A Superficial Thanksgiving 11-16-25 AM

I.            The Pharisee was unaware of his greatest need (Lu. 18:11-12).

a.      Notice how he started his prayer.

           i.      I thank you that I am not like other men.

           ii.      He immediately started comparing himself with others.

           iii.      This man was not giving thanks to God for anything he had received.

           iv.      D.L. Moody wrote: “It was a very prayerless prayer. He said a prayer but he did not pray any.”

b.      This man focused strictly on human efforts.

           i.      I don’t do these things.

           ii.      I do these things.

c.       His prayer was very much “Look how great I am.”

d.      Basically, this man was saying “God, you should be honored that someone as good as me is praying to you.”

e.      There is nothing spiritual at all in this prayer.

f.        Man’s greatest need is salvation because we all struggle with sin.

           i.      Rom. 6:16-17.

           ii.      Before salvation we are all servants of sin because all have sinned (Rom. 3:23).

g.      Our thankfulness to God should center around the understanding of our greatest need and how God has provided for it.

h.      God owes us nothing no matter how good or moral we may be.

           i.      This Pharisee was a very moral person and that is wonderful.

           ii.      But was not nor will it ever be enough.

i.        This man made good choices in moral areas as we all should.

j.        Even with those choices we still need God’s grace active in our lives, which only comes through Christ (Eph. 4:4-6).

k.      As good or moral as this man was, he was unaware of spiritual state, which was his greatest need.

II.            The Pharisee was unconcerned about the publican (Lu. 18:11).

a.      Not only did this man point out that he was not like those that engaged in certain sins, he even pointed out a specific individual in his prayer.

b.      The difference between himself and the publican filled himself with pride instead of compassion.

          i.      If he felt this man was lost, he should have reached out to him to help him.

          ii.      Instead, he verbally pointed out that he was thankful he was not like the publican.

c.       We hopefully know that publicans were tax collectors.

          i.      They worked for Rome.

          ii.      Because of this, they were extremely looked down upon by their fellow Jews.

d.      The Pharisee is saying, “I am glad I am such a better person than this publican.”

e.      I can’t imagine approaching the throne of God with that kind of attitude but our Lord always used real world examples in his parables, so it must have happened at some point.

f.        When we are truly thankful, it leads to thankful living.

          i.      If we are thankful for salvation, we will tell others about Christ.

          ii.      If we are thankful for what God has given us, we will share what we have with others.

          iii.      If we are thankful for the kindness of God or others, we will be kind to others.

          iv.      If we are thankful for the prayers of others on our behalf, we will pray for others.

          v.      You can keep adding to this list if you want.

g.      The first Thanksgiving that we know of was in 1621.

          i.       We don’t know the date because we only have two written records of the event.

          ii.      It was designed to show their thankfulness for their first harvest after coming off of the Mayflower.

          iii.      There were 53 pilgrims present along with at least 90 of the Wampanoag tribe of American Indians.

          iv.      The year before there had been 102 pilgrims but disease and weather had killed nearly half of them.

          v.      These people were truly thankful for making it through the year and having enough food.

          vi.      These people were thankful and it came out in their celebration.

h.      If we are truly thankful, it will come out in our everyday lives.

III.            The Pharisee was unchanged when he went home (Lu. 18:14).

a.      When we are truly thankful, our lives are changed.

b.      This man went to a good place: the temple.

c.       This man went to a good place for a good reason: to pray.

d.      This man went home just as lost spiritually as when he came.

e.      If we are truly thankful to God for all our spiritual and physical blessings, we will be changed people.

           i.      It will come out in every aspect of our lives.

           ii.      It will come out in our study of God’s word.

           iii.      It will come out in our treatment of others.

           iv.      It will come out in the words we use.

           v.      Everything about us will be different.

f.        The truth is many people leave church buildings every Sunday completely unchanged because they aren’t truly thankful.

We can’t let this happen to us.

(From a sermon outline by Roger Campbell)