God Listens When I Pray

Host

Welcome to the Lab!

Co-Host

No, I’m not your dad. We’re not even that far apart in age.

Host

No, I just welcomed the kids to the big day.

Co-Host

How much do I weigh? That’s a very personal question that I don’t want to answer in front of a room of people.

Host

Why are you wearing those?

Co-Host

I’m trying to become a better listener. It hasn’t worked as well as I thought it would.

Host

I can’t imagine why, with these over your ears. Let’s test everyone’s listening skills with a game. We’re going to play some sounds and see if you can guess what it is before the time is up.

Co-Host

They’re pretty good listeners.

Host

They are, and as we’ll learn today, so is God. Let’s listen in on our friends in the lab.

Co-Host

Hans von Striker is really acting like a supervillain right now. I can’t believe he’s trying to mute Herman’s lab.

Host

But the worst part is that Sophia and Ethel believe that their prayers are muted, too.

Co-Host

Do you think that their prayers can’t reach God?

Host

Let’s see what our Big Point says. I need a volunteer to help us reveal it.

Co-Host

Help us count down from three, and then read the Big Point.

Host

Let’s all say it together, God Listens When I Pray!

Co-Host

Do you ever wonder if God hears you when you pray? Some people think that God is just too far away to listen.

Host

We can’t see God, and we read a lot about God being in Heaven in the Bible, so people assume that He’s way up high in the sky. Have you ever wondered how big our universe is?

It would take 450 million years for the spacecraft we have today to reach the center of our galaxy, The Milky Way. That’s just one galaxy out of possibly 2 trillion galaxies in the universe.

Maybe you’d like to hop in a spaceship like the Millennium Falcon and travel lightspeed. It would take Han Solo and Chewbacca 2.5 million years to travel to our nearest neighboring galaxy, The Andromeda Galaxy, at lightspeed.

Co-Host

Maybe we could just project our sound that far, even if we couldn’t travel that far. Except you can’t hear sound in space. That’s because there’s no air for the sound to travel through. Hold up, in that case, how does God hear us?

Host

There’s good news. You don’t have to travel to God, and you don’t have to send your prayers out into space. God’s Spirit is with us all the time. When we become followers of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit with us at all times.

Co-Host

When you pray, it’s really like talking to someone standing right beside you because God is with you.

Host

If God is with us all the time, then it makes sense that God hears every single prayer that we pray. Maybe Dr. Herman can help Ethel and Sophia understand that.

Host

Do you think that their ideas for getting prayers to God are very good?

Co-Host

Nope, and they don’t even need them because our Big Point teaches us that

Co-Host

God Listens When I Pray!

Host

Let’s turn to the Bible and learn more about that Big Point by looking at our Big Verse.

Co-Host

We’re gonna count down from three. Then it’s up to you to read the verse.

Co-Host

1 John 5:15 (NIrV) says, “If we ask anything in keeping with what He wants, He hears us.” Sometimes we think God isn’t listening, but the real problem is that we’re not praying the kinds of things that match God’s big plan.

Host

We’ve collected a few of Ethel and Sophia’s leftover stomp rocket prayers. Let’s read the prayer, and then you decide if it’s something we should pray or not.

Co-Host

If it’s something we should pray, then we’ll stomp the rocket and let it fly. To make a fun game out of it, we’ve chosen two kids who will hold hula hoops and try to catch the rockets.

Host

If you’re not sure if what you are praying matches with what God wants, there is a great place to look, the Bible. God doesn’t want us to pray anything that goes against His Word.

Co-Host

Instead of trying to force God to do what you want, spend some time chatting with God and ask what He wants you to pray about.

Host

Whenever you pray, remember that God is always nearby. He hears your prayers and your worship. Let’s stand up and sing to God right now.

The Bible says that we walk by faith. That means that we trust and believe what God says, even before we see it. One really great way to build up your faith is to thank God for something before it even happens. Jesus thanked His Heavenly Father for listening even before He finished the prayer. Let’s copy what Jesus did. I want you to bow your heads. Think of a prayer that you’ve prayed several times. Instead of praying that prayer again, I want you to thank God that He has already heard your prayer. Thank Him now for always listening when you pray. (pause) Soon we will take a moment to praise God with a song. Use the worship time to thank God for always listening when you chat with Him.

Co-Host

Ethel and Sophia learned that they can trust that God is listening and that chatting with God doesn’t have to be hard.

Host

Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer with His Heavenly Father. That’s a great example for us. Jesus only prayed what God asked Him to, and He only did what His Father told Him. That’s why He was 100% certain of our Big Point,

Host

God Listens When I Pray!

Co-Host

That’s a story you can share with your family when you do this week’s Big Do.

Host

Gather your family and have each person share a time when God answered a prayer.

Co-Host

I’m glad that we don’t have to find God in order to pray. He’s always there to listen…Which is the exact opposite of our next game. It’s blindfolded tag. We’ve chosen some kids to compete in a game of tag. If you get tagged, even with just one hand, you are out. Let’s see who wins.

Host

I’m glad that connecting with God is not like that. Let’s turn and connect with our small groups and talk about prayer.

• Have you ever wondered if God hears your prayers? Why can we be sure that God can hear us? The Bible tells us God listens to our prayers. The Bible always tells the truth.

• How can we know the kinds of prayers that God wants us to pray? The better we know the Bible, the better we will know how God wants us to pray. God can bring things to mind that agree with what the Bible says.

• What did Herman tell us to do with our families in the Big Do? Gather your family and have each person share a time when God answered a prayer.

• Our Big Point says God ______ When I Pray!

  • Sleeps

  • Listens

• What did Has von Striker try to do to Herman’s lab?

  • Fix it up

  • Mute it

• What was the name of the guy in our Big Story who got sick and died?

  • Peter

  • Lazarus

• How long was Lazarus dead before Jesus arrived?

  • 1 Day

  • 4 Days

• Why did Jesus wait to visit Lazarus?

  • He was tired

  • He was following God’s plan

• 1 John 5:15 (NIrV), “If we ask anything in keeping with what He _____, He hears us.”

  • Wants

  • Dislikes

• Why can we be sure that God listens when we pray?

• God hardly ever listened to Jesus.

  • True

  • False

• What happened when Jesus called out to Lazarus?

  • Nothing

  • Lazarus came back to life

• What challenge did Herman give us as this week’s Big Do? Share a time when God answered a prayer