Big idea

Don’t serve money as your god but serve God with your money.

Bible passage

Luke  16:1-15

You will need

Coins (or coin substitutes such as checkers or Lego pieces) – hide these all around the room (aim to have 10-20 per person)

Set up a makeshift shop using household items or pictures from adverts. Charge 1-3 coins for the various treasures (toys, cars, lollies, jewelry, bible story books etc.). The shop counter should also have a small ‘donate to the poor’ box at the side.

Coloured paper squares or hearts to keep until the end of the game

All Ages Activity – A treasure Hunt

Tell everyone that the aim is to collect as much treasure in 10 minutes as possible, they can find it around the room or buy it at the shop with some of the coins they find.

Without anyone knowing -Take special note of any acts of kindness or patience.

At the end of 10 minutes let everyone assess and compare their treasures – who has a lot of treasure?

Then take the coloured squares or hearts and explain that they are very valuable because they represent treasure that will last forever. Hand them to anyone who bought a bible story book or was kind to someone else or who showed patience. Give 2 for any coin that was put into the donation box.

Then let everyone reassess their treasure to see who is now the wealthiest.

Discussion:

The bible reading today is about a manager who was quite sneaky and went to a lot of effort to make sure he would have friends when he lost his job. His master was unhappy, but he did admit that the manager was pretty smart in taking care of himself that way. He had made sure things would work in his favour. People in our world are like that, they will work hard and figure out all sorts of ways to get as much as they want. Jesus then said we (the children of the light) should be more like them. He was not saying we should try get rich but rather that we should take note at how hard people of the world work at going after earthly treasure – perhaps just like we ran around very fast looking for coins. If we served God with all that energy and use the money, he gives us wisely, we would be storing up heavenly treasures in the same way. Jesus said that we cannot serve both God and money; that is, we cannot serve God with all our hearts and then seek earthly treasures too – it’s one or the other.

Prayer idea

Dear God.

Please help me use all my energy to serve you. Please help me use the money you have set aside for me wisely. Help me not to get distracted by trying to get more and more earthly stuff.

Thank you for this group around me and for loving me. Amen.