to God through the priest king Melchizedek, who is given the title of priest of God Most High, El Elyon and praises Abram and tells him he is blessed by the God Most High, who by the way is the one who owns or presses sets the heavens and the earth.

Then in Daniel Chapter 2 starting in verse 20 we are told that El Elyon, the God Most High is the One who owns all wisdom and might, he controls the seasons, he places leaders in their positions and he removes them as well, he grants wisdom to those who are wise and knowledge to those who seek it, he reveals hidden things; even those things that are hidden in darkness and light is found in him and in him alone. In other words El Elyon is the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe. Isaiah 40: 28 and 29 tell us that God is also El Olam the everlasting God. He is the God that created all of the earth, his strength has no end, for he does not faint nor does he grow weary, he gives his strength to the weak and his power to the faint. We are also told that his understanding is so great that we can not ever hope to understand all that he does while we live on this earth.

Close this time in prayer, pray that the Real Men in training, will come to know God as El Elohe the Living God, and as El Elyon the most High God and God of the Universe as well as as El Olam them everlasting God who lends his strength to the weak, and as the God who does not grow weak or weary.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will show us through God’s word.

Matthew 16:24 “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Christ Jesus The King

Take a few moment to review the three Omni attributes of God, that is is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent; also review yesterdays lesson and the attributes we discussed. Talk about the fact that God is the God of his people Israel and therefore us as his children grafted into his holy people through our salvation, that God is the Most High and only God of the Universe and that God is an Everlasting God. He has no beginning and no end and that he lends his strength to the weak because he is a God who does not grow weary or tired.

New Stuff

Today we are going to talk a bit more about the King that we serve and we are going to look at a few more qualities of God our King. Let's start with one of God's other names, the name El Roi. This name for God is seen in Psalm 139:7-12 and it means the God who sees. In these verses the psalmist asks where he can go that God cannot see him, he says if I go to heaven you are there, if I go to the depths of the earth you are there too. If I go to the farthest, eastern most point of the earth where the sun rises you are there too and if I go into the deepest part of the sea you see me there and lead me and he says your right hand will hold me. He then says even if I say the darkness will cover me, that even the darkness is not dark but it is bright daylight to the God who Sees.

Next we see the name of God as El Shaddai, which means the almighty, all-sufficient God. God appears to Abraham in Genesis 17:1 and tells him that he is God Almighty and that he (Abraham) needs to walk with him. In II Corinthians 12:9-10 God reveals to Paul that he and his grace is sufficient for him and that because of his power, Paul can be strong even in his weaknesses as his power is made perfect when it is combined with our weakness. Philippians 2:9-11 tells us that He is our Lord and our Master, it goes on to tell us that someday at the name of Jesus every knee in heaven, on earth and in hell will bow before Christ and proclaim him as Lord. His name is a powerful name.

Let's take a moment to look at one more name of God, and that is the name Yahweh, I AM WHO I AM. This is that name that God himself spoke to Moses, when he questioned God on whether the people would accept him as coming from God with God's message for them, he asks who shall I say sent me...God answers I AM sent you tell the I AM WHO I AM. In this one statement of himself God is declaring that he is self existent, he is not dependent on air, food, water or anything else, or even anyone else for his existence, he simple is, and has been and will always be! Wow that is just amazing, but it gives credibility to the claims of God unlike any other human, who has claimed to be God, whose grave is recorded and exists, God has no birth record, because he wasn't born, there is no grave, because he hasn't died and stayed in the ground he lives. He has always lived and he will always live. We serve an AMAZING and POWERFUL GOD.

Pray-pray that the boys will learn to know God as El-Roi the God who always sees them, as El-Shaddai the Almighty God who will always uphold them in his hand and see them through everything they face and as Yahway, the God who has always been, always will be and who is.

Begin in a word of prayer, inviting the King into the discussion that you will be having; as well as the practices that you will be having this week.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed

“IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the three key concepts that we have studied.

• Who real men are and what they do?
• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Briefly review last week's lessons and memory verse on who our King is, and that he is not a King of this world.

Last weeks Verse

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Listen, people of Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is the only God. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

Review the statements that God made about himself that we learned about last week: He is the God of his people Israel, He is the Most High God, He is the Everlasting God, He is the God who sees all, He is God Almighty and he is the God that has always existed.

New Stuff

Last week we learned about who God is, but this week as we continue learning about our King we are going to take a look at what our God is like, what are the qualities that we see in our true and living God, who promises to care for his people, those who love him.

He tells us in the book of Jeremiah 51:56 that we do not need to fear our enemies or those who oppose us because he is Jehovah Gmolah the God who is our recompense, the one who fights our enemies on our behalf and he will repay them for the evil that they do.

Abraham tells us in Genesis 22:13 and 14 that our God is a provider and will provide what we need. In this passage Abraham is doing exactly what God asked of him, he takes his son up on a mountain to sacrifice him to the Lord. When he and his son leave for the mountain they take the wood, they need for the altar and the fire they need to burn the wood, Isaac asks his father where the lamb is and Abraham tells him that the Lord himself will provide the lamb. When they are on the mountain and Abraham is about to plunge his knife into his son and Angel grabs his hand and then tells him he has passed God's test and that the Lord has provided a lamb for him as a sacrifice in place of his son. God sometimes asks difficult things of us all, but if we trust God he will provide us with everything that we need, just as he did for Abraham and Isaac. It is also interesting that later God would provide His Son, Jesus as the perfect lamb to die in our place, again he was Jehovah Jireh the Lord who provides.

In Exodus 31:13 we are told that God is our sanctifier. God is the one who provides forgiveness for our sins and it is he that sets us apart with a design for our lives and sanctifies us so that we can live out that set purpose.

