CONSEQUENCES AND CRYING OUT Lesson 8: True Story No Yoke! This includes: 1. Leader Preparation 2. Lesson Guide 1. LEADER PREPARATION LESSON OVERVIEW Jesus promises to take our heavy burdens and trade them for something light and easier. This truth is fascinating because some people get so transfixed on God s promise to take our heavy burdens that they miss the part entirely where Jesus says he will give us a lighter burden to bear. In this lesson, your students will examine what it means to have God carry their burdens and replace it with a life-giving yoke in Christ. LESSON OBJECTIVES 1. WHAT: Sin is a heavy load, but Jesus offers us a better, lighter burden to carry. 2. WHY: Teenagers can discover peace and hope when they encounter the truth that God wants to lighten their load. 3. HOW: Students will experience the difference between a light physical load and a heavy one, and they will be encouraged to ask God to take their load. PRIMARY SCRIPTURE Matthew 11:28-30 SECONDARY SCRIPTURE Psalm 63 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. Read Matthew 11:28-30. Carrying a burden is tiring. And many of us choose to carry a load never intended by Christ for us to carry. Whether it s sin (as we re talking about in this study) or just problems we are chained to in this mortal life, God never intended for us to be weighed
down. So he offers us this wonderful bait and switch. God says, Come to me and I ll take the heavy and give you something that is light and gives life. The wonder in this passage does not come from God taking our heavy burdens. Most of us know God is powerful and mighty and capable of carrying our load and the loads of everyone else in the entire world. The wonder comes when Jesus actually says he will give us a different load to carry. It s still a load a responsibility we must carry. But with it comes a lightness a freedom we do not possess when we carry our own struggles, burdens, and sins. 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. Parent Email Ever try to exchange something broken? Let s discuss it tonight as a group. If you had to choose between carrying something heavy or light, which would you choose? We ll do some lifting tonight. We ve provided you with an email 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 email to fit your ministry needs. Dear parents, We looked this week at a familiar statement from Jesus in the New Testament. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus promises to take our heavy burdens and trade them for something light and easier. This passage is fascinating because some people get so transfixed on God s promise to take our heavy burdens that they miss the part entirely where Jesus says he will give us a lighter burden to bear. God promises to take the heaviness of our sin but he also asks us to carry his yoke. It s just an easier one to heft.
Keep the faith conversation alive at home. Here are some ideas: Ask your teenager to describe a yoke and its purpose. Tell your teenager about a burden you carried that you gave to Jesus (or maybe one you are still carrying that you should give to God.) Ask your child if there s a burden, sin, or worry that you can pray with them about. Thanks for allowing us to partner with you as one small part in the faith development of your teenager!
CONSEQUENCES AND CRYING OUT Lesson 8: True Story No Yoke! 2. LEsson guide GETTING THINGS STARTED [optional] Bring or borrow two suitcases of similar shape and size. Fill one with rocks, weights, or other heavy objects. Fill the other with packing peanuts, paper, or other light objects. For later in the lesson, make a visual presentation about yokes. You could do this as a PowerPoint presentation, images you print from your computer, or images you display on a laptop or tablet. If you have access to someone who owns an actual yoke, borrowing and displaying it would also enhance the group conversation. Welcome your students and invite them into your meeting area. Open in prayer, and then SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Have you ever seen people rushing through an airport either in real life or in a movie or on TV? They re dragging their suitcase and sometimes their kids behind them as they rush through to reach their flight on time. Sometimes I wonder what s in their suitcase and how much it would stink it if was something heavy. EXPERIENCE: Pass the suitcases around the room. If you can do it safely, have students run through the room carrying the suitcase of their choice. Or make every student hold one suitcase over their heads for a few minutes. If you had to carry those suitcases through the airport, would you choose the heavier one? Why or why not? Have you ever packed a bag as heavy as this heavier one? Why kind of stuff did you pack that made it so heavy? How is the burden of sin similar to or different from these suitcases? Be creative!
