shawnethomas

“Pilgrim’s Progress” (I Peter 1:1-2 sermon)

Posted on 2019/04/08 by Shawn Thomas

The Bible is the #1 best-selling, most-read book of all time. But right behind it, is The Pilgrim’s Progress, widely considered the second most-read book in history. It was written by Puritan John Bunyan, in the form of an allegory: a man, “Christian”, receives God’s word from a messenger named “Evangelist,” so he leaves “The City of Destruction” and heads towards “The Celestial City.” Of course it is all a parable, representing the story of every “Christian” on our journey through this world to heaven. There are a number of very clever characters in the story: “Mr. Worldly Wise Man,” “The Giant Despair,” and many others Pilgrim encounters which represent people and circumstances we all deal with in life. If you have never read this classic book, you really should. It is very insightful.

But the “big picture” you get out of this book is that for “Pilgrim,” the Christian, this world is not our home. We are just passing through, on a journey to heaven. And this is one of the most important attitudes that we as Christians need to adopt. We are just “pilgrims,” temporary travelers through this world. This world is not our home. If we “get” that; then we will be able to deal successfully with a lot of the things that face us in life. If we don’t “get” that, then we will FAIL in a lot of ways, because we’ll wonder why we have certain difficulties, or why people don’t “accept” us, because we haven’t realized that we are only temporary residents, “pilgrims” in this world.

This morning, we are beginning a journey as a church body through the Book of I Peter, and one of the themes of this book is that as Christians, we are “pilgrims” in this world like Bunyan talked about. We aren’t living for the pleasures and applause of this world, but we are just traveling through it, and we are living for the God who has called us to our ultimate home with Him in heaven. So let’s look together at what the first couple of verses of this insightful and challenging book have to tell us: Continue reading →

Posted in Discipleship, Doctrine/Theology, Sermon Illustrations, Sermons, Uncategorized | Tagged aliens, ambassador, baptism of Jesus, Bible, Chris Boniol, David McCullough Mornings on Horseback, doctrine, evangelism, gardener, George W. Bush Muslims, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Great Commission, Gregory of Nazianzus, Hebrews 11:13, I Peter 1:1-2, I Peter 2:11, I Peter sermon, II Corinthians 5:20, Islam and the Trinity, John Bunyan, modalism, not of this world, pilgrim, Pilgrim's Progress, pilgrims, place kicker, planted, Puritans, purpose, scripture, sown, The Pilgrim's Progress, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., this world is not your home, Trinity, Triune God, vocation, when I say God I mean Father Son and Holy Spirit, witness | 3 Comments

“The Goodness of God in the Midst of Affliction” (Psalm 119:65-72 sermon)

Posted on 2019/03/31 by Shawn Thomas

In February 2012, I stood to lead prayer meeting at the church in Louisiana I had pastored for 12 years, but the longer I stood the sicker I became. I had to leave during the prayer time and have my associate pastor take over. That was the first evidence that something had started to go wrong with me physically, and it would just grow worse from there. Soon I could no longer preach on Sunday morning without almost passing out during the service, and that May I went on medical leave until my doctor could come up with a diagnosis. After months of testing, they finally determined that I had what was then a rare & little-known diagnosis, but which has become more common over the last couple of years, called dysautonomia, or POTS: “Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.”

With POTS, the autonomic system malfunctions; things that are supposed to be regulated by that part of the brain misfire: for example one’s heart rate, which should adjust automatically when you stand, doesn’t. My heart rate might rise from 80 when I was sitting, to 140 or more when I stood. Essentially it was like running in place all the time when I stood, which is why I’d get so sick. It also causes severe fatigue, sleeplessness, nausea, and migraine headaches that were so bad I couldn’t read, or listen to anything.

There is no known “cure” for dysautonomia/POTS — still to this day. They just to try treat the symptoms with whatever medication seems to work best on the individual. But after months of trying different medications and treatments — some of which had side effects that were worse than the illness — nothing was helping, and it became increasingly evident that I was not going to get well any time soon. I knew I needed to step down, and let the church call a healthy pastor, who could minister to them like they needed. I was losing my job, my career, and my ministry. We had to sell our home, Cheryl’s dream house, along with about 2/3 of our possessions. I was so sick while we were moving that I couldn’t even stand to pack our belongings, and some our church members stepped over and around me on the floor as they packed my things. After 27 years of pastoring, I would now be out of the ministry. We moved to Norman, OK, where we had a small apartment, began to apply for disability, and try to convalesce without any human hope for a healthy future. As far as I knew then, my career and my life as I had known it, was over. Continue reading →

