Lifeway “Explore the Bible” Lesson Overview of I Kings 19:9-18, for Sun, July 17, 2022: “Hope”

Posted on 2022/07/10 by Shawn Thomas

(A brief overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible study leaders of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible lesson of I Kings 19 for Sunday, July 17, 2022)

Video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

One way to introduce the lesson this week might be to ask your group to share:

— ??? What was one of the biggest emotional “highs” you ever experienced in your life — greatest victory, spiritual experience, emotional high (maybe marriage, birth of a child, or big promotion or award, spiritual experience)

— ??? and then after some of those have been shared, ask: Now what was one of the LOWEST times you ever went through? (Some might be hard to share, but can you share one of your worst?)  It might help your group to share if you will be prepared to lead the way with an experience of your own. And/or send a person or two from class an email and ask them to be ready to share an answer. (You could email your whole class this opening question — not a bad excuse to make a contact with everyone this week anyway!)

But after you’ve shared the stories of the highs/lows, then make the point: we ALL have both kinds of experiences, don’t we? Everyone has both “high” and “low” times in life. Nobody has all highs, or all lows; we all have both. Even those we think of as “super spiritual” people like Bible heroes have their “low” times — and we see that in Elijah in our passage for today in I Kings 19.

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“Commissioned By His Glory” (Isaiah 6 sermon)

Posted on 2022/07/05 by Shawn Thomas

I’ve made it a personal tradition each Independence Day the past several years to read David McCullough’s classic, 1776, which chronicles that famous year in America’s history. One of the opening paragraphs describes George III, the King of England, proceeding towards the English Parliament in a glorious parade:

“The King’s procession departed St. James’s … two Horse Grenadiers with swords drawn rode in the lead to clear the way, following by gleaming coaches filled with nobility, then a clattering of Horse Guards, the Yeoman of the Guard in red and gold … and a rank of footmen, also in red and gold. Finally came the King in his colossal golden chariot pulled by eight magnificent cream-colored horses (Hanoverian Creams) … and six footmen at the side.

No mortal on earth rode in such style as their King, the English knew. Twenty-four feet in length and thirteen feet high, the royal coach weighed nearly four tons, enough to make the ground tremble when under way. George III had it built years before, insisting that it be ‘superb.’ Three (golden) cherubs on top — symbols of England, Scotland, and Ireland — held high a (golden) crown, while over the heavy spoked wheels, front and back, loomed four (golden) sea gods, formidable reminders that Britannia ruled the waves. … It was as though the very grandeur, wealth, and weight of the (whole) British Empire were rolling past.” (McCullough, 1776, p. 4)

But as glorious as the King of England was, he was very mortal, and very fallible. He was on his way to address Parliament to encourage them NOT to give way to the impudent demands of their American colonies. But George would lose those colonies (which we will celebrate tomorrow!) One day, sadly, he would also lose his mind. And finally he would die, and lose his throne, his kingdom, and all his riches forever.

But you & I serve a King with a throne more glorious even than George’s. A king whose reign will never end. We read something of His glory in our passage for today in Isaiah 6. This is one of THE classic passages in all of scripture. And one of the reasons for it, is that it sets before us several foundational truths:

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Lifeway Explore the Bible Teachers’ Overview: I Kings 18:25-39, for Sun., July 10, 2022, “Proven”

Posted on 2022/07/03 by Shawn Thomas

(A brief overview for teachers and Bible Study leaders of the Lifeway Sunday school lesson for July 10, 2022)

INTRODUCTION: One way you could begin this lesson would be to ask your group:  

??? “Have you/anyone in your class ever seen someone literally bow down and worship and idol?”  Many of us who have grown up as Christians in America might say NO, but an increasing number of us may have.  

— I remember reading an article in the paper in Tulsa back in the 1990’s, and they were interviewing an Asian man who had started a business there. They had a picture of his mantle, and referred to the idol he worshiped. That was the first time I’d seen an idol being worshiped in America.

— And I can vividly remember being on a mission trip in Lucknow, India, and seeing a man dressed in a nice business suit walk up to a little local temple, ring the bell (I learned later to “wake up the god”!) and bow down before the image of the monkey god who was sitting on a throne. I was just blown away by it. It was the first time I’d really seen someone bow before an idol. A man dressed in a business suit, bowing before a monkey god idol!  

— I was driving to make a hospital visit here in Texas my first year here, and was shocked to see a series of Buddhist idols on the side of the road at one point. In TEXAS of all places!

