Teacher’s Overview of Matthew 4:12-25, Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson “Invitation,” for 12/14/25

Posted on 2025/12/06 by Shawn Thomas

For Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders. Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, lesson outline and highlights, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications you can make. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

One day Steve Jobs (founder of Apple) appeared at the cubicle of Andy Hertzfeld, a young engineer on the Apple II team. He told him: “I’ve got good news for you … You’re working on the Mac team now. Come with me.” Hertzfeld replied that he needed a couple more days to finish the Apple II product he was in the middle of.  “What’s more important than working on the Macintosh?” Jobs demanded. Hertzfeld explained that he needed to get his Apple II DOS program in good enough shape to hand it over to someone. “You’re just wasting your time with that!” Jobs replied. “Who cares about the Apple II? The Apple  will be dead in a few years. The Macintosh is the future of Apple, and you’re going to start on it now!” With that, Jobs yanked out the power cord to Herzfeld’s Apple II, causing the code he was working on to vanish. “Come with me,” Jobs said. “I’m going to take you to your new desk.” Jobs drove Hertzfeld, computer and all, in his silver Mercedes to the Macintosh offices. “Here’s your new desk,” he said … “Welcome to the Mac team!”  (Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, pp. 113-114)

If you want to start with a discussion question, you might add:

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“Can you share a time that you were called to a particular job or ministry?”

Today we’re going to see how Jesus called HIS disciples to follow Him — in a way only slightly less shocking than how Steve Jobs called Andy Hertzfeld!

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Teacher’s Overview of Matthew 3:13-4:11, Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson, “Affirmation,” for 12/07/25

Posted on 2025/11/29 by Shawn Thomas

Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, text highlights and doctrinal emphases, illustrations you can use, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“What are some ways that you’ve been asked to verify your identity?”

(We’ve all had to show our driver’s license; I’ve been asked to show my passport when traveling; I had to literally bring my Social Security card to one government agency; my fingerprints get me into my computer and some websites; sometimes we give passwords or PIN numbers — you/your group can share many examples like these.

Then transition to the lesson by saying: in today’s lesson in Matthew 3 and 4, we’ll study what happened when Jesus arrived,  and how He had His identity verified in some very special ways!

 

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Teacher’s Overview of Deuteronomy 33:1-5, 26-29, Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson, “God’s Power,” for 11/30/25.

Posted on 2025/11/22 by Shawn Thomas

Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, teaching outline and highlights, illustrations you can use, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“What is your favorite hymn/song about salvation?”

(For example, one of mine is the old hymn, “At Calvary.” I can remember singing it as a newly baptized child, on the tailgate of our old blue pickup truck” “Mercy there was great and great was free, pardon there was multiplied to ME …”. I didn’t understand as much about salvation then as I do now, but I did know that Jesus had saved me, and I didn’t deserve it! I loved that song, and I still do!)

After you/your group have shared some of your favorites, then transition with: Today we’re going to see how God is the Savior and Trust of His people, from Deuteronomy 33. 

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Teacher’s Overview of Deuteronomy 30:11-20, Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson, “Fully Committed,” for 11/23/25.

Posted on 2025/11/15 by Shawn Thomas

Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, outline and highlights from the text, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“Can you share a time you wanted to go somewhere or do something, but it was just too difficult for you?”

(For example, once I wanted climb up a big, stone-covered mountain in southwest Oklahoma, but it was after I had been sick, and I had to stop halfway up, huffing and puffing!  

One time recently, Cheryl & I were going to go to one of our grandkids’ pumpkin patch field trips from school — but when we arrived, there was no handicapped parking, and we couldn’t maneuver her wheelchair on a long gravel parking lot, so we had to give up and leave. It was just too hard.)

You/your group can share your own stories like that, and then point out: In today’s lesson from Deuteronomy 30, we’ll see how the salvation God offers us is not “too difficult” or out of the reach of anyone who will respond to Him in repentance and faith!

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Teacher’s Overview of Deuteronomy 28:1-6, 15-19, Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson, “Covenant Relationship,” for 11/16/25.

Posted on 2025/11/08 by Shawn Thomas

Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, suggested introduction to the lesson, text outline and highlights, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:
One time I asked someone why they thought God would let them into heaven. They told me: “Because I do my best to keep His commandments.” People who do these kind of surveys regularly tell us this is one of the most common answers to that question.

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“What do you think about that answer, and what might be wrong with it?”
(This answer is wrong because none of us can keep all of God’s commandments! Romans 3:23 makes it clear: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That’s why the only way of salvation for us is by God’s grace, through Jesus’ death on the cross.)

Then transition to the lesson by saying something like, “In this morning’s lesson from Deuteronomy 28, we will read about the blessings God promises for those who obey His word, and the curses that will come upon those who do not — and the details of those promises make it clear that our only hope of salvation is God’s grace in Christ!

(As an alternate introduction, you might also consider opening with the “cornucopia” illustration from Point I — or perhaps the Charles Lindbergh illustration that I chose to use as a conclusion to the lesson.)

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Teacher’s Overview of Deuteronomy 12:1-11, 29-32, Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson, “Undivided Worship,” for 11/09/25

Posted on 2025/11/01 by Shawn Thomas

An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson for November 9, 2025 on Deuteronomy 12. Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, text outline and highlights, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

Several of you have asked for an easier way to print out the lesson — good news: there is now a “PRINT” button at the very end of this article on my website that you can press to print. I hope that will make it easier for you if you want to print the overview out to mark up as your prepare, or to use to teach your group. 

