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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] [Music] You may be seated. Thanksgiving prayers, two Thanksgiving prayers. We express our

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Thanksgiving by the way we pray. He prayeth well who loveth well, both man and bird and beast. He prayeth best who loveth best all things, both great and small. For the dear God who loveth us, he made and loveth all." Let us examine the authentic behavior and spirit of thanksgiving.

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of Thanksgiving by examining the two prayers in this story Jesus told. How we pray reveals who we are, Pharisee or publican. What we ask God to do and what we thank God for reveal to others the kind of person we really are.

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Jesus permits us to look into the heart of two persons who come to the temple to pray and to examine their prayers. The prayers are made by persons who represent two divergent ways of life. One, a Pharisee, the other, a publican.

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The Pharisee is regarded as the epitome of piety. He is one who loves to parade his holiness. The Pharisees offered long prayers in public places to be seen of men. They wore long, colorful robes and prayer shawls.

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Jesus invites us to listen in on the Pharisee's prayer. He's going up to the temple to pray. The temple is the house of prayer. So the Pharisee has gone to the right place.

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Let us see if he has the right purpose. The Pharisee stood and prayed with himself. He stood and prayed

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with himself. Saying "God, I thank you." Now those seem to be appropriate words for Thanksgiving prayer. If we stop there.

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"God, I thank you." During this Thanksgiving season, every worshiper who entered the temple, the house of prayer, by addressing the Heavenly Father with the words, "God, I thank you," is doing well.

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We thank God for the gift of life. Thank God for dwelling in which to stay. Thank God for family and for friends. Thank God for all these things we do well.

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We would do well if everyone would pause and list the things that we are thankful for. As the old song puts it, count your blessings, name them one by one,

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And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. That's true of us all. But this Pharisee disturbs me because he is praying to himself.

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He is engaged in a monologue. I don't need to remind you of how we feel when we go about and we see someone talking to themselves. we wonder what is wrong with him.

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This Pharisee is just talking to himself and praying. Real prayer is not a monologue, but a dialogue. It is talking with God, not talking with ourselves. So listen, he's calling God's name, he's addressing God, but his heart is far from the Lord.

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Let's examine his language. Lord, I thank you that I am not as other men are, extortionists, unjust, adulterers. Now this man is thanking God for being better than others. He's complimenting himself at the expense of his comrades.

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You know, I always draw up when someone compliments me and puts somebody else down in order to lift me up. "Rev. you're not as other preachers." This is the way the Pharisee is giving thanks to God. He is not as other men are.

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I thank you that I'm not like the rest of mankind. He doesn't get this statement from God. God said all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

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If this is meant to be a model Thanksgiving prayer, it is missing the mark. What are we thankful for? That's something we should meditate upon

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as we worship here this Thanksgiving Sunday. What are we thankful for? This Pharisee lists the things that he's thankful for. And it's interesting to see what he has on his list.

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He's not as other men. In other words, he's better than others. That's what he's thankful for. Some would give thanks for a house

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and car and clothes and jewelry. And stop right there. Those are the things that are most important. And we have a way of classifying people and making judgments based on those symbols.

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Our daughter Ria had problems with her car, so we loaned our car to her, the Lexus. And she took the Lexus one day and decided that she didn't want to take it anymore because she was being judged by the Lexus. So she left it at home and took the bus because she didn't want people to think what they were thinking and she drove the Lexus. We have ways of classifying people according to what car they drive, what clothes they wear, what organizations they may belong to.

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So this Pharisee is putting this publican down. Well, publican comes from the lowest rung in the ladder. He's a tax collector. He's accustomed to robbing and cheating and taking advantage of people, exploiting them. That's the publican's job. Get as much as you can get, no matter how much it may cost the other person.

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So what are we thankful for? Here is one who is greedy and dishonest, who cheats, who steals. And here's another who lauds himself that he is better than this publican. Lord, I have you to thank that I'm such a good person. That's the Pharisees' thanksgiving.