We are also told in Jeremiah 23:6 that God is our righteousness. His name is Johovah Tsidkenu which means the Lord is our righteousness. We can not be righteous on our own, we are sinful by nature, but when we ask Jesus to live in our heart, his righteousness shines through us and our sin is covered by his righteousness, through his shed blood. Our God is amazing and He loves us so much that he provides for us, he protects us, he sanctifies us and he calls us righteous, when we follow him! That it is truly AMAZING!

Begin in a word of prayer, inviting the King into the discussion that you will be having; as well as the practices that you will be having this week.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed

“IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the three key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Review the four character qualities that the Bible tells us about our God; that he is our provider, our protector, our sanctifier and our righteousness.

New Stuff

Today we are going to look a little bit more at what our King, our God is like. We know that our God is powerful, that he is always with us, always present with his people and that he knows all things, there is nothing that is hidden from him.

One of the names that is given to God is the name Jehovah Nissi. This name means that the Lord is our Banner. This name is given to the Lord when the Israelites were fighting against their enemy the Amalakites. The fought a long and hard battle and God instructed Moses to take the staff in his hand, the same one that he had used in Egypt to perform the miracles, and to go up on a hill and to raise the staff up. When Moses' hands were raised the Israelites won, but when Moses got tired and lowered his hands their enemies would get the upper hand. Moses' brother Aaron and a man named Hur had Moses sit down on a rock and they raised the banner and held Moses' hands up and the Israelites won against their enemies, because the Lord fought for his people.

After this battle Moses built and altar and named it Jehovah Nissi, as a remembrance of the fact that God will fight for his people and he will be victorious on their behalf. We need to trust that he will do all that he has promised his people and he will take care of us when we are submitted to him, and are walking in his will for us.

Another name that God is given is the name Jehovah Rapha, which means the Lord who heals or the Lord our healer. God himself made a promise to his people Israel that if they lived by his commands and did the things that he told them, and if they diligently sought him and obeyed everything he told them, he would not put the diseases of the Egyptians on them and that he would heal them from all of their diseases, or sicknesses. Our King our God is a healer, even today if we are sick or injured or not feeling well, it pleases our King if we come to him and ask for him to touch our bodies and to heal us. And because we are his children, he delights to heal us. Sometimes his healing is instant, the moment we ask, we feel his touch and we feel the evidence of a healing in our bodies. Sometimes that healing takes place gradually over several days or even weeks. Sometimes the gradual healing in our bodies is so that God's will and character can be perfected in our lives. Sometimes our healing comes through doctors, who God has given the wisdom and knowledge of medicine to heal us. These are all ways God uses to heal our bodies and we should never assume that God didn't have a hand in our healing just because it didn't happen instantly. God heals his people. He is Jehovah Rapha.

One more name that we see that God is given is the name Jehovah Rohi, this means that Our God is our Shepherd. We can look at Psalm 23 and the very first verse of this Psalm states the Lord is my Shepherd...our God is a good shepherd, who leads his people beside quiet, restful places and provides everything they need. No matter where we go God is with us and he will lead us never leaving us or forsaking us, He is a good, good father, who cares for his children. He is the good shepherd, he is our healer and he is our banner.

Begin in a word of prayer, inviting the King into the discussion that you will be having; as well as the practices that you will be having this week.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed

“IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the three key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Briefly go through and remind the boys of the qualities that we see in our God as we have gone through them the last couple of days. That God is our recompense, our provider, our sanctifier, our righteousness, our banner, our healer and our good shepherd.

New Stuff

Today we will look at a few more qualities that define who our King our God is and what he is like and what he wants to be to his people. Remember that if we have asked Jesus to live in our hearts, we are part of God's chosen people and that everything that he has promised in his Holy Bible is promised to us as well.

Today let's look at the name Jehovah Sabbaoth, which means the Lord of Hosts and the Lord our Deliverer. This name is cried out by the Angels around God's throne, they cry out and testify to God's ultimate, absolute moral purity, which gives him the right to rule and reign over all, and because of his goodness and his morality he is a strong tower that we can find refuge and deliverance in. In other words when we are in trouble we can run to our God, our holy God and he will deliver us from our enemies and our troubles. He is good to his people all the time.

The next name we will look at is the name Jehovah Shalom, which means the Lord our Peace. No matter what is going on around us, no matter what Satan would try to tell us, we can have peace and we can walk in peace, not a peace from the world but God's peace, that says "I got this, don't fight it, rest in me and I will deliver you." We can have confidence. Confidence that our God will take care of us and the problem we face, because nothing is bigger than our God and we can have assurance and confidence that we will be alright, because we walk with Him.

One last name that we want to look at tonight is the name Jehovah Shammah, which is another name for God that has two meanings, it means that God is our comfort and that he is the Lord who is present. When God is with us and for us the Bible tells us that nothing and no one can stand against us! Wow that is truly a comforting thought. When we fight with God on our side, when we run with God, when we do what God calls us to do, no matter what God is with us and he will be with us and we will win! God is for his Knights and his banner raised over us and the fact that He is with us means that we can faithfully stand on his promises and win. God wants us to be faithful to him and to what he has called us to do and to be and he will take care of the rest, he will fight on our behalf and he will bless his faithful people.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

Proverbs 18:10 (ISV) “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; a righteous person rushes to it and is lifted up above the danger”

Review the lessons briefly from last week about the God that we serve and what he is like. Review briefly some of the qualities that we learned about our King, by the names that he is given in the Bible. He is our defender and our provider, he cares for and loves his children. He is our sanctifier and he sent his son Jesus so that we could be called righteous. God is our banner the one who protects and leads his children, he is a healer to those who trust him and he is our shepherd, the one who leads and guides his children. God is also known as our peace, he will give us peace that passes all understanding, he is the Lord of Hosts, the angels stand around the throne of our God all day proclaiming his holiness. We are also told that He is the Lord our comfort, who is with his people, he never leaves us nor does he ever forsake us.

