LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS Week 2: Learning to Love God 1. LEADER PREPARATION

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1 LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS Week 2: Learning to Love God This includes: 1. Leader Preparation 2. Lesson Guide 1. LEADER PREPARATION LESSON OVERVIEW The Bible has lots of instructions about the way we ought to live, and God put those rules there because he wants us to experience meaningful, blessed, significant lives. God doesn t randomly create rules and consequences; they re there for a reason. In this lesson, your students will explore the best, greatest, most important commandment in the entire Bible: to love God with everything we have. LESSON OBJECTIVES 1. WHAT: God calls us to love him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength a lifestyle of love. 2. WHY: Loving God opens the door to a meaningful, blessed, significant life. 3. HOW: Students will be challenged to consider what it means to make a lifelong commitment to loving God and how that decision leads to changes and action. PRIMARY SCRIPTURE Luke 10:25-28 SECONDARY SCRIPTURES John 14:23-24; 15:9-11; and 1 John 2:3-6 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 lesson. Read Luke 10: These verses contain statements that are often referred to as the great commandment. A religious leader asked Jesus what was required to gain eternal life, and Jesus responded with his own question: What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it? The man s response echoed the words of the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, along with Leviticus 19:18. The Shema was a prayer regularly recited by Jews that had become a confession of their faith. It s worth noting that this passage of Scripture mirrors verses found in Matthew 22:34-40 and Mark 12: In those passages, Jesus is the one who cites the greatest and second greatest commandments. We have selected the Luke 10 verses for this lesson because it dovetails best with the first week s discussion on the Good Samaritan. Here in Luke 10, Jesus still affirms that those are the greatest commandments we ought to follow and obey. Learning to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is a lifelong commitment. As you examine this important topic with your students, focus on the benefits and rewards of obediently loving God and pursuing lives that put love into action. It s important for

2 junior high students to begin considering and grasping the idea that our love for God ought to connect to every area of life it isn t just a church thing or a spiritual part of life. 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. Is it possible to love God with everything we have and in every area of our lives? Let s talk about it tonight at small group. How do we love God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind? Come to small group tonight to get some answers. 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 finished our two-week small group series Love God; Love Others with a challenge to our students to make their love for God part of every area of their lives. Our conversation centered around Luke 10:25-28, which reveals that God s greatest commandment is for us to love him with our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Learning to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is a lifelong commitment. As you examine this important topic with your students, focus on the benefits and rewards of obediently loving God and pursuing lives that put love into action. It s important for junior high students to begin considering and grasping the idea that our love for God ought to connect to every area of life it isn t just a church thing or a spiritual part of life. As you talk with your teenager about this week s lesson, here are some questions you might want to ask: How much of our experience as followers of Jesus do you think is based on our feelings, and how much of it is based on our willingness to act or serve or obey even when we don t feel like it? What do you think it means to develop a lifestyle of loving God? What would that look like if you pursued that path? What are some changes you might see in your life as you love God more and more? I pray that you and your family have an awesome week!

3 LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS Week 2: Learning to Love God 2. LESSON GUIDE GETTING THINGS STARTED [optional] Welcome your students and invite them into your meeting area. Open in prayer, and then lead the activity below. Play the No Rule Game. In this game, initially, there are no rules. Ask for the first volunteer to stand up and make up a rule plus a consequence for breaking the rule. From that point on, the students must follow the rules; any offenders face the consequences of breaking the rules. For example, the first student may say, Anyone who says um must do 10 pushups. The second person would then add an additional rule and consequence. A fun twist: If a consequence takes a player out of ear shot of the game they have to run around the building or something along those lines all new rules and consequences made while they are away still apply; they just don t know what they are. All students must participate in monitoring the rules to make sure everyone obeys or faces the consequences. As the leader, monitor the rules and consequences to ensure that they re appropriate. Play for ten minutes or until the group gets out of control. After playing this game, What did you enjoy most about this game and what made it crazy or insane to play? What benefit do rules bring to the games we play and the lives we live? What would the world be like if there were no rules, no laws, and no boundaries? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: The Bible has lots of instructions about the way we ought to live, and God put them there because he wants us to experience meaningful, blessed, significant lives. God doesn t randomly create rules and consequences; they re there for a reason. But of all the commandments in the Bible, there s one that is best and greatest and most important for us to obey that s what we re going to explore in this lesson. 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) Loving God is a commitment, (2) Loving God is a lifestyle, and (3) Loving God leads to action. 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 Luke 10:25-28 together as a group. Consider allowing one or more of the teenagers to read the text.

4 SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Let s spend a few minutes learning more about what it means to love God and how we can grow in this area. 1. Loving God is a commitment What does the word commitment mean to you? If you make any kind of commitment to another person, what are you saying? What are you agreeing to do? Do you always feel like loving or obeying God? Why or why not? How much of our experience as followers of Jesus do you think is based on our feelings, and how much of it is based on our willingness to act or serve or obey even when we don t feel like it? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: These verses are often referred to as the great commandment. They form the foundation of what it means to be a Christian. When we choose to become a follower of Jesus, we re making a commitment to love God, love others, and grow in our faith. Here s the thing about commitment: A deep, solid commitment is something we stick with even when we don t feel like it. Sometimes it s easy but sometimes it s tough if we re committed, we don t waver. We stay on track. 2. Loving God is a lifestyle Look at verse 27. What does it mean to love God with your heart, your soul, your strength, and your mind? What are some ways you can love God with your heart, your soul, your strength, and your mind? Let s think of some specific examples for these areas. What do you think it means to develop a lifestyle of loving God? What would that look like if you pursued that path? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: God wants us to love him with every part of who we are. That s really what it means to love God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind. It means that everything we have and everything we are it s all committed to loving God. So, loving God really is a lifestyle because it sits at the heart of everything we say, think, and do. 3. Loving God leads to action What are some changes you might see in your life as you love God more and more? How do people know that your love for God is real and authentic? What s the proof? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: The great commandment is a big circle. One thing leads to another, which leads back to the beginning. When we love God with everything we have, we tend to love ourselves and love others. At the same time, when we love ourselves, we find it easier to love others. It is also easier to love God when we love others. They are all connected. Start by loving God, and the others follow and put your love for God into action by serving him and serving others.

5 ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION [optional] Read John 15:9-11. Jesus asks us to remain in his love. What do you think that means? Why does Jesus ask us to obey him? What are the benefits of obedience? Read John 14:23-23 and 1 John 2:3-6. Why do you think God places such a high value on obedience? APPLICATION Ask each student to find a partner for these questions. We talked today about how our love for God leads to action. What are two specific ideas for doing that in the coming week? What steps could you take this week to deepen your commitment to loving God? What are some ways you can make your love for God part of every area of your life? 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. The man answered, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. And, Love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27).