THE ANDY STANLEY COLLECTION

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1 WONDER. Week 1: THE RULES Bottom Line: Relationship always precedes rules with God. Scripture References: Exodus 20:1; 12:1-4; John 1:29, 36 When you really think about it, each one of us wants relationship over rules. We are more likely to trust what someone is saying when we know that person has our best interest in mind, when we know he or she really cares. Whether it s a parent, a coach, a teacher, a small group leader or a boss, we are more likely to follow the rules from someone who desires to be in a relationship with us, someone who wants to know more about us than just our name. Someone who wants more for us than just obedience to his or her whims. This week is a great opportunity to reframe a false concept that many people have, including Christians that God is more concerned about the rules than He is about us. 2. Would you describe yourself as a rule-follower, a rebel, or somewhere in between? 3. Who are some people that give you rules? Why do they give you rules? 4. Can you name all ten of the commandments? 5. To whom did God initially give the Ten Commandments? In your own words, briefly explain the history of the Israelites. 6. How did hearing that history today change the way you once viewed the Ten Commandments? 7. If you had to come up with one rule you wanted everyone to follow, what would it be? What would that rule say about you and what mattered to you? 8. How do you respond to rules differently when they come from someone who you know loves and accepts you, as opposed to someone you have no relationship with? 9. Look up John 1:29, 36. In these verses John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God. How would this reference have been familiar to the people listening? How did Jesus show Himself to be the Lamb of God? The Israelites spread the blood of a lamb on the doorposts in order to be saved. While we don t do that, what does Jesus blood do for us? 10. What s the biggest takeaway for you this week? or text students this week with the bottom line for this session, Relationship always precedes rules with God. Encourage students to re-read some Bible stories they may have been familiar with in the past, but this time have them read through the lens of God s desire for relationship first. You may even want to select one particular Bible story, read it together and discuss online or via .

2 WONDER. Week 2: ONE & ONLY Bottom Line: The most important decision you make is what you place in the center of your life. Scripture References: Exodus 20:1, 3-6 Little gods. We all have them, whether we sought them out intentionally or over time drifted towards them. We each have a tendency to make something or someone, other than God, the center of our lives. We do it through the decisions we make each day what we talk about, what gets most of our time, what consumes our thoughts. We look for something or someone to be something for us or do something for us that it was never meant to fully be or do. Spend some time this week allowing your students to look at the gods in their lives, and if appropriate, share some of the gods in your own life as well. 1. What did we talk about last week? 2. What did you think of the talk this week? What did you hear the speaker say? 3. What are the first two commandments? Before today, did you know what these two commandments really meant? Sum up what they mean now in your own words. 4. What s the difference between God and a god? 5. What are some examples of little g gods that people have today? 6. How can you tell the difference between something that s important to you and something that s become a god to you? 7. If someone were to record your thoughts and actions over the next week, to what or whom would we see you devote the most time and energy? 8. How do little g gods take attention away from God? 9. What do you think it means to make God the center of your life? Take some time reflecting on the following questions. If God were really the center of your life, what would your family life look like? If God were really the center of your life, what would your academic life look like? If God were really the center of your life, what would your friendships look like? How are these answers different from what your life looks like right now? 10. What can you do this week to start moving God into the center of your life? 11. This week try and ask a friend or relative what they think is the most important thing in your life. Think about their response. Could that be a little g god in your life? 12. What s the biggest takeaway for you this week? (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)

3 WONDER. Week 2: ONE & ONLY (continued) Bottom Line: The most important decision you make is what you place in the center of your life. Scripture References: Exodus 20:1, 3-6 Have students be on the lookout this week for little gods in their lives, and areas of their lives where their relationship with God doesn t seem to fit. To guide them, or text the following questions this week. You may want to send them just one question per day. If God were really the center of your life, what would your family life look like? If God were really the center of your life, what would your academic life look like? If God were really the center of your life, what would your friendships and dating relationships look like? How are these answers different from what your life looks like right now?

4 WONDER. Week 3: THAT S NOT MY NAME Bottom Line: When you use the name of God to dodge the will of God, you will ultimately miss out on God entirely. Scripture References: Exodus 20:7; Luke 19:45-46; Mark 7:13; 1 John 1:9 Manipulating God. That s the premise of using God s name vainly. You make God stand for something or be about something that is completely contrary to His nature. It s been done all throughout history, and it still happens every day. This week is a big shift for students. It expands their understanding of this commandment beyond their vocabulary to their actions and their intent behind their actions. A win for today would be for a student to walk away realizing that God is more concerned with us misrepresenting who He is than simply the words that come out of our mouths. 2. Before today, what did you think it meant to use God s name in vain? 3. What do you think it means now? 4. Have you ever used someone s name (a parent, a teacher, a relative, a friend) to make something happen you wanted, but they wouldn t necessarily be one board with? What did you do? Did that person find out? How did he or she respond? 5. The Pharisees were perfect examples of using God s name to get what they wanted at the expense of other people. What are some examples of people in history using God to get what they want? (examples: justify slavery, racism, etc.) 6. Why is using God s name to get what we want really dangerous? 7. How might you be tempted to use God s name to get what you want? 8. Do you know things in your life God is not okay with you doing, but you have used Him to justify doing them anyway? How is this manipulating God and misusing His name? How is this using God against Himself in order to create loopholes? 9. When looking for loopholes, how can we miss out on God altogether? 10. If you claim to be a Christian, you are living in the name of God. Is your life reflecting positively or negatively on God s name? 11. What is the most important thing you think you ve learned this week? The best way to know what God is not about, is to know what He is about. And the main way we know that is by getting to know Him through His Word, the Bible. Encourage students to read their Bibles to get to know who God is. Also, write the following quotes on different index cards, and hand them to your students when they leave today: If I fall into the habit of dodging the will of God in the name of God, ultimately I will miss God. I can spend my whole life believing in God and miss God entirely.

