VANGUARD

Session Outline to be Soldiers of Christ

Objectives:

 To exhort everyone to Stand Firm for what we believe in.

 To let them realize the true meaning of being a Vanguard
 To emphasize that to be a Vanguard of God’s Army is to be a Vanguard of Faith in all aspects of our Lives
(God, Family, Studies and Service)
 To instill in their hearts and minds that they are the frontliners of God’s Army.

Verse:

 Psalms 62:6 – “Truly He is my rock and my salvation, He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”

I. BATTLEGROUNDS (The reality of the World Today)

A. The battles we face

In our day to day lives we fail numerous battles. Battles that may seem difficult and at times
overwhelming. We face conflicts, challenges and questions that pushses us to our limits and
even beyond those limits. As Individuals we try to push back and at the end of the day we tend
to grow tired in fighting the seemingly endless battles looking as if there is no end in sight.
 In our Relationship with God
 When we are ashamed and feel embarrass in living out our Faith, choosing malls
over churches on Sunday. When we have non-believer friends who attack and
malign our faith while we remain silent.
 When we can’t feel him or find enough time to pray regularly
 In our relationship with our Family
 When we unwillingly create walls between ourselves and our parents choosing
to spend more time with other people and community activities than with our
Families. This results to mistrust and prejudice happening among siblings and
their parents.
 When we fail to make our families feel appreciated and our parents cannot
understand the service that we do
 In our Studies
 When the pressure and the deliverables are overwhelming and becomes too
much to handle leading us to shut down.
 When we fail to prioritize between our academics and commitments in other
activities so we lose motivation in our studies and prefer to exert all our effort
towards our service
 When we start using service as a reason not to study and start to fail in our
academics.
 In our Service
 When we lose the excitement because Service becomes more like a burden and
a deliverable than a blessing and a gift
 When our leaders and/or members disappoint us and we lie-low leaving our
responsibilities and commitments behind. Questioning our Anointing
 B. Retreat and Regroup!
In the face of the confusion in the battle grounds, we are called to take a step back. To retreat
back to our base to open up our hearts and acknowledge our tired-ness. We need to be
reminded of why we do all of these things so that we can recollect all our confusion, doubts and
frustrations and offer everything up to the Lord in this worship. Let us offer ourselves!

II. MISSION RECALL

A. Mission Re-Brief
God created Humanity to experience the fullness of His Love and Grace. Thus before we go off
fighting another battle we must first know WHY and WHAT we are fighting for! As leaders in our
communities we are called to be excelelnt in all aspects of our lives. Therefore the
“Battlegrounds” that exists in regards to our relationship with God, our Families, our Studies
and our Service should be seen as the Promised Land! To see them for what they COULD BE
rather than what they are now! We should look forward and fight for what the Lord has planned
them to be, a gift to our lives.

 A Life Full of Grace (A Growing relationship with the Lord)

We should see these challenges towards our faith with the Lord not simply as attacks of
THEM vs US, but an opportunity to purify our Hearts and Love like Jesus did! Our call is
to share Christ even to the non-believers in a creative and powerful way. And we
challenge ourselves to be more faithful to the Lord in attending mass and having a
regular prayer time.

 A Life of Joy and Unity (Strengthening and Defending our Families)

. Our Family should be our source of inspiration and strength. And we are called to
strive to defend, uplift and unite our Families. To allow our Families to be a CHURCH in
the Home. We must find ways to make them feel appreciated and prioritize them.
Spend actual time with them and remember them on special occasions.

 A Life of Excitement and Excellence (Re-enforcing our Identities as Excellent Students)

We are called to see our studies as great blessings rather than burden. The excitement
of understanding more about our world and helping other people more than just
getting a diploma or landing a good job. Let your dreams and plans for the future
motivate you to be excellent in your academics.

 A Life of Anointing and Blessings (Embracing our Service as Life giving)

Lastly we are called to embrace and see our service to the Lord as a LIFE GIVING gift. It is
through our anointing that the Lord is able to bless us more and other people more. The
joy in our lives is intensified through this service that we offer, which in turn allows the
Lord to pour down countless blessings for us.
These are the gifts that the Lord gave us, these are the promises that he wants us to receive!
And so let’s celebrate and thank the Lord for reminding us of all the things we should be
thankful for, and of all the things that we must be able to stand up for!
III. STAND STRONG

A. Who are we Fighting For?

As we stand up for these gifts, let us never forget the reason why we stand and fight, the Lord!
Let us never forget that the LORD is our foundation. In him we find the strength, inspiration and
motivation. We are called to live a life that shows the faith that we have received.

