You are listening to the Sunday Morning Sermon from Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia. You can find podcasts and other resources at www.faithbiblechurch.us. Let me pray as we open up God's word together. Father, thank you for hearing our prayers. Thank you that we can pray. Thank you that we can come into your very presence, and I pray that you would be honored and glorified and give us ears to hear wonderful truth from your word. Give us eyes to see it, and I pray that you would open our hearts to receive it deep down, that we might not just be hearers of the word, but doers also. Change us. Make us into the men and women and boys and girls that you would have us to be in every way for your glory. Amen. Well, this week is Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving brings a lot of happy memories to us, hope to you, certainly to me. I grew up in Virginia Beach, and Thanksgiving was a time where we would gather together with our family. Well, I guess first we'd watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, me and my brother and our family, and then we'd go to usually my grandparents' house, which they lived in the same town, We would get together with my aunts and uncles and cousins and usually play a little football in the front yard and eat good things together. And that was our time to catch up and celebrate Thanksgiving together. in these years in Georgia. It's been a fun time of turkey bowl for the last, I don't know, 15 years, playing flag football with Baraka early in the morning, kind of to earn our Thanksgiving ahead of time. That's happening again this year at 8 o'clock at Mercury Park. And so hopefully we'll be there and be in action another year. And so that's been fun and gathering together with friends, again celebrating all the good blessings that God has blessed us with. Thanksgiving and thankfulness. Have you ever thought about how it's such a cure for so many things going on in your life? Do you struggle with worry? Are you a worrier? Do you have things that you can be anxious about today? Count your blessings. Name them one by one. And that's gonna help. Do you struggle with anger today? What are you mad at? What gets you fired up? Do you know that it's almost impossible? Now some of you are very talented, that's why I put the qualifier almost. It's almost impossible to be filled with thankfulness and grumpy or angry at the same time. You can challenge me on this if you'd like, but you just start listing things you're thankful for and see if you can stay angry. See if you can stay grumpy. See if you can keep worrying when you're flowing with gratitude for all of the things that God has done. Are you lonely? What are you thankful for? Start listing the things you're thankful for. Do you have a secret struggle with pornography? Start being grateful. I'm not saying that's the cure for it or that's the only thing you do, but I am saying lust, pornography, that is such an inward, me-focused thing. where all your attention is on pleasing yourself illicitly. Instead, if you aim your heart and mind to God with gratitude, counting your blessings, overflowing with all of the good things God has done in your life, that is going to help your fundamental orientation. The more humble you become, the more you recognize all that God has given to you. And the more you recognize all that God has given to you, the more you offer grateful worship to Him. Such a good thing. That's why our Thanksgiving service this Wednesday night is so sweet. It's one of my favorite things we do every year, where we just have an open mic and have an opportunity to share what you're grateful for, and then have a time of communion together. We are so thankful for God's good blessings. So today, as we kind of help me and help you and get fired up for our Thanksgiving time, I want to answer a couple of questions about Thanksgiving and then take us to a passage that just helps us stir our hearts toward gratitude to God. So a couple of questions just to consider, just to stimulate us as we're thinking about thanking God. First, what are some enemies of a thankful heart? What is gonna keep you from being thankful? I think the first answer to that is gonna be pride. If you think your blessings are your fault, you really aren't so grateful. In fact, the more you think, I deserve this, the less you are gonna be grateful to God. But you know, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4, 7, what do we have that we have not received? And if we have received it, why do we boast as if we did it ourselves? If you're pride, you think I deserve things, I'm worthy. But we all know, if we're really being honest, the only thing in this whole world that we truly deserve is hell. It's the only thing that we truly deserve. I earned hell. I earned God's judgment. But friends, we're not in hell this morning. So everything we have is God's mercy and grace. And we should not be so proud as to think we deserve these things. We never should think in ways to make our blessings smaller. We should be humble and recognize God has blessed us in so many ways. So pride is an enemy of a thankful heart. Coveting is another enemy of a thankful heart. That's a heart that always wants more. Never grateful if you always want more. But remember commandment number 10 of the 10 commandments, you shall not covet. And Paul in Colossians actually breaks it down in a way that's maybe even more shocking than just the fact that we break one of the Ten Commandments. In Colossians 3, 5 it says, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. which is idolatry. