His Eye On The Sparrow

Transcript

Welcome And Calvin Ray’s Generosity

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Coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the Voice of the Nazarene, a week-by-week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Virus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our pastor, Reverend Ray Lasau, and the Voice of the Nazarene.

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Well, I understand that uh Calvin Ray had had uh heart surgery, and I was all excited about maybe he being here. And I guess he had to cancel. Have any of you ever been down to his church? I held revival before he became pastor there a number of years ago, several revivals. And um when they decided to build a new church, they the former pastor died, they allowed the former pastor's wife to stay on in the parsonage. And so they lifted the house and moved it over and to begin to cut into the mountain to make room for a brand new church with seemed a little over a thousand. And um I had called him. We were in a building program and had gotten a group to raise funds for us, capital stewardship campaign. And I said, uh Calvin, I said, uh, have you raised money yet? He said, yes. I said, what company did you use? He said, Well, we didn't use any. I said, well, then who raised the money? He said, Well, I did. I said, How much did you raise? He said, Well, we raised a little over two million. And I said, How much you spent so far? He said, We haven't spent any yet. He said, We bought all the metal beams, we've poured all the concrete, and around 35,000 have been coming in every Sunday. And uh he said, we're just moving along. Can I tell a little story? I don't know if he ever tells this or not. But uh there was a Methodist church, a small Methodist church nearby, and they had taken a stand against homosexuality. Somebody on the district uh was in responsible positions, and that was their background. And uh the pastor wrote in and said, We can't go along with this. The letter came back from the bishop. The church is disorganized, and uh, pastor, you've lost your credentials. Suddenly he's without a church, without a building. His little crowd has no place to go, and the Methodists put the church up on an auction. Businessmen came in and wanted to buy it, tear it down, and build a business. And uh Calvin Ray heard about it, went to his uh deacons and said, How much money do we have in our building program? This is before they started building, and uh, I think he had around 65,000. And he said, Give me the money, and so they did. He went to the auction and bid it for sixty some thousand dollars. And when he looked around for the Methodist pastor, he was heading toward his car and he was weeping. And he raced after him, said, Where are you going? He said, Well, I gotta go tell my people we don't have a building. That Calvin Ray bought it. No, he said, I I bought it for you. Here's the keys. Yes. When I heard that about that, I uh I understood why God had helped him to raise two million dollars and put up a building that'll seat uh about a thousand and five. I think that's the seating capacity we'd run down there about uh 12, 13 years ago on a Sunday night. About 500 people shouting, preaching, singing, tremendous service. Anyhow, he's a good friend. And I just trust that God continues to touch him and bring healing, and we can hear great sermons from him from the years to

Matthew’s Verse And The Sparrow

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come. I have a simple little uh text tonight. I'd like to read from the tax collector. His name was Matthew Levi Matthew. He not only had been a tax collector, he had been an accountant. And so everything he saw, he saw taxes, he saw value. If he saw that you had a couple goats or an oxen, he knew how much he could tax you. Well, he got converted, but he still had this tax issue. And so as he looks, he said, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Can you see the tax mentality? What are they sold for? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear you not, therefore, ye are all more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my father, which is in heaven. I want to talk to you for a few minutes about uh his eye is on the sparrow.

A Parrot Lesson On Respect

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A number of years ago, a little couple were visiting a small village and they were going in and out of these little quaint shops. You've seen those kind of shops, haven't you? Kind of eclectic, and and uh they have uh things that people have made and they're trying to sell and make a little money. They were about to go into the shop and there was a parrot setting out on a broomstick. And the parrot said, Hey, buddy! And the guy turned and looked at him and said, Look at that stupid bird talking. And the parrot said, You calling me a stupid bird? Look at the woman you just married. Why, he said, God not only made her ugly, he must have scared her nearly to death. He said she would snag a lightning bolt standing in a rubber room on in tennis shoes. Well, it made the man mad, and he raced in and he told the owner of the store, he said, I was intending to spend hundreds of thousands or hundreds of dollars in here, and your parrot out there offended me, and he said, I'm not gonna spend a dime. So the owner of the store, he raced out and he grabbed that parrot by the neck and he slapped that parrot and slapped that parrot and slapped that parrot until it just withered. And he said, Don't ever offend any of my customers again. Well, about 15 minutes went by, and that same couple came walking up the sidewalk, and as they're going by, the parrot said, Hey, buddy. The guy turned and said, What do you want? He said, You know, you know. And the parrot was looking at his wife. Well, I'm not talking about parrots tonight. I don't believe that parrots are listed in the Bible. If they are, I haven't read it yet. But I want to talk to you about sparrows. The Bible talks about sparrows. It don't say a lot about them, but it mentions in passing the fact that his eye is on the sparrow. Let me make three quick observations this evening from the Bible.