5 WONDER. Week 4: DO NOTHING Bottom Line: When we stop and acknowledge how God has cared for us and our world, we realize who is really in control. Scripture References: Exodus 20:8-10; Exodus 16:26, 29-30; Matthew 12:1-12 For some students, resting is not a problem. They can sleep the day away. For others, it s a foreign concept, something they will consider maybe when they re old, like 40. Whatever place a student is at, today is about helping them carve out time with intentionality and better understand why God cares about a day off so much. After all, He made it one of the Ten Commandments. Taking a full 24 hours may be a stretch for your students, so you may have them just take some steps forward in getting to a place where resting and stopping with purpose is something they want to have happen. What would it take to set aside an hour this week? And if it s not something you have thought about in your own life, why not try it too? 2. Read Exodus 20:9: Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates (NIV). Why were the Israelites hesitant to follow this commandment? 3. What kinds of things did the Israelites learn about God when they took their Sabbath? 4. What would you feel you would be missing out on if you took the time to stop and rest took a Sabbath? (Fun times with friends, social gatherings, getting ahead in academics, not making the starting lineup, knowing what s going on with everyone) 5. Take a moment to list out all the activities you do in a typical week. Number them based on their importance to you, their priority. What are some things that could be put on hold so that you could take a Sabbath? 6. Even if your life isn t busy yet, what kinds of things can distract you from taking a Sabbath? (Facebook, video games, being disorganized and messy, letting all your homework and projects pile up until the very last minute). 7. If you don t start getting into the habit of taking the time to stop and re-focus on God, how could that affect the way you view God and your relationship with Him? 8. Jesus healed people on the Sabbath and the Pharisees didn t like that at all. They thought He was breaking God s law. But the reality was that they were the ones who had a distorted perspective. Read Matthew 12:1-12. What are some ways that the Sabbath can become too focused on you? What are some ways you can keep the Sabbath focused on the right things who God is, who you are and how you interact with those around you? 9. What do you depend on God for? How likely are you to focus on these things when you never create the time to stop? When in your current schedule do you stop to think about and thank God for these things? (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)

6 WONDER. Week 4: DO NOTHING (continued) Bottom Line: When we stop and acknowledge how God has cared for us and our world, we realize who is really in control. Scripture References: Exodus 20:8-10; Exodus 16:26, 29-30; Matthew 12:1-12 SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS (CONTINUED) 10. Look back at the list you created earlier (in question #5). Add a Sabbath day (keep in mind that the Sabbath doesn t have to happen on a Sunday) to your list and put a number one beside it. Renumber your priorities to fit your Sabbath into your schedule. Now talk through how you can reorder your week to create some Sabbath time. Encourage your students to carve out one hour this week for Sabbath time and see what happens. Call it the Sabbath Experiment. Follow-up next week to see how the time went.

7 WONDER. Week 5: UNTO OTHERS Bottom Line: God places value on each person, and desires for everyone to be free. Scripture References: Matthew 4:8-10; Matthew 28:18-20; Deuteronomy 6:10-12 Rules are meant to keep us free. For a student, that seems like a contradiction because rules feel restricting. Spend time today unpacking some of the rules mentioned in the remaining commandments, and even some of the rules in a student s world. How can those rules keep them free? How can those rules keep them from being enslaved to something or someone? Use this week to sum up the five weeks, and how the heart of relationship with God is His desire for us to live as freely as He designed us to, and to place value on those around us. 2. Remember when we said that the rules a person has says a lot about a person? How do the last six commandments show us what is important to God? 3. The fifth commandment says to honor our mother and father. Honor is showing someone how valuable they are. What are ways that you show your parents in words and/or with your actions that they have value in your life? What are some ways you don t? 4. Would you talk to God s face the way you talk to your parents faces? What do you think God would have to say about the way you talk to, obey and treat your parents? 5. What are some ways you can show your parents you value them today? 6. In the tenth commandment God tells us not to covet. Have you ever wanted something that someone else had? How did it affect you? 7. Have you ever wanted someone (as a friend or boyfriend or girlfriend) so much that it affected your friendship with someone else? How is this the same as coveting? 8. How would spending a life coveting others things be difficult? Would that even be fun? Why do you think God cares so much about this? 9. How can you be grateful and content with what you have and not covet others possessions? (Make lists of things and people you are grateful for, spend time with others who are less fortunate, take your focus off the materials things you DON T have and think about the immaterial things you DO have). 10. Out of all the Ten Commandments, which is the most difficult for you to follow? The easiest? 11. How would following the first four commandments help you keep the last six? 12. What is one thing you want to work on as part of what you ve learned in this series? Follow up with each student in your small group via , phone, text, Facebook, etc. and ask them what they learned over the course of the past five weeks about the Ten Commandments.