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them. He calls covetousness idolatry. In other words, I want, I want, I want is really I worship this false God. Another enemy of a thankful heart is discontentment. Of course, that's very much related to pride and coveting. Discontentment, I'm just never satisfied. I'm never grateful because I just go, I want more. I spend more time looking at what I don't have than I do stopping to give thanks and enjoying what I do. And a final idea for an enemy of a thankful heart is worldliness. And this is a broad category. And by this I just mean your eyes are fixed on this world only without looking at God and his purposes in mind. You know, there's a lot of things that you can see and experience and touch. You can just look at what's happening in our government. You can look at your situation in your family, whether it's your immediate family, whether it's your extended family. You can look at your job situation, your relationships. Maybe you've got a car repair that's right in front of you, or a big expense coming. Maybe you've got a health situation. It's difficult sometimes to remember God's working in all of these things. And it's easy just to focus on what we can see. We live by sight instead of living by faith. Faith recognizes what the Bible teaches about God's character and the reality that God is in all of these situations. You remember Jesus' parable of the sower. The sower sows the seeds and some land on the hard path. Well, you remember that some lands in the thorns and the way Jesus described that is it pops up but then it gets choked out. And he says in Mark chapter 4 verses 18 and 19, and others are those sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful. So you hear the gospel, but then you start looking around at life and saying, this is what I can see and experience. And you stop paying attention to the word that's been implanted in you. And it's choked out the cares of this world. We miss spiritual blessings. when our temporal hard times come and choke out the reality that God is in all of these things. These are enemies of a grateful heart. Well, another question we can ask about Thanksgiving is what is the outcome of an unthankful heart? You know, the Bible pops up in gratitude. at a couple of very strong places. And it's almost shocking that they would show up in these sin list and basically be that big of a deal to God. But Romans chapter one is one of those. And here he's talking about Gentiles who know about God because of creation and their conscience, but they suppress the truth that they know about God. And in Romans 1, verse 21, it says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. It's kind of, stunning to think that in God's economy, a lack of honoring Him and a lack of gratitude is the beginning of a hard heart given over to destruction. And in 2 Timothy chapter three, Paul talks to Timothy about the last days and just how bad it's going to go, and the waves of difficulty that will come. It says, but understand this, that in the last days there will be, there will come times of difficulty, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents. How did that get in there? Anyway, keep going. ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power, avoid such people. These are the characteristics of the evil last days that Timothy was to be on the lookout for, and certainly they have escalated in our own days. Basically, ungratitude, ingratitude, that's on the list. Being unthankful to God for his good blessings. So if you are not battling against pride, battling against covetousness, battling against discontentment and worldliness, you're on a bad path. It's not enough though to say I don't wanna be worldly, I don't wanna be covetous, you have to be positively grateful. And that is a key component in overcoming those sins. Not only putting off the vices, but putting on the virtue of gratitude. So count your blessings. Well, here's another question. What can help me have a thankful heart? What can help me have a thankful heart? And I think just very simple, we can remember and obey the clear commandments of God. For our meditation verses this morning, we included 1 Thessalonians 5, 18, which commands you and you and you and you and everyone and me in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. But in the scripture passage that Kent read this morning for our scripture reading, Psalm 100, I mean, there's verses all over the place that command us to be grateful. So Psalm 100 said, enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name for the Lord is good and his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations. But if you read in the Psalms, it's not just in Psalm 100, not just in 1 Thessalonians, it's everywhere. Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless the Lord, or bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Psalm 104 begins, bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment stretching out the heavens. and basically starts describing God's greatness. Psalm 105, O give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. Psalm 106, praise the Lord, O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord or declare all his praise? Psalm 107, O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 108, verse three, says, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations, for your steadfast love is great above the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. So remember and obey God's clear commands. It's not just good advice. It's not just helping you overcome your foibles. It's a command of God to count your blessings and name them one by one, not just at Thanksgiving, but today as well. Another way that you can have a help to a thankful heart is to look at life Godwardly. This morning Kent was talking about how Paul was in prison and yet he looked at his life through Christ-colored glasses or through Christ-colored lenses. And so even in prison, he could be joyful and rejoice and praise God for the gospel's progress in spite of his circumstances. He was looking at his life through Christ-centered lenses. Well, I think the way I described it in my notes was to wear God goggles. Same idea. You can wear Christ-centered lenses or you can wear God goggles and you will be greatly helped. You're looking at the same situation. But you're getting God in your thinking. You're putting God in the picture. And when you put God in the picture, you realize God is at work. Even if you can't see it, there's a lot to be thankful for. The Bible says in James 1 17, every good and perfect gift comes from above. It comes from God. He is the source of the good blessings in your life. He is at work in every detail of your life. Like it says in Romans 8, 28, that God is causing all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Your life may not look so good right now, but get your God goggles on and now look at your life and you know God is at work. And so even though my life looks like just crummy, God is working, and I have things I can be thankful to God for, even right now. How do I know that? Because the Bible tells you that. The Bible reveals God to you, his character and his ways, and so you can have faith as you look at your circumstances, and you can be grateful. Seemingly bad trials are actually hiding a good goal that God has. And God's priority for your life is your spiritual well-being. If you are worldly-minded and you're just looking at life as you can figure it out as best you can, you're gonna miss this completely. So remember and obey the commands, look at life Godwardly, and then I'm gonna say another help is to literally count your blessings. It sounds so basic, but it is a huge help. Maybe you wanna make a list. At our family, Lynn started a tradition some years ago where she cuts out with construction paper a bunch of leaves and we have tape and we have them at our kitchen table. And so each day of the Thanksgiving season, each day of November, you can pull out a thankful leaf and write something you're thankful for. The tape is right there and stick it on our back doors, which have windows kind of on it. And so it's the windows, the glass is covered with leaves, and they're filled with things that we're thankful for. And it's fun if you come by our house and read our leaves, you will see that my kids are very grateful for some very unusual things sometimes, but we're just glad that they're thankful, right? And I think it's a great challenge to us, especially in difficult times. So I told you that these sermons that I'm preaching here now are just to help me. And so this week, I thought, okay, If I was gonna apply my own sermon to my own life, I should be able to come up with things that I'm thankful to God for in relationship to my recent trial of spiritual exhaustion. And so, I didn't put these on leaves, but listen to some stuff that I came up with this week. I am thankful for God's grace, not only to forgive me again and again, but to also help me When I was exhausted, God has helped me not be so exhausted. Number two, God's love. It's really amazing that God can know what a mess I am and still love me. Have you ever thought about the fact that God does not regret adopting you into his family? Like, he knew you were gonna be such a mess and he adopted you anyway. And he knew that in spite of all of his good blessings, you were gonna still blow it some more. And he still wasn't sorry that he chose you to be his child. That's amazing love that God has. Another great blessing, God's patience. I'm thankful to God for his patience because it took a while to get back on the right track and God was still patient. Another thing I was thankful for is that God hears and answers our prayers. Talked about that in the sermon last week. That was just so sweet to me as you read through the Psalms that it's like, cry out to God in your trial. God wants you to, God lets you, God hears your prayers, and He uses your prayers and my prayers in His plan. Then there was just a whole section about God's word. Thankful for God's word, thankful for promises, promises like James 4, 6, which