Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Luke chapter #18 And I will, as I mentioned, not be here for the
Sunday before Thanksgiving. So I thought it'd be appropriate
for me today to preach on more of a Thanksgiving theme.
And so that's what we'll do here this morning from Luke chapter
#18 And I have to admit, Thanksgiving is probably one of
my favorite holidays. I really do enjoy Thanksgiving.
It's always caused me a little bit of heartburn to know.
That it seems like the way that it works now is it as soon as
November 1st hits, it's all Christmas.
And there's almost no thought of Thanksgiving.
You already see the Christmas decor going up.
You can already see the trees going up.
And those are got to be artificial trees.
There's no way those trees are going to be able to last from
January 1st, well, November 1st, all the way until after.
Christmas. And so people are putting all
those things up and look, if you that's what you want to do,
look, that's between you and the Lord.
All right, I'm not getting involved in what your home decor
decisions are. But I will say there's a lot of
discouragement on my end. The fact that people forget how
wonderful Thanksgiving truly is. And it's amazing to me that we
live probably, what, about 45 minutes from where they would
have celebrated the very first Thanksgiving in Plymouth.
And the governor at that time, William Bradford, wrote in
Plymouth Plantation. The fact that, yes, their
Thanksgiving would have looked a little bit different than ours
would have in the sense that they didn't have stuffing and
pumpkin pie and those types of things.
That they certainly had Turkey as well as other wild fallow.
And they said there was a great store of wild turkeys of which
they took many. Besides venison and other game
meet as well. Now, think about this.
For Thanksgiving 2025, it's estimated that about 30 million
turkeys will be enjoyed, 30 million turkeys here in the
United States alone, nearly 87% of Americans surveyed by the
National Turkey Federation. I'd love to go to one of those
meetings. You know the.
National Turkey Federation. But there's a real group that
has said nearly 87% of Americans surveyed plan to eat Turkey on
Thanksgiving. With the average weight of
turkeys per just for Thanksgiving around 16 lbs, that
means somewhere around £480 million of Turkey will be eaten
on that day, or maybe more accurately, on that day and in
sandwiches the days after Thanksgiving as well.
Of course, we know that the American symbol of the American
bird, if you will, is the bald eagle.
But did you know that Benjamin Franklin was very upset with the
bald eagle being named as the national bird?
He said that the bald eagle had very bad moral character.
Now, I don't know how he knew that.
Maybe sat down with a couple of them and, you know, talk with
him a little bit. I'm not sure.
I'm sure it's because it's a scavenger bird more than
anything. But Benjamin Franklin's idea, by
the way, Benjamin Franklin, a lot of good ideas, one of his
worst ideas, making the Turkey the national bird.
Now thankfully that was wholeheartedly rejected.
The largest Turkey ever raised that that has been found and
raised 86 lbs and 86 LB Turkey. And I have so many questions
about that that we cannot cover in the few minutes that I'm
here. That's a big Turkey.
Now I will say this, that the Bible records an even greater
and larger Turkey, that 87 LB Turkey that I just mentioned.
That Turkey is mentioned in the text that we're in here in Luke
chapter 18. You say, pastor a real Turkey.
Well, OK, maybe I'm kind of pushing it a little bit, but
there was someone who acts in a way that is very Turkey like.
And there is someone who does not understand truly what being
thankful is all about. And you might say, well, pastor,
listen, we, we love Thanksgiving around here.
We live in New England. Thanksgiving's a big thing.
Listen, you can love the day, you can love the food and not
understand a lick about what true biblical Thanksgiving is
all about. And that's what I want to look
at here this morning from Luke chapter #18 So if you would,
would you please stand for the reading of God's Word, Luke
chapter 18 in verse #9 By the way, the sermon today is
sponsored by the National Turkey Federation.
I just thought I'd put that out there.
No, that's not true. Verse 9 says And he, this being
Jesus, spake this parable unto certain, which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and despised others.
Now keep verse 9 in mind. What we're going to read in the
next few verses makes more sense in the context of who Jesus is
speaking this parable to. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the 1A Pharisee and the other a publican.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners,
unjust adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week, I give ties of all that I possess.
