Thanksgiving Whine

Reviewing parables of Luke 15

• A shepherd
• A woman
• A father

• Lost sheep
• Coin
• Wayward son
• Ungrateful son (representing the Pharisees)

What about Pharisees?

• They pretended to be what they weren’t (hypocrites)
  • Matthew 23:1-4
  • Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.
• They practiced spiritual disciplines for public approval (grandstanding)
  • Matt. 23:5-7
  • “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’
• They justify sinful behaviors because of “offsetting” religious practices
  • Matthew 23:14
  • Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
• They converted people to a religious system rather than bringing them into a relationship with God
  • Matt. 23:15
  • “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!
• They justified sinful behavior by indefensible distinctions
  • Matthew 23:16-20
  • “Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God’s Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’ Blind fools! Which is more important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? And you say that to swear ‘by the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding. How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred? When you swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it.
• Their spirituality emphasized minors and ignored majors
  • Matthew 23:23-24
  • “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
• They reduced a God-pleading life to right external actions without right heart motives
  • Matthew 23:25-28
  • “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.
  • “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
• They believed they earned God’s blessings by their obedience
  • Complaining is the inevitable result of an attitude of entitlement
• An entitlement attitude (“God owes me a good life because I’ve obeyed and served him all these years”) leads to:
  • a lack of gratitude to God (I’ve worked hard for all I have) and/or
  • a disillusionment with God (I kept up my side of the bargain, but He didn’t fulfill his side)
  • Complaining is the inevitable result of an attitude of entitlement
• We must war against an attitude of entitlement that always leads to a grumbling ingratitude by:
  • Trusting God’s wise and loving control of every aspect of my life
  • Remembering that I rightfully deserve only His punishment
  • Yielding to God every right I think should be mine
  • Thanking Him for every gracious gift He chooses to give