New Stuff

The names that we looked at last week and the way that it describes the character of our Lord, help us to see what God has desires our home our world to be like. God has these names that give us an insight to who he is. He is a holy God, in fact in heaven we are told that there are angels who stand around his throne all day every day proclaiming "holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty". They do this all day long every day, we are also told that in heaven the saints will bow down to him and we will cry out and proclaim his holiness as well.

We are given a picture in the book of Revelations of a heavenly kingdom, where we will live in unity with one another, we will not compare ourselves with each other, and we will not care what our neighbor has, in fact everything that we need will be provided by our Jehovah Jireh the God who provides. There will be a continual feast there, and his glory will shine over us like a banner and we in fact will have glorified bodies in his presence, we will be made perfect just as he is perfect. There will be no sickness in his Kingdom, he our Jehovah Rapha our healer will see to it that there is no disease, no sickness, nor suffering of any kind in his presence. There we will live in perfect peace, the things that we worry about in our human state, will no longer cause us worry in his Kingdom, because we will be in perfect peace and we will live with him in his presence in his provision for us for all eternity, we will never again be separated from him and our every need will be provided for by a good, good Father. Our future home in heaven will truly be amazing.

Pray that the boys will get a vision for what our eternal home will look like in the future when we go to heaven at the end our our days to spend eternity with Christ.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Briefly review the devotion from yesterday about our future home with Christ in heaven.

New Stuff

Yesterday we looked at what heaven would be like, we talked about who our King is and what it will be like to be in his presence in heaven someday. We also know that the Bible, God's Holy Word, tells us we will walk on streets of gold, we will each have a mansion of our own, but did you know that a long time ago, we had this kind of home here on the earth?

Let's go back all the way to the beginning of time. God tells us in Genesis 1:1 that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." God created a heavenly garden in the middle of the land that he had created. In that garden the Garden of Eden, there was every kind of animal, that has ever lived on the earth, they lived together in the garden in peace and in harmony they didn't hunt one another nor did they live in fear of one another. God looked at what he created and what he had spoken into being and said it was good, but that there was not enough. God desired to create a being that he could have relationship and fellowship with. So God decided to make man in his own image. Unlike the animals that he spoke into being, it tells us in Genesis that God formed man out of the dust of the earth and that He created man in his own image, and that as the final step he breathed his breath into the man giving him life. Then he created a helper for the man and they were placed into the perfect Garden home that God had created for them.

Now Adam and Eve, were like God, they were perfect in that time, they were holy because they had been created to be like God and because they were perfect and holy, they were able to experience God like no man since has been able to do. It tells us in Genesis that every day during the cool of the day God came down and walked in the Garden with Adam and his wife and he talked with them, face to face. He taught them his ways and he allowed them to give names to all the things that he had created. God had designed them to live forever in their garden home, enjoying all the things that he had created for man to enjoy, coming down every day and having a personal relationship with him daily walking and talking with him.

What an amazing thing, everything they needed was provided for them, everything they could want was already taken care of for them and they got to be in the presence of their loving, Heavenly Father daily. Wow that is almost unimaginable, but it is what God designed for man. Unfortunately God's enemy, Satan enters the picture and questions God's motives and authority in their lives and tricks them and sin enters the world through their rebellious disobedience to what God had commanded them, and with it death enters the world. Up until that time man was to live forever in God's beautiful home, but when they sinned, man then was appointed a number of days and then to die, and they were banished from the Garden of Eden forever. God in fact makes them leave the garden and work the land for what they need and to be sure that no one else ever enters the garden again until his appointed time, he places a Cherubim with a flaming sword to protect the way to the tree of life and the garden.

Close in prayer asking the Holy Spirit to help the children see the consequences of our sin both in the past and even today, that they would see that because God is holy he must punish sin, but that he still longs for relationship with us, so much so that he sent his son Jesus to die for us.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Spend a few moments reviewing the past two lessons. Talk about the heavenly home that God has created for his people and the home that he originally gave mankind. Review the fact that God created us to be his children and that he longed to walk and talk with his creation in the beginning and it was only because of man’s sin that we were separated from him.

New Stuff

Today let us talk a little bit more about the world that God originally created. Remember yesterday we told you that God created a perfect garden for man to live in, where everything that he needed was provided for him and everything lived in harmony and unity. God tells us in his word that where there is unity he commands a blessing, and the garden home was blessed because everything lived in the peace of that unity, until man sinned.

Now man sinned and he lost the ability to walk and talk with God face to face as he once did. Did that mean however, that God wanted nothing to do with man any longer? No, it didn't. God still sought out man and watched over him and spoke to him and tried to lead and guide him throughout history. God still wants to have us have a relationship with him as we walk out our days on the earth. But that requires us being committed to His way and His will.

• It means we cannot be passive, but need to be proactive in our relationship with him, we have to make the effort to meet with him in prayer and in Bible study, if we do, God will always be there to meet with us, because it pleases his heart to have fellowship with us.
• We have to accept responsibility for our actions and our sins, because we all sin, none of us our perfect and we all make mistakes, but if we take responsibility for them and meet with God, he forgives us and uses those mistakes to help others and to glorify his name.
• We have to work hard to walk courageously in a way that honors God in a world that has rejected him and his ways.
• We have to be willing to live by what his Bible, his word says, not by what man says is right and wrong and the only way that we can do that is if we know what they Bible says and how it applies to our live as Christians.

When we do these things, we can live in a fallen world being a light and preparing ourselves for our heavenly home, because God has promised that he is going to prepare a place for us and he will return to take us to that place someday, we do not know when. But we can walk in peace and righteousness, we can walk in kindness and love we can carry joy in our hearts and our attitudes each day and as we do we can prepare our hearts for the heavenly home that we will spend eternity in with Christ. Learn now to spend time with him and to worship him as our Holy God and creator and we can experience heaven even while we walk here on earth.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

John 14:2-3 (ERV) “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”

Review last week's lesson briefly, focusing on the idea of what God wants us to live like on this earth to reflect to others what our heavenly home will be like. We can be a light to the fallen world around us as we prepare to live in our perfect homes in heaven which Jesus himself has prepared for those who love him and who live for him.