Loneliness And God’s Constant Presence

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And the first observation I want to make is that God is with the sparrow when it's all alone. Fact of the matter is, I was studying Psalm 102, verse 7 sin I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. And apparently, sparrows have a propensity and a tendency to want to get up on a the peak of a roof where they can look out across the way and watch things. And they'll get up there and they'll get alone. And God is simply saying, I see that sparrow all alone. I don't know how alone he might feel, but he said, I see that sparrow. And God is inferring that he also sees his people. He's watching his people. God is with the sparrow when it feels all alone. And I thought of the 22 million Americans that live alone. Now, whether they're lonely or not lonely, I do not know. But I thought of the president of a large corporation, this CEO, that cannot get near to his employees because if he does, there'll be too much of a friendship. And so he has to work in a lonely environment. What about the housewife? All day long, no adult conversation with anyone. In the evening, her husband comes in from work and he's carrying all of his load from the office and he doesn't want to talk, and she's battling loneliness. What about an elderly person that lives alone and maybe some of us are too busy and we don't call and we don't visit and we don't make any contact and they're lonely? I thought of single people that would wonder will God ever send anyone into my life? Does God have a plan and they feel left out? I thought of those who travel and they are there on the road, the busy highways, sleeping in motels, and the walls are closing in and they feel so alone. What about a teenager? Mom and dad's building their careers, climbing ladders of success, and neglecting the very thing that is so important, and that's their children. What about those on fixed incomes, those with health issues, those who are in nursing homes, those who have lost a companion? Do you know you can be lonely in a crowd? You can come to a church of hundreds and feel like you're alone on planet earth and nobody maybe smiles. You may walk in and walk out, and nobody offers to shake your hand, and you feel alone, a lonely person. And I've got news for you today. The Bible says that God is with the sparrow when it feels all alone, and God is with you, and he's with me. And if nobody else cares, if nobody seems to be interested, God is interested in each one of us. I heard about a note, somebody put in an offering plate, and it read, I'm your most lonely member, and I'm your biggest contributor. Is there any way that you could schedule a visit with me tomorrow, signed a pastor's wife? Who would dream those who are battling loneliness? There was a lady by the name of Margaret Fieschback. Margaret Fieschback was uh a unique lady. She had had some relationships, but they'd gone sour, they'd gone south. She'd even been engaged two times to be married, and it didn't materialize. And then she got sick, and she came down with meningitis and soon became bedridden, and that's the way she would remain the rest of her life. She would journal. I've never been a journaler. It's all I can do to come up with a note for a sermon. But some people journal, and I think journaling is a good thing. At least you have some memories that you can pull out in later years. In her journal, she said, I had a dream the other night. And in my dream, I and the Lord was walking side by side along a beach and along the waterway in the sand. And suddenly my life flashed across the sky. I saw different moments in my life, and as I did, I saw two footprints in the sand. And then I would see one set of footprints. And as I began to analyze, every time I saw only one set of footprints, it was when I was going through the darkest moment. And why was God not there walking with me? And I said, Lord, it don't make sense. It seems like you promised you'd be with me as long as I followed you. And yet when I'm going through dark times, you seem to disappear, and there's only one set of prints. And she wrote in her journal, and the Lord responded by saying, Yes, there's only one set of prints because I picked you up and I carried you. And this is what we know. Hebrews 13 5 said, I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Proverbs 18 24, man hath friends, showeth himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh. Like velcro, like gorilla glue, there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Psalm 21, 10 says, When my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up. And I've got good news for you. God is with you even when you're alone. That's the good news. Observation

Value, Fear, And The $50 Bill

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number two the sparrow is valuable when it feels no value. Now, what is the value of a sparrow? Well, what's the cost of a sparrow? It's two farthings. Well, that means that one sparrow is worth one-fourth of one cent. Not much value. But God sees value in a sparrow. And notice what it says here in verse 30 but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. And there's some folk who wouldn't have much problem with that, but some of us would. But fear ye not, therefore ye are of more value than the sparrows. Now, this is not the message, but I know that some folks struggle with fear. Some folk battle fear. They have anxiety. My little girl growing up used to say, but Daddy, come in my room, I'm scared all alone. And finally her mother got