And the publican standing afar off, without, lift up much as
his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be
merciful to me a Sinner. And Jesus sums up this parable
by saying this. I tell you this man went down to
his house justified rather than the other.
For everyone that exalted themselves shall be a based.
And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
There's a key to Thanksgiving that is found here.
Not in the biggest Turkey. I think you figured out who that
was, the Pharisee. But in that humble publican, and
it might not be as simple as you think, that sense that humble
publican doesn't actually go together the way you would think
it would at first. But there's something about his
life that was lacking in the Pharisee that should be an
encouragement and help to us this morning.
Why don't you be seated as we pray together here today.
Heavenly Father, do pray to be with us this morning.
Thank you again for this time. Thank you again for your word.
I pray that we would learn from this Pharisee and this publican
one who had the right outlook on humility and Thanksgiving, the
other did not. Or help us to look at their
lives and make sure that we have the right posture, not just for
this 4th Thursday of November, but Lord that we would have
every day as well. Thank you again for this time
and we ask it all in Jesus name. Amen.
Well, first of all, we see this Thanksgiving Turkey, if you
will, and that Turkey, yes, is the Pharisee.
Now, you might ask yourself this morning, who is a Pharisee or
what is a Pharisee? I know we come from different
backgrounds and some of you have been in church longer and some
of you have been in church not as long.
I think it's important for us to give at least a little bit of an
understanding of who this Pharisee was.
A Pharisee would have been a religious leader at the time.
A Pharisee would have been someone who was highly regarded
and looked upon as very, very spiritual.
It would be nothing for people to see a Pharisee go to the
temple to pray. It would be nothing for people
to see a Pharisee to be standing on a street corner and praying.
The problem with the Pharisee was not what they were doing.
The problem with the Pharisee was the heart behind what they
were doing. The thing was that they had no
real desire to draw closer to God.
They had no real desire to have a real relationship with God.
They constantly wanted to be seen of men.
They constantly wanted to have people look at them and say wow,
look at that Pharisee. Look at how he stresses, look at
what he does. Look at how he prays.
Look, look at how he handles himself.
That truly is a godly man. And this was a man who would
have been respected that as people looked upon the
Pharisees, not knowing the hearts, but just looking on the
outward appearance, people would have looked at the Pharisees and
would have respected them as spiritual leaders.
But listen, this morning this Bible says this in first Samuel
chapter #16 that man looks on the outward appearance, God
looks upon the heart. And here this Pharisee may have
looked good on the outside, but Jesus would later on explain the
Pharisees as this whited sepulchers, meaning this, that
they sure did look good on the outside, but on the inside they
were filled with nothing but death.
And so here's this Pharisee and he had some problems.
The first was that he was unrealistic.
He was unrealistic, He was haughty, and he was proud like
many of the Pharisees. And in his estimation, he had, I
would put it this way, more of God than everyone else did.
In his mind, he was the one that had the corner on religion.
He was the one who had a corner on being able to have a real
relationship with God. But he was unrealistic about who
he was. Look again at verse #11 It says
the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
Now stop right there a moment. No truer words could be found in
this parable than when it says that he prayed with himself,
meaning this God was nowhere near this.
Prayer do. You know this morning that if
you have. Sin in your heart that is
unconfessed that you can pray with yourself, but you can't
pray with God. Blasphemy, you might say God
will always hear me when I pray God, God will always listen to
me. There's never a time that God
won't listen to you. No, it's not that God can't
listen to you. We know what God's abilities
are, that He's omnipresent, that He's omnipotent.
We understand these things, but that God chooses to not hear our
prayers when we have iniquity within our heart.
That's why it says in Psalm 66, verse 18, if I regard iniquity
in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
This man was unrealistic. He thought he was close to God.
He thought he was doing well. Do you see what he says about
himself? He says I'm not like other
people. We'll look at that in a moment.
I'm not like all of these other people, including this publican.
He says I fast twice in the week.
Now, by the way, that's typically twice more than I fast
in a week. I'm sure not going to fast on
Thanksgiving week unless I'm fasting on Wednesday to make
more room for Thursday. Not fast twice in a week.
