Session 6: Leader's Guide

Session 6: Love the Lord Your God

Key Point: I love God by obeying Him with all I am in everything I do

• subpoint:  God speaks to me through His Creation/Circumstances, His Word, and His people
• subpoint:  I express my love for God by responding to what He says to me

Leader Notes:

• Have the one person in each group share a spiritual marker
• Take time to let the groups check up on prayer requests from the previous week
• Review the passages from last week and let the students exchange questions
• Have the students share about the people they’ve been praying for and how their practice runs in sharing have gone

Review:

When we communicate we _______________ information.  

Things we learn when we communicate:

1.  New ___________ about the natural world/world in general (i.e. the sky is blue/ Henry Cavill is playing Superman)

2.  New things about  _________we communicate with.  We learn what they’ve ________ who they are, and what they __________ to do. (i.e. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty is a fragile egg, Humpty dumpty plans on getting hardboiled)

3.  New things about ________________.  The people we communicate with have different _______________________  on our ____________________ and who we are.  (i.e. Someone telling you your haircut looks horrible, Someone telling you how intelligent you are)

Write the names of the people God has allowed you to practice sharing with or people that intend to share with:

1.__________________________

2.__________________________

3.__________________________

Write out John 15:7

Practice explaining what the verse means

Write out Luke 9:23-24

Practice explaining what the verse means

Activity

Find a person you can share John 15:7 and Luke 9:23 with and practice explaining the passage to them.  You can also draw on the information from previous weeks to shape your explanation and feel free to try and use stories, images, or songs to help communicate what you understand about the scriptures.

Introduction:

The basis for our existence and the purpose of all life stems from our relationship with God.  God relates a consistent message throughout scripture telling us what our relationship with Him should look like.  That message is “Love me.”  We will explore how our relationship with God affects all other areas of our life and hopefully reveal some ways we can better love God in all areas of our lives.

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD

Read Matthew 22:15-40

What context do we find Jesus in when he replies in Matthew 22:37-40?

·         Answering questions from Jewish religious leaders

·         Religious leaders testing Jesus trying to get Him to say something that will get Him in trouble

What does Jesus say is the first and greatest commandment? (v.38)

·         Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and with all your mind

Why is it important to know the first and greatest commandment?

·         All the Law and the Prophets hang on this commandment

·         Central guiding principle for life repeated throughout scripture

·         Jesus said it was the first and greatest commandment

Reflective Discussion Questions; 1.        What does it mean to Love God with “all your heart, soul, and mind?” 2.       How do we make God our number one desire? 3.       How do we put God’s priorities first in our lives?

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Exodus 20:1-7

            The Ten Commandments are casuistic laws, general guiding principles that regulate how people should behave.  In verses 1-7 God lists specific regulations that communicate and reinforce the idea of “Loving God.”

YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GOD’S BEFORE ME

            This first command in the original language literally means you shall have no other gods in my presence or before my face.  This command communicates the idea that Jehovah (God) takes primacy over all things.  There is no room for any other gods, there can be and is only one true God.

YOU SHALL HAVE NO IDOLS

This command isn’t in reference to having images or other gods.  This is a command that regulates how God wants to think about Him.  God doesn’t want us to have symbols that represent Him because no analogy, metaphor or image will ever be able to fully encapsulate who God is.  All symbols are limited in communicating information about an infinite God; at some point our symbols limit our understanding by putting Him in a box.  God doesn’t want us to reduce whom He is to a few phrases and neglect to worship His entirety.  When we limit God’s eternal qualities we run the risk of forming bad theology (thoughts or thinking about God).  God jealously desires all of us.  He doesn’t want some of our affection He wants all of it and when we create idols of God we only give part of our worship to Him.

YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD GOD IN VAIN

            The name of God represents God Himself, so this command means to not take up or carry God’s name lightly.  God wants us to take him seriously.  God’s glory is wrapped up in His name.  In the original language God’s glory means weighty.  God wants us to consider the weight of what it means to be bearers of His name.  The third command isn’t about how we speak God’s name but how we live and claim His name.  When we say we are Christians but our lives don’t reflect it, we are taking God’s name lightly because when we say we are God’s Christians we are saying we are in covenant relationship with God.  Our covenant with God entails recognition of His Lordship in our lives and acknowledges that everything we do should be in His name because Christians are ambassadors of Jesus Christ.

GOD SPEAKS

            Whenever God speaks He always has a purpose.  God tells us in Isaiah 55:10-11 that everything He ever says has a purpose and that purpose is always accomplished.  So whenever God says something we should consider it done.  We see this picture of God’s Word becoming reality in Genesis.  God literally spoke creation into existence.  So when we think about God speaking we should think about what His purposes are.  Four general purposes that relate to us when God speaks are:

1.    Revelation about Himself

2.    Confirmation of His will

3.    Revelation of New Direction/Preparation

4.    Revelation of Sin

Each of the purposes stated above can be summarized into one overarching purpose, which is to draw people into a more intimate relationship with God.  God reveals more about Himself to His people so we can know more about Him.  So we can more fully appreciate and worship God.  God confirms His will because He wants us to know what He desires.  He wants us to join in on what He is doing.  God reveals things about ourselves so that we can grow and move from where we are to join God where He is.  He reveals things that we must do to prepare for responsibilities He will entrust us with.  Finally God’s revelation of sin in our lives allows us to be restored to right relationship with Him so that we will continue to grow in intimacy with Him.

