Use this children’s Sunday School lesson to teach kids that being part of God’s Kingdom should be the most important thing to all of us.
Needed: Bibles, a picture of a treasure chest, paper wads, cookies or a prize of some sort
Game: Treasure Hunt
Hide a picture of a treasure chest in any room where students are allowed to go. Draw a simple from your room to the room where you hid the treasure. Draw an X to mark the spot where you hid the treasure.
Give students the map and tell them to go look for the treasure. Let the student who found the treasure first hide it so that the rest of the group can look for it again. Help them draw the map quickly.
Continue playing as long as time allows, or until everyone has had a chance to hide the treasure.
Lesson
Ask students, What is the most important thing in the whole world?
What do you think God thinks is the most important thing in the whole world?
(Read Matthew 13:44.)
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
What did Jesus say the Kingdom of Heaven was like? (A treasure.)
And when the man found the treasure, what did he do? (He sold everything he had so he could buy the field and get the treasure.)
(Read Matthew 13:45-46.)
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”
What else did Jesus say the Kingdom of Heaven is like? (A very expensive pearl.)
When the man found the pearl, what did he do? (He sold everything he had so he could buy the pearl.)
So, Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure or a very expensive pearl and that when people found the treasure and the pearl, they gave up everything they had so that they could get it. Getting the treasure or the pearl was the most important thing to them in the whole world. That shows us that the Kingdom of Heaven should be the most important thing to us.
But what is the Kingdom of Heaven?
Being in the Kingdom of Heaven means believing in and serving God. You know that God is your King. You belong to His Kingdom. And when you die, you’ll get to go be with Him in Heaven.
Living for God and going to be with Him in Heaven is worth everything. It’s the most important thing there is.
How can we make sure that we’ll go to Heaven when we die?
If we believe in Jesus and show that we believe in Him by doing the good things God wants us to do, we will go to Heaven when we die.
But both the man who wanted to buy the treasure and the man who wanted to buy the pearl had to sell everything else that they had to get the treasure and the pearl that they wanted. They had to give up everything to get the most important thing.
If being in the Kingdom of Heaven is our most important thing, what might we have to give up to be part of God’s Kingdom?
We have to give up our sin, the wrong things that we do. We have to show that being in the Kingdom of Heaven is most important to us by giving up the wrong things that God doesn’t want us to do and make Him first in our lives.
If we show that we believe in God by making Him first in our lives, then we’ll be part of God’s Kingdom and will go to Heaven to be with Him one day.
Game: Trading All We Have
Scatter wads of paper all over the floor. Then, show students a cookie or some other sort of prize and tell them that you’ll give the prize to whoever can bring you the most paper wads at the end of 30 seconds.
When time is up, have each student count the paper wads they gathered and give the prize to the student with the most.
Play a few more times and then, give everyone a prize. Remind students that the man who wanted the treasure and the man who wanted the pearl traded everything they had to get them, just like we have to give up everything to make God the most important thing to us and become a part of His kingdom.
Game: Treasure Hunt
Play the intro game again. Remind students that the treasure we get is being in God’s Kingdom and going to Heaven when we die. Let the student who found the treasure hide it so that the rest of the group can look for it again.
Continue playing as long as time allows, or until everyone has had a chance to hide the treasure.
Closing Prayer
Father God, You created us, You saved us, and You want us to be part of Your kingdom. Help us to give up everything that keeps us from You and to make You the most thing in our lives.
You can also find this lesson for Kindle or in print in my book, The Parables and Teachings of Jesus Vol. 1.