I tithe on everything. By the way, that meant that he
gave 10% not just of his money, but 10% of any increase that he
had. Oh man, he was doing everything
that the law told him to do. There's only one problem.
That law was designed to be able to show him his need for God,
and that law instead he took as. How good he was in himself and
he was completely unrealistic about who he was.
In relation to God today, there's a very basic place that
you can start. Are you realistic about where
you stand with the Lord today? I mean, are you willing to get
real with the Lord here today? Are you far from God this
morning? Perhaps you're not on speaking
terms like you once were. Perhaps you are disobeying Him
and and you're not confessing those sins before the Lord.
Listen at least this morning as you hear the word of God preach
at least this morning. Why you have to stare, hurt me
for the next few minutes at least.
Be realistic about where you are spiritually.
Wouldn't it be a shame to come to church and to leave church
and never be honest about yourself with where you are
spiritually? To never be honest with where
you stand before Him with the gospel, To never be honest with
yourself to that maybe you've fallen far from the Lord.
Listen, can I tell you the people, and I've mentioned this
before, the people that I enjoy pastoring the most, It's not the
people who fast twice a week necessarily and tithe over all
their goods. Now, I don't know who ties on
goods or whatever because I don't count the offerings, but
you understand what I'm saying this morning.
The people that I enjoy working with the most are the ones who
are realistic about where they are.
Spiritually, some of you don't seem to agree with that.
That's OK. You don't have to speak for me,
but I'll speak for me. As a pastor, it's a lot easier
to work with someone who says this, I know who I am and I know
I've got work to do, then for someone to be able to say I, I
am God's gift to the church. I am God's gift to my family.
I am God's gift to listen, when you get to that place and you're
not realistic about where you are spiritually, it's a very
difficult thing. And this man was not realistic
about where he was, but he wasn't just unrealistic, he was
unsympathetic as. Well, did you catch that in
verse #11 I stopped right in the middle as we read it a few
moments ago. He says, God, I thank thee that
I am not as other men. Are extortioners unjust
adulterers? Or even as this publican now?
He looked at the downtrodden. He looked at those who are
having difficulty in their spiritual life.
And instead of having pity, instead of having care, instead
of as a religious leader trying to do what he could to minister
the Lord unto that person, he looks at them and uses them in
an illustration, in his own prayer to God.
He says God. You don't know how good you have
it with me. I could be an extortioner, I
could be an adulterer. I could be like this publican
over here. We'll talk about what that means
in. Just a moment, I could be like
this publican, but instead, Lord, I've got good news.
I'm me, I'm a Pharisee. Well, I'll remind you that there
would have been a Pharisee who, in a different parable of a Good
Samaritan, saw someone in need and his faith, quote UN quote,
didn't even cause him to go across the street to help
someone who needed it. Oh, he was unsympathetic to the
needs of others. Listen, it's hard to be truly
thankful in your spiritual life when you have such a lofty
opinion of yourself. You know why?
Because other people just get in your way.
To be honest with you, there are times the pastor, if I'm not
careful, I get a call. There could be a situation and
my first response could be, I can't believe I have to deal
with this, with that person, with this issue.
Here they go again. You say, pastor, do you really
feel that way? Well, in my flesh I do at times.
Sure, I'm being honest with you today, but aren't you glad that
our Lord and Savior, when we come to Him in prayer, never
says you're here again? How many times have we talked
about this? How many times but but he he's
not the God of second chances. We blew past the second chance a
long time ago, but he's the God of multiple chances, of dozens
of chances and he's still there. And if he could have pity on us
and if he'd see our frame that we are but dust, then we need to
be able to look at others and say, yes, I see their need.
I see their issue. And that doesn't mean I agree
with it. It doesn't mean that I approve
sin. I won't do that, but I will
minister them the love, the mercy, and the grace of Jesus
Christ. But this man just looked at the
downtrodden. This man just looked at those
who are in sin and said this. I'm glad I'm not.
Like them. But here's the problem.
He was unsympathetic, He was unrealistic, but he was also
unjust. Say unjust.
What do you mean? Well Jesus said at the end of
the parable, only one of them left the temple.
Justified meaning this. Only one of them left right with
God. The Pharisee, the respected
religious man, left not right with God.