says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I mean, suppose God made that dynamic a reality, All right, I'm gonna make this a real thing, that if one of my creatures is humble, I'm gonna give him grace, and if one of my creatures bows his back and lifts his fist, then I'm gonna knock him down, but then didn't tell us about it. I mean, God made it real, and you could maybe observe it, but he didn't tell you about it. Though that wouldn't be nearly as helpful as the fact that he wrote it down for us in James 4, 6, so that if you can forget it, you can read it again and be reminded and be encouraged. Well, all of his promises are like that. He's so kind, I'm so thankful to God that in his inspired, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient word, he gave us promises. He also gave us explanations. like James chapter one, verses two through four, which tell us to rejoice in our trials, knowing that he's at work in them to make us more like Christ. And Romans 8, 28, that I alluded to before, that he's at work. It is helpful to me when I'm going through real difficulty to know that there's more going on than what I can just see and experience. these explanations, like 2 Corinthians 12, Paul's thorn in the flesh. Why am I so weak? And why is this so bad and won't go away? And I pray that it'll go away and it still doesn't go away. 2 Corinthians 12 is sweet to me in a situation like that. It may not be the exact parallel or the exact explanation of my situation, but it's still sweet. Explanations like that in the Bible are so helpful. I'm also grateful to God for his identifications in the Psalms, especially. By that I mean, remember when I preached on Psalm 42 and said, it's so encouraging that God gets it. Like when the psalmist goes through difficulties that he doesn't understand, And then you're reading it and you go, yes, that's what I'm feeling as well. That's really sweet. And the Psalms are loaded with those. God gets it. I'm also grateful that God reveals his character in his word to help us think more Godwardly. I'm also grateful that God uses the Bible to reset our categories. When you are in a trial and you are in a fog and you can't sort out right from wrong, up from down, you can go to the Bible and the Bible sets you straight again and rebuilds your categories. So Psalm 19, verse seven, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. the rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. So good. So thankful for the Bible. Also, in my thankful list, I'm thankful for my wife, who loved me well and was so supportive and encouraging and patient and kind to me in my trials. I'm thankful for my family, thankful for my friends. Good to have friends who know you well and love you anyway, in spite of you. Good to have friends who encourage you with the word of God and who love you and are just there for you. I'm thankful for my church family. I've told people for many years I would come to Faith Bible Church if you didn't pay me to come to Faith Bible Church, because I like Faith Bible Church so much. And the proof's in the pudding. When you're going through a tough time, you're surrounded by great people, great elders, Lots of prayers, lots of patience, lots of encouragement. Thankful to God for the gift of rest. Thankful to God that God allowed me to go through the trial that I have been going through. Now, why would I thank God for that? Because if I was getting off track, and I was, if I was losing joy in the Lord and his work, which I was, if my quiet times, my times of prayer and Bible reading were growing stale and not lively, it was so kind of God to shake me out of that doldrum and shake me out of that exhaustion and get me back on track. It was great, such a blessing for me, but such a blessing for our church as well, because you don't want a pastor that's not happy or joyful, and his compassion jets had blown out. And God, in his kindness, did what it took, putting me flat on my face, to help break me through that. And I am grateful to God for that. So, that's me trying to count my blessings in a recent trial. I hope you'll count your blessings. How many do you think you could count between now and Thanksgiving? Do you think you could get 100? That sounds like a lot. You start counting and then come Wednesday night and share the best ones you've got. All right, let's go to Luke chapter seven for a moment. Luke seven, just as a way to help us cultivate our thanksgiving, there's a great story in Luke seven of Jesus' encounter with two main characters that I want to introduce you to. One of them is named Simon, he's a Pharisee, and we don't know the name of the lady. But in verse 36, we meet Simon. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. Now, the Pharisees were the strict sect within Judaism. They were characterized by rigorously trying to obey the letter of the law, but usually missing the big things like faith, hope, and love. We know that his name was Simon because he's named by name in verse 40. But he was a Pharisee. Now you would think such a religious man would really have a good grasp of God and his grace and his forgiveness. And this is a guy who even invited Jesus over to his house for a meal, which implies he wanted to have fellowship with Jesus. But it's not so surprising. We'll see later that Simon doesn't really get this. but Jesus was a respected teacher. Some were even thinking he was a prophet, a healer, and this man wanted to get to know Jesus better. Maybe he was curious about that. It says they reclined at the table. That means there was no chairs. They would have a low table in the middle, and they would prop themselves up on cushions. with their legs sticking out to the side. So if you were to have a ceiling view of the meal, looking down, it would look like a hub with spokes sticking out. So this comes up later, so keep this picture in your mind. They're all flopped down on one shoulder and they're eating their meal with their other hand on cushions at the table. Verse 37 introduces us to character number two. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house brought an alabaster flask of ointment. This woman was described as a sinner. Now, the Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. Why was she labeled a sinner? Probably because she was a public sinner, like a prostitute or something like that. She was well known in these towns which were very small and the gossip held the city together. It would just go around everywhere. Everybody knew this woman was a sinner. Very, very unlikely. on a human level to appreciate any religious things at all. So you've got Simon, who we ought to be able to expect that he would have a great appreciation for God's grace and love and mercy. And then you've got this woman, who is very unlikely to appreciate this, says that she brought an alabaster vial of perfume. Alabaster was a very fine variety of soft marble. It could be white, yellow, or red. It often was carved into delicate containers for storing very costly items like perfumes. And so she brought this. Then verse 38 tells us that this unlikely person in this proper religious home did a very precious thing. It says, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair with her head, the hair of her head, and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now, this would have actually been easy for her to do just practically because they were reclined at the table and their feet were sticking out like the spokes. So she didn't have to crawl under the table where everybody's at the chairs and figure out which one was Jesus. His feet were sticking out and she was able to find them and was weeping. and kissing his feet, these tears were expressing love and gratitude, perhaps even repentance and even worship. To kiss someone's feet connoted reverence, worship. This took great courage to honor Jesus in this way because it would have been considered hugely improper, even scandalous. in that honor and shame culture. Even to let her hair down in public was considered scandalous. In verse 39, And when the Pharisee, who had invited him, saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. Simon missed it completely. Did you notice that it said he said this to himself? He was not using his out loud voice. Because you sure wouldn't want Jesus to hear what he was saying to himself. Wouldn't that be bad if Jesus knew the things we said to ourselves? Wow, that would be crazy. So look at verse 40. And Jesus answering peekaboo, said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher. Keep going, verse 41. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly. So Jesus tells a story and Simon gets the right answer, but then Jesus tells the punchline. Now a denarius was a common day of wage for a common worker or a soldier. So 500 denarii was like 20 months wages, 50 denarii was about two months wages, but here comes the punchline, verse 44. Then turning to the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? Simon, yeah, I was just thinking about that. I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Now, all of these things that Jesus lists are common courtesies for guests in your home. If you have a special guest, you anoint their head with oil, olive oil. Do you remember how they were eating dinner with their feet sticking out away from the table? This is an extremely dusty land. If you go and visit Israel, you discover your feet get really dirty. And even if you've got shoes on, your shoes get really dirty. Joey and I were there recently, and we found at one of the hotels we were staying at, one of these kind of fancy, shoe polisher spin thing, you know, push the button and it spins to clean your shoes. And we snuck over there with our dirty tennis shoes. And, you know, they're probably for nice dress shoes. But anyway, we just spun it off and so much dirt and grime came off our shoes that looked like we'd had new shoes. And we weren't doing anything fancy. We were just walking around, being tourists. But your feet get really dusty. And this was a time before there were paved roads. And this was a time where there was lots of animals doing animal things on the roads that weren't paved. And you're just walking and doing your thing. Washing feet when you come into the house, that is a very big deal. Going to some cultures, you take your shoes off, you leave them at the door. Even some of our homes, we have similar kind of house rules like that. And so that was the same concept, but Simon completely blew Jesus off. Even though he was curious about Jesus, he was not treating Jesus respectfully like a welcomed guest. But this woman did all of the above. She gave him kisses respectfully, appropriately. She anointed him with feet with the perfume. She wet his feet with her tears and she wiped them with her hair. It was amazing. The sinful woman did it all. Now here's the heart of the matter. Verses 47 and 48. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. It's amazing that Jesus has the divine prerogative to fulfill sin, forgive sins. You can't just forgive someone's sins before God unless you're God. But there he is at the table forgiving her sins. Luke. brought up their thoughts and their concerns to provoke us to consider the implications of what was happening. Now, she wasn't forgiven because she loved much. She loved much because she was forgiven. We are forgiven of our sins by putting our faith in Christ. And when we put our trust in Christ, God forgives us and changes us and we love him and we're so grateful and so we give these expressions of love like wiping Jesus' feet with her hair. The key to becoming a Christian is first to realize how sinful you are. And then you realize you can't make up for your sins by your good works. You have to trust in Christ. You have to throw yourself on his mercy. If you're not a Christian today, we're so glad you're here. You are our welcome special guest. We love it that you're here. This is the best place you could be to learn the truth about God and his word and how you can have your sins forgiven. But if you're like Simon, who minimized his sins, he may have admitted he had a few little practical mistakes that he's made over the years, but this woman, she is a sinner, capital S. Not like me, if Jesus knew that this woman was a sinner and touching him, he would have been freaking out. But not me. The most dangerous place we can be is like Simon and think, we're pretty good. Not me, I'm not bad like she is. The best place you can be is like her. I'm not advocating that you go out and become a public sinner in our society, but here was a lady who knew her sins, and she got it, and she repented, and she trusted in Jesus. You know, the biggest thing for you to overcome right now, if you're not a Christian, is your pride in admitting you're a sinner. Some people like to compare big sins and little sins. Hey, in God's economy, they're all big because God's law is kind of like a plate glass window. If you break it a little bit, it's broken. It's kind of like if you get a crack in your windshield or a little chip out of your windshield, your windshield's broken and damaged. If there's a hole in your windshield, you gotta fix the whole thing. You can't just fix part of it. And you and I have broken God's laws so many times. And God has been so kind to show you that and to get your attention. and to convict you so that you might turn to Jesus and beg for mercy and grace, not because you deserve it, but because he's so kind that he offers it to you. Believe it, receive it, and you can be forgiven of all of your big sins. And then when you do receive his grace, Jesus forgives you, just like he said to the woman, Your sins are forgiven. Don't you want Jesus, who does know your thoughts, to say your sins are forgiven? Verse 49, then those who were at the table began, or with him, began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Faith is the empty hand by which we receive Christ and all his benefits. Her faith demonstrated itself in the various ways she honored Jesus. She was not saved by her acts of love. They were the fruit, not the root. So here we come to Thanksgiving this Thursday. And I hope you have a lot of things that you're thankful for. But I hope very, very high on the list is you're so grateful for the cross of Christ where God took the punishment for our sins and put it on his son Jesus. And he killed him and crushed him on the cross And then three days later, he raised him from the dead that he might give you the ultimate gift, where Jesus would say to you, your sins are forgiven. What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? I hope you're thankful that you can say like the woman, I am a big sinner, but Christ is a great Savior, and he's forgiven me for my sins. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your grace. Thank you that you hear our prayers. Thank you that you've given us your word filled with wonderful promises and encouragements. But we thank you for the gospel and the love of Jesus Christ. Though we do not deserve his forgiveness, you have given it to us through Christ. Your sacrifice, sacrifice of Jesus, was so awesome that it even could forgive a sinner like me and like us. I pray for the person today that is just thinking about these things in a brand new way. And I pray that you would do a good work in his or her heart, convicting them to the core. Not because I want them to feel bad, but They have to see their sin before they cry out for a savior. I pray you would do that work of showing them their sin so that they can cry out to you and receive your grace. Thank you for hearing our prayers. Thank you that we can gather together as fellow redeemed sinners, singing your praises and our hearts filled with thanksgiving. In Jesus' name, amen.