Unit 3 Summary:

Game On

Life is hard — especially when you’re trying to follow Jesus. Sometimes it’s hard to forgive people when they’re mean to us,

or it’s hard to do what’s right when all of your friends are doing what’s wrong. It’s hard when you have to face a bully or a big test. It’s hard when people we love get divorced or get sick.

But when we learn to pray like Jesus did, suddenly we have the chance to plug into God’s power, and God’s power can help us do anything that God wants us to do.

In this sports-themed unit, kids will learn about the Lord’s Prayer, the model Jesus gave them to coach them in the art of prayer. Kids will learn six big prayer skills laid out by the ultimate prayer coach, Jesus Himself. Kids will discover how praying about God’s character, kingdom, provision, forgiveness, guidance, and protection will turn them into prayer all-stars who will change the world.

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GAME ON: LESSON 10 (Large Group)

Key Concept: God is our Dad in heaven, and we can talk to Him about anything.

Bible Story: Jesus teaches the disciples to pray (Luke 11:1-4)

Bible Verse: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. — Matthew 6:9-10

3DM Principle: The Hexagon (Father’s character and kingdom)

Large Group Overview: Kids will be introduced to the Lord’s Prayer and see how Jesus wants to coach us to become power prayer champions on His team. Today’s Large Group will focus on God’s character, while today’s Huddle will focus on God’s kingdom.

Huddle Overview: Kids will do activities to help them understand how they can pray for God’s kingdom to come to earth.

Lesson Outline

Lesson Setup Brainstorm greatest athletes (5 min)

Bible Story Misguided prayer examples (2 min)

Jesus teaches the disciples to pray (15 min)

Application Bible verse and wrap up (5 min)

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Lesson Setup

The teaching area should be set up with all kinds of sports equipment and posters, displayed in whatever creative way fits your space. The teaching area should also have a white board and markers and three chairs set up in a row facing the kids. You will use the chairs for the misguided prayer examples.

You will also need to create a set of giant numbers (1-6). These can be created using poster board or foam board. The bigger they are, the better. Display the numbers around the teaching area. They will represent to six aspects of the Lord’s Prayer. They will need to be sturdy enough to attach a sign each week that represents that part of the prayer. This week you will use the dad sign and the crown sign.

Welcome back to Kairos Quest, where we’re constantly on the lookout for what God’s up to in our lives. Today, we’re going to start a brand new series called Game On. How many of you have ever played sports or like to watch sports on TV? What are some of your favorite sports?

Kids answer.

When it comes to sports, players want to be the best they can possibly be. I’m going to name a sport and I want you to yell out who you think is the No. 1 all-time athlete in this sport. Let’s start with basketball. Who’s the greatest basketball player of all time?

Kids answer. Write down the most popular answer on the board.

How about football? Who’s the greatest football player of all time?

Kids answer. Write down the most popular answer on the board.

How about baseball?

Kids answer. Write down the most popular answer on the board.

What about gymnastics or figure skating? Who are the greatest athletes in those sports?

Kids answer. Write down the most popular answer on the board.

Now let’s think about the X Games. Who is the greatest X Games athlete ever?

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Kids answer. Write down the most popular answer on the board. Then read the entire list back to kids.

These are some pretty amazing athletes. If you wanted to become a superstar athlete like that, what would you need to do?

Kids answer.

If you wanted to be an amazing athlete like them, one thing you’d need is a great coach. Just imagine if you wanted to be a star basketball player and you walked in to practice on the first day and found out your coach was (name the basketball player from your list). Or if you wanted to be a great football player, and your coach was (name the football player from your list). Or if you wanted to be a baseball player or figure skater or gymnast and your coach was (name baseball player, figure skater and gymnast from the list). Could you imagine learning incredible skills from the most awesome superstars in your sport? It would be awesome!

Bible Story

We’re going to see in today’s Bible story how a group of guys called the disciples wanted to get really good at something. They wanted to be awesome at it. But it wasn’t basketball or football or figure skating. The thing they wanted to get good at was prayer.