And isn't that the point of going to the temple for them was
to make sure that they had a right relationship with God?
Think about this. He left not receiving what he
never asked for. The pastor, did you mean to say
that I did? He left not receiving what he
never asked for. What should he have asked for?
Forgiveness. He never asked for it.
So what? He never received it.
Wouldn't it be a shame to come to church to get up early?
By by the way, we always look at Sunday being early like it's
usually later than the other days of the week, but we look at
Sunday as being the early day. But let's just say for the sake
of argument, we get up early, we come to church, we we sing the
songs, we give the offerings, we stand up, we sit down, we
worship, we do all the things and leave and never receive what
we never asked for. What is that?
Well, that we leave here closer to God than when we came in.
What does that mean? That while we're here, we
recognize there's sinfulness within my life.
There's things that aren't right.
I want to confess them before the Lord so I can be right with
him. Well, nobody knew this man's
heart. The Pharisee didn't even
recognize his own heart. But here's the thing, God knew
his heart and we could look good on the outside.
We can come and say all the right things and dress the right
way and act the right way. But wouldn't it be ashamed to do
that for days, months, or even years in church and never really
get what this church is all about?
Which is what? Getting right with the Lord.
Make sure that you're right with him.
We don't just come here because it's our Sunday habit.
We don't just come here because it's just the place to be.
We don't come here because the beautiful.
Building Why do we come here? Because this is a place God is
designated for us to meet with him and to get right in our
lives and to be encouraged and to be able to chip away those
things that are not Christ like so that we can be more Christ
like than when we came in. And this biblical Turkey didn't
get any of it. He stood there in church and
missed the point. He left feeling so good about
himself. But Jesus said he didn't leave
justified. He didn't leave right with me.
So compare this Thanksgiving Turkey if you will, to the
thankful tax collector. You say, pastor, where is a tax
collector here? I read this, but I didn't see
anywhere where it mentioned anything about tax collector.
Well, that tax collector would have been the publican.
That publican was another word that they would have used that
time for a tax collector. Now, no one today has a whole
lot of regard for tax collectors.
I, I imagine if you're here and you're working with the IRS,
first of all, thank you for joining us.
Secondly, don't mention anything else about your job.
All right to anyone. Else all right, but I I think
we're all OK here. But listen, just the nervous
laughter you just had shows the regard we have for the tax man.
It was even worse back then. Why?
The publican typically was an extortioner.
The publican typically was a thief.
You say, well, how do you know that?
Zacchaeus is a good example. He took for the government and
then he took for himself. In fact, they were the lowest
regarded of the people because the tax collectors in that time
period there in Israel came from Israel and worked for the Roman
occupiers, which meant this the publicans were typically looked
at as turncoats as well as thieves.
So here you have the publican, or the the the Pharisee rather,
who was respected. But then you have this publican
who was repugnant to the people. Nobody liked him, nobody wanted
to talk to him, nobody wanted to hang around him.
If you saw him on one side of the street and you were walking
on the same side of the street, you'd walk to the other side of
the street because you didn't want him to see you, because he
might ask you for money. And you would have no recourse
but to give him that which he asked for because he was
deputized on behalf of the Roman Empire.
So no one's looking at his public and then saying, hey,
this is a great guy. No one's.
Looking at him and saying this is a man who is right with God,
but yet man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the
heart. See, the first thing I see about
this thankful tax collector is that he was unpretentious.
There's no pretense about him. Look at what it says in verse
#13. It says he stood afar off, he
didn't couldn't even bring himself to draw close to the
Lord. It says that he would not so
much lift up his eyes unto heaven.
It says he smote his breast. Do you know what all of these
activities, his posture, if you will, do you know what all of
this suggests? He saw himself for who he was, a
man in need of God. There was no pretense
whatsoever. During the Civil War, someone
reported to Abraham Lincoln that Edwin Stanton, one of his
cabinet members, had referred to him as a fool.
Mr. Lincoln replied. Well, I must check into that,
for I found he is usually correct in his judgments.
He said that of himself. Now, that might be a little bit
extreme, but the idea is this, are we so full of ourself?
Are we so full of where we think we are spiritually that we're
not able to do a little bit of unpretentious introspection into
our life and to say maybe I'm not as far as I thought I was?