New Stuff

Today as we look at the world around us, we know that there are people who are mean, people who lie, people who do not treat others with kindness love and respect. We see around us those who lie and who steal, who cheat and who only look out for themselves.

• Why do you suppose that people act in this way?
• Does it line up with the way that God tells us to treat one another in his word?
• Does it show God's love for man when we treat others in this way?

No it doesn't! In fact these types of attitudes are in direct opposition of what God tells us about how he wants his people to act and to treat one another. It is just like the opponents we face out on the football field. We are trying to score and to move the ball down the field to the infield and over the goal line...our opponents want to keep that from happening, they want to stop the forward movement of the ball and a battle exists out on the field. They tackle, the sack our quarterback, if we don't protect and guard him, they try to intercept the ball or to cause us to fumble it. They are opposing our forward movement...and that is what God's enemy Satan tries to do to all believers.

He lives in direct opposition to what God wants for his people. He is selfish, he doesn't want us to think of others before ourselves, as God does, he lies, in fact he is called the father of lies, even though God says that we shall not lie. In fact the Bible tells us that Satan is a roaring lion who goes around seeking those who he can devour or destroy, it also tells us that he is the father of lies, there is no truth in him.

God is truth ultimate truth, and in Him there is no lies or deception, whereas God's enemy Satan has very little truth in anything he says, he lies and deceives us. The interesting thing about God's enemy Satan, is that he wasn't always like this. He once a long time ago was one of the angels in heaven, he served God! In fact he was the angel that God entrusted each day to stand in the throne room of God and usher in and lead worship to the most high God. As was fitting his position to minister to God in the throne room he was created with great beauty and great wisdom, but somewhere along the line something happened within his own heart and he was no longer satisfied to sign praises to the most high God, he wanted to be like him, even though God had always existed and Lucifer himself, was created by the very hand of the one he sang in worship to.

His pride and arrogance caused his destruction and downfall, he was stripped of his position by the God who knew the very thoughts of his heart before he could act and was cast down into the depths of the earth and given the title of the prince of darkness to rule and reign in hell. Ever since he has opposed the goodness of our God and has opposed God's people and God's purposes, he has opposed the plan of God for man ever since. He was not of this world ever, he was a created being of heaven, he was created to worship God, but instead he chose to oppose God and he paid dearly for his opposition.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

John 14:2-3 (ERV) “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”

Quickly review who God wants us to be and how he wants us to act and treat others on his earth. Remind the boys that God wants us to be a light to our generation and to win souls for him.

New Stuff

Today let's talk about the fact that God has an enemy whose name is Satan. As we learned yesterday Satan was once an angel who served God in heaven, in fact he lead the angels in worship of God, but one day he decided that he was equal to God, the very God who had created him, and he decided that he was establish for himself a throne that was higher than God's, God put an end to that, and his judgement was swift he was cast out of heaven into the depths of the earth.

Today I want to look at some of the other things that God tells us about his enemy and our enemy Satan. When Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica he tells then that while he is wanting to come to the to visit and to encourage them, that God's enemy, Satan opposed him and blocked his ability to come to them. Satan does not want the followers of Christ to be strengthened and encouraged and so he tries to get in their way and make them feel like they cannot do what they are being asked or led by the Holy Spirit to do.

We need to realize that when God asks us to do something we need to obey and when we do, God uses us.

Secondly, we see that Satan is also a hinderer of the Gospel. He doesn't want other people to hear God's message of salvation or come to know Jesus as their Savior, so he gets in the way and convinces believers that they will look stupid if they tell others about Jesus, or if they ask them if they want to go to church.

The truth is that others will not know, unless we tell them and unless we invite them, we must be strong enough to not listen to Satan's voice and to stand on the truth that God wants all people to be saved and that requires us to act.

Satan is also revealed in the Bible as the accuser. Satan will try to bring up our past mistakes over and over again and accuse us of failing God because we make mistakes, and we do make mistakes, some little one and some really, really big ones, but the truth is, is that God forgives us from our mistakes, and it doesn't matter in God's eyes whether our mistakes are big or little, when we ask for forgiveness, God forgives us and he says that he removes our sins and that he chooses not to remember them against us ever again.

So, Satan's only power is to bring them up and throw them at us, if we choose to not catch them or even defend ourselves against him his power to accuse us is lost. You see when we receive forgiveness it is complete in God's eyes we don't have to keep coming back over and over and over again, asking for forgiveness because it is already forgiven, but Satan will try and he will try to get us to dwell on the mistakes we have made, don't let him trap you, don't let him deceive you. We are also told that Satan is the ruler of the world for a set amount of time, but that time will end when Jesus comes back, so he works really hard to defeat us and scare us and to steal our peace and our joy.

He is also known as the ruler of demons. Satan was given the position of being the ruler of hell and to have the demons, the other angels who rebelled with him and whom he convinced to follow him when he rebelled against God do his bidding. He was put in charge of them and he rules them. Even though, however Satan was given rule over the world, for a set time and rule over the demons of hell, he is still subject to God and in the end God wins, and we must never lose sight of that, and he does not have authority over the Christian's life. If we want to be on the winning team, we must follow Christ and not listen to the lies of God's enemy.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Remind the boys that our God is a real and a living God, who wants us to live for him and be a light to our world, but that God's enemy Satan wants to steal our peace and joy and wants to lie to us and accuse us so that we lose our power.

