LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS Week 1: Love God (Part One) 1. LEADER PREPARATION

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1 LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS Week 1: Love God (Part One) This includes: 1. Leader Preparation 2. Lesson Guide 1. LEADER PREPARATION LESSON OVERVIEW We were designed to love God. It s our highest priority and greatest commandment. Loving God opens the doors to obeying the rest of God s instructions and living lives that honor and glorify him. This lesson will focus your teenagers attention on what it means to love God with everything they have, and how love is the key to worshiping God. LESSON OBJECTIVES 1. WHAT: Our greatest purpose and commandment in life is to love God with everything we have. 2. WHY: If we aren t careful, we get caught in the trap of thinking we can earn or lose God s love through our actions. 3. HOW: Encourage your students to find authentic and new ways to worship and love God with everything they have. PRIMARY SCRIPTURE Matthew 22:34-40 SECONDARY SCRIPTURE Psalm 48:9-10 TEACHING PREP The short overview below is designed to help you prepare for your lesson. While you may not want to convey this information word-for-word with your teenagers, you ll definitely want to refer to it as you lead your small group lesson. Read Matthew 22: In this passage, Jesus is asked a significant question: What s the most important commandment? The religious leader who asked it was trying to trap Jesus, but it s still a legitimate question. Jesus answers the question with a quote from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. This passage was especially familiar for his audience, as faithful Jews would recite this passage as a prayer twice a day. This prayer is called the Shema and is still prayed daily. This week s lesson centers on Jesus response in verses 37-38, and we d encourage you to keep the conversation from flowing too much into verses The first two weeks of this series focus on the greatest commandment loving God with everything you have and the final two weeks will turn attention to the second greatest commandment loving your neighbor as yourself.

2 THE BEFORE & AFTER [optional] Text Message Questions We ve provided a couple of different text message questions to send out to your students prior to your meeting. Feel free to use one or both of the questions below. As with the rest of the curriculum, edit these questions to fit the needs of your ministry. In your opinion, what does it mean to love God? Let s talk about it tonight at small group. How would you define worship? Text me back your definition. Hope to see you at small group tonight. Parent We ve provided you with an below that you can send to your parents following the lesson. Our hope is to encourage parents to continue the conversation at home. Feel free to edit and customize the to fit your ministry needs. Dear parents, We ve started a new four-week series in our small groups on the topic of loving God and loving others. It s based on Jesus teachings in Matthew 22:34-40, commonly called the Great Commandment. We encouraged our teenagers to consider what it means to love God with everything they have, and to see how that love is the source and the fuel for their worship of God. Worship runs so much deeper than singing songs. It s about living a lifestyle that honors God. I d encourage you to talk with your teenager this week about the lesson. Here are some questions you could include in your conversation: Why do you love God? Is the outcome any different if you obey God because of fear or obligation or if you obey him because of your love for him? Explain. What do you think it means to love God with all of your heart? How about loving God with all of your soul? What about with all of your mind? Thanks for your continued prayers for our small group ministry. I really appreciate it!

3 WORSHIP GOD, LOVE OTHERS Week 1: Worship God (Part One) 2. LESSON GUIDE GETTING THINGS STARTED [optional] As you begin your small group, welcome your students and invite them into your meeting area. Open in prayer, and then jump into the lesson below. If you came up with an opening activity, movie clip, or game that worked well with your group, and you d like to share it with other youth workers, please us at ideas@simplyyouthministry.com. TEACHING POINTS The goal of the Teaching Points is to help students capture the essence of each lesson with more discussion and less lecture-style teaching. The main points we have chosen here are (1) Love fuels our worship and (2) Love leads us to actions that please God. Remember: All throughout these lessons, it s up to you to choose (1) how many questions you use, and (2) the wording of the main points keep ours, or change the wording to make it clearer for your audience. Read Matthew 22:34-40 together as a group. Consider allowing one or more of the teenagers to read the text. SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Let s take a few minutes to talk about the connection between love and worship. 1. Love fuels our worship Why do you love God? Why is it worth devoting our time to loving God? What would a life without love look like? Talk about a few common things that people love. How do the different objects of our love impact a person s life? How do you define worship? What does worship include? What are some examples of ways you worship and honor God on a regular basis? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Honor and worship are synonyms. It s tough to truly honor someone you don t love. Worshiping God means living a lifestyle that honors him. Worship goes much deeper than singing songs at church or attending a weekend service. If you re doing something that honors God, it can be an act of worship. 2. Love leads us to actions that please God Without giving the person s name, think of someone you know whose faith seems rooted in fear or obligation, instead of a deep love for God. How has that attitude affected this person s spiritual health?

4 Is the outcome any different if you obey God because of fear or obligation or if you obey him because of your love for him? Explain. How has your love for God led to real-life actions and deeds? What s the connection? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: We can choose to obey God because of fear or obligation, but God wants us to obey because of love. Fear or obligation can create a toxic faith that is driven by the sense that we can earn God s love through our actions or the sense that God may stop loving us if we don t do certain things. As Christians, we can put our faith into action and worship God as we serve others and minister to people s real-life needs. ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION [optional] What do you think it means to love God with all of your heart? How about loving God with all of your soul? What about with all of your mind? What evidence do other people see in your life when you love God in these ways? What makes it possible to love anything not just God with all your heart, soul, and mind? Read Matthew 22:40. How can the entire law and all the commands of the prophets be based on just these two commandments? What does Jesus mean? What happens if you obey the greatest commandment love God with all your heart, soul, and mind without obeying the second greatest commandment love your neighbor as yourself? Pair up with another person in the group for this question. Read Psalm 48:9-10. How has focusing and meditating on God s love increased your desire to worship him? If you haven t spent much time doing this, how might focusing and meditating on God s love increase your desire to worship him? APPLICATION What are some synonyms for worship that might describe your relationship with God? How do these other words express the different dimensions of what it means to love God? [NOTE: Synonyms might include honor, glorify, magnify, adore, praise, admire, respect, revere, acclaim, and exalt. ] Which of these words might you choose as a word for a time of meditation this week? In other words, if you felt drawn to the word exalt, how would you think about the idea of exalting God, and how might you exalt God this coming week? How are you developing a deeper love for God this week? How do people develop deeper relationships with each other, and how do those actions apply to our relationship with God?

5 SUMMARY End your small group lesson here. Provide your teenagers with a quick summary or takehome challenge based on (1) the content of this lesson, (2) the dialogue that took place during the lesson, (3) your understanding of the issues and struggles your teenagers are facing, and (4) the big picture of your youth ministry and what your leadership team wants accomplished with the teaching and discussion time. FOR KEEPS [MEMORY VERSE] Encourage and/or challenge your teenagers to memorize the verse below. Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38).