Now, I'm not trying to convince you that you're not right with
God this morning. Either you are or you aren't.
But I will say this, every single one of us can do better
in drawing closer to the Lord. In fact, if you came here this
morning, say actually pastor, I'm doing pretty good.
I can't even identify one area of my life that I can find
improvement in my relationship with the Lord.
Well, you might have more in common with the first man than
the second man. Because if I was to stand up
here and give you a list over the next 5 minutes of things
that I need to improve my Christian life, 5 wouldn't.
Minutes wouldn't cover the amount of time I need to write
it all down. Is it?
What were you? Proud of your sin?
No, quite the opposite. I'm just saying He's still
working on me and I know that every day that I need to draw
closer. That's why I need to be in His
Word. That's why I need to be in
prayer, because there's so much that He's chipping away at me.
And until I get to glory every day, I want Him to show me a
little bit more so I can be right with Him.
No pretense. The issue is this, though.
You got to be humble. You know why nobody likes to be
told they're wrong? Now I've got a very interesting
job for 30 to 40 minutes three times a week.
I tell you you're wrong and you can't do anything about it.
Well, I mean, you could, but actually, let's not cover that
part. Yeah, you could not come back.
I guess. I've had a few people stand up
and leave during a sermon. I've had my son a few weeks ago
told me I was fired. And there were a lot of people
that were like, yeah. All right, Yeah.
They wouldn't say it themselves, but they were with AJ, you know?
But you know, humility is the key because you have to be able
to look at yourself and see yourself or who you are.
That's right. Who, who, who was the most
humble of all? Would that not be Jesus Christ?
Who exhibited humility? If anyone, if anyone, could have
ever been exempt from humility, it could have been Jesus.
Why? Because he's.
Everything but yet even Jesus modeled humility to us.
Read Philippians chapter 2 and try to find the fact that he's
humble. You'll see it all over that he
humbled himself. The came from the very highest
of heaven to be with us and then we and you say, well, I I didn't
put him on a cross. Your sin did.
You may not have held the hammer, and you may not have
held the nails, but your sin and my sin put them on the cross
just the same. Humility.
Colossians 3, verses 12 through 15.
Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels
of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,
long-suffering for bearing one another, forgiving one another.
If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ
forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put
on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace
of God rule in your heart parts to which also you're called in
one body. And be ye thankful.
You can't truly understand what thankfulness is all about.
And true, you have a humble posture.
When you're humble, you're grateful for what you.
Receive. When you're grateful for what
you receive, you're able to give thanks.
Maybe you would say something like this.
Well, Pastor, I'm humble. I mean, I, if people knew who I
was, they wouldn't be impressed. You know, that's maybe being
more halfway to humility because I think we all could admit that
to a point. People knew what I thought.
If people knew what I truly did, they wouldn't be impressed.
That's not humility. Humility is this.
I know who I am and I'm not impressed because I know I need
him every minute of every hour of every day.
Even the hymn says I need the every hour.
I need him more than every hour. There's not a minute that goes
by that I don't need him. But I would tell you in my
spiritual pride and arrogance, there are times I think I don't
need him. I run on autopilot.
I'm good. I'm a pastor after all.
Well, I need him just as much as anyone else does.
And you need him as much as anyone else does.
This thankful tax collector was unpretentious.
He was also unambitious. What was the?
Pharisee doing while he was praying, he was praying like
this. I'm sure glad I'm not like him,
but what was this publican doing?
He he wasn't looking at the Pharisee.
In fact he wasn't even looking up at heaven.
He was just looking down. And I'd submit to you.
He's looking to himself. And he didn't like what he saw.
You know, you might feel this morning, Well, I'm not all that
I need to be, but I'm better than my spouse.
You know, I'm not even trying to be cute about this.
This thought can go through our minds if we're not careful.
I'm better than my spouse. I'm better than my children.
I'm better than some of the church people.
I'm better than the people at work.
I'm better than what? What?
Who thought like that? It was the Pharisee.
You know what Second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12 says?
For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare
ourselves with some that commend themselves.
But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing
themselves among themselves are not wise.