Posted in Sermon Illustrations, Sermons, Uncategorized | Tagged "Fall Apart" song, affliction, attributes of God, becoming like Christ, Christlikeness, cleansing, cocoon of a butterfly, confession, conformed to His image, dysautonomia, Ephesians 6, faith, faith testing, glory, God attributes, God goodnesss, God is good, God is good all the time, god is good and does good, God's purpose, good, grace, identification, II Corinthians 12:9, it is good for me that I was afflicted, John 17:3, knowing God, lessons, life, life purpose, Matthew 13 parable of the sower, maturity, minister, ministry, My grace is sufficient, pastor, pastor Shawn Thomas, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, POTS, prayers, priorities, Psalm 119 acrostic, Psalm 119:65-72, Psalm 119:67, purification, purpose for suffering, purpose for trials, purposes for affliction, Romans 8:28-29, Ronnie Rogers Trinity Baptist Norman, salvation, Shawn E. Thomas, sin, spiritual maturity, spiritual warfare, suffering, sword of the Spirit, test, teth, theodicy, theology, theology 101, thorn in the flesh, tob good, trials, word of God, You are good, You do good | 2 Comments

“Pursuing Holiness” (Hebrews 12:14 sermon)

Posted on 2019/03/24 by Shawn Thomas

The old Puritans of England in the 1500-1600’s have gotten what J.I. Packer calls “a bad rap.” Usually if someone calls a person a “Puritan”, or says that something is “Puritanical”, they mean it as an insult: that the person is being a “stick in the mud,” or is acting “holier than thou.” But in reality, the English Puritans were some of the best Christians ever to walk the earth, and we can learn much in our own Christian life from reading them.

One book of Puritan writings is called “The Valley of Vision.” It is actually a little book of prayers from the Puritans which a minister (Arthur Bennett) edited in the 1900’s. Many of these prayers are very beautiful, but they are also very convicting. One prayer in particular asks God: “For if I do not walk holily before Thee, how can I be assured of my salvation?” (p. 14)

That’s a good question. If you don’t walk holy before God, how CAN you be assured of your salvation? Our verse for today answers that question in a very firm way:

“Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” Continue reading →

Posted in Discipleship, Sermon Illustrations, Sermons, Uncategorized | Tagged applying scripture, Arthur Bennett, beatific vision, cathedral of Milan, conviction, daily quiet time, desire for holiness, forgiveness, Hebrews 12:14, holiness, holy, holy holy holy, I John 1:9, I John 2:3, I John 3:2, I John 3:3, If I do not walk holily, II Corinthians 5:17, II Timothy 3:16, Innocents Abroad, Isaiah 6, J.I. Packer, Javert, Les Miserables, Mark Twain, Matthew 5:8, morning devotions, Psalm 16:11, Psalm 17:15, Puritans, pursuit of holiness, repentance, sanctification, Seeing God, sin, sinners prayer, Stars song Les Miserables, U-turn, Valley of Vision book, Victor Hugo | 1 Comment

“Your Daily Time With God” (Mark 1:35 sermon)

Posted on 2019/03/18 by Shawn Thomas

Back in the 1950’s, A.W. Tozer decried many of the weaknesses he saw developing in American Christianity. One thing he preached about was the desire of American Christians for “shortcuts” to spiritual growth:

“In my creature impatience I am often caused to wish that there were some way to bring modern Christians into a deeper spiritual life painlessly by short, easy lessons; but such wishes are vain. No such shortcut exists. God has not bowed to our nervous haste nor embraced the methods of our machine age. It is well that we accept the truth now: The man who would know God must give time to Him. He must count no time wasted which is spent in the cultivation of His acquaintance. He must give himself to meditation and prayer hours on end. So did the saints of old, the glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, and the believing members of the holy church in all generations. And so must we if we would follow in their train.” (A.W. Tozer The Pursuit of Man, p. 5)

Tozer reminded us that time with God is THE key to spiritual growth. A couple of weeks ago, we saw that worshiping God and spending time with Him was the single most important thing that any of us can do. If that’s true, then we need some instruction on how to do it. And that is what we find from the life of Jesus here in Mark 1:35:

“In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.”