As we get to know Him more, we are able to understand ourselves even more! We get to serve
as inspirations to each other in service. To be a soldier for Christ means to stand up not just for
our service but in all aspects of our lives. Not to choose between one aspect over another but
being a “Soldier for Christ” as a motivation to be like Jesus and be excellent in ALL aspects of our
lives. We are called to stand up for all aspects of our lives not just for our community but
because we are soldiers of Christ! Despite of our weaknesses, our frailties and shortcomings, we
keep standing strong..wounded yes, tired probably but full of Hope and Trust in the Lord!

B. We stand strong in the Lord!

We should stand strong in our Faith! “God doesn’t call those who are qualified; He qualifies
those whom He called.” We are all here because He called us to be here, us being here is not an
accident! He is telling us that despite our imperfections, we can be the front liners of this
salvation army He is building. And we are called to trust in His plans, and let Him lead us in the
path that He prepared for us.

This is a battle that should not be fought with arms and weapons; it is a battle fought with love,
trust, and faith in Him. In the face of hatred, we exude kindness and let the world witness the
love of God in us. We are assured of victory because God as our foundation we are not shaken.

We are reminded that the Lord’s presence never left us, and the he was right there since the
beginning! Even before we were born, we know and we trust that the Lord had his eyes set
upon us, his soldiers…his children. And we know that he is present here in our hearts. This is the
taste of what Heaven is! Everytime we worship we get a preview of what is coming as we look
deep into our hearts

IV. VANGUARDS

A. E.N.D.U.R.E.
This is our call to be VANGUARDS! To be a VANGUARD is to be the fighting force in the front moving
forward. The front liners in the mission that the Lord has called us. Which is more than just serving
faithfully as a Soldier of Christ, being a VANGUARD for the Lord means being a VANGUARD for all
the things that the Lord has given us. To be a VANGUARD in our FAMILIES, STUDIES and SERVICE!

So how can we be VANGUARDS? We are called to E.N.D.U.R.E.

E-mbrace your IDENTITY (Claim your identity as a child of God, it is our duty to defend Him and all
that he Loves at all cost. Not only because He is our God, but out of Love!)

N-ourish yourself (Strenghten your faith by receiving the sacraments regularly, deepen your
relationship with God by having a regular prayer time.)
 D-efend your faith (If the world can give you a hundred reasons why you shouldn’t believe, then
give them a million reasons why you should stand firm in your faith.)

U-nderstand and accept the mission whole-heartedly. (The day of our baptism marks the start of
our mission and for us to do the mission, we need to love it first before we can do it powerfully.)

R-eflect Jesus’ image in you (We are called in Being and Bringing CHRIST where-ever we are!)

E-mbrace those who persecute you (We are called to Love our enemies, to have mercy and
compassion and see them as the target for our evangelization! To bring them closer to the Lord!)

This is our call! To ENDURE whatever may come in our path because we know and we believe that
we are doing this for our KING and we know that our KING is more than ENOUGH!

B. A Cloud of Witnesses
We should remember that we are not alone in this battle – we have our brothers and sisters who
will fight alongside us. And most of all, we have the Almighty on our side. It is only through
recognizing that we are ONE with one another and UNITED in CHRIST that we can muster all the
strength and motivation to move forward. We are not alone in this battle and we are called to
embrace that reality. We have our Brothers and Sisters around us! How great and awesome it is to
be with our brothers and sisters! This is the great cloud of witnesses! We have one story and one
spirit in Christ!

“Truly, He is my rock and my salvaion, He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” – Psalm 62:6

Truly our God is a great God! And as we end our Worship Night let us proclaim his Greatness in our
Lives! Let us praise and thank him for all the wonderous deeds that he has done! For giving us this great
gift of being VANGUARDS! As we go out and proclaim to the world how Great the Lord is!