We don't get to compare ourselves to other people to see
how well we're doing spiritually.
Well, I'm doing better than the one in the Pew in front of me.
Well, I'm doing better than the one in the Pew behind me.
I'm doing better than someone in my Sunday school class.
I'm doing better than that new convert.
I'm doing better than listen. The only one you can truly
compare yourself to is this. Listen, Jesus Christ.
And every time we truly compare ourselves to Jesus Christ, we
are found. Wanting because I don't know
about you, but when I compare my life to Jesus, I am far from who
he's called me to be. So I don't get to compare myself
to any of you. I don't get to compare myself to
other pastors. I don't get to compare myself
with my family. The unpretentious, unambitious
nature of the truly humble child of God is this.
Lord, I look at me and I look at you, and I'm in need.
A great killer of a thankful spirit is looking around at what
other people have and what other people are.
You know, it's amazing that people will get gifts.
Sometimes they get big gifts, especially this time of year,
and they're really happy about them until they find out about a
gift that somebody else got that's bigger than their gift.
And the gifts of the world oftentimes have strings
attached, don't they? I always love this time of year
that they have those commercials for a December to remember.
Get get your loved 1, Alexis. Now listen, if you come to my
house, my apartment, and park a Lexus.
In front of our apartment and say, pastor, we got you for
Christmas, Alexis, and here's the lease for you to pay.
I'd say take that back to the dealership.
I don't care if it's the 25th of December, park it in front and
be there when it opens on the 26th.
I don't want, but that's what the world does.
They need bigger, they need better and they need more.
Listen, thankfulness is this. I don't care what other people
have. Lord, I see who you are.
And I see who I am, and that's enough for me.
Contentment is not having what you want, but wanting what you
have. That's what true contentment is
not having. It's not having what you want,
but it's wanting what you have. So this man was unpretentious.
He's unambitious. But here's the best part.
He was unconditionally pardoned. What did Jesus say?
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather
for than the other. For everyone that exalted
themselves shall be a based and he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. The Pharisee was supposed to
have the direct path to God. The publican was supposed to be
as far from God as possible. But Jesus flips the script.
He subverts the expectations. He says the Pharisee was the one
who was far. But that man that's Republican,
who was humble was the one who got right with God.
Why? Because it all comes down to the
heart. Now listen to me carefully this
morning. The key to unlocking all
spiritual gifts in your life is humility.
Say, why is that? Can you truly be saved?
Until you're humble, you don't realize your need for salvation.
You don't realize your sin. You don't realize that you can't
save yourself. Well, pastor, I'll just do
enough. Good.
That's not salvation, pastor. I'll just take the vessels of of
the sacraments that give grace through the Church.
That's not salvation. Well, I just I will do.
And every single one of those features, these two words I'll
do. But that's not what salvation
is. The humility is this.
I can't save myself. I see myself for who I am, but I
don't. I do know who can save me.
Jesus Christ, the proud don't ask for help.
I remember not that long ago, before we had GPSS and we get
lost. No man, I say, no man ought to
go in the gas station, ask for directions.
So I asked for, I asked for directions.
The gas station once. Listen, I'm.
Listen, that's between you and the Lord.
But practically speaking, you're dead to me, all right?
I don't want to. I don't want part of that.
All right? Listen, I'd rather be lost for
five hours and go and ask some guy at a gas station how to get
somewhere. You say, well, you're stupid.
Well. Listen, I said.
I had a lot to. Work on all right, I've
mentioned that already. But in our pride, we don't want
help. The humble among us say, I can't
do this myself, I need help. You can't be saved on your own.
You're not going to be just with God.
You won't be right with God. You will never be saved until
you get to the place we say Jesus.
Only you can save me. Have you had that time in your
life? Have you had a time and a place
where you have called upon Jesus Christ?
You know, I didn't ask what time you were baptized as a child.
I didn't ask what you joined a church.
I I didn't ask when you felt like you, you did a good deed
that really made the heart warm of another person.