These guys were Jesus’ closest friends, and they followed Jesus around all the time, watching how He lived life because they wanted to be like Him. One thing they saw Jesus doing a lot was praying. When Jesus prayed, cool things happened. So the disciples thought no one would be better at coaching them to develop crazy prayer skills than the greatest prayer champion of all time.

One day they walked up to Jesus and said, “Master, teach us to pray.” This would be like walking up to (name the basketball player from your list) and saying, “Teach me how to dunk a basketball.” These guys had the chance to learn how to pray from the guy who prayed perfectly.

Sometimes prayer is confusing for us. We aren’t sure what to do or how to do it, and so our prayers end up looking something like one of these examples.

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Misguided Prayer Examples

Deliver these prayers yourself by moving from chair to chair or bring in three student or adult actors to perform the prayers. With either option it will be most effective if the examples are memorized.

1. Rushed

Dear God, OK, here’s what I want: a new video game, straight A’s in school,

a cool bike — oh also for my mom to let me go to that sleepover even though I’m grounded, an iPhone, a TV in my room, and to score more points than anyone ever in the history of my school’s basketball team. Did I mention the bike? Got all that God? Great. Catch you later. Amen

Or your prayer might look like this…

2. Formal

Dearest Most Gracious Reverent and Auspicious Divine God, Thou artest the mostest wonderful and exalted heavenly deity crowned with Thy glorious royal diadem. May thine name be praisethed this day thus forth from us, the sheep of thy flock who thou dost bequeath with many and wondrous magnanimous fruits from thy heavenly storehouse. Ameneth.

Or your prayer might look like this…

3. Uncertain

Dear God, Now I lay me down to eat. God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for… beautiful and spacious skies and amber waves of grain. I pledge allegiance to the flag. I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen

Sometimes we think prayer is just about asking God for stuff, or we think we have to use fancy words or a certain memorized prayer you learned when you were younger. But prayer is actually talking to God in your normal voice with normal words.

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Jesus, though, gives us an example of the kinds of things we can pray for that will change our lives. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus said, “When you pray, pray like this.” Then Jesus taught the disciples a prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer because Jesus is our Lord. The Lord’s Prayer has six parts. Count them with me: (go to giant numbers and have kids count them out with you) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Learning each of these parts of prayer is like learning a different skill or move in your favorite sport.

And when you put all six together, you will be an unstoppable player on God’s team. And believe me, you’re going to need to be unstoppable. Life is hard — especially when you’re trying to follow Jesus. Sometimes it’s hard to forgive people when they’re mean to us, or it’s hard to do what’s right when all of your friends are doing what’s wrong. It’s hard when you have to face a bully or a big test. It’s hard when people we love get divorced or get sick.

But when we learn to pray like Jesus did, we have the chance to plug into God’s power, and God’s power can help us do anything that God wants us to do. Shooting a three-point shot or making an amazing touchdown are nothing compared to the things God can help us do.

Walk over to number 1.

So, let’s check out the first prayer skill that Jesus taught His disciples. It was remembering God’s character. Here’s how Jesus began: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…”

Everybody say, “Our Father in heaven.”

Kids repeat.

Now say, “Hallowed be your name”

Kids repeat.

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Jesus’ prayer starts by reminding us of who we’re talking to when we’re praying. We’re not wishing on a star or writing a letter to Santa Claus or just talking to ourselves. We’re talking to our Father in heaven. Our Dad. Jesus says that we get to call God our Dad.

Hang “Dad” sign on the number 1.

When you see this sign, I want you remember that God is our dad. Everybody say that with me, “God’s our dad.”

Kids repeat.

What are some things you guys think of when you hear the word dad?

Kids answer.

Maybe you have a great dad, or maybe your maybe your dad is kind of grumpy or isn’t around very much. But here’s what’s cool: God is the perfect

dad. He is everything a dad should be. He protects us and takes care of us. He is fun and kind. He loves us. And He wants to be your dad.

What’s even better is the fact that He’s not just your dad — He is your dad in heaven. In other words, your heavenly Dad is the great big, awesome, all-powerful king of the universe. That means He can do anything.

