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Bible Study

Artist: For KING & COUNTRY
Song: Burn The Ships
Album: Burn The Ships
Featured In: MVL 102

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For KING & COUNTRY

Leader Guide

Artist: For KING & COUNTRY
Album: Burn The Ships
Label: Word
Song: Burn The Ships
From: MVL 102
Writer: Rick Bundschuh | Kauai Christian Fellowship | Poipu, Hawaii

Theme(s): Commitment Addiction

Objective

By the end of this session your student will have visited the challenge to be “all in” with their faith and to scuttle anything that would allow them to drift away from that commitment.

Warm Up

Tell your students, “Let’s start this morning with a bit of little-known history” – and the tell or read them the story of Cortez destroying his ships.

Hernan Cortez had a problem on his hands. The date was 1519 when the Spanish expedition leader set foot in Mexico with 508 soldiers, around 100 sailors and 16 horses. At the time, Mexico was a hornet’s nest of hostile indigenous tribes, especially the Aztecs and just as hostile foreign invaders.

The invaders and eventual conquerors were extremely few in number but advanced in technology—which even included the horse. (There were no horses yet in the Americas). Even with primitive guns, cannons, swords and lances, the men under Cortez could count, and the odds against them looked overwhelming.

Voices pleaded with Cortez to reconsider. Sailing back to the safety of the already conquered Cuba seemed to be a sensible idea some suggested. But Cortez was having none of it. The men had come to this land to conquer and conquer they would. The Captain made it perfectly clear that any talk of mutiny would be punished with death.

But he knew that the murmurs would go on in dark corners and distant campfires. And, he knew that in the event of real hardship even his own life would be in danger. So, he made a bold and wild decision. He would cut off any option but to stay and fight. He would destroy his own ships – all 11 of them.

And he did, he scuttled or burned every ship in the fleet – telling his stunned men that now they had no choice but to fight or to die. And a short time later the mighty Aztec nation fell to this small group of soldiers and sailors who, in the end, had no other choice.

Transition

The crazy courage of Cortez to be fully committed, all in, and with the intention of cutting off any chance of retreat is something that we can learn from—and it resonated with the very same kind of ideas that Jesus taught. Let’s consider a few of His bold actions.

Bible Study

Break your students into groups of 3-4 students. Ask them to read Luke 9:57-62. Assign each group one of the following activities:

Draw a t-shirt design or poster for at least one of the comments Jesus made to those asking to follow Him.
Be a reporter for a local news outlet or online site and give a commentary or news report on what you overheard along the road.
Imagine that these three conversations were reported to the enemies of Jesus. Create protest posters against Jesus that might have been spurred by His comments.
Pretend you are one of the disciples whose job it is to explain what Jesus meant by some of these comments. Be prepared to defend Jesus.

Have your students share what they have created and then have a discussion with questions such as:

Can you be only “half in” as a follower of Christ? Why or why not?
What does “all in” look like for someone your age?
What kind of things might someone your age have to turn his or her back on to be an all in Christian? What’s the actual cost?
How is the idea of “burning our ships” similar to the commitment to follow Christ?

The Video

Explain that the band For KING & COUNTRY has put together a song and video that deals with the idea that we as Christians may need to intentionally burn down the things in our lives that would sail us away from following Christ. Let’s watch it and as we do, consider if there is something in your life you need to put to the torch.

Roll video.

Wrap Up

Ask your students to bow their heads and thoughtfully consider if there is something keeping them from being an “all in” follower of Christ. Invite them to put the torch to it today. Then, close in prayer.