Lost

Introduction
The Focus of Luke 15 is God's love for the lost and the extend that he will go to get them back into his loving care!

Game Description
You can use a variety of scavenger hunt types of games to serve as an introduction to the three stories in Luke: Parable of the Lost Sheep, Parable of the Lost Coin, and Parable of the Lost Son. Here's a few ideas:

• Hide a special colored Jelly bean among a bowl of Jelly Beans.
  
  1. Get a large bag of Jelly beans for each team.
  2. Remove all of a single color so that only one jelly bean of that color remains.
  3. Pour the Jelly Beans in a bowl.
  4. Each team must choose one representative to search through the bowl and obtain the jelly bean.
  5. But here's the twist. They cannot use their hands and they must grab the Jelly bean with their teeth!
  6. The first team representative to show you the correct colored jelly bean, grasped in their teeth wins!
  7. To include more team members in the game, after the first team representative correctly obtains the right jelly bean, add one jelly bean of the correct color for the next team member. Continue until EVERY member of the team has correctly obtained a Jelly Bean.
  8. This also works great with Jelly Bean Salvation to present a gospel message. In that case, remove all the RED Jelly beans except one. Then use the other colors of the jelly beans to present the Gospel - Black, Red, White, Green, etc. It's also a great game for Easter!
• Hide a strawberry inside a pie tin filled with whip cream.
  This plays the same way as the Jelly Bean version, but is a messy variation! Be sure to have some wet towels to clean up the whip cream covered faces!
• Hide a Jelly bean or hard candy in a pie tin filled with flour
  Again, a messy variation of the Jelly Bean option.
• Hide Strawberries in some red colored Jello
  In this variation, players must plant their face in the Jello and try to come up with a strawberry in their teeth.
• Hide a silver coin among a large number of pennies
  In this variation, youth / kids have to search through a bucket of pennies to find the single silver coin. It has the advantage of being closer related to the Parable of the Lost coin. To make it more difficult, make the team members wear a pair of thick gloves or blindfold them.
• Hide a dried green pea among a bowl of dried beans.
  In this variation, dried beans are used instead of candy. To make it more difficult, give team members straws. Youth must use suction through the straw to fish the pea out of the bowl and drop it into another bowl across the room. Replace the pea after each team member is successful.
• Hide a small plastic sheep amid a box of animal crackers.
  This variation has the advantage of relating more closely to the parable of the sheep. If you can't find a sheep, add a little hardened white frosting to one of the animal crackers that most closely resembles a sheep. To make it more difficult, blindfold each team member first.
• Hide a special colored marble among a bag of various colored marbles.
  Use colored marbles to replace the jelly beans. To make it more difficult, add thick gloves to make it more difficult or try using a straw to pick up the marble like the green pea variation. You can also use a blindfold. You can use the colored marbles in the same way as Jelly Bean Salvation, to present the gospel.
• Find the prize in a box of cereal.
  Get a box of dried cereal and have kids search through the box to find the prize. Cracker Jack boxes with prizes inside also work well. First person to find his prize wins.

Take it to the Next Level

• What was difficult about finding the lost item?
• What were some of the frustrations? How did you feel trying to find one little item among so many?
• Have you ever been lost? How did you feel?
• In what ways are people lost?
• Why do you think God values us so much and finds us to precious to search for us among so many others?
• Why do you think you are so precious to God?
• Do you feel God loves you in the same way? Why or why not?
• If God is so determined to find us and bring us back into his loving care, how should we feel toward God?
• How should we feel about helping others find their way back to God? (Evangelism)
• Have you become spiritually lost? In what ways do you think God has been searching for you?

Take Action
How can you respond to God's love for you?