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The Lost Sheep

Unit 16 / Lesson 5

The Lost Sheep

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Teacher's Prep

  • Games

  • Main Activity (Instant Noodles And A Movie):

    • Ingredients

      • Very hot water (boiled during the lesson)

      • Instant noodle packets

      • Bowls

      • Forks

      • Optional toppings to make the instant noodles better:

        • Frozen vegetables (boiled during the lesson)

        • Dried seaweed

        • Chopped green onions

        • Crispy fried onions

        • Bacon bits

    • You will want to ask a grown-up helper to start preparing food halfway through the lesson–perhaps towards the end of the first teaching point. The helper can boil water, prepare bowls and forks, and prepare toppings.


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 2

  • Intro Game: Blind man's bluff with a pool noodle

    • We'll start this lesson with a game of Blind Man's Bluff!

    • It's a bit like “tag,” but the person who is "it" can't see. And they get a pool noodle to tag everyone with.

    • If you're "it" we'll blindfold you, and you can try to tag someone with the pool noodle. Once you tag someone, they will be “it” and will be blindfolded, and they will try to tag someone else.

    • Teacher: play for a while until several children have had a chance to be “it.”

  • Debrief and Relevance

    • We played this game because it helps us to understand people who are looking for God. Sometimes people are like the blind man. They can't see God, but sometimes they have a feeling that something is out there.

    • In the game, we could help the blind man by giving them clues.

    SLIDE 3

    • So, in real life, we can give people clues to help them to know God. But, if we're going to help people, we need the right attitude.

  • Big Question

    SLIDE 4

    • So, our big question today is, what should our attitude be when we are helping people to find God?

  • Big Idea

    • Our Bible story teaches us two really important attitudes:

      • 1. Everyone matters, and

      • 2. It's worth the work

  • Bible Reference

    • We'll find these ideas in our Bible story today. It's a story that Jesus told about a lost sheep.

    SLIDE 5

    SLIDE 6

    • Luke 15:1-7 (CEV)

      • 1 Tax collectors and sinners were all crowding around to listen to Jesus. 2 So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses started grumbling, “This man is friendly with sinners. He even eats with them.”

      • 3 Then Jesus told them this story:

    SLIDE 7

    • 4 If any of you has 100 sheep, and one of them gets lost, what will you do? Won't you leave the 99 in the field and go look for the lost sheep until you find it? 5 And when you find it, you will be so glad that you will put it on your shoulder 6 and carry it home. Then you will call in your friends and neighbors and say, “Let's celebrate! I've found my lost sheep.”

    SLIDE 8

    • 7 Jesus said, “In the same way there is more happiness in heaven because of one sinner who turns to God than over 99 good people who don't need to.”


    Point 1

  • The first thing we learn from our story is: everyone matters.

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 9

    • Our story starts with Jesus teaching a big crowd of people.

    SLIDE 10

    • In that crowd were people who had done a lot of bad things, like stealing money, and breaking people's marriages. These people wanted to listen to Jesus, and Jesus really wanted to talk to these people. That's a hint to us that these people are important.

    SLIDE 11

    • God wants every Christian to be like Jesus. Jesus wants us to care about people who have done bad things. Maybe they cheat on tests at school, or they bully other kids. But, they’re still important to Jesus.

  • Game: Suck It Up

    • Instructions

      • So, our next game reminds us that everyone matters.

      • Our next game is called, "Suck it Up." Let's watch a video to see how the game works.

    SLIDE 12

    SLIDE 14

    • In this game, we will have two teams. Each team will have two bowls. Your goal is to transfer all the Smarties from one bowl to the other bowl, and the only thing you can use is a straw. Someone from your team will put a straw in their mouth, and they’ll suck up the Smarties and move them to the other bowl one by one.

    • Once they’ve finished moving all the Smarties to the other bowl, the next person on your team will take a turn, and they’ll move all the Smarties back. So, everyone on your team will have a turn moving the Smarties. When you all finish, you win!

    • Debrief

    SLIDE 14

    • In this game we played, every Smartie counts. We want them all! Some of them were easy to get, and some were hard to get. But, they were all important, and we needed to get them all. 

  • Application

    SLIDE 15

    • And it's like that with people too. Every person counts, even if they’ve messed up a lot.

    SLIDE 16

    • In fact, sometimes the people with the biggest problems are the closest to finding God. If a person has everything they want in life, they sometimes have no room for Jesus. But if a person has big problems, they start looking for answers, and that's when we can help them.