TEACHING GUIDE 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 are (1) The burden of sin is heavy, (2) God will replace our burden when we ask, and (3) God wants us to ask. 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 11:28-30 together as a group. Consider dividing verses among your students so everyone has a chance to read. SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Let s see what we can learn from Jesus in this passage about the burden of sin and how Jesus wants to help us. 1. The burden of sin is heavy What makes you physically weary and tired? What is life like when you re totally exhausted physically or emotionally? What are some of the similarities and differences between physical weariness and spiritual weariness? Why does sin sometimes start out light but then becomes a burden over time? If sin is so heavy, why do we often choose to carry it for so long? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Sin is heavy. It looks fairly manageable on the outside, like that super heavy suitcase. Usually when we choose it, we don t realize just how heavy that thing is going to get. We hold it over our heads or drag it around behind us and eventually, our arms get weak. It s become a big burden to carry. 2. God will replace our burden when we ask SAY SOMETHING LIKE: God is pretty amazing. We carry around these heavy loads of sin. Maybe they weren t heavy to begin with, but now they are. Or maybe they were incredibly heavy from the start, but it was the only suitcase option we thought
we had. It doesn t really matter because God has this wonderful exchange program. We are weary from carrying a heavy burden. And God says, Bring it here. God takes the heavy one and gives us one that is light. Have you ever been carrying something really heavy? A backpack, a suitcase, your little brother? When someone hands you a lighter load and takes the heavy one, it s almost like the new load has no weight at all! There s an instant relief, even though we re still bearing a little bit of cargo. That s the image we have in this passage of Jesus. He doesn t say, Here, I ll carry that for you and then you go skipping off into the sunset. He offers an exchange a heavy load for an easy one. But there s still responsibility. We still have something to carry. We carry the yoke or the burden of Jesus. It s a lighter, easier load and one that brings true life but it s still something we have to hang on to. Why would God offer us a light load instead of no load? What might be some of the yoke of Christ that we are asked to bear? Why can it be so hard to give up a heavy load for a lighter one? 3. God wants us to ask SAY SOMETHING LIKE: So another interesting facet: God didn t look down and say, Ohhhh, poor baby, that s so heavy here, let me take it for you. In order for us to get relief from the burdens we bear, we have to come to him. God doesn t just go on autopilot, waiting to rescue us from the stuff that weighs us down. We must come to him for relief. What do you think it means to come to Jesus with your heavy burdens? Why do you think God chose NOT to make help automatic? Why do we have to ask for it? Is it kind or unkind of God to offer an exchange rather than just completely taking our burdens? Why? ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION [optional] SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Have you ever wondered what a yoke even is? We don t use them much anymore, but yokes were kind of like large wooden collars that oxen
or other livestock wore to help them get their jobs done. So when Christ tells us to lay down our burdens and take his yoke, he is saying that we need to be attached to him in a way that allows him to guide our future and even though we don t get free reign because we are tethered to something that is guiding us, it s an easy fit, an easy yoke that makes a light burden. EXPERIENCE: Show some pictures of yokes. SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Yokes were serious farm equipment designed to get the job done right. It kept livestock moving in the right direction, gave the farmer control over where the animals went, and even made it possible for more than one farm animal to work on the same job at the same time. So when Jesus says he has a yoke that is light, it s to reassure us of some things. What do you believe Jesus is saying to us by using the imagery of a yoke? Sin seems like freedom and yokes seem like bondage. But God uses them in reverse. Why do you think he does that? How does he do it? Have you ever seen God s yoke as heavy? Would you be wiling to tell us about it? What makes God s burden lighter? Read Psalm 63. How do the words of this psalm echo some of the ideas we ve discussed today? What does it look and feel like to have a soul that thirsts for God and a body that longs for God in the middle of a dry, weary land? APPLICATION Ask students to form groups of two or three for these questions. Have you viewed faith in Christ as a yoke or a burden? How has our conversation today affected your perspective on the difference between the burden of faith and the real burden of sin? How can I pray for you either to receive Christ s yoke or to see it differently, as something that brings truly meaningful life?
Bring everyone back together, and ask for volunteers to share answers to the previous questions, as time permits. SUMMARY End your lesson here. Provide your teenagers with a quick summary or take-home 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. Then Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).