Thanks for Nothing Part 1: Comparison

Announcements:

Friendsgiving Dinner is on Wednesday at 6:30PM

Update on signups for the dinner

Update on where we are as a church (positive)

Worship:

Praise

2. I Thank God

3. Revelation Song

4. Surrounded (Fight My Battles)

5. Back to chorus of Praise

Introduction:

We went through a period of time when we thought we would have to trade in one of our vehicles because of some issues. So, thinking this was a possibility, and seemed to be more of a possibility with each day, we began to talk about and look at vehicles. It is interesting that one day you can be totally satisfied with what you have until you start looking around at what other people have or what else is available. You go from hoping to be able to fix your current vehicle to thinking how nice it would be to “upgrade” to a newer car with more bells and whistles. And there is nothing wrong with that honestly. But there are times when we get sucked into replacing things we were content with having and using one day and then, after realizing what someone else has and what else is available, we look at what we have and get ungrateful, sour, discouraged, etc. All because of what someone else has or the “newest” available options.

I have been horrible with this and hopefully, with my wife’s help, I have gotten better at this too. LOL

But when this happens, and we all probably can tell of a story when we experienced something similar, we can also agree that we allowed, in that moment, for comparison to steal our joy and our thankfulness. Instead of being thankful for what God has given to us, we start to focus on needing more, needing something bigger, better, shinier, etc.

I want to talk to you this morning, and over the next three weeks, about the 3 mindsets that can keep us from being a thankful person. These mindsets are some of the devices that Satan uses to bring your focus down (off of God) and onto the things of this world and the problems of this life. So, this morning, we are going to focus on the first of these three mindsets: Comparison. We will talk about what comparison is, what it does and how to kill it.

Comparison is nothing new. And just because we are adults now doesn’t mean we have grown out of getting sucked into the trap of comparison.

What was something we did as kids (who has the most presents, who got the biggest gift, who got the popular toy for that year, who was given the best car when they turned 16, etc.) is something we continue to do as adults. It just looks differently: whose kids are better (at school, at home, at church), who has the biggest house, who has the largest salary, who has the most likes on IG, who has the busiest social life, etc.

And we miss out on so much God has to offer us in this life (John 10:10) because we are so consumed with be better than someone else or trying to measure up to someone else. And God already knew this which is why He tells us in:

Exodus 20:17 CSB

17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

He knew if we fall into the trap of comparison , it will steal the joy and thankfulness from our life and wreck our life.

I have heard it said and will quote it as I do not know who said it first, “When we compare, we are prone to despair.”

God is not trying to keep us from something good but trying to give us something good by protecting us from the sin of comparison.

During His ministry, Jesus also spoke about this and addressed it directly.

He had a great way of pointing out truths and blindspots in peoples’ lives He would interact with. We call them parables. Parables were stories Jesus used that would relate to the audience He was speaking to while holding some truth in it. And, while the people would listen, they would think they knew the point or answer to the parable and then, at the last moment, Jesus would do a twist and catch His audience off guard resulting in an “AH HA” moment.

He did this in our text this morning. Please turn to Luke 18 and while you are turning there, let’s get some context.

Jesus is surrounded by some of the most influential people in society at this moment. They are the most important, successful, wealthy, and righteous people at the time. It’s mainly a “who’s who” of society that everyone else would compare themself to. Think of our current celebrities, popular mega-church pastors, athletes, millionaire/billionaire CEO’s and entrepreneurs, etc. Those are the people Jesus are talking to in His day.

And this is what He tells them in:

Luke 18:9–14 CSB

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So, Jesus calls these people out on their sin of comparison. And just so we are all on the same page, we are even told what the sin of comparison is in verse 9.

Luke 18:9 (CSB)

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else:

“Righteous” here means they measured how righteous they were by how well they did what God wanted them to do. It was a works based righteousness. Since they believed to observe everything according to the Law then they were in right-standing with God.

This is a “me vs everyone else” mentality. Am I _____________ than everyone else? How do I compare with everyone else?

This gives us the first point of what comparison is.

Body:

I. What is comparison? Comparison views life as a competition 24/7 (vv10-12)

I played sports growing up and loved it, mostly. From soccer and track (least liked) to basketball and baseball (most liked), I loved playing the game but dreaded the try-outs. Why? Because you were constantly being watched and compared to others. It was a competition to see who was the fastest, who had the best shot, who could hit the farthest, and who played the best position.

I am a very competitive person. If you don’t believe me, ask my kids lol. I will not let them win at anything. They have to earn it. I have always been competitive. There’s nothing wrong with being competitive as long as we know when it starts and when it ends.

Unfortunately, many of us carry competitiveness into all areas of our life and it gets worse as we age. So, what was a good thing at first, becomes a negative thing known as comparison and it can be tiring. Because, now you are constantly comparing yourself to others and it never stops. Your identity and self-worth is defined by how you stack up to other people.

And you may think you don’t have this problem and maybe you don’t.

But here is a way to know if you do: you do your best to succeed in everything you do and you can’t celebrate when other people succeed. They get the promotion/raise…they get the house you wanted…they get the new car…the list goes on and on.

