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!
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders of Lifeway’s Explore the Bible lesson of Numbers 20 for Sunday Oct. 5, 2025, including a sample introduction to the lesson, text outline and highlights, illustrations you can share, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life application. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRODUCTION:
??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“Can you share about a politician/pastor/other leader that you greatly admired/agreed with — but they had a flaw/ you disagreed with them on something?”
(Lots of examples, aren’t they? For example, I loved Ronald Reagan, but I disagreed with some of his policy decisions. There are many pastors that I appreciate, but I don’t agree with any of them on everything. And they are all just men. We all have our failures and flaws.
You/your group will have no trouble coming up with examples, because every human being is flawed; we are all imperfect.
You might point out that that one of the evidences for the truthfulness of the Bible is that it does not “airbrush” out the flaws of its leaders. It shows them just as they really were — which gives us confidence in its truthfulness. And today in our lesson in Numbers 20, we see how Moses, an amazing leader and man of God, had his own failures and flaws as well.
(ALTERNATE INTRODUCTION)
Use the quote from David McCullough’s History Matters that I mention in Point I, and open with a discussion question on how “past things shed light on future ones” — and after your discussion, share how we today can learn from Israel’s mistakes, as we have the same sin nature today that they did then.)
***However you’re led begin the lesson, be sure you pay attention to the context for this passage, because the Scripture takes a 38-year leap into the future, which you’ll miss if you aren’t careful, and make some wrong interpretations/applications***
An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Numbers 14:11-24, “Rebellion & Judgment,” for Sunday, September 28, 2025. Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, text highlights and outline, 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:
You could share this brief description of George Washington by his contemporary, and his Vice President, John Adams. Adams wrote to Benjamin Rush, and described him as having: a “handsome Face,” an “elegant Form,” and “graceful Attitudes and Movement.” (Adams letter to Benjamin Rush, November 11, 1807 GLC00424.)
AND/OR:
Pass out some slips of paper and ask your members to write a few words they would use to describe themselves to someone who might not know them — perhaps 5-7 qualities. You might ask for some volunteers to share what they wrote.
Then transition: In today’s lesson from Numbers 14, we see how GOD described Himself to us — and how being the kind of God that He told us He is, gives us hope for grace and forgiveness.
An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Numbers 13:17-31, with the title “The Land, for Sunday, September 21, 2025. Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, text highlights and outline, illustrations you can use, discussion questions for your group, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available at:
INTRODUCTION:
Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian obstetrician who lived in the 1800s. He was greatly concerned about the high rate of infection and resulting death in hospitals. He believed he knew the cause: the doctors themselves, who would often go from room to room — or even from autopsies in the morgue — without washing their hands. He speculated that if doctors would cleanse themselves it would cut down in the rate of infection. His colleagues did not believe him — they didn’t believe that THEY were the problem! He was widely ridiculed and was eventually put in a mental asylum, where he died at 47. But although Semmelweis was in the minority, he was absolutely right, as we now know, and today he is referred to as “the father of hand hygiene.” This is a good reminder to us, that the majority is not always right.
??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“Can you share a time from history or your own experience when the majority/popular opinion was wrong?”
In today’s lesson we’ll see that the majority is not always right — especially when they are acting in fear instead of faith in God’s word. This passage challenges us to be people of faith, who listen to God, and follow Him, even when He calls us to a difficult assignment.
I'm a retired Southern Baptist pastor of almost 40 years. My wife Cheryl & I moved to Norman, OK in March of 2025. I share a weekly overview for Sunday School teachers of the weekly Lifeway "Explore the Bible" lesson, as well as texts of my sermons and other articles.
shawnethomas 