You/some of your class members may have some experiences like this — or you can feel free to share these.

But then you could say: this morning we are going to look at I Kings 18, where God’s people were challenged to forsake false idols like these, and worship the One True God, YHWH. (And of course we will see that all “idols” are not made of stone/wood!)

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“Consecration Today, For Wonders Tomorrow” (Joshua 3:5 sermon)

Posted on 2022/06/27 by Shawn Thomas

As I said a few weeks ago, Michael’s wedding last week put an “exclamation point” on a busy first half of the year for Cheryl & I, that included getting COVID to start the year; then a mission trip to Bulgaria, a major vacation with our grandkids to Florida, the birth of another grand baby, helping one of our kids move, and now the wedding in South Carolina. We’re glad to be home, and looking forward to just a “normal” schedule for a while!  But the wedding was a big deal, and as you know, it takes a LOT of planning and preparation to bring it off: dresses and shoes and suits and dinners and table settings and money and money and money!! It was a beautiful wedding, and a great time for our whole family to be together — but something like that doesn’t just “happen;” it takes MONTHS of planning and preparation to put it all together.

The Mutina’s are going through the same thing for Madison & Jason’s wedding next month; many of you have done the same with events like that in your life. We have to prepare today, if we want an important thing like that to go well tomorrow. We know that. But do we realize the same thing is true for the things of God? If we want to see God work in our church in the days ahead, we need to prepare for it today. If we want God to work in our personal lives tomorrow, we need to prepare for it today. One of the verses we read this week, Joshua 3:5, speaks to that. It says:

“Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.’”

The context here is that Joshua and the people of Israel are just about to cross the Jordan River and finally go in to the Promised Land. But God says, wait a minute! You can’t just “traipse right in”! You have to prepare yourselves for it first. And I believe we as a church are in a similar situation today — and some of us as individuals are in similar situations as well. We’re looking ahead and we think God may be about to do something in us and through us. And He MAY — but we need to realize that it won’t just “happen;” we have to prepare today, if we want to see God’s wonders tomorrow.

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Explore the Bible lesson overview: I Kings 15:9-22, “Return” for Sun., July 3, 2022

Posted on 2022/06/26 by Shawn Thomas

(This is a brief overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible study leader of the Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson for this text. A video version of this overview is available at:

ONE way you could open this lesson would be to refer to the landmark decision our Supreme Court handed down last week, overturning the Roe v Wade decision in 1973 that somehow found a guarantee of abortion rights in the Constitution. For the last almost 50 years, our country had endured this evil, with 63 million babies being killed — but last Friday, June 24, that was overturned. It marked a great turn BACK from evil in our country.

(Or you could introduce the lesson with some other story of a “turning back,” or “revival” that took place, or a pastor who came to your church and turned things around, or a personal turning back to God in your life, or the life of someone you know.)

Then you might say: this week our lesson in I Kings refers to a similar “turning back”, a revival that took place in Judah under King Asa.

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Lifeway Explore the Bible lesson overview: I Kings 12:6-19, “Divided,” for Sunday, June 26, 2022

Posted on 2022/06/19 by Shawn Thomas

(This is an overview intended for Sunday School teachers and Bible Study leaders, of the Lifeway lesson for June 26, 2022. A video version is also available on YouTube at:

ONE way you could introduce this passage would be to talk about (or ask your group to share) some big “splits” or divisions in history. For example:

— the Civil War in 1861, when the South seceded from the Union

— the Reformation in the 1500s, when Martin Luther and the Protestants separated from the Roman Catholic Church

— there was a lesser-known (to us) split in 1054 A.D., when the Western Pope “excommunicated” the Bishop of Constantinople, and the Eastern and Western churches split at that time — actually THE biggest division in Christianity – called “The Great Schism” though few in our culture are aware of it! 

— then there are well-known “celebrity spits” (the only one I can think of is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie — and I had to look that up to make sure! — but your class may know some of these!)

But then after you or your class discuss some of these famous divisions or splits, I would say: One of the most famous splits in Church/Biblical history is the one that took place between Israel & Judah after the death of King Solomon, when all the tribes except Judah left to become the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and Judah continued under David’s descendants. 

