Fall 2015 ~ Religious Instruction Lesson #1 Learning Objectives The Lord s Prayer Matthew 6:5-15 1. The children will be able to explain how the Lord s Prayer came to be. 2. The children will explore the meaning of the Lord s Prayer. 3. The children will be able to explain why we pray the Lord s Prayer. Memory Verse: But God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. --Psalms 66:19 Getting Started Begin by having pieces of the Lord s Prayer written on sentence strips or note cards. You will need one complete set for each student or team of students to work with. Place each set in a large envelope. Do not tell the students what is in the envelope! Their job is to put the words into the correct order the fastest! Once they start to read, the students should see that it is the Lord s Prayer. For example, sentence strips could look like the following: Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen. Bible Lesson with Discussion Questions Message: Jesus is our teacher. New Living Translation (NLT): 5 When you pray, don t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. 1
Bible Lesson with Discussion Questions - continued 7 When you pray, don t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! 9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need, 12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13 And don t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. 14 If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. New King James Version translation: (the Lord s Prayer as we speak it in the divine service) Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Discussion Questions: 1. When do we say the Lord s Prayer? (before Holy Communion) 2. What kinds of things are included in the prayer? What is prayed for in the Lord s Prayer? (Make a list on chart paper or a white board - Daily bread - natural petitions, do not lead us into temptation - spiritual petitions, adoration and praise to God.) 3. How do we say the Lord s Prayer? What should our attitude be? (We should pray it with a reverence, putting meaning behind the words we pray.) 4. What line or sentence of the Lord s Prayer means the most to you? Why? (Discuss.) 5. Do you think the Lord s Prayer is important? Why or why not? (Discuss.) Application to Real Life See Philemon 1:1-25 In the book of Philemon, Paul writes a letter to his friend Philemon regarding Onesimus, who was a slave that had escaped. Philemon was a wealthy Christian man, and slavery was very common during the time of the Roman Empire. Even some Christians had slaves. Paul writes a letter to convince Philemon to forgive Onesimus and accept him as a brother in faith. This was quite a request for Paul to make. Paul is asking Philemon not to punish Onesimus for his infractions, but to forgive and restore him as a new Christian brother. Slavery was a barrier between people, but Paul stressed that Christian love and fellowship could overcome even that barrier. Today, there are still many barriers between people, or things that separate the people into specific groups. In our world today, there are many different: 2
Application to Real Life Continued 1. Races of people (white, Indian, African American, etc.) 2. Economic backgrounds (some are very poor, some are middle class, some are very wealthy) 3. Political backgrounds But Paul says that these differences should not separate believers in Christ, or Christians. We are to love and forgive, regardless of our differences. Forgiving those who have wronged you is the appropriate response to Christ s forgiveness of you. Forgiveness is a central teaching of the Lord Jesus. And yet sometimes it s so hard to grasp and even harder to give. In this real-life drama between Philemon, Onesimus and Paul, one thing ties everything together - Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. It is in light of this that Paul requests Philemon s mercy on Onesimus and that he grant forgiveness. Discussion Questions: 1. Who are you more like in this passage? Philemon (needing to forgive), Onesimus (needing forgiveness), or Paul (acting as peace-maker)? 2. Have there been times in your life when you ve had to forgive someone for doing a great wrong? (Share examples be prepared to share one of your own.) 3. Have there been times in your life when you ve needed forgiveness? For what? 4. Was there a time when you had to make peace between others? How did it go? Memory Work Suggestions 5 minutes 1. Recite the memory verse. 2. Practice finding the memory verse and/or Bible text in their Bible! 3. Play a game to recite the Lord s Prayer pass/toss a bean bag or stuffed animal whoever gets it says the next word. 4. Name the three Holy Sacraments. Which one are we talking about today? Activity Ideas A Closer Look at the Lord s Prayer: The following ideas are all to explore the meaning of the Lord s Prayer, so that the students will understand what this prayer contains. You will need a large copy of The Lord s Prayer on chart paper or a board to refer to. As you go through the prayer line by line, use the talking points to guide your instruction of The Lord s Prayer. Section of the Lord s Prayer Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Talking points This is the first line. Think about how you would feel if you had the chance to meet the President of the U.S. What would you wear? Would you stand up straight? Would you say Hey, Dude, what s up? or come with reverence and respect. Come the same way at the beginning of your prayer Dear Heavenly Father. 3
Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But delivery us from the evil one. Think of Moses and the burning bush, where he took off his shoes. Or the Chinese culture that takes off shoes in the house. Why did they do this? Discuss the line, Your will be done. What does it mean to follow God s will? With this phrase we are already telling God that we wish to accept His will, NO MATTER WHAT IT IS WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT. Pose a scenario where your Dad loses a job; he has two job offers to choose from. One pays more, and one has better hours. They are in two different cities. Does the family move or not? How do you pray the Lord s Prayer differently with this? (Discuss the emotion we would likely put behind our prayers then.) Use Monopoly or play money. Give each student some money, and then ask, Have you ever had a parent or someone you know be without a job? How does that make your Lord s Prayer different? Take away money from a student due to losing a job, then from each one. Think about what we need money for. How would we pray the Lord s prayer differently? We trust God to help us have the necessities of life. Use a backpack and bricks/rocks/books to illustrate the need for forgiveness as we pray this part. Give a student the backpack to put on, and ask about sins that might have been done this week (no need for a confessional, you can make this up, too). As you name each sin, put a brick (etc.) in the backpack. Continue until the backpack is quite heavy. Now ask Have you ever done something really wrong and you say, I need God to forgive me? How did it feel when you had your sins forgiven? Take bricks out of the backpack to illustrate the forgiveness, and discuss how we would say the Lord s Prayer differently knowing this. More food for thought: you also have the opportunity to take bricks out of someone s backpack by forgiving them for what they might have done to you. See Matthew 6:14-15. Ask the children about temptations they might face at school. Peer pressure? Social issues? Drugs, dating, alcohol, the need to make the RIGHT friends? We have temptations around us every day. When we pray this part, what are we asking from God? Discuss. 4
For Yours is the kingdom And the power And the glory forever. Amen. This is the praise and adoration section. In ALL, we give praise to God, for His help and love to us as His children. Play a Game of No UM s Select a person and give them a category (sports, things that are yellow, movie stars, world capitals, etc.). As soon as you tell them their category, they have 30 seconds to name 7 things that belong in that category. The catch? They have to come up with 7 things in 30 seconds without saying, uh, um, etc. Try several different people, or let them test your skills. Don t give them time to think, just give them the category and start the timer. 1. Why do you think it was so hard to come up with things to say while playing the game "No Um's? 2. What are some other times in life when it s hard to know what to say to someone? Like when? 3. Have you ever had someone come up to you, someone who had done something that hurt you, and apologize? What did you say? 4. Have you ever had to ask someone for forgiveness? What did you say? How did they react? Forgiveness is not easy, but if we claim to follow Jesus, we must be filled with mercy for those who have done us wrong. Perhaps you have something in your past that you have yet to forgive. Maybe you need forgiveness from someone else. We can and should pray that God would work in our hearts and soften them so that we will be able to repent and ask someone else to have mercy on us, as well as find it in our hearts to forgive others. Journal Reflection Questions - Choose a sentence or phrase from the Lord s Prayer and write about it in your own words. - Have you ever had a really hard time forgiving someone for something they did to you? What did they do? How did you feel about them? What can you do when you are struggling to forgive someone? Write about it. - Read Matthew 18:21-35. How does this passage relate to your life? What do these verses say about God s willingness to forgive us if we do not forgive others? Why is that a hard teaching? Homework Ideas - Read: Matthew 26:36-45 and Luke 21:39-46 about Jesus Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. - Learn the Bible Memory Verse: But God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. --Psalms 66:19 - Learn the Article of Faith - Look up the following verses in your Bible and write down what they say about prayer: (answers are for teacher use only) Psalm 65:2 (God hears prayer) Proverbs 15:8 (Our prayers please God) Matthew 5:44 (We should pray for our enemies) Matthew 6:5-7 (Prayer is private) Mark 1:35 (Jesus prayed a lot) Acts 4:31 (We should pray with other Christians it s powerful) 5