“Our Sovereign God”

Posted on 2012/01/22 by Shawn Thomas

Psalm 103:19                         “Our Sovereign God”

      Centuries ago, King Canute was one of the most powerful kings of England ever – but he also knew his limits.  Canute reigned over what is now England, Denmark, and much of Europe, and as a powerful king, he had a lot of flattering servants around him.  They kept telling him that there was none as powerful as he; that whatever he commanded would be done.  So Canute decided to teach his courtiers a lesson.  He ordered his throne to be taken to the edge of the sea.  He then proclaimed that no water would come up to touch his throne.  But a few moments later, a wave rolled up to the throne and “licked” it.  King Canute took off his crown at that spot, and said, “There is only One who is worthy to wear the crown – the Sovereign Lord of the uiniverse”, and he never wore it again! 

     Last week, in our study, “Our Great God”, we looked at the fact that God is a Triune God; that He is One God who exists eternally as three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  God is a “personal” God; that is, He relates to us personally.  But we in contemporary times have often so emphasized the “personal” nature of God, that we have neglected His grandeur, majesty and power.  J.I. Packer wrote that we may have the same doctrines as some of the early church fathers, but if we read their writings, we may wonder whether we experientially know the same God!  (Knowing God, p. 83)  We have emphasized the personal nature of God so much, that we tend to think of Him as weak, and needy, and even “pathetic”!  That is NOT the God the Bible describes.  The God of the Bible is “Our Great God”, as our series title indicates.  Our passage for this morning speaks about that.  Psalm 103:19 says: “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.”  The Bible makes it clear that although God is a “personal” God, He is also Sovereign.  That word “sovereign” means “supreme ruler; having ultimate power.”  God is a personal God, who, incredibly, wants you to know Him.  But one of the things He wants you to know about Him is that He is the King, the Sovereign on the throne of this universe! Continue reading →

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“Trusting the Potter’s Hands”

Posted on 2012/01/16 by Shawn Thomas

Genesis 2:7-8                        Trusting the Potter’s Hands

      Sometimes we hear people speak of someone as being a “self-made man.”  I know what they mean when they say that: that the person they are talking about did not begin life with a fortune; that they worked their way “up the ladder” to where they are today.  But the expression is a poor one. There is no such thing as a “self-made man.”  God has given every one of us, every ability we have.  We owe everything we have and everything we are to Him. 

     We are reminded of that in the Creation story of Genesis 2, where we find a re-telling of God’s creation of man.  In verses 7-8 there are3 verbs which specify for us what God did for that first man – and what he does for each one of us as well.  They serve as a good reminder of how dependent we are upon the Lord, how we need to look to Him to be our help, and how we should trust Him with every one of our circumstances. Continue reading →

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“Our Triune God”

Posted on 2012/01/16 by Shawn Thomas

Matthew 3:16-17                      “Our Triune God”

 Some years ago, my sister served as an English teacher in a Chinese college with our SBC Journeyman program.  She could not initiate any “evangelism” per se, but she was allowed to respond to any question the Chinese students might ask her.  One day, not long after they had started classes, Erin finished the English lesson for the day, and asked if anyone had any questions about the lesson.  One of the students at the back shot up her hand and out of the blue asked: “Can you tell us about America and its three gods?”  Well, it was a great witnessing opportunity, right off the top, that the Lord gave her in that class.  But it also highlights what is often a misunderstanding about Christianity, that somehow we serve “3 gods”: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  They are NOT “three gods”, but ONE – in what theologians call the “Trinity”.  “Trinity” is a word that comes from “Tri”, meaning “three”, and “unity”, of course meaning oneness.  When we say that God is a “Triune” God, we are saying that He is “three in one”: three Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, in one essence, one nature, one being – one God. 

     This morning we are looking at the very first attribute of God in our study “Our Great God” – what the Bible teaches us about the God we serve.  Last week we saw that there is nothing more important than knowing God; not just being “religious”, but really knowing Him.  And today we are going to look at what the Bible teaches about Him as a Triune God.  We are taking this first, because it is so often misunderstood, and yet it is one of the most important things we can know about God.  The Tri-Unity of God is one of the key doctrines of Christianity, which sets us apart from every other religion in the world!  So let’s pray and ask God to give us understanding, through His Holy Spirit, and then let’s look at what the Bible teaches us about “Our Triune God.”  Continue reading →

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A Reprehensible Scam

Posted on 2012/01/13 by Shawn Thomas

I was really looking forward to my Friday off: after a pretty hectic start to the new year, I had a stress-free day with nothing planned!  Unfortunately someone marred the middle of it with a really despicable act. Continue reading →

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Jeremiah 9:23-24 “Our Great God” Series Introduction

Posted on 2012/01/10 by Shawn Thomas

Years ago, in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer wrote:  “What you think about when you think about God is the most important thing about you.”