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All the thanksgiving that we may practice and observe, if it is designed to praise ourselves, then it misses the mark. Notice that the Pharisee congratulates himself. He says, "Lord, I thank you that I am not as others are." In other words, prayer isn't where you come to thank God for what you are not.

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He said, "I feast." But the main thing he emphasizes here is, "I fast twice a week." I give tithes of all I possess. Looks like he's a pretty good fellow, when he's cataloging the things that he does.

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You know, even today, many of us would not come up to the Pharisees' analysis of himself. Many of us need to fast, but we don't fast. And then of course he tithes, he gives one-tenth of all that he possesses, but prayer is not parading our virtues before the Lord. God knows who we are.

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And he understands our situation. And we need to consider where our blessings come from. It seems that this Pharisee thinks that his blessings come from himself. That he's a self-made person.

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He has done all of these things because of his own ability. The fact that the Pharisee feels that he must tell God about his achievements suggests that the Pharisee is not aware of where his blessings come from. Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

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Not what you've done, but what the Lord has done. And that leads me to say to you, listener, don't thank God for the good things that you have done but for the good things that he has done. Thank God for his goodness. Thank God for his mercy. Thank God for your deliverance from trouble. Thank God

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for his presence with you all along life's journey. There was a man who underwent a very serious operation. And when the operation was over, he was thanking the surgeon.

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He said, "Oh, thank you, doctor. "Thank you so much. "Thank you." The doctor said, "Don't thank me.

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"Thank God." - Amen. - So we need to be sure to thank God. Sometimes we forget to thank the one who is the source of our blessing.

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Thank God. Lord, I thank you. That's all I want to be able to join in those words. Lord, I thank you for what you have done in my life.

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The publican stands at a distance. The story of Jesus says that he stands afar off. They both go up to the temple to pray. I suspect the Pharisee wanted to have a real good spot

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where he could be seen. And where he could be heard and they could listen to his prayers and see how pious he is

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and how much he has been able to accomplish and go away talking about, Did you hear that Pharisee pray today? But here is the publican.

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He stands afar. He doesn't feel that he needs to come and have all eyes focused on him. He just feels that he should stand afar,

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smile and bless, and said, "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner." That man, said Jesus, went down more justified in the eyes of God than that proud Pharisee.

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In other words, Jesus takes the authority of God, for he is God revealed in the flesh and pronounces a judgment on these two prayers. A judgment that we are not to make, he makes it. As God, man, he makes this judgment upon the prayers of the Pharisee and the publican.

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He said his prayer was more acceptable, this publicans prayer, than the prayer of the Pharisee. Now they both went to the same place to pray, the temple. They both sought God's acceptance. The Pharisee approached God with self-centered righteousness, the publican approach God with penitent humility. The Pharisee

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approach God trying to camouflage his righteousness, trying to cover up his misdeeds. The Pharisee engages in self-congratulation and the publican engages in penitence. Pharisee's prayer was shut up in himself. Always a danger when we shut ourselves up. Because we draw a circle around ourselves and we shut out more than we shut in.

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The Pharisee congratulates himself. Jesus assumes the authority of God and pronounces judgment against him. So prayer at best provides

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us with an opportunity for openness with God. In other words, to be open with God. Lord, here I am. I know I haven't done as I ought to have done. I know I fail to measure up to the standard that you set.

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Here I am. Poor sinner I am. Just as I am. I come to you. I know you know and you understand. and here I am, that's the kind of openness that we should have in prayer. No counterfeit currency will do.

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We can't come to God, shucking and jibing. That doesn't work with God. We can fool the people, but we can't fool him. So it's wasting your time

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to think that we can outwit God. out with God because he knows already, he knows what we're going to say, he knows what we've done.

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>> Amen. >> Amen. Prayer has more effect on us than it does in changing God.

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God is God. He's always the same. So we need not try to pray with God. In fact, we ought to be honest.