    SLIDE 17

    • So, let's keep a lookout for people who don't have everything together. Don't just hang around the cool crowd, but think about people who have no friends and the ones nobody talks to. You can make a big difference if you are nice to those people and you make an effort for them.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 18

    • Let’s pause for a discussion question:

      • What are some things that make a person have less friends?

      • Teacher: collect answers from the students.

    • Let's remember, these people are important, and God is interested in these people.


    Point 2

  • Our second attitude is, it's worth the work

    SLIDE 19

  • Game: Captain's Coming

    • Instructions

      • Let's start this point with a game! A game of Captain's Coming.

      • Sample Phrases

        • BOW: shipmates race to the front of the room

        • STERN: shipmates run to the back of the room

        • STARBOARD: shipmates run to the right of the room

        • PORT: shipmates run to the left of the room

        • CAPTAIN'S COMING: shipmates stand at attention, salute, and say, "Aye aye, Captain!"

        • SCRUB THE DECK: shipmates mime scrubbing on hands and knees or with a mop

        • CLIMB THE RIGGING: shipmates pretend to climb a rope ladder

        • MAN THE LIFEBOAT: shipmates find a partner and hold both hands together

        • SHARK ATTACK: shipmates lie on their backs with their feet up

        • FREEZE: shipmates stop all actions and can't continue until the captain says, "Unfreeze"

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it makes us work! There are so many things we need to do, if we want to win!

    SLIDE 20

    • So, in real life, if you're going to help someone, sometimes it takes a lot of steps. You have to try a lot of things, and a lot of times, you don't know when the last step is.

    • But, sometimes it's worth trying anyway. That’s what we learn from our Bible story. Let's read again what Jesus said.

  • Bible Reference

    SLIDE 21

    • Luke 15:3-7 (CEV)

      • 3 Then Jesus told them this story:

      • 4 If any of you has 100 sheep, and one of them gets lost, what will you do? Won't you leave the 99 in the field and go look for the lost sheep until you find it? 5 And when you find it, you will be so glad that you will put it on your shoulder 6 and carry it home. Then you will call in your friends and neighbors and say, “Let's celebrate! I've found my lost sheep.”

    SLIDE 22

    • 7 Jesus said, “In the same way there is more happiness in heaven because of one sinner who turns to God than over 99 good people who don't need to.”

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 23

    • In our story, the shepherd had to go out to find his sheep. He had to walk all over the place. It took time, it wasn’t comfortable, and it was dangerous. Maybe the shepherd would have to fight a wild animal along the way. And, he couldn't be sure if he would ever find the sheep, but it was worth trying.

  • Application

    • That's the kind of attitude we need when we are helping people to find God.

    SLIDE 24

    • We need to put in the work. Most of the time, people are not going to come to us. We need to go to them. And, it might take a long time for them to find God. Remember the shepherd had to keep walking if he wanted to find the sheep.

    • If anyone has gone hiking before, you would understand what it's like to go on a very long walk.

    • If you're on a very long walk, you can only take one step at a time. But, if you keep going and you don’t stop, you’ll go very far. 

    SLIDE 25

    • So, when you're helping people find God, just do one thing at a time. Learn one thing. Do one act of kindness. If you keep it up, you'll get a lot done.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 26

    • Now let’s pause for a discussion question:

      • What is one small thing you can do to help someone get closer to finding God?


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 27

  • Let’s wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again. Today we talked about two attitudes. There are two attitudes we need to have when we are helping people to find God.

    • 1. Everyone matters, even people who have problems

    • 2. It's worth the work, so we take one step at a time


    Main Activity: Instant Noodles And A Movie

  • Instant noodles

    • And now it's time for our main activity. Today we are making instant noodles!

    • Instant noodles help us remember our lesson because there are a lot of things that need to come together to make a bowl of instant noodles. We need the noodles, and the water, and the flavoring, and the bowl and the fork. And sometimes there are special toppings too. They’re all different, but we want them all.

    • And that's how God thinks about all of His children. He wants every last one of us, because we are all special to Him.

    • Teacher: lead the children in making instant noodles.

  • Optional: Short Film

    • Teacher: you may want to play this short film while the children are enjoying the instant noodles. The short film is nine minutes long.

    • We'll end our lesson with a short film! It's called WiNDUP. It's about a little girl and her dad, and it reminds us it's worth trying to save a life.


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