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“A Not-So-Happy Ending” (Jonah 4 sermon)

Posted on 2022/06/12 by Shawn Thomas

In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities he tells of the Marquis St. Evremonde, an extremely rich man who entertained himself by racing his carriage through the narrow streets of Paris and watching the peasants dive out of the way. But while he was driving, suddenly there was a thud; the carriage stopped. People were screaming and crying. His carriage had hit a child. The Marquis was upset also: “Why is he making that abominable noise? How do I know what injury you have done to my horses?” He tossed out a gold coin to the child’s father, and sped away. 

The passions of that rich man were grotesquely misplaced, weren’t they? He cared more about his horses, and his personal entertainment, than he did a maimed and dying child. But before we shake our heads at him, let’s make sure that we don’t see ourselves in his reflection. What really bothers YOU? What are YOU passionate about? The Kingdom of God and the people God loves? Or your own possessions and comforts?

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Lifeway Explore the Bible overview of I Kings 11:1-13, “Compromised” for Sunday, June 19, 2022

Posted on 2022/06/12 by Shawn Thomas

(A brief overview of the lesson, for Sunday School teachers and Bible Study leaders of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lessons. A video version is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3eASaR88Co&t=28s ) 

SAMPLE INTRODUCTION:  Can you think of someone, in sports or political or religious history, who may have had a good career, but who did not FINISH well?

— Have you ever seen a team or an individual get a big lead in sports and then lose it? It happens all the time! One of my recent favorites was last year’s OU/Texas football game, where Texas jumped out to a 28-7 lead in the first quarter, and everyone thought the game was over — but OU crawled back and scored the winning touchdown with THREE SECONDS left, to win 55-48! It’s not how you start, but how you finish! That’s why a lot of sports teams adopt as their motto “FINISH”! Don’t blow it at the end; FINISH!

— Politically I think of Richard Nixon, who had a great political career, but of course did not finish well, with Watergate.

— Sadly there are a number of examples of men who did not finish well spiritually, even recently in the Southern Baptist Convention: among them the SBC Executive Committee Director, who had a long career as a successful pastor, and whom I highly respected, but while at the Executive Committee it was found that he had a relationship with a woman outside of his marriage. It was sad to me that he did not finish well. 

There are too many of these kinds of examples. Be careful not to take up the whole class discussing those.  OR, depending on your group, it might be best for you just to share 1 or 2 instances like I just did, and then move on.

But however you do the introduction, then you could say: This morning our scripture passage deals with another national and spiritual leader who started well, but did not FINISH well: the SAME man we have looked at the past two weeks, King Solomon.  

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Explore the Bible Sunday school lesson overview: I Kings 8:46-60, “Repentance,” for June 12, 2022.

Posted on 2022/06/06 by Shawn Thomas

(This study is an overview, especially for teachers and Bible study leaders, of the Lifeway “Explore the Bible” Sunday school lesson, “Repentance”, for June 12, 2022. Please feel free to use any of the questions, examples, and illustrations in your lesson. The video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

ONE way that you could introduce this lesson to your class this Sunday might be to ask them: “What prayer is the best/most touching/most memorable prayer you’ve ever heard?” Does one come to mind?

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“Jesus Coaches His Misguided Disciples” (Luke 9:46-56 sermon)

Posted on 2022/06/06 by Shawn Thomas

A couple of years ago, a hurricane hit southwest Louisiana where we had formerly pastored, and some of you may remember, we had a family come and stay with us in the aftermath. They have a little preschool boy (4-5 or so) by the name of Jasper, and he is a firecracker. Just this week his family put on Facebook a video of him playing baseball in the championship game of a big tournament. Jasper was on base, and somebody hit the ball, and Jasper was running from 3rd to home — and about halfway down the 3rd base line, he starts doing summersaults — like FIVE of them — while the other team was throwing the ball in. His mom was screaming at him: “NO NO NO: RUN, Jasper, RUN!”; the coaches were all exhorting him to get up and run. He finally DID make it in, JUST before the throw! Now, I am not any kind of baseball expert, but Jasper needs some coaching on the proper way to run from 3rd to home! (Either that or maybe he needs to switch over to gymnastics?!) 

In our passage for today, Luke 9:46-55, Jesus’ disciples weren’t doing summersaults like little Jasper was doing, but they were in a sense doing “spiritual summersaults.” They were saying and doing and thinking things that were not what Jesus wanted from them as His disciples. So Jesus had to “coach them up,” and straighten them out. Many of us today need some of that same “coaching” that Jesus gave them, so let’s look at “Jesus’ Coaching For Misguided Disciples.”

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