Children's Sunday School Lesson on the Lord's Prayer

Purpose of lesson

This lesson will help smaller children understand that God’s Kingdom is where we will go, if we love God, and we follow Him.

Needed materials

·         Bible (Psalm 145:13a, John 18:28-37, Revelation 21:3-4, Revelation 22:17, 20, Romans 10:9-10)

·         Dry erase board and markers or chart paper and markers

·         Envelope with paper inside “May Your Kingdom Come Soon”

Game/Activity/Craft

Play a few rounds of “What Time is it Mr. Wolf?” to build excitement and anticipation in the class. Choose a student at random to be the first wolf. That child stands with their back to the class, and the other students stand at the other end of the room, shoulder to shoulder. 

The children call out “What time is it, Mr. Wolf?” and the Wolf shouts out a time. The children are allowed to take the matching number of steps. (1 o’clock- take 1 step, 4 o’clock, take 4 steps…) They keep asking until the wolf stops giving a time, and instead yells “DINNERTIME!”

The children try to run back to the starting point, and the wolf tries to tag another wolf. All wolves chase the players, until all players are either back to safety or wolves. If there are 2 or more children left, the game continues with all of the wolves taking turns shouting out times. This continues repeating until there is only one child left. That child is the winner, and the new wolf.  

Lesson script

In the last few weeks, we’ve started looking at the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. Does anyone remember what that prayer is called? Right, the Lord’s Prayer. It teaches us what we should be thinking about when we pray, and gives us a good prayer to say when we can’t think of our own.

So far, we’ve memorized the parts that say “Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.” Let’s add the next part of the prayer today, and we can have it memorized before next week! Here’s the special envelope, with our message from God—I’m really excited to see what’s inside. Oh, it says “May your kingdom come soon.”

Let’s talk about what that means. We’ll talk about what God’s kingdom is like, and why we would want it to come soon. And then we’ll talk, and make a plan for how we can become citizens in God’s special kingdom.

(Across the top of the white board or chart paper, write the 3 headers God’s kingdom, coming soon, and how can we get there?)

(Read Psalm 145:13a)

What do you think everlasting means? When the Bible tells us that God’s kingdom is everlasting, it means that it will last forever. Wow, forever! It’s hard to even imagine what that’s like, but I think it would be pretty amazing. (Write ‘forever’ under the heading ‘God’s kingdom’)

(Read John 18:36)

Does anybody remember who Pilate was? That’s right, he’s the judge that Jesus was sent to before he was crucified. The passage we just read is what Jesus said when he was asked if he was the king of the Jews. What he meant, is that he is the king of heaven, and he wasn’t here to set up his real kingdom. But we all know that when he returns again, he’ll bring his kingdom to us! (Write ‘Jesus is the king of heaven’ under the heading ‘God’s kingdom’)

(Read Revelation 21:3-4)

Do you know what that means? Someday, we’ll get to see God, face to face, like we see each other now. And when that day comes, He’ll wipe away all of our pain. When God rules completely, and sets up His kingdom, no more bad things will happen. (Write ‘seeing God’ and ‘no more pain or sadness’ under ‘God’s kingdom,’ and also write ‘no more pain or sadness’ under ‘coming soon’)

(Read Revelation 22:17, 22:20)

That means that anybody that wants to celebrate forever, worshipping Jesus can go into heaven. Not only that, but when he returns, he will invite all of us into his kingdom. As Christians, we want that—into God’s kingdom, to worship Him forever, with all of the angels?—Yes! That’s why, when we are praying the Lord’s Prayer, we say ‘May your kingdom come soon.’ (Write ‘living with Jesus forever,’ under the heading ‘coming soon’)

So, now we have to answer the question ‘how do we get into heaven?’

You would think that being well-behaved and always going to church are how you get into heaven. Some people think that you have to never sin, or that you can buy your way into heaven with good deeds. It’s very important that we try to always live like Jesus, but every one of us is a sinner, and we can’t be perfect. Here is what the Bible says about how we get into heaven.

(Read Romans 10:9-10)

So, after reading that, we see that to get into heaven, we just have to know and love Jesus. We have to truly believe that Jesus came to earth and died for our sins, so that we could be with God, and we have to accept that we are sinners, and that Jesus saved us. That’s all! (Under ‘how can we get there?’ write ‘believe in Jesus.’)

Heaven sounds amazing! We’ll get to live with Jesus there, forever! And all we have to do is believe that Jesus saved us. Let’s all say it together; repeat after me, “Jesus, we believe! May your kingdom come soon!”

(End the lesson by saying the Lord’s Prayer together.)

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