1. God’s Eye is on the Sparrow’s Purpose
2. God’s Eye is on the Sparrow’s Protection
3. God’s Eye is on the Sparrow’s Provision
This is the first example of birds that Jesus used in Matthew 6:25-26. The little birds works hard for their food, but they don’t worry. God feeds them. “He who feeds the sparrow will not starve His saints.” “Worry is like a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind which if encouraged, will cut a channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drained out.
If God feeds the little four-inch dully colored of little value sparrow will He not provide for you who are made in the image of God and made over in the image of Christ at conversion.
If God feeds the sparrow, which could be purchased with less than one penny, will He not provide for you who were purchased with the precious blood of Christ.
4. God’s Eye is on the Sparrow’s Providence
Spurgeon preached a sermon on Matthew 10:29-30 entitled Providence. He said the doctrine of providence is the doctrine of the supervision and wise care of God.
A. God providently controls the small things. Not just the archangels, Michael and Gabriel, but the sparrows. Once an old farm rooster crowed and did God’s will reminding Peter of his denial of the Lord.
The writer of Proverbs writes, The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. The President makes major national defense decision like going to war with Iran. Daniel writes that God puts down kings and raises up kings. The next Presidential election is a big decision. I am concerned about these national issues. I am concerned with Iran building a nuclear bomb. But God is going to protect His chosen people even if our nation does not. I am concerned with the Presidential election, but Romney, Santorum, Greenwich or Paul is not our hope. Like one preacher I heard recently say, when Jesus returns it will not be on a democrat donkey or a republican elephant, but on a white horse as King of kings. He is our only hope.
But God is also concerned with little things of our lives. An incident recorded in the book of Esther illustrated this truth. The very night the wicked, anti-Semite Haman built gallows on which to hang Mordecai, the Persian king could not sleep. The king asked his secretary to read to him out of the royal minutes, hoping that these business meeting minutes would put him to sleep. The servants read about Mordecai saving the king’s life by exposing a plot against him and also that Mordecai was never rewarded for his good deed. God’s providence produced the king’s sleeplessness. God’s providence caused king to request the business meeting records to be read as the solution for his insomnia. God providence moved the secretary to read from the exact page that had noted Mordecai saving the king’s life. These were not happenstances but examples of God’s providence. God’s providence through a series of small events caused Haman to be executed on the gallows he built to hang to death Mordecai.
Noël Piper, John Piper’s wife, tells this example of God’s providence:
A young couple was snorkeling, for the first time ever, in the warm Caribbean bay, near a harbor where boats were coming and going. “The boat sounds seem very loud,” Mrs. Clausen said. Another woman nearby, who had snorkeled many times, said, “Whenever you hear a boat, look up! Don’t just assume that the boat is far away. Always look up to make sure.” She had no idea how important her words would be the very next day. The next day, Mr. and Mrs. Clausen went snorkeling again, this time in a place where no boats are supposed to go. When Mrs. Clausen heard the sound of a boat, God reminded her of the warning, “Look up!” She looked up and saw a boat speeding straight toward her. There was no time to swim out of the way! Immediately, she dived straight down, hoping to get deep beneath the boat. The propeller of the motor hit her legs and cut them very severely.
If she had not heard the warning the day before, she would have ignored the boat. Then the injury would have been to her head or body, probably killing her. The warning that God had given her through the other woman saved Mrs. Clausen’s life.
What would happen now, though? She needed immediate medical attention, but this was a small island with no hospital and not much medical equipment. Usually, people who get
injuries like hers get terrible infections. The infections can cause almost as much damage as the original injury.
God had prepared for this very moment in Mrs. Clausen’s life. A couple was vacationing next to the beach. When the man saw the accident, he ran to get his wife. His wife was a highly trained emergency room nurse. She knew exactly what to do to fight infection. She ordered the other vacationers, “Run straight to your cottages, and bring me glasses of water – lots of glasses of water!” Then she very carefully poured fresh water into and around and over every part of the wounded legs, cleaning away the bacteria-filled sea water.
Then the nurse rode with Mrs. Clausen to the clinic. Since she was there to help, the clinic doctor could concentrate on the most urgent medical needs.
It was a long time before Mrs. Clausen recovered completely, but today she is healthy and her legs are fine. When she remembers that terrifying moment of being hit, she says that there was only a split second to think about anything. The most important thing that flashed into her mind was, “I know God loves me.”
B. God providently controls the difficult things. “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.” This illustration was given in the context of persecution and death (10:16-28). Paul used the same example in one of the worst storms of his life in Acts 27:34. Paul used the illustration to encourage those in the storm that God would spare their lives.
This statement was common proverb. The people of Israel used this proverb in 1 Samuel 14:45 to defend Jonathan against his father Saul who wanted to kill him. The people in defense of Jonathan said, “There shall not one hair of this head fall to the ground.”
It is also used in Luke’s gospel concerning persecution in the future Tribulation Period which includes death (Luke 21:18). This proverbs teaches two truths about God’s providence, first, nothing will happen to you except what is God’s will and secondly, if it is God’s will for death to come, nothing can affect your eternal life.
If a sparrow drops to its death it is because the Father willed it.
Spurgeon attended a funeral of a friend and heard this parable told by the preacher. There was much weeping on account of the loss of a loved one, and the minister told this parable.
Suppose you are a gardener employed by the owner and master of the garden; it is not your garden but you are called upon to tend it, and you have your wages paid you. You have taken great care with a certain number of roses; you have trained them up, and there they are, blooming in their beauty. You pride yourself upon them.
You come one morning into the garden, and you find that the best rose has been taken away. You are angry; you go to your all your fellow employees, and charge them with having taken the rose. They will declare that they had nothing at all to do with it; and one says, ‘I saw the owner walking here this morning; I think he took it.’ Is the gardener angry then? No, at once he says, ‘I am happy that my rose should had been so fair as to attract the attention of the owner. It is his own; he has taken it; let him do what seems him good.’
Spurgeon added his comments: “It is even so with your friends. They wither not by chance; the grave is not filled by accident; men die according to God’s will. Your child is gone, but the Master took it; your husband is gone, your wife is buried,—the Master took them; thank Him that He let you have the pleasure of caring for them and tending them while they were here, and thank Him that as He gave, He Himself has taken away. If others had done it, you would have had cause to be angry; but the Lord has done it.
Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