New Stuff

Yesterday we talked about the fact that Satan tries to oppose us, just as the team we play tried to keep us from scoring so does Satan. He also tries to hinder us from sharing Jesus and his good news with others, he accuses us and tries to bring up things we have already received complete forgiveness for up to keep us from feeling like we can do the things that God has asked of us.

We have to be wise and on guard against the devil's schemes. Satan is cunning and crafty that means he is tricky and if we are not careful he can deceive us, especially since he is a deceiver or a liar, truth is not found in him. Jesus is truth, Satan is the direct opposite of Jesus and he is a liar. He is presumptuous, which means he is arrogant and over confident, he believes that he is better than God in you and that he can defeat you and that you are powerless and he will boldly tell you that and it is nothing more than a lie, because God wins and God in you working through you win, if we stand firmly on what the truth of God's word says. Satan in proud and boastful and there is no humility in him. It is interesting that Jesus is described as the opposite in the Bible, it is said that he is humble and no pride was found in him.

Not so with Satan. Satan is powerful, wicked and cunning. We are warned to be on guard against his schemes and to watch out for the ways he twists the truth into a lies, and we must never forget that while Satan does have power for a time, he is not all-powerful, only God is omnipotent. Satan is wicked and the lies he tells and are not to help us or to make us feel better about ourselves but they are designed to destroy us. He is out to destroy us and kill us he is malignant and will poison us and our relationship with God if we aren't careful to keep our guard up against him and his lies all the time. Satan is cruel and his whole purpose is to destroy us and our relationship with God, to keep us away from God's word and church and to destroy those who follow Christ. You see he knows that the only way that he can hurt God is to destroy the relationship that God has with those who he loves and those whom he longs to spend eternity with in his heavenly home. This is why we are told so many time by Jesus and his disciples to be on guard against the devil and his schemes.

Close in prayer asking God to give the boys wisdom to recognize the lies of Satan and to stand firm on the Word of God, to keep God's word in their hearts so that they can stand firm on God's word.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

James 4:7-8a (ERV) “So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives.”

Focus once again on the thought and idea that if we are Christ's disciples we have to deny ourselves, we have to take the time to not do what we want, so that we can do what He wants. We have to take up our cross daily and follow him. This references the fact that we will need to sometimes do things that we don't want to do and things that are hard, and sometimes, we will have to do it alone, without friends or family support, remember that when Jesus went to the cross, when he was arrested, his disciples fled in fear, and that happens sometimes even today, that we will need to step out in faith and courage to do what God has asked us to do, and our friends will not want to go and travel the same road with us. But God tells us we must take up our cross and follow him!

New Stuff

Last week we talked about who our enemy was, we have an enemy if we follow Christ. He has an enemy Satan, and if we follow God's will than his enemy is also our enemy, and he is out to try to keep us from walking in obedience to God's will and following Christ. He will try every trick he has to try to keep us from following Jesus.

We are going to take a look this week on what he does, and how he has corrupted God's perfect world to keep us from following God and his will for us. Remember that when God created the world and placed man in his perfect home in the garden of Eden, he came down each day to spend time with Adam and Eve to walk and to talk with them every day. At this point in creation man was perfect and could look upon the holy and righteous God.

But one day Satan came down and took on the form of a serpent or a snake and he came to Adam and Eve and asked them if God really meant that they would die if they ate the fruit from the forbidden tree. Satan brought doubt into their world, doubt that they heard God correctly, doubt that God would bring about the spiritual death that he promised them they would have, doubt that God would have their best interest at heart and doubt that He wanted to protect and care for them the way that he had said.

Satan still does this today, God says something, he tells us to do something and he comes and causes us to doubt that God really asked us to do it, he causes us to doubt our ability to do what God has asked us to do...the truth is, is that on our own, we can't do it, but when we step out in obedience to what God is asking us to do, he promises that he will equip and enable us to do what we are being asked to do, not on our own ability but on his ability and gifting working in and through us. We must use our faith, in who God is and trust the fact that God cannot lie and will use us in what he calls us to do. We must also trust God. God has only our best interest at heart and he wants the very best things for all of his children, he is a good, good father, however Satan wants us to not trust God's heart for us. Just as he cunningly tricked and deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden he tricks and deceives people today. He never wants God's best for us, he wants to mess with the good God has for us, because he is wicked and he wants to steal the good God intends for us. He wants us to feel guilty and bad. If he gets us to disobey God, then he comes at believers and accuses us and holds us captive to our mistakes...but that is not God's plan...when we mess up, God forgives us, he doesn't hold it against us and he wants us to walk in his favor and confidence. We need to replace Satan's voice in our lives, with the Word of God and what it says!

Pray over the boys asking God to help them recognize his voice and to listen to it, not the voice of Satan.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

James 4:7-8a (ERV) “So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives.”

Focus once again on the thought and idea that if we are Christ's disciples we have to deny ourselves, we have to take the time to not do what we want, so that we can do what He wants. We have to take up our cross daily and follow him. This references the fact that we will need to sometimes do things that we don't want to do and things that are hard, and sometimes, we will have to do it alone, without friends or family support, remember that when Jesus went to the cross, when he was arrested, his disciples fled in fear, and that happens sometimes even today, that we will need to step out in faith and courage to do what God has asked us to do, and our friends will not want to go and travel the same road with us. But God tells us we must take up our cross and follow him!

New Stuff

Yesterday we talked about the how Satan brought doubt into the world and came to Adam and Eve in their beautiful garden home and made them doubt God's intentions for them. Not only did Satan bring doubt with him into the garden but he also brought lies. Satan is a coward and he knows that unlike God he is not all-powerful nor is he all-knowing. Satan makes it seem like he knows all and that he knows what is best for us, because he knows enough about what we desire, so that he plays on that and tries to convince us, through his lies that what we want is what we should have.