            Now that we know why God speaks, it is helpful for us to reflect on how He speaks.  It’s important for us to know how God speaks so we can discern how God is leading us to grow into a deeper relationship with Him.   Throughout scripture we see three general ways God speaks to His people.

1.    Creation/Circumstances

2.    His Word

3.    His People

GOD SPEAKING IN CREATION

God spoke all created things into existence.  Every rock, tree, and speck of space dust is the work of God displaying His Divine character for all eternity.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.  They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.  Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.  In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.”  (Ps. 19:1-4)

As we think about how God address us through all creation, we must also remember that “we” mankind are also the “works of His hands.”  God created us embedding us with qualities that help us discern God’s will.  God has given us the ability to reason and think so that we can read and interpret the circumstances of our lives through the filter of what we know about God. The psalmist Asaph gives us another example of how God speaks in Psalm 77.

Read Psalm 77:1-12

GOD SPEAKING IN HIS WORD

Asaph tells us in Psalms that God has already spoken to us giving us knowledge of who He is through His past works and deeds.  It is important for us to reflect on the past, both ours and others, to remember how and what God has spoken through history. God’s Word, the bible, is a written record of God’s past works and deeds in the lives of others.  It also contains reminders/promises of how God will work in our future.

GOD SPEAKING THROUGH HIS PEOPLE

The bible tells us that God’s people are led by the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:14).  The bible also tells us that under the influence of the Holy Spirit that Christians will be given guidance to recognize, remember, and speak truth (Jn 14:26, 16:13).  Sometimes we are overcome or blinded by our circumstances and have difficulty remembering God’s promises.  When we are struggling to listen to God through His Word or remember His past work in our lives God brings others alongside us who under the influence of the Spirit speak on God’s behalf.  Followers of Jesus are responsible for building up and encouraging one another.  The bible exhorts us to remind one another of the gospel so that we will go out and proclaim the gospel to those who are lost (Eph 5:18-20, Phil 2:1-4).

BE TRANSFORMED

Read Romans 12:1-2 and James 1:22-25

DO WITH YOUR BODY

Romans 12 tells us that we should offer up our bodies as a “living sacrifice.”  It says that this is the “true and proper” way to worship.   When we sacrifice our bodies we are presenting the physical vehicle that moves us through life.  We do things in life with our bodies, so what we are offering up to God is our every action.  This idea is supported in 1 Corinthians 10 when Paul says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

James 1 tells us that it isn’t enough for us to hear the Word but to be doers of the Word too.  The Greek word for “hearer” is very closely related to the word for disobedience.  This brings us back to the proposition in Isaiah 55:11, that the Word of God has a purpose.  What we hear from the Word is meant to be acted upon.  We should adjust the way we live according to what we know about God through scripture.

RENEW YOUR MIND

            The rest of the passage in Romans moves from our behaviors and actions to our minds.  All of our actions and behaviors are influenced by what we think.  If we want to affect our behavior we have to be conscious of what we are taking into our minds.  However, the interesting part of this passage is that it says “be transformed” it doesn’t tell us “to transform.”  We aren’t the ones that do the transforming.  Our minds are transformed by God when we sacrifice ourselves to Him.  God doesn’t want part of us, He wants all of us.  This is why Jesus says the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.

PERMEATE

            Our relationship with God permeates every area of our lives.  Followers of Jesus have submitted their lives to Jesus so that every thought and action belongs to Him.  Our relationship with God is personal, but isn’t private.  The way that we love and obey God should show through our actions and affects the way we treat other people.  Whenever God speaks we always have to stop and examine our lives to make sure that we are in line with it.  Most of the time when God speaks we are required to change, this may be a behavior, attitude, or thought.

The personal transformation God works in our lives is part of God’s bigger plan.  The individual lives of Jesus’ followers form a tapestry of grace that is on display for all creation to see so that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

John 8:31-32 Discussion(Memory Verse)

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” (NIV84)

Session Summary

The first and greatest command God gives us is to love Him.  We show our love for God by responding to what He reveals and obeying Him.  It loving God is more than an emotion and more than knowledge.  True love for God is expressed in how we live.  The truth of God’s Word works out in our life when we allow the person of Jesus Christ to mold us and shape us because Jesus is the Truth.  As we respond to the love of Jesus we are set free to walk in God’s perfect love.  

Before the next Session

Check when completed	Activity
	Work on explaining how Matthew 22:37-40 sums up how to live out the Christian life
	Find one person to share what you understand about Matthew 22:37-40
	Work on memorizing John 8:31-32
	Prepare to share 1 of your spiritual markers next week
	Review all of the previous week's memory verses
	Continue assembling SERVE Profile(vocational skills, leadership assessment)
	Ask God to reveal 3 people you can speak the truth in love to
	Pray for Clan Group