Jesus models for us here several important elements of a morning devotion time with God: Continue reading →

Posted in Discipleship, Sermon Illustrations, Sermons, Uncategorized | Tagged A.W. Tozer, appointment with God, Bible Reading, daily quiet time, devotional time, devotions, Ephesians 6, God the Son, I Peter 2:24, In the morning O LORD You will hear my voice, Jesus, Jesus example, love, Mark 1:35, MasterLife, Model Prayer outline, morning devotions, morning prayer, persistence, Person of God, place, praise, pray without ceasing, prayer, prayer time, preschool mom, procedure, Psalm 100:4, Psalm 119:64, Psalm 5:3, relationship, shut the door, social media, spiritual armor, Stephen King On Writing, Suzanna Wesley prayer apron, time, time with God, Trinity, Triune God | 1 Comment

“Reaching, Teaching, Caring” (Matthew 4:23 sermon)

Posted on 2019/03/03 by Shawn Thomas

I came home from work last Monday night and Cheryl was sitting on the couch wrapped up in a blanket, and she said, “You remember that thing you said in the sermon yesterday about how ‘If you worshiped God first thing this morning, it doesn’t matter what else you did today, you still did the most important thing’ … Well …” And we both laughed. She was just joking, of course; she had dinner on the table, laundry going, and had gotten all kinds of things done.

But last week we DID see that worshiping God really IS the #1 Priority of a Church or an individual. It is the most important thing we can do. But worship is not the ONLY thing we are supposed to be doing. What else are we supposed to be doing as a church? That should be one of the most important questions we have.
— NOT “what do WE want to do?”
— NOT “what do people in our community THINK we should be doing?”
— NOT just “what did we do last year?”
But what does God’s word say that we should be doing as a church? Continue reading →

Posted in Discipleship, Ministry, Sermon Illustrations, Sermons, Uncategorized | Tagged "reaching, Abraham Lincoln, Acts 2:42-47, care, caring, Carl Sandburg Abraham Lincoln, church, church calendar, Church Council, church leaders, discipleship, evangelism, gospel, I Peter 2:21, in His steps, Jesus cares, love, Luke 9:56, Mark 1:15, Mark 6:34, Matthew 14:14, Matthew 4:23, Matthew 4:23 sermon, Matthew 8:14-16, Matthew 9:35, megachurches, mercy, ministry, ministry priorities, ministry team, mission, priorities, purpose, R.H. Dana, Reaching Teaching Caring, repentance, repentance and faith, salvation, see feel compassion do, service, spiritual growth, Sunday School, teaching, Two Years Before The Mast, What Would Jesus Do?, worship, WWJD | 1 Comment

“Our Greatest Priority” (Matthew 22:34-38 sermon)

Posted on 2019/02/25 by Shawn Thomas

I have to admit: I was kind of disappointed last Sunday after we came home from church and eating out, that there wasn’t a football game on tv that I could fall asleep to. Can’t wait till next September — I think we’re really going to enjoy football season in Texas!

But football, like most things, is a game of fundamentals. If you do the fundamentals right, a lot of other things fall into place. And sometimes you’ve just got to get back to those fundamentals. I read that one time at the beginning of training camp, Vince Lombardi decided he needed to get his team back to the fundamentals. So he gathered his men together, and rolled a football out on the practice field grass, and said, “Gentlemen: this is a football.” That’s really getting back to the basics!

And I think from time to time we have to get “back to the basics” in our churches too. There are SO many things that can keep us busy; SO many things that people think we should be doing. And some of them are indeed very good; some of them maybe not so good. But what are the fundamentals? What are the most basic things that GOD wants us to be doing in His church? As we begin our ministry together, I think it’s important for us to see what the Bible says we should be doing, so that we are all on the same page as to what our priorities are, and what we should really be doing as a church.

What’s the most important thing? Well, we don’t have to guess. Jesus was actually asked that question in Matthew 22: Continue reading →

Posted in Ministry, Sermon Illustrations, Sermons, Uncategorized, worship | Tagged Acts 2, busyness, calendar, church, church calendar, church priorities, corporate worship, daily quiet time, devotional time, distractions, ecclesiology, evangelism, fill up the calendar, first business of the church, fundamentals, Great Commandment, greatest commandment, Isaiah 59:2, John 17:17, knowing God, left your first love, letters to the churches, life purpose, loving God, Luke 10:38-42, Mark 1:35, Matthew 22:34-38, missions, morning prayer, morning worship, personal worship, prayer, priorities, purpose, revelation, Revelation 2 & 3, Romans 3:23, running, salvation, salvation purpose, schedule, sin, Sunday, tithe, tithing, Vince Lombardi gentlemen this is a football, worship, worshiping God | 2 Comments

“On The Banks Of The Promised Land” (Joshua 1:1-9 sermon)

Posted on 2019/02/20 by Shawn Thomas

I am so excited to share God’s word with our new church family this morning. As I thought and prayed about what to preach, SO many things came to mind. I found myself wishing I could share dozens of different messages with you today. How much time do we have?