The problem is, the fact that that idea goes against what God tells us, he says we have to deny ourselves, we have to use self-control, we have to consider others and not just ourselves. Satan takes just a little bit of the truth and he puts it into his lies to make them sound right. For instance he may come and tell you that it is okay for you to cheat on a test and look at someone's answer, because you had the same answer and besides God loves you and wants you to succeed so therefore it is okay. However, it is not God tells us quite plainly that we are not to steal, if we look at someone's test paper and take their answer we are stealing their answer.

We are also told that God values hard work and those who are honest. Cheating is not honest and God does not value it. Satan is the father of lies and he will even tell us it is okay with God if we lie just a little bit, because a little lie will not hurt anyone. However, God is quite clear that we are not to lie, in fact not only is that a commandment, he tells us that liars and deceivers will never enter his presence. God's world and Satan's world's look nothing alike.

Pray over the boys that they will be wise to Satan's lies and that they will learn to stand on God's truth and seek God's truth in every situation that they face.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last Weeks Verse

James 4:7-8a (ERV) “So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives.”

Focus once again on the thought and idea that if we are Christ's disciples we have to deny ourselves, we have to take the time to not do what we want, so that we can do what He wants. We have to take up our cross daily and follow him. This references the fact that we will need to sometimes do things that we don't want to do and things that are hard, and sometimes, we will have to do it alone, without friends or family support, remember that when Jesus went to the cross, when he was arrested, his disciples fled in fear, and that happens sometimes even today, that we will need to step out in faith and courage to do what God has asked us to do, and our friends will not want to go and travel the same road with us. But God tells us we must take up our cross and follow him!

New Stuff

Review the last two day's lesson, talking about how Satan's world is filled with fear and doubt and lies. That he is a deceiver and the father of lies and that he tells us likes sprinkled with just a little bit of truth to try to get us to lie and deceiver others and even ourselves, but remind the boys that if we ask God will give us wisdom so that we can recognize those lies and stand on the truth.

One of the other things that Satan brought into the Garden and uses still today to try to get believers off track is selfishness. Satan's world is filled with people who are selfish and who only think about themselves and their own interests. Man has become very self-centered, they operate in a way that gives them what they want no matter who they have to run over to get it. They think only about themselves, and it is all about me. Maybe you have been around people likes this, they have to have the toy you are playing with, if you give it to them and go and play with something else then they want that too. They have to have the best place, they have to always be the one who is recognized by coaches and teachers and parents, they always have to have everything.

But think about it, is this what God wants us to be like? What is the example that God gave us about the way that we should treat one another? (Give time for responses). God tells us that no one should think of themselves as more important than others, in fact he goes so far as to say that if you want to be great in his kingdom, you have to learn to be a servant to others on the earth. Not a friend, not a co-worker, a servant. He gave us an amazing example of this when he sent his perfect son Jesus to die for man...He died for us, he thought that redeeming man to himself was more important than his own comfort, so Jesus willingly laid down his life. Man what an example.

Pray for the boys asking God to help them serve others and not think only about themselves.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

Hebrews 13:6 (ISV) Hence we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

Remind the boys that we are called to be Christ's disciples and to follow him but to truly do so, we must deny ourselves and we must follow him, not the ideas and philosophies of the world. Remind them too that this requires us to be involved in our world and to not be passive, that it requires us to take responsibility for ourselves and those God has entrusted to us to care for and that it means we must lead with courage.

New Stuff

This week we will take a closer look at the battle and where we will face that battle as we take a stand against God's enemy Satan. It is very important for us to understand as we look at the battle that we will fight if we follow Jesus, that our battle is not against people.

So often when we fight a battle, like we do on the football field each week, we fight against another team. Our goal is to move the ball downfield into the end zone and score. If we can hold our opposing team and not allow them to score, or allow them to score very sparingly, while we fight and make touchdowns and goals, and maybe capture a fumble or make an interception, then we will win the game! That is our goal to play and fight hard and score the most points and win over our opponent. This is an easier goal when we can see, and feel our opponent on the field. However this is not the way it is when we fight in God's army on God's side. His enemy is Satan, and we cannot see him, in fact we are told in Ephesians 6:12 that we do not fight against flesh and blood.

Let's stop right there for a moment and look at what that means. It means that our enemy doesn't have a body like you and I do, it is not someone that we can touch or see, it is not a live person, our battle in other words, unlike when we play football is not against people. In fact God tells us we are to love people with the same love that he has for people. We know that God demonstrated how much he loved us by the fact that before we had sought him or asked him to live in our hearts, he sought us and he died on the cross so that we could have abundant life in him. But our enemy, God's enemy doesn't want us to love people or God. He wants us to look at other people and judge them. He wants us to look at others and find fault in them. But God wants us to love others more than what we think they deserve.

If we do that if we love others and look at them through the possibility they are in Jesus and treat them as if they were created like God and were special to him, which they are, then we defeat our enemy, Satan. He wants us to judge one another, God wants us to love one another, just as he has loved us!

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

Hebrews 13:6 (ISV) Hence we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

Remind the boys that we are called to be Christ's disciples and to follow him but to truly do so, we must deny ourselves and we must follow him, not the ideas and philosophies of the world. Remind them too that this requires us to be involved in our world and to not be passive, that it requires us to take responsibility for ourselves and those God has entrusted to us to care for and that it means we must lead with courage.

New Stuff

Yesterday we talked about the fact that our battle was against people. In fact we talked about how when we love one another and we don't try to judge one another, or try to be better than one another, we defeat our enemy and God's enemy Satan. So if our battle is not against other people, like on a football field or in a game, who is our battle against. I mean after all we have been learning to be Godly men, who take action, and responsibility, so who is it that we are fighting, or what is it that we are fighting?

We are fighting the rulers and principalities and the authorities of the dark world, in other words we are fighting Satan and his army. We are fighting against the evil that has come into the world through sin. We cannot see evil and we cannot see the army that fights with Satan. So how do we fight and how do we win?