This isn’t a new problem we have to deal with either. We see time and time again in the Bible people who have fallen into the trap of comparison:

Cain and Abel (Gen 4) God accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s

Jacob and Esau (Gen 25) Jacob had something Esau wanted

Rachel and Leah (Gen 29) they both married Jacob but he loved Rachel more and Leah could have kids so they wanted what the other had

Joseph and his brothers (Gen 37) they were jealous of the attention Joseph got from their dad

The disciples (Luke 9:46) arguing about who was the greatest

There are two types of comparison: materialistic (“I want what they have” which we have talked about up to this point) and moralistic (“I am better than they are” which is more prevalent in the church, unfortunately as we will see as we continue with our passage).

Either way, comparison views life as a competition and that is what we see in our passage this morning:

Luke 18:10–12 CSB

10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’

A. This prayer time was the corporate worship where everyone prayed out loud

B. The Pharisee: a religious leader at the time who knew the word of God and followed it, religiously. He knew and loved God more than anyone else, religiously

1. Fasted: fasting was only required on the Day of Atonement and he did it twice a week

2. Tithed: went to the extreme to tithe everything he got to make sure the proper tithes were paid

C. The Pharisee focused only on his accomplishments compared to others around him. He was competing against others and went to the extreme to make sure he was doing more than anyone else.

Contrary to the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-13), the Pharisee was only focused about how good he was compared to others. This leads us to the next point:

II. What does comparison do? Comparison crushes relationships (vv11)

Luke 18:11 CSB

11 The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

A. Comparison crushes your relationship with God and with others. The people the Pharisee was supposed to be leading and helping to get closer to God, he was crushing others and pushing them away because they were not as good as he was.

B. When we compare ourselves with others, they become the competition/enemy. We don’t trust them and always try to beat them in everything. We isolate from everyone else because no one is good enough for you.

C. This is the mentality of climbing up the ladder of success without regard whom you are stepping on and destroying in the process of getting to the top

D. We can slip into this mentality as the Church as well. Someone doesn’t dress the right way, speak the right way, doesn’t measure up to how we are and we look down on them. Then we wonder why people are leaving the church and not willing to give Jesus a shot because of how His representatives treat them.

So, we know what comparison is (views life as a competition), and what is does (crushes relationships, but how do we kill it?

III. How do you kill comparison? Comparison is killed by humility (vv13-14)

We talked about the prayer the Pharisee prayed out loud in the corporate worship

But the tax collector stood a far off.

The audience probably knew why he did this because he was a social outcast, generally thought of as a greedy politician whose business was stealing money from his own people while representing the despised Roman government. This was definitely not someone God would forgive and listen to as the audience would think.

Let’s look at the prayer the tax collector, a person the Pharisee compared himself to, prayed.

Luke 18:13–14 CSB

13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

It is interesting to note, in the original language and in NASB and some others, it reads “the sinner”; not “a sinner” which is an accurate literal word for word translation.

That is HUGE! Because he was essentially saying that he was the worst sinner or chief sinner! He knew how he measured up to God; or didn’t.

He didn’t raise his eyes because of his shame.

“Striking his chest” was a sign of extreme sorrow that women usually did at funerals. It was rare for men to make any gestures of despair during prayer at all.

You see, both individuals made a comparison in this parable.

The Pharisee compared himself to everyone else and proved how good he was, etc. He was focused on himself and pride.

The tax collector compared himself to God and realized how sinful he was. he was focused on God and how he didn’t measure up.

A. The only way to kill comparison is to see yourself for who you really are.

1. If you are trying to measure up to others because you don’t think you are good enough, see yourself as God sees you!

2. If you are constantly looking down on others because they aren’t as good as you, then compare yourself to someone whom you aren’t even close to being (be holy as I am holy)

Here is the twist Jesus always did with parables, the shocking truth was the tax collector (the sinner) was more upright than the Pharisee (who thought he was righteous because of what he did)! That’s the “AH -HA” moment for the audience.

In other words, being upright requires recognizing that I am a sinner before God and asking for a pardon; not reciting all of one’s pious accomplishments thinking you will be rewarded for all the good things you have done.

Here is a great example from a godly man and prophet who was good:

Isaiah 6:5 CSB

5 Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.

When you compare yourself to someone better than you, you are humbled (MJ basketball, Serena Williams tennis, Dale Earnhardt racing, our perceived holiness/righteousness to The Holy and Righteous God, etc.)

Conclusion:

Here’s a contrast I hope we see this morning between comparison/pride to humility:

Comparison/pride preaches merit; humility pleads for compassion.

Comparison/pride negotiates as an equal; humility approaches in need.

Comparison/pride separates by putting down others; humility identifies with others, recognizing we all have the same need.

Comparison/pride destroys through its alienating self-service; humility opens doors with its power to sympathize with the struggle we share.

Comparison/pride turns up its nose; humility offers an open and lifted-up hand.

So, in summary:

What is comparison? Comparison views life as a competition.

What does comparison do? Comparison crushes relationships.

How can I kill comparison? Comparison is killed by humility.

We are all looking for the best life possible. Comparison is looking for your best life in somebody else’s life.

What Jesus is saying to us about that? He is saying to trust Him. Look to Him. Don’t worry about what others do and do not have. What others do and don’t do. Our job is not to compare ourselves to others but to follow and trust Him!

Where are you this morning?

Are you finding yourself comparing your life to others?

Wishing you had what someone else has?

Thinking you are better than other people because you go to church, read your Bible, etc.?

If we are going to be thankful this Thanksgiving season, we need to make sure our focus is on following Jesus and trusting in Him that He knows what we need and what is best for us. And we compare ourselves to God’s standard and not others’.