But as I thought and prayed, one passage of scripture kept coming to the forefront: Joshua 1:1-9, where God speaks to Joshua and the people of Israel as they sit ready to go into the Land God has promised to them. I feel like that is just where we are as a church, both physically, and spiritually. So let’s see what God’s word is to a people like us: “On The Banks Of The Promised Land.” Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons, Uncategorized | Tagged anchor, application, Bible, boldness, church, church transition, conditional promise, evangelism, faith, family transition, foundation, foundations, God's promise, God's word, Great Commission, James doer of the word, Joshua 1 sermon, Joshua 1:1-9, Joshua 1:9, materialism, missions, pastor transition, possessions, priorities, running, salvation, scripture, transition, transitions, trust | 4 Comments

God’s Children: NOT Exempt From Suffering

Posted on 2019/02/06 by Shawn Thomas

In early 1865, hundreds of thousands of men from the North were being drafted into the Union Army to help finally bring an end to the war. President Abraham Lincoln’s own son Robert was now also being sent. Lincoln’s wife Mary did NOT want him to go. She said, “I am so frightened he may never come back to us!” But Lincoln replied, “Many a poor mother, Mary, has made this sacrifice …”. After sending so many others off to war, Lincoln could hardly exempt his own son. Just because he was the President’s son, didn’t mean he didn’t have to go to war. (Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years and the War Years, p. 669)

And so it is with us. Just because we are God’s children, does not mean we are somehow “exempt” from various sufferings. In fact, it may rather GUARANTEE them — because God will purposefully use these difficulties to grow us spiritually, and teach us important things He needs us to learn.

Hebrews 5:8, speaking of Jesus’ time here on earth, says, “although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” Continue reading →

Posted in Devotions/Bible Studies, Discipleship, Sermon Illustrations, Uncategorized | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Carl Sandburg Abraham Lincoln, child of God, God's will, Hebrews 5:8, purpose of suffering, Son, suffering | Leave a comment

“A Pastor’s Farewell” (Acts 20 sermon)

Posted on 2019/01/28 by Shawn Thomas

Cheryl & I want to thank you for the last 4 years we have been allowed to serve at Pleasant Ridge. It is very difficult to say farewell to people with whom we’ve ministered and loved and been loved — and the struggle that Cheryl & I went through when we began to even think about leaving the people of this church reminds me of this passage in Acts 20, where Paul said good-bye to the elders of Ephesus, among whom :31 says he had ministered for 3 years, and with whom he had built a strong bond. In his farewell he emphasized several things that I think are important reminders for any pastor to share with his people: Continue reading →

Posted in Discipleship, Ministry, Sermon Illustrations, Sermons, Uncategorized | Tagged A Pastor's Farewell, Acts 20, Acts 20:21, Amy Grant Faith Walking People, asking Jesus into your heart, assurance, Baptist Faith & Message 2000, church, church family, church membership class, confidence, daily Bible reading, devotional time, devotions, doctrine, faith, false teachers, farewell, father, feelings, goodbye, gospel, II TImothy 1:12, intercessory prayer, legalism, ministry, Nominating Committee, Now I commend you to God, pastor, pastor elder overseer, pastor search committee, people, prayer, praying for children, praying for loved ones, quiet time, repentance, repentance and faith, salvation, service, sin, soul, trust, works salvation | 4 Comments

“I Wait For The LORD”

Posted on 2019/01/28 by Shawn Thomas

“I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope …” (Psalm 130:5) (1/28/19)

I just told Cheryl this morning, “The biggest thing we have on our list right now, we can’t do anything about” — selling our house. It is totally, out of our hands. We can pack, we can clean, we can list, we can line up things in Texas, and so on — but we can’t make anyone buy our house. It is THE biggest thing we have on our list — and there is pretty much, virtually nothing we can really do about it — but “wait for the LORD.” But that is exactly what He wants us to do, as this Psalm indicates.

I woke up this morning, after a long and emotional day of farewells yesterday, with this first thought: “People see ‘events;’ but God sees the shaping of character.” That is so true. Continue reading →

Posted in Devotions/Bible Studies, Ministry, Sermon Illustrations, Uncategorized | Tagged character, discipleship, perspective, Psalm 130, Psalm 130:5, trust, wait on the Lord | 4 Comments