We must first of all know what God says. We cannot accept man's version of truth as truth, unless it lines up with what God says in the Bible. Remember that the Bible tells us that God is not a man, his wisdom is greater than man's and his truth does not change. What was wrong and sinful in the Bible is still wrong and sinful, however man has accepted lies told to them by Satan as the truth. That is why boys, we must read our Bibles and put the words from God's Word into our hearts so that we recognize the lies of Satan when he tries to deceive us. Satan is a liar, and he roars around with his lies, trying to steal, kill and destroy God through his twisted, partial truths.

But God will help us, stand upon the truth of his word and defeat Satan, but it takes our willingness to stand and not just stay silent. Satan tries to convince us that if we just stay silent, no one will get hurt and there will be no harm, someone else can speak up but not us. The problem is, that if we stay silent we allow him to win, since God tells us in His Word that it is by our testimony that our enemy is overcome, or defeated. For there to be a testimony, there has to be someone willing to speak. Remember that real men are not passive, they are involved and they stand firmly on the truth and speak up!

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last Weeks Verse

Hebrews 13:6 (ISV) Hence we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

Remind the boys that we are called to be Christ's disciples and to follow him but to truly do so, we must deny ourselves and we must follow him, not the idea's and philosophies of the world. Remind them too that this requires us to be involved in our world and to not be passive, that it requires us to take responsibility for ourselves and those God has entrusted to us to care for and that it means we must lead with courage.

New Stuff

As we have talked about this week, our enemy is not one we can see or feel, it is not someone we can face on our own strength, he is not flesh and blood, but he is real, his name is Satan and he is God's enemy too. So the beauty of this is that we know that in the end Satan will be defeated and will be thrown into a pit of fire and will be there forever, as God puts Satan under his feet.

In fact Romans 16:20 tells us that God wants us to be excellent in doing good and to be wise to the evil schemes of Satan and when we are he promises to crush Satan under our feet. In fact Paul cautions God's people in Romans 16, to be wise to the devil's schemes, the flattery and the lies and the ways that he deceives with a little white lie.

Boys, let me warn you that there is no such thing as a little lie or mostly true things, a lie is a lie, and if something isn't one hundred percent true than it is not true at all in God's eyes. To fight our battle we must remember that we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and his blood covers our sins, in God's eyes we are not longer sinners but we are called righteous sons of God.

We also must use our mouths and testify to the fact that Jesus has won the victory and he has overcome the world, the grave and death and as his followers we are the righteousness of Christ and are given authority to stand firm against the devil and his schemes. We are God's sons and we need to voice that to our enemy and remind him when he comes to discourage and lie to us, that we are God's sons and therefore worthy of all the promises of God. We as believers also stand in courage knowing that we do not fight the battle on our own we fight it through the power of God and His Holy Spirit we know that God is our helper and that we do not need to fear, because God will never leave us nor will he turn his back on us, his children, his Sons!

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

Ephesians 6:12 (ISV) “For our struggle is not against human opponents, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers in the darkness around us, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm. For this reason, take up the whole armor of God so that you may be able to take a stand whenever evil comes. And when you have done everything you could, you will be able to stand firm.”

Reminding the boys that if we want to follow Christ and be his disciples that we must take up our cross daily and follow him. Just as we have learned all season this means that we must deny our own desires and wants, unless they line up with what Jesus wants for us and follow God's will for our lives. We must spend time in prayer and God's word to know what it is that he wants us to do and who he wants us to be. We must rest in the confidence that God created us for a specific purpose and he wants us to live in his perfect will for our lives. Our job is to seek him and discover what that is and follow it with all our strength.

New Stuff

As we enter our last week of football I want us to look back at the lessons we have learned as we have walked this journey over the last twelve weeks.

We started our journey by looking at what it is that God wants from us as his followers and as examples to our world of what real men should be. We learned that God doesn't want us to be passive. That God wants us to take a stand and not just stand by and allow evil to exist and lies to be put forth as the truth, he wants us to stand up for what is right and to be a light to our world. We also learned that God wants us as real men to be responsible. When we do something to do it with all of ourselves and to be responsible for the decisions that we make and the choices that we make.

Do we have a job to do? Yes, we all have a job to do and sometimes we have multiple jobs to do. We have to be responsible for our homework as a student, we have to be responsible for a position that we play as a football player and we have to be responsible for our chores and work that we are assigned at home. If God has called us to do something then we must be responsible to be sure that we get it done. God wants to be able to trust us. We also learned that God wants his men to be courageous. We learned that being courageous doesn't mean that we don't have fear, it means that even though we may be afraid, even though we might be scared, we still do what God has asked us to do, not using our own strength but relying on God to lead us in His strength in spite of our fear. Courageous men, do not let fear stop them from doing what is right, they do what is right in spite of their fear and that is what God wants from us!

We also learned that when we walk with courage, and take responsibility for the things we have been trusted with and when we reject passivity, we can expect God to reward us not with mans reward, but with his reward, which is far greater than anything that man could offer! We learned that we want to be real men, men who follow God with all of our heart!

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

Ephesians 6:12 (ISV) “For our struggle is not against human opponents, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers in the darkness around us, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm. For this reason, take up the whole armor of God so that you may be able to take a stand whenever evil comes. And when you have done everything you could, you will be able to stand firm.”

Reminding the boys that if we want to follow Christ and be his disciples that we must take up our cross daily and follow him. Just as we have learned all season this means that we must deny our own desires and wants, unless they line up with what Jesus wants for us and follow God's will for our lives. We must spend time in prayer and God's word to know what it is that he wants us to do and who he wants us to be. We must rest in the confidence that God created us for a specific purpose and he wants us to live in his perfect will for our lives. Our job is to seek him and discover what that is and follow it with all our strength.