No, what I'm asking is this. Do you know a time and a place
where you were born again? As Jesus said to Nicodemus, He
said you must be born again. It's a singular event that must
take place in your life and that doesn't happen until you humble
yourself. By the way, it took Nicodemus a
while to humble himself. Have to get to that point
because that night he seemed to think that Jesus didn't quite
have it all together. But we find that at the end of
Jesus life, who was there and who was faithful when many
others weren't. A man who humbled himself named
Nicodemus. But you know, if you are saved
here this morning, humility doesn't stop the day you get
saved. Humility continues.
And if we're to remain right with God, if we're to have a
thankful heart, we must remain humble.
It is the key to Thanksgiving, you know, not the key to the
day, the key to the heart that God calls us to have.
There's a lot of discontentment that pops up in our life.
And I will say this, there's a lot of discontentment that pops
up this time of year. Our expectations are not
fulfilled. What may be family gatherings
aren't all that we hope them to be.
Or we feel like our life isn't something that is from a
painting of Currier and Ives. Or we feel like our Thanksgiving
is not like a Norman Rockwell painting where the mom brings
out that huge Turkey and everyone's looks like they're
about to jump onto it. And we say, well, what do I have
to be thankful for? Child of God, may I remind you
that you have everything to be thankful for.
And you don't understand that until you're truly humble in
your spirit, not just to be saved, but for every moment of
our lives, after you have everything to be thankful for.
First Thessalonians 518 says this in everything, give thanks.
Now I could take an hour to preach just that phrase, and I
don't know we could reach the depths of it.
In everything, give thanks. But what follows is equally as
mind blowing as the first. In everything, give thanks for
this. Is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Some of you might have questions
about what's God's will for your life?
What does he have for me? What direction do I need to go?
Where do I need to turn? I can't answer all those
questions for you in specificity this morning, but I can tell you
what God's will for your life is this Give thanks for everything.
Give thanks for everything. You'll never do that until
you're humble. Because there was a Turkey that
thought it was all in himself and he missed it.
And there was a man who on the outside looked like he didn't
have it together, but on the inside he realized this.
If I want to be right with God, I got to humble myself before
him. Are you giving thanks in your
life the way you should? Are you thankful for what you
have? Or you discontent wanting more,
say, pastor you, you're saying that I, I can't have a nice car.
You're saying I can't have a nice house.
Or you're saying I can't have have goods.
No, no, it's OK to have goods as long as those goods don't
control you. God does provide those types of
things and thank the Lord for that.
But when it's never enough, listen, goods will never satisfy
you. They'll never satisfy you.
Every time I get a new phone, I think, man, I'm gonna love this
phone. It's gonna be incredible.
And then after a week, it's like, man, it's pretty much like
the old phone. It's like, yeah, but now I've
got a contract. For another two years, man.
I thought this is going to satisfy no, this one's going to
satisfy me look look I I got before I had a 32 inch TV and
now I got a 42 inch TV and you put it up on the water man, this
is incredible and a couple. Weeks later, you think you know
that wall could really support a bigger TV.
And now it's incredible. They're so cheap.
You can get like a 95 inch TV for like a nickel.
It's unbelievable. But it won't.
Satisfy say, pastor, you're saying I can't have ATV in my
house? When did I say that?
I'm saying this, if you think it's going to satisfy you,
you're missing out. Why don't you just be thankful
for what you have, and if the Lord blesses you with more, be
thankful for that. But in the meantime, just be
thankful for what God has given you.
Are you thankful for the money you have or do you wish it was
more? Oh, here you go, Pastor.
You say I can't make more money. No, I mean we understand that
money is something that we need to live this life.
But you also need to realize that it cannot rule your life.
The Bible doesn't say that money is the root of all evil.
It doesn't say that. People misquote that all the
time. It says the love of money is the
root of all evil. That means this.
You'd be thankful for what you have.
You say I don't have much in the bank account.
You have more than 90% of the world, so you don't even know
what I have in the bank. No, but I understand what 90% of
the world has, and it's not much, and that even the poorest
among us is doing better than some of those who are fairly
wealthy in other countries. Be thankful for what you have.
Are you thankful for your health?
Say, pastor, if you knew my health, there would be much to
be thankful for, and I understand that.
I want to be compassionate about that today, that some of you are
going through some very difficult health things.
I've had some deep and troubling times health wise in my life,
particularly in the last few years.
