Are You Instructing God?

Posted on 2015/02/12 by Shawn Thomas

Job 40:7 is one of those places where we see that God has a sense of humor. When He finally addresses Job out of the whirlwind, He says to him, “I will ask you, and you instruct Me.” If this is not humorous, it is full of sarcastic irony to say the least! God tells a man: “You instruct Me” — like we could teach God anything! Yet is it not true that many of us are indeed guilty of attempting that very thing? Continue reading →

Posted in Devotions/Bible Studies | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A Pleasant Trip to the Ridge

Posted on 2015/02/11 by Shawn Thomas

Last weekend, Cheryl, Michael & I drove to Morganton, North Carolina, where I was called to serve as Senior Pastor at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church. It was a very emotional time for us, as it ended a three-year odyssey through a valley of suffering and disappointment. God had once again “lifted my head” as Psalm 3:3, the verse I had stood on for the past several years, affirmed. But that is not say that there were not some “lighter” moments this weekend as well … Continue reading →

Posted in Home & Family Life | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Seeking God’s Path

Posted on 2015/02/07 by Shawn Thomas

Psalm 25:4 shows us several important things about seeking God’s will for our lives: “Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.”

— First, it teaches us that our prayers are not to be that God would just bless the way or path that we have already chosen. This is where a certain brand of so- called “Christianity” goes awry. They put the focus on asking God to bless THEIR vision, dream or path. But this would actually reverse the proper roles of man and God! Continue reading →

Posted in Devotions/Bible Studies | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Older Is Not Always Wiser

Posted on 2015/02/04 by Shawn Thomas

You have to be careful when you are quoting Job’s friends! Just because their words are recorded in scripture does not mean that what they said is good, or correct. But in Job 32:9 the younger “friend” Elihu made a good point after his older friends had finished speaking: “The abundant in years may not be wise.” Continue reading →

Posted in Devotions/Bible Studies | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Mixture of Error

Posted on 2015/02/03 by Shawn Thomas

Rarely does even a heretic get everything wrong. Usually the problem with a false teacher is that they have mixed SOME truth together with error. Elihu, the 4th and youngest of Job’s “friends”, is an example of this: Continue reading →

Posted in Devotions/Bible Studies | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“Prayer & The Church We Want To Be” (Acts 1 & 2 sermon)

Posted on 2015/02/02 by Shawn Thomas

(Preached at First Baptist, Pauls Valley, OK 2-01-15 a.m.)

The pastor at our home church, Trinity Baptist in Norman, Bro. Ronnie Rogers, has just published a new book; one which I would highly recommend to anyone who is interested in the church. It is entitled The Equipping Church. The basic thesis of the book is that there is a tension in many churches and across American Christianity today, between those who are seeking to be “contemporary” and those who are seeking to be “traditional” in their approaches to church ministry. Pastor Rogers writes, and I think pretty fairly, about some of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. But his main conclusion is that BOTH of these approaches have really missed the point. The goal of the church should not be to be either “contemporary”, or “traditional”, but BIBLICAL! We are to be like the church that God commands us to be in His word. But what kind of church is that, and how can we become like that church? We find the answers to those questions in the first chapters of the Book of Acts. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Second-hand Cares?”

Posted on 2015/01/28 by Shawn Thomas

Job evidences one of the signs of his righteousness in 30:25, “Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?”
I wonder how many of us could really say this and mean it? Do we really care about those whose lives are hard, or who are needy, in the same way that Job did? Continue reading →

Posted in Devotions/Bible Studies | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The “Cloud” of Prosperity

Posted on 2015/01/27 by Shawn Thomas

One of Job’s complaints, found in 30:15, was that “My prosperity has passed away like a cloud.” There are a number of great word pictures in the book of Job, and this is one of them. He says that prosperity is like a “cloud”, which is needed reminder for many of us. Continue reading →

Posted in Devotions/Bible Studies | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Our Holy God” (Isaiah 6:1-5 sermon)

Posted on 2015/01/26 by Shawn Thomas

(Preached at FBC Pauls Valley, 1-25-15 a.m.)

Shawn Thomas's avatarshawnethomas

In Here I Stand, Roland Bainton’s biography of Martin Luther, he tells of how Luther, as a young monk, was to lead in his first Communion.  Luther was terrified.  He said:

“At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, “With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say ‘I want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and the true God.”

Unfortunately, not many people have that kind of attitude towards God.  I say unfortunately because the change…

View original post 3,991 more words

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“The Gospel and Forgiving Others” (Ephesians 4:32 sermon)

Posted on 2015/01/20 by Shawn Thomas

(Preached at First Baptist, Pauls Valley, OK 1-18-15)

The great symbol of Christianity is the cross, and for good reason. As we saw last week, the cross of Jesus is the center of Christianity. The basic message of Christianity is that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” — and He died for our sins on the cross. Paul called the gospel “the message of the cross” because the cross is so central to Christianity.

But the cross symbolizes something else as well: it also pictures the two very important kinds of relationships that Christianity impacts in the life of its followers: the vertical bar of the cross points us towards heaven, indicating that it makes us right with God, and the horizontal arm of the cross reminds us that it also impacts our relationships with other people as well.

Last week, we looked at how the gospel saves us and makes us right with God. This morning, we are going to follow that up by looking at how the gospel should affect our horizontal relationships with others as well. A great scripture that addresses this is found at the very end of the fourth chapter of Ephesians, verse 32. This verse is pure gold for Christians of every level; it is one of the first verses we teach our smallest children in Sunday School, and yet it challenges the maturity of the most experienced saint:

“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | 1 Comment