New Stuff

As real mean and as God’s Knights, we know that we serve a King who is not of this world. Our God is the Lord of creation, it was through his power and his spoken word that all of creation came into being. His word is so powerful that he did not have to anything more than speak creation into being. We learned that he is a the most High God, the everlasting God, the one who sees all and the almighty (all powerful, omnipotent) God.

We also learned that he is the God who repays and holds accountable and that he is the God who provides for his people, he sanctifies us, he strikes down our enemies, he is a banner over his people and a healer to them. He is the good shepherd who saves his people, and brings them peace, he is present with us always and he is our righteousness. He takes care of his people and he has a world prepared for those that love him and serve him and do his will. A perfect home, where we will live with him forever and worship him and see him face to face. A place of peace and perfect love that we can only imagine, a place where there will be no sorrow or pain, no more separation or loss, a place of great rejoicing. We can trust our good King and it is good to remember that we are told in I Corinthians 1:25 that the foolishness of God is greater than any man’s wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than any man’s strength. We can trust our King who is not of this world to give us wisdom when we ask and his wisdom far surpasses the wisdom of man, and his strength is strong enough to win the battles we have with His enemy and our enemy Satan.

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last Weeks Verse

Ephesians 6:12 (ISV) “For our struggle is not against human opponents, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers in the darkness around us, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm. For this reason, take up the whole armor of God so that you may be able to take a stand whenever evil comes. And when you have done everything you could, you will be able to stand firm.”

Reminding the boys that if we want to follow Christ and be his disciples that we must take up our cross daily and follow him. Just as we have learned all season this means that we must deny our own desires and wants, unless they line up with what Jesus wants for us and follow God's will for our lives. We must spend time in prayer and God's word to know what it is that he wants us to do and who he wants us to be. We must rest in the confidence that God created us for a specific purpose and he wants us to live in his perfect will for our lives. Our job is to seek him and discover what that is and follow it with all our strength.

New Stuff

Yesterday we talked about our King is not a king of this world but that he is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, but as we have learned over the last several weeks, he has an enemy, Satan, who is also our enemy if we follow Christ. He is a liar and a deceiver. He is not honest and tries to trick us into believing and accepting his lies as the truth. That is why as we have learned over the past weeks that we must know what God’s Word says, it is why we must read his word and study it and live by the truth of His Word. Satan wants to take everything from us, he will make his way and his sin look good and it will seem harmless and inviting, but we must stand on the truth of God’s word and know what God’s opinion is concerning things.

God tells us if we seek wisdom and if we pray and ask for wisdom he will give it to us. And as we said yesterday, I Corinthians 1:25 tells us that God’s foolishness is greater than any man’s strength. That means that man’s wisdom is nothing in comparison to God’s and he tells us he freely gives it to all those who ask.

Boys, we do not need to be afraid of our enemy, we must stand firmly on God’s word and on his truth, because when we do, we will make a difference in our world and we will be a light to those around us who are looking for truth, and the Bible tells us when we lift up God and when we lift us his truth all men will be drawn to him. Satan wants to defeat us and cause us to be silent, but we are warriors, men called by God who must stand bravely and fight the good fight so that others can see Jesus in spite of the fallen world that we live in and so that others can see truth. Satan cannot and will not win...God is the victor and all those who stand with him will win and be victorious over his enemy and ours!

Review

Review the Knight's motto/creed “IF ANYONE WOULD COME AFTER ME, HE MUST DENY HIMSELF AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME” - Matthew 16:24 - Christ Jesus The King

Review the four key concepts that we have studied. Who real men are and what they do?

• Real men are not passive they are involved;
• Real men are responsible;
• Real men are courageous and take action even when they are afraid;
• Real men wait for and seek God's reward not mans.

Last weeks Verse

Ephesians 6:12 (ISV) “For our struggle is not against human opponents, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers in the darkness around us, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm. For this reason, take up the whole armor of God so that you may be able to take a stand whenever evil comes. And when you have done everything you could, you will be able to stand firm.”

Reminding the boys that if we want to follow Christ and be his disciples that we must take up our cross daily and follow him. Just as we have learned all season this means that we must deny our own desires and wants, unless they line up with what Jesus wants for us and follow God's will for our lives. We must spend time in prayer and God's word to know what it is that he wants us to do and who he wants us to be. We must rest in the confidence that God created us for a specific purpose and he wants us to live in his perfect will for our lives. Our job is to seek him and discover what that is and follow it with all our strength.

New Stuff

As we enter our last week of football I want us to look back at the lessons we have learned as we have walked this journey over the last twelve weeks.

We started our journey by looking at what it is that God wants from us as his followers and as examples to our world of what real men should be. We learned that God doesn't want us to be passive. That God wants us to take a stand and not just stand by and allow evil to exist and lies to be put forth as the truth, he wants us to stand up for what is right and to be a light to our world. We also learned that God wants us as real men to be responsible. When we do something to do it with all of ourselves and to be responsible for the decisions that we make and the choices that we make.

Do we have a job to do? Yes, we all have a job to do and sometimes we have multiple jobs to do. We have to be responsible for our homework as a student, we have to be responsible for a position that we play as a football player and we have to be responsible for our chores and work that we are assigned at home. If God has called us to do something then we must be responsible to be sure that we get it done. God wants to be able to trust us. We also learned that God wants his men to be courageous. We learned that being courageous doesn't mean that we don't have fear, it means that even though we may be afraid, even though we might be scared, we still do what God has asked us to do, not using our own strength but relying on God to lead us in His strength in spite of our fear. Courageous men, do not let fear stop them from doing what is right, they do what is right in spite of their fear and that is what God wants from us!

We also learned that when we walk with courage, and take responsibility for the things we have been trusted with and when we reject passivity, we can expect God to reward us not with mans reward, but with his reward, which is far greater than anything that man could offer! We learned that we want to be real men, men who follow God with all of our heart!