Jesus also said that God’s name is hallowed. Hallowed is a fancy word that means holy or perfect. This dad you have in heaven who can do anything? He always does the right thing. He is good. You can trust Him.

So when you’re sitting in school freaking out over a test, your heavenly Dad wants to be right there with you to help you calm down and do your best. When you’re lonely and feel like you don’t have any friends, your heavenly Dad will be your friend. When money is tight in your house, your heavenly Dad wants to provide what you need. When you’re tempted to do something wrong or selfish, your heavenly Dad wants to help you do what’s right. Why? Because He is our dad and He is crazy about us!

Our first prayer skill is remembering God’s character. It is remembering whom we’re talking to when we’re praying. So when you go to pray, remember God’s your dad. He can do anything, and He is good.

Walk to number 2.

1Dad

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Jesus went on, telling the disciples about prayer skill number two — God’s kingdom.

Hang crown picture on number 2.

The next part of the prayer goes like this: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Everyone say, “Your kingdom come.”

Kids repeat.

Now say, “Your will be done.”

Kids repeat.

“On earth”

Kids repeat.

“As it is”

Kids repeat.

“In heaven.”

Kids repeat.

Because God is good, He wants to bring good things from His Kingdom down to earth. God’s kingdom is awesome! It is full of light and love and good things. No one cries there. There is no sadness. Nothing bad at all. God’s kingdom is good.

Everyone say, “God’s kingdom is good!”

Kids repeat.

But our world’s not like that, is it? In our world, people do mean things and hurt each other. People get sick and die. People are sad and selfish. That’s why God wants to bring the good stuff in His kingdom to earth. He wants to help people, heal people, forgive, people and give people life. That’s God’s kingdom.

Who’s in charge in a kingdom?

Kids answer.

The king is, of course. God’s kingdom is where people are doing what their Dad God wants them to do. When you see God’s kids sharing or helping or praying or giving or loving others, you’re seeing God’s kingdom coming to earth. When you see God’s power helping and healing

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people and changing people’s lives, you’re seeing God’s kingdom coming to earth. So we pray, “C’mon Dad! Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We want what You want.”

And that’s prayer skill No. 2, praying about God’s kingdom, which means praying for what God wants.

Application / Wrap Up

So this week, if you want to get your game on in life, remember whom you are praying to and remember that He wants you to start by praying for what He wants. To help us understand how to do that, we’re going to go to our huddles and practice putting these awesome prayer skills into action.

Let’s pray.

Prayer

God, You are our heavenly dad, and we want the good stuff from heaven to come into our lives and the lives of people around us. Thanks that You always want to talk to us and help us whatever is going on in our lives.

Amen

GAME ON: LESSON 10 (Huddle)

Key Concept: God is our Dad in heaven, and we can talk to Him about anything.

Bible Story: Jesus teaches the disciples to pray (Luke 11:1-4)

Bible Verse: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. — Matthew 6:9-10

3DM Principle: The Hexagon (Father’s character and kingdom)

Large Group Overview: Kids will be introduced to the Lord’s Prayer and see how Jesus wants to coach us to become power prayer champions on His team. Today’s Large Group will focus on God’s character, while today’s Huddle will focus on God’s kingdom.

Huddle Overview: Kids will do activities to help them understand how they can pray for God’s kingdom to come to earth.

Supplies

6 Small white board or piece of paper and markers

6 God’s Kingdom sheet (1 per group)

6 Earth sheet (1 per group)

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Lesson Outline

Welcome / Review Questions to review lesson (5 min)

Activity 1 Heaven or Earth? (5 min)

Activity 2 Picturing the Kingdom (10 min)

Huddle discussion (10 min)

Prayer & Bible verse (5 min)

Welcome / Large Group Review

Gather kids in a circle either on the floor or around a table. You will need a piece of paper or small white board with markers.

6 How many of you guys like to play sports? What do you have to do to get good at sports? Practice, work with a coach, etc.