INTRODUCTION:

The novelist David Foster Wallace was not a Christian, but he said this in a famous commencement speech he made at Kenyon College in 2005, that he entitled: “This Is Water”:

“You get to decide what to worship. . . . In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God . . . to worship . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.

If you worship money and things . . . then you will never feel you have enough.

Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you.

Worship power—you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay.

Worship your intellect, being seen as smart—you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.”

You could read that quote, and/or print/post a portion of it, like: 

“Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” 

And then ask your group to DISCUSS that quote. You could even share some of what Wallace said in the discussion: that if you worship your body, age will do you in, etc.

Then after you’ve discussed that, you can transition by saying that in our lesson for today in Deuteronomy 12 we find some of God’s commands for how He wanted His people Israel to worship — and how they apply to us today. We DO get to choose how we worship, and it is the most important choice we have to make. God wants us to obey Him in the way that we choose to worship. 

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Teacher’s Overview of Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 20-25, “Love” for Sunday 11/02/25

Posted on 2025/10/25 by Shawn Thomas

Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, text highlights and outline, illustrations you can share, discussions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

You could begin the lesson this week with this quote from former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson:

“… a boy never gets over his boyhood, and never can change those subtle influences which have become a part of him, that were bred in him when he was a child.”  (A. Scott Berg, Wilson, p. 38)

And/or you can use the following ???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“What’s something that your mom or dad ‘always said’ to you when you were growing up?”

(EXAMPLE: My dad always used to say: “Play with the bull, you get the horn!” — in other words, you mess with somebody/something dangerous, don’t be surprised when you get hurt.

You/your group can share your own experiences.

Then transition: in today’s lesson in Deuteronomy 6, Moses tells Israel some important things that God wanted them not only to apply to their lives but also to pass down to their children and grandchildren. And we should do the same with His word today. 

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Teacher’s Overview of Deuteronomy 4:1-9, 15-20, Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson “Remember” for 10/26/25

Posted on 2025/10/18 by Shawn Thomas

For Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders of Lifeway’s Explore the Bible lesson. Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, text outline and overview, illustrations you can use, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“Can you share a time when you gave some ‘final instructions’ to your kids/others — maybe before they went off to school for the first time, or started a new job, got married, etc? What did you tell them?”

(For example, one year Cheryl wanted us to have a “big talk” with our four kids before they went off to start a new school year. I gave each of them some specific instructions for their situation: 

— I told our oldest: Paul, you are starting college; don’t get distracted; you’ve to keep your grades up to keep your scholarship.

— David, you’re a junior now; you’ll start applying for colleges soon, so every grade in every class will count.

— Libby, you’re starting 9th grade. Now, every class you take will go on your transcript, so you need to take each one seriously.

— Michael, our baby, who was about to start Kindergarten, was next. But as soon as I turned my face towards him and said “Michael …” he jumped up, started crying, and ran down the hallway! We all laugh about that; couldn’t take the pressure I guess! But those were my final instructions to our kids that year. You can share that if you’d like — but you and your group may have other stories you can share about last words/final instructions. 

AND/OR:

You might use some variation of the Lifeway suggested opening:
“Share a favorite family memory that’s always told and will get passed down to the next generation.” 

Then transition to the lesson, and say that today we are shifting our study in the Old Testament to the Book of Deuteronomy, where we find Moses’ final instructions/things He wanted the people of Israel to remember and pass along, before they cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land. 

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Teachers’ Overview of Numbers 33:50-56, 34:13-15, Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson, “Instructions Given,” for 10/19/25.

Posted on 2025/10/11 by Shawn Thomas

This overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible study leaders includes some sample introductions to the lesson, text highlights and outline, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“Can you share some instructions that someone once gave you, that were very important to follow?”

(For example, we closed on our house sale in Texas a few weeks ago, and they gave us some very detailed instructions on how to get the money wired to us, that we had to follow, number one, so that the money went to the right place; and number two, to avoid it being hijacked by wire fraud. So we really had to pay attention to the instructions and follow them carefully)

You/your group can share your answers, and then transition to the lesson by saying: As we continue our study in the Book of Numbers today we see how God gives His people instructions — and it is important that we obey Him when He does!

???ALTERNATE DISCUSSION/OPENING???

Discuss the following quote:

“We become proficient at what we practice. This is true for obedience and for sin.”  (Rosaria Butterfield, Openness Unhindered, p. 37)

And again, transition to the lesson by saying that our lesson in Numbers this morning reminds us of the importance of obeying God. 

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Teacher’s Overview of Numbers 22:22-35, Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson for 10/12/25, “God’s Plans”

Posted on 2025/10/04 by Shawn Thomas

Includes a sample introduction to get the lesson started, text highlights and outline, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

??? Can you think of someone in history/literature, whose name is associated with greed and compromise? As soon as you hear their name, you think of greed/love of money?

(— Marcus Crassus of Rome is infamous in classical history for his greed: he bought and sold slaves — human souls — for profit. He also took advantage of people by buying their burned out homes to turn around and make a profit. 

— More recently, Charles Ponzi’s name has become infamous. Ponzi would promise investors a 50% profit within 45 days, and repay his old investors with money from the new investors — until the scheme caught up with him. We get the term “Ponzi scheme” from Charles Ponzi!

— Scrooge was greedy; Benedict Arnold and Judas sold their souls for money … You/your group may be able to think of others. Then transition to the lesson, indicating that today we’ll look at the story of a man of God who compromised himself spiritually for money: the prophet Balaam in Numbers 22.

 

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