     What DO you think about when you think about God?  And where did you get those ideas?  This is important.  We all have ideas about God – but the important thing to ask is: are they the RIGHT ideas?  Where did we get them? Continue reading →

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Day Trip To Natchitoches

Posted on 2011/12/28 by Shawn Thomas

 Our family has lived in Lake Charles for over 11 years now, but we had never spent much time in one of Louisiana’s premier destinations, the venerable Natchitoches, which lays claim to being the oldest city in the state.  Oh, we had attended a couple of football games at the Northwestern State campus there, to see our son Paul play, but we had never toured the shops on the river.  Today my wife Cheryl & I remedied that with a post-Christmas day trip to Natchitoches! Continue reading →

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“De-Christmas-ing”

Posted on 2011/12/27 by Shawn Thomas

Today we are “De-Christmas-ing.” I got that word from a good friend of ours at church who put all their Christmas decorations away yesterday, and reported about it on Facebook. I decided that’s a pretty good term. I like Christmas decorations, and enjoy putting them out. But after Christmas is over, I am pretty much ready to get the house back to normal. In the days leading up to Christmas, I have presents hidden all over my closet for Cheryl & the kids: underneath and behind my suits, stuffed under my socks in the drawer, and just covered up by coats against the wall in my side of the closet. It is kind of nice to get those spaces back! And honestly I just like the way our home is set up, so I enjoy getting it back to “normal”.

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Heralds of the Advent: Isaiah 9

Posted on 2011/12/26 by Shawn Thomas

One of my favorite editorial cartoons ran a number of years ago during the last recession.  Like many cartoons, it appeared in two parts.  The first showed a man sitting in front of a Christmas tree that was packed underneath with presents.  In the next, there were not nearly as many presents – and there is a newspaper on the floor with the headline, “Leaner Sales”.  But with the absence of the presents, now you could see that there was a Nativity Scene under the tree!  The man says: “Where did that come from?”  And his wife replies: “It’s been there all along” – the implication being, it had been crowded out by all of the presents which were under the tree during the more prosperous times.  I love that cartoon, because it portrays so vividly how we often let materialism crowd out what this season should really be about: the birth of the Child Whom we need much more than any other gift. 

     On this Christmas morning we will finish our series, “Heralds of the Advent” by turning to Isaiah 9, where we find that God’s great gift to us would be a Child, a Son.  We have seen the past couple of weeks that these prophets, Isaiah and Micah, wrote 700-750 years before Christ was born, and predicted things about Him which would come to pass in the birth of Jesus Christ.  Micah predicted in Micah 5:2 that He would be born inBethlehem. Isaiah predicted in 7:14 that He would be born of a virgin.  Both of them indicated that He would be much more than a “mere” child, but that He would be God Himself who would come to earth to save us.  Today we turn back to the Book of Isaiah, chapter 9, where we find that God’s answer for man’s problems would indeed come in the form of a Child – a very special Child – and he describes for us in this verse what this One would be like, and what He would accomplish for us.  He is truly the Greatest Christmas Gift.  I don’t know what kind of gifts you opened up for Christmas last night, or this morning – but this gift is greater; this is the One you need more than anything else!  Let’s look together at Isaiah 9:6, and the Gift God gave us in His Son: Continue reading →

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“Martin Luther’s Christmas Sermon” (compiled)

Posted on 2011/12/19 by Shawn Thomas

     Martin Luther was the man God used to spark the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s.  As a young man, Luther had done his best to justify himself by his works, but never found peace with God until the Lord touched his heart with Romans 1:17 (which quotes Habakkuk 2:4) “The just shall live by his FAITH”.  Luther became a mighty preacher and writer – often times very plain spoken (in fact, he said many things that you all would probably throw me out of this pulpit for saying – but I am going to avoid that tonight by not mentioning what those are!)

     The following “message” was never preached in one setting by Martin Luther.  Rather this is a compilation of things that Luther taught from the different Christmas passages in Matthew and Luke. As you will see, he sometimes “filled in the blanks” in the account with his opinions or imagination.  I’ll let you sift through the good and the bad here.  But there are also some GREAT applications that I hope you’ll let God speak to your heart about, through “Martin Luther’s Christmas Sermon”! Continue reading →

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A very specific, personal decision …

Posted on 2011/12/16 by Shawn Thomas

Friday is our son Michael’s last day at school. Yeah, I know, it is the last day for a lot of kids – it’s Christmas break! But unlike a lot of other kids, when break is over, Michael is not going back. He is going to be educated at home. Since Mike has attended our church’s First Baptist Academy, and I am the pastor of the church, I wanted to explain our reasons to anyone who might be interested in why we are taking this particular course of action.

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