WORSHIP GOD, LOVE OTHERS Week 4: Love Others (Part Two) This includes: 1. Leader Preparation 2. Lesson Guide 1. LEADER PREPARATION LESSON OVERVIEW Jesus says the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors, and the parable of the Good Samaritan clearly illustrates who our neighbors are: anyone who is hurting and needs our help. Just as James calls Christians to put their FAITH into action, Jesus calls us to put our LOVE into action. PRIMARY SCRIPTURE Luke 10:25-37 SECONDARY SCRIPTURE James 2:8-9, 20 LESSON OBJECTIVES 1. WHAT: God calls us to put love into action by meeting our neighbors needs. 2. WHY: When we help the hurting, we re loving our neighbors like Jesus demonstrated and commanded. 3. HOW: Encourage your students to have open eyes to see the need of others. 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 Luke 10:25-37. This is probably a familiar story for your teenagers who have been raised in church, and even many non-christians know the importance of being a Good Samaritan to people in need. In fact, we re so familiar with the tale that we may fail to realize how radical Jesus words were. The people who heard Jesus parable would have expected either the priest or the Levite a temple assistant to help a person in need. After all, the victim was Jewish. These two religious leaders were Jewish. They would be considered neighbors, right? But the person who offers assistance was a despised Samaritan. He had compassion on this Jewish man, and he turns his compassion into action by dressing the wounds, transporting the man to an inn, and covering all the costs for this man s care and accommodation. Loving your neighbor means helping people even if they may hate you. Jesus confronted stereotypes and prejudices while also challenging his audience to turn compassion into action. He was directly responding to the question who is my neighbor, but on another level, Jesus was answering the question what s the evidence of a person s love. Most Christians are familiar with James observation that faith without good deeds is dead and useless. Can we say the same thing about love? Without good deeds, is love dead and useless? That can be seen as an additional underlying message in this parable.
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. Have you been a Good Samaritan recently? Be at small group tonight to tell us about it. What does it really mean to be a Good Samaritan? Don t miss tonight s small group. Parent Email 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, This week, our small groups wrapped up their four-week series on loving God and loving others. In this final lesson, we examined the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. It s a familiar story for teenagers who have been raised in church, and even many non- Christians know the importance of being a Good Samaritan to people in need. In fact, we re so familiar with the teaching that we may fail to realize how radical Jesus words were. The people who heard Jesus story would have expected either the priest or the Levite a temple assistant to help a person in need. After all, the victim was Jewish. These two religious leaders were Jewish. They would be considered neighbors, right? But the person who offers assistance was a despised Samaritan. He had compassion on this Jewish man, and he turns his compassion into action by dressing the wounds, transporting the man to an inn, and covering all the costs for this man s care and accommodation. Jesus confronted stereotypes and prejudices while challenging his audience to turn compassion into action. I d encourage you to take a few minutes and talk with your teenager about this week s lesson. As always, I want to offer some questions that you could use during your conversation: When was the last time you were a Good Samaritan who stopped and helped someone in need? Why did you make that decision? How did it affect you and other people? Jesus told this parable 2,000 years ago, so exactly how is it relevant to your life today? Which elements feel familiar, and which elements would you change if telling this story to a current-day audience especially if you wanted to have the same impact Jesus story had on his audience? Think ahead to life after high school. How might the idea of loving your neighbor change? What new challenges might you face as you put this commandment into practice? This has been a great study for our small groups, and I pray our discussions and readings in the Bible have had an impact on your teenager. Please let me know how I can continue praying for you and your family!
WORSHIP GOD, LOVE OTHERS Week 4: Love Others (Part Two) 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 right into the 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 email 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) Find a neighbor in need and (2) Put your faith into 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 10:25-37 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 explore two fundamental ideas found in the parable Jesus told. 1. Find a neighbor in need SAY SOMETHING LIKE: God willingly gives love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy to anyone in need not just people who fit a predetermined box or definition. In fact, the people you might not categorize as your neighbors are probably the very people God wants you to see as your neighbors. In this story, the priest and the temple assistant the Levite were Jewish religious leaders who chose to not help an injured Jewish man. Why do you think they responded this way? When was the last time you walked past a person in need, either literally or figuratively? Why did you make that choice? When was the last time you were a Good Samaritan who stopped and helped someone in need? Why did you make that decision? How did it affect you and other people? 2. Put your faith into action SAY SOMETHING LIKE: We don t always succeed at being a Good Samaritan, as we see in this clip from the movie Shanghai Noon (rated PG-13). Roy is buried up to his neck in sand.
Chon finds him but refuses to help, walking away as if he didn t see anything. Sound familiar? Start the clip at 0:18:15, as Roy screams while buried in the sand. Stop the clip at 0:20:15, as Chon leaves Roy. What might be a reason or two why Chon made the decision to walk away from Roy? This clip showed someone who intentionally walked away from a neighbor in need. All of us have likely done this at one time or another what are some of the factors that influence us to walk away rather than get involved? As we read the parable in Luke 10, we all want to be the Good Samaritan, but which character best represents the way you ve responded to hurting people this past week? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: If God s love is growing inside us, then it will be evident in our actions. We certainly know that it s easier to love certain people, but the Bible never declared that love was easy. Taking steps of faith and showing love toward a neighbor may require a sacrifice of time, energy, or resources. ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION [optional] James 2:20 says faith without good deeds is useless. How does this relate to your love for your neighbors? What connections are there between dead faith and dead love? The religious leader who asked who is my neighbor correctly identified the neighbor in Jesus story as the character that showed mercy toward the man who was attacked and beaten. That answer likely exposed the religious leader s own prejudices. When have you had a similar experience? How did you respond? In Luke 10:29, we learn that the religious leader who asked Jesus the question wanted to justify his actions. What actions might the Bible mean? Jesus told this parable 2,000 years ago, so exactly how is it relevant to your life today? Which elements feel familiar, and which elements would you change if telling this story to a current-day audience especially if you wanted to have the same impact Jesus story had on his audience? Read James 2:8-9. What are some ways teenagers favor certain individuals or certain groups over others? Why does this happen? APPLICATION Pair up with another person in the group for these questions. At the end of his parable, Jesus made a simple commandment to the religious leader: Now go and do the same. How can you go and do the same and display mercy toward hurting people this week? Give some specific opportunities you can pursue.
How can you encourage other people to go and do the same? Bring everyone back together to talk about specific ways to go and do the same in your community. 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. But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law (James 2:9).