But I will say this, even the things that I've dealt with, I
knew when I was in the midst of it, I would get better by God's
grace. And there was something mentally
that was helpful. When you know, I don't feel well
today, but in a month I'll feel better.
There's something that can help you.
But when I look at some who have long term illness, including my
wife, and there is no promise of that, You're supposed to be
thankful for that. That's a cruelty of which God is
inflicting upon us. No, it's not.
Paul understood this. Remember, Paul dealt with a
thorn in the flesh. We don't know what it was.
I believe it was physical and I believe that it was something
likely, or at least part of it dealt with his eyes.
It seems like he had difficulty with his eyesight.
He had, he had others that would write for him and sometimes he'd
say at the end of a epistle, see mine own handwriting.
It was almost like he knew he had to sign the end of a letter
and it was, it was hard to read because he had difficulty.
Listen, you can believe that or not.
I'm not going to split fellowship with you over that.
I know this. I know that he had some thorn in
his flesh and he asked God three times to take it away.
But listen to this now. I want you to listen carefully
to what I'm saying. God loved him so much that he
didn't take it away. That's hard.
God loved him so much that he didn't take it away.
Why? 2nd Corinthians 12 verses 7
through 9. And lest I should be exalted
above, measure through the abundance of revelations that
was given to me, a thorn in the flesh.
The messenger of Satan to Buffett me, lest I should be
exalted above measure for this thing I besought the Lord
thrice, that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my
strength is made perfect in weakness.
And so this is what Paul says about that.
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
He says this, I don't want my body to be this way.
I'm praying to God to take it away.
But God has revealed to me to be thankful for these situations
because He has multiplied grace upon grace in my life that I can
have the power of God within my life.
He realized how good God was even in the midst.
Of the difficulties, so he could be thankful.
Are you thankful in the midst of your trials?
I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand this morning to
ask who's going through a trial because the problem is probably
most of us would raise our hands to be honest with you.
I'm supposed to be thankful through trial OK pastor now
you're like the money thing OK, I get that you know the health.
I don't know about that but you're saying to be thankful
through trials. Is that are you crazy pastor?
Well, let's just talk to Peter about that He's in first Peter
chapter 4 verse 12 through verse 14.
Beloved, think not strange concerning the fiery trial which
is to try you as though some. Strange thing happened unto you,
but rejoice in so much as year partakers of Christ's
sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be
glad also with exceeding joy, if he be reproached for the name of
Christ. Happier ye for the spirit of
glory, and God rested upon you. On their part he is evil spoken
of, but on your part He is glorified.
Again, Paul says it's in your trials.
You can even give thanks. This is if if you're being tried
in the name of Christ. That means you're not doing
anything wrong, but these trials just coming your way that you
rejoice it. Lord, thank You that You brought
this to my life to make me stronger.
Not thankful for the situation itself, because some of those
situations can be pretty bleak and pretty difficult.
But know that God and his goodness, Romans 828 for the
believer will take the bad things of this life and he will
turn them into good. That's a good guy.
So what about the trials I go through because I've made
mistakes? Well, there's been a few that we
can all admit we've done with those Hebrews.
Chapter 12 reminds us, Hey, lift up your head to understand this.
God's correcting you through the trial because He loves you and
He's part of the family. And if he didn't love you, he
wouldn't correct you. Because He loves you, He's
willing to correct you to bring you back to him.
Man, we've got a good God and we've got a lot to be thankful
for. There is a story of a humble
farmer who went into the city one day and when he did so, he
went to a restaurant. And as his habit was after he
ordered the meal and the meal came, he decided to pray.
He bowed his head and he prayed a simple prayer right there at
his table. As he lifted his head, he heard
a few teenagers behind him laughing, and he turned around
to look at them. And the teenagers said this.
Hey pops, where you come from? Does everybody pray before they
eat? He.
Just kind of looked back at them, he says.
Well, not everybody. The Hogs don't even that man
understood. I need to give thanks.
I need to give thanks for the food that's in front of me.
I need to thank God for everything, listen in
everything. Give thanks for this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Thank Him, but you can't truly thank Him until you have a
posture of a publican and not the posture of a Pharisee.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.