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>> Yes. >> Because anyone we ought to be totally honest with God. Bishop Robinson of the Anglican Church a number of years ago wrote a book called Honest to God. Honest to God. So much dishonesty that God is involved

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that we think we can get away with. But to be honest with God is to confess, And that's what the Pharisee didn't do. He didn't confess. He felt he had no sense to confess. So he comes proudly before God, congratulating himself, telling God how good he is. Rather than asking God's forgiveness for his shortcomings.

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We should come before God with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, not just a day out of the year, but every day in the year we should come to God with thanksgiving, giving him thanks for his goodness and his mercy.

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I remember in the days of my youth when people were working for $3 a week, some were fortunate enough to get $3.50 and car fare. Jobs were very difficult to get and my mother was fortunate enough to be making $8 and she came upon a lady who was looking for someone to work for her and she told her friend that lived just a few blocks down the street about the job

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and the friend got the job. And she just kept thanking my mother. Just kept every time she would see her, she would thank her for that job that she was able to get.

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She was so appreciative, so great, so much so that my mother got tired of hearing her thank her. But God wants us to be like that. - Yes.

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- He just wants us to keep thanking him. - Yes. Just keep thanking him because he never gets tired of our thanking him.

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And so we sing, I just thank you, thank you, thank you. I just thank you, thank you, thank you. I just thank you all the days of my life. And God likes to hear that from his creature.

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He likes for us to be grateful. He likes for us to be thankful, because when we do that, we are cultivating the true spirit of thanksgiving. Cultivating that, and that's what God wants.

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In this day, when we have so much happening all around us, We have the largest army base not too many miles from us, and many lives are being interrupted to go and to fight a war against terrorism.

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And in the midst of it all, we find ourselves asking God's blessings upon our forces, and others are asking God's blessings upon their activities. In fact, those who committed those terrible crimes,

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many of them feel that they have a special place in heaven. When one group is said to believe that they will have virgins in heaven, that they'll have a great reward for what they're doing.

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But God is a God, not only of the Pharisee, He's the God also of the publican. And that's good news. Because all of us fall short of the bar.

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All of us have somehow failed to measure up according to what God demands of us. But God loves us. And that's good news, that he loves us.

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And time after time, this morning, he snatched us from the jaws of death. when we awaken this morning and permitted us to go about in a new day.

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His mercy is a new heaven and a new earth. God is so good. God is so, I just get lifted up in his eye when I think of how far God has brought me

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and you can think of how far God has brought you and you say, "Lord, I thank you. "I thank you, I thank you for your goodness and for your mercy.

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That's the way to celebrate this day. Maybe you want to have a turkey. Maybe you want to look at the game. All these things, sometimes people

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take them and put them ahead of the more important things. And that is our relationship with God. Thank him all the days of your life. So, what do we express thanksgiving for?

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So many blessings you can't count them. Where do our blessings come from? They all come from the same source, God. and are we cultivating

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the thanksgiving spirit, the true thanksgiving spirit. These are three things we need to consider as we celebrate our thanksgiving this year. To be grateful.

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Be grateful. Whatever your condition may be. Thank God I have learned "In whatsoever state I find myself," said the Apostle, "therewith to be content." So, we come now to extend the invitation to Christian discipleship to accept Jesus Christ

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as the Lord of your life. As we sing the song, the solo invitation, we invite you to come. The door of the church is open. [smonth cream]

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[somethin like that] [Music] Yes. What would I be without him?

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It would be very long and dreary. When I'm sad, he cheers me. When I'm lonely, he will find some peace. That's why I'm grateful.

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To be grateful, I'm so grateful. [Music] [Music] [MUSIC]

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[MUSIC] [MUSIC] When I'm sad, He cheers me. When I'm lonely, He will find a comforter. That's what I pray for. [ Music ]

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When my friends and my foes turn against me, And it seems I have been outgrown, There's a sweet soft voice in me There is someone so good and brave.

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[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] He'll be very young and free.

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When I'm sad, he cheers me. When I'm lonely, he will cry for me. That's why I'm grateful. To be grateful, I'm so grateful.

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And I still live in grace. He's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful man. Amen. Amen.

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Amen. [APPLAUSE] [APPLAUSE] BETSCHpower created

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by [ Silence ]