6 In today’s Bible story, what did the disciples want to learn to do? Pray

6 Who did they ask to coach them? Jesus

6 Jesus gave them a prayer to show them how to pray. What is Jesus’ prayer called? The Lord’s Prayer

6 Jesus reminds us in His prayer that God is like a what? A Dad.

6 What are some ways God is like the perfect Dad? He loves us, protects us, takes care of us, wants to be close to us, wants to spend time with us, etc.

Draw a hexagon on a piece of paper.

For the next four weeks, we’re going to be learning some skills to get our prayer game on, and we’re going to be learning them from Jesus, the master coach. Do you guys remember the two prayer skills we learned today? God’s character and God’s kingdom

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6 Kingdom cards (1 deck of 20 per group — 10 Earth cards, 10 God’s Kingdom cards)

6 Paper (1 piece per child)6 Drawing supplies such as crayons, markers, or colored pencils for each

child

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Huddle Activity 1: Heaven or Earth?

The purpose of this game is to help kids recognize the difference between God’s perfect kingdom and our fallen world.

How It Works:

Kids will take turn drawing Kingdom Cards and place them either on the God’s Kingdom Sheet or on the Earth sheet depending on which place the card describes.

Supplies:

6 God’s Kingdom sheet (1 per group)

6 Earth sheet (1 per group)

6 Kingdom Cards (1 deck of 20 per group — 10 Earth cards, 10 Kingdom of God cards)

Write Character on the top of the hexagon. Write Kingdom on the next segment on the hexagon, going clockwise.

This hexagon shape is going to be kind of our like the playbook that we’ll use to keep track of the six prayer skills that we’re going to learn over the next few weeks.

For our first prayer skill, we learned about God’s character and how He’s our Dad. He’s the King and He is good. That means we take our prayer requests to Him — our wants, our needs, our fears, our hopes, and our dreams. He wants us to talk to Him about what’s on our hearts.

But He also wants more than that. He wants us to pray about His Kingdom, the awesome place where God rules and everything is perfect.

Character

Kingdom

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Use the provided God’s Kingdom and Earth sheets. Place them in the middle of the circle. Shuffle the Kingdom cards and set them off to the side.

Point to Earth Sheet.

We know that God created the earth to be a perfect world. But is it still perfect?

Kids answer.

No, it sure isn’t. Why isn’t it perfect?

Kids answer.

It all comes down to sin. Ever since Adam and Eve, people have tried to live life their way instead of God’s way. Most of the time, we just think about what we want and not what God wants, and that causes a lot of problems here on earth.

Point to God’s Kingdom sheet.

Now think about God’s kingdom. Is it messed up or is it perfect?

Kids answer.

God’s kingdom is perfect because there is no sin there. Instead, it’s full of the good stuff that comes from God.

Take turns drawing cards off the deck. After you draw your card, read it to the group. Then tell the group whether this card fits best in God’s perfect kingdom or on Earth, the place where we live right now.

Have kids take turns drawing cards and deciding where they fit best. While it’s true that all of the God’s Kingdom cards can be found on earth, remind kids that we don’t always see these things on earth and that they best describe God’s perfect kingdom.

Earth cards

6 Sickness 6 Sadness

6 Satan 6 Sin

6 Loneliness 6 Fighting

6 Greed 6 Fear

6 Lies 6 Death

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God’s Kingdom Cards

6 Health 6 Joy

6 Jesus 6 Friendship

6 Goodness 6 Peace

6 Sharing 6 Safety

6 Truth 6 Life

We can see that the earth and God’s kingdom are pretty different. Which place sounds like more fun?

Kids answer.

Huddle Activity 2: Picturing the Kingdom

The purpose of this game is to help kids imagine what it would be like to see God’s kingdom on earth.

How It Works:

Kids will draw a picture of what they think our world would look like if God’s kingdom came to earth.

Supplies:

6 Piece of paper (1 per child)

6 Drawing supplies such as crayons, makers, or colored pencils for each child

Today in our large group time, we discovered that praying like Jesus means praying for what God wants. God wants all of this good stuff (point to the God’s Kingdom pile) from His Kingdom to come to earth.

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Think about what that would be like. What if God got rid of all of this stuff (dump the Earth cards off the Earth sheet) and brought all this good stuff to earth (move all of the God’s Kingdom cards to the Earth sheet)?

Just imagine what our world would be like if God’s Kingdom came to earth. All of the bad, hard, and scary stuff would be gone. I’m going to give each of you a piece of paper now and give you a few minutes to draw a picture of what it would like if God’s Kingdom came to earth.

Pass out a blank piece of paper and crayons or markers to each child and give them 5-10 minutes to draw. If anyone gets stuck, encourage him or her to look at some of the God’s Kingdom cards for ideas. Afterward, go around the circle and let each child show the group his or her drawing and explain what he or she drew and why.

Now that we see all of those drawings, we start to understand why God would want us to pray for His Kingdom to come to earth.

Huddle Discussion

Of all these good things God wants to bring to earth, which one sounds the best to you right now? Why?

Let kids share. If you sense God is clearly speaking to certain kids, help them take what God may be saying to them around the learning circle. You may need to suggest an action step for them to take this week. Let them know you’ll be praying for them and that you will ask them about in next week’s huddle. Write yourself a note so you don’t forget to follow up.

Prayer & Bible Verse

Let’s not just talk about prayer today — let’s actually do it. Let’s start by praying the words of Jesus’ prayer. Remember, the word hallowed means holy. That means God it totally good. Repeat after me.

Our Father in heaven, (Kids repeat)

hallowed be Your name, (Kids repeat)

Your kingdom come, (Kids repeat)

Your will be done (Kids repeat)

on earth as it is in heaven. (Kids repeat)

Amen. (Kids repeat)

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Now, let’s think about one thing you might need from God’s kingdom in your life this week. Maybe it’s healing for a sick relative. Maybe it’s help staying away from a sin like lying or fighting with your brother. Maybe you need God’s courage to overcome a fear. Whatever it is, I’m going to give you the chance to tell God right now — just quietly in your head — what you need.

Say the following prayer.

God, You’re the perfect dad. You’re good. You love us. You’re the king of everything. Bring the good stuff from your kingdom to earth today. Right now, God, your kids are going to tell you what they need from your kingdom.

Encourage kids to tell our heavenly Dad what they need. Give kids time to pray this to themselves.

Close by saying a prayer like the following one.

God, thank You for bringing your kingdom to earth. Help us to want what you want. Use us to bring that good stuff into other people’s lives too. We love you.

Amen.

Lesson 10 Huddle

BibleVerseCards

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your

kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

— Matthew 6:9-10

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your

kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

— Matthew 6:9-10

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your

kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

— Matthew 6:9-10

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your

kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

— Matthew 6:9-10

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your

kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

— Matthew 6:9-10

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your

kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

— Matthew 6:9-10

LESSON 10 (Family)

Today I Learned: God is our Dad in heaven, and we can talk to Him about anything.

Bible Story: Jesus teaches the disciples to pray (Luke 11:1-4), The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

Family Challenge

Have a communication scavenger hunt. Take 15 minutes as a family to go around the house and make a list of how many things you can find that your family uses to communicate — cell phones, computers, Post-It notes, etc. To make it really fun, make it a competition between parents and kids. Afterward, talk about how much people love to communicate with each other because we’re made in the image of a God who loves to talk with us too.

Take time to read through the Lord’s Prayer and begin memorizing it as a family to remind your family of the types of things Jesus taught us to pray about — the Father’s character, kingdom, provision, forgiveness, guidance, and protection.

Plan • • Discuss

LearningCulture

Act • • Observe

Account • • Reflect

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* The four questions you are asking are ways offiguring out what your kids’ Kairos moment was

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Dinnertime Discussion

At dinnertime this week, ask one of these questions to get your family talking.

1. Who did you spend the most time talking to today? What did you talk about?

2. What kinds of things can we talk to God about? Anything

3. What kinds of things did Jesus talk to God about when He prayed?

4. Which of the things in Jesus’ prayer do you need to talk to God about most this week?

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