SS: Your Kingdom Come

It's week five of series on Lord's Prayer in 1 and 2 grade girls' Sunday School.  I taught week 2, skipped 3 and 4 and am now on 5.  This week, we talk about "Your kingdom come."

Psalm 145:13 says, "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

    and your dominion endures through all generations."

Everlasting means that it has no end.  It also had no beginning.  God's kingdom has always been and always will be.  "Dominion" means kingdom.  And "generations" means our children, their children, and so on.  

Lots of kingdoms have come and gone.  The Roman empire lasted thousands of years, arguably up until the 20th century according to some people.  It's gone.  Before that there were the Greeks, Persians, Babylonians, Egyptians.  They are all gone.  Israel as a kingdom did not last and they thought they would because they had the temple.  God's actual temple lasts, but the earthly one did not.  Even America will not last.  But God's kingdom will always last.  

When Jesus was on trial before Pontius Pilate before his crucifixion, Pilate asked if he was a king.  Jesus said in John 18:36, "Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

Right now Jesus is in heaven with our loved ones who have died who believed in him.  But one day he will be here on earth and there will be no more death or sorry or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4)

And he invites all the ones he died for to come to him and believe.

How do we get to heaven?  Some girls gave the typical answer: you die.  But not everyone who dies goes to heaven.  And some said that murderers and liars will go to hell.  Yes, but we all have lied and sinned and deserve hell.  Only one person never made mistakes or sinned: Jesus.  He is God and he did not want his loved ones in hell forever, so he came, lived a perfect life, and then took my punishment on the cross and gave me his goodness.  Then he rose from the dead, and now I and those who believe him will go to heaven and be forgiven.

And the best part is that we don't have to wait until we die to enjoy heaven.  Using scenes from Acts 3 and 4, I showed how God's kingdom comes now through healing (Peter and John healed the lame man), through us sharing the Gospel with people, through our enemies (Peter and John had to stand trial because of their faith and had to share the Gospel through conflict), and then simply spending time with Jesus now in the Bible and in prayer.  Acts 4:13 says "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."

John and Peter were backwoods fishermen who probably couldn't read.  My class is children who can read and me.  We are ordinary people, but we will stand out because we have been with Jesus.  And that is what we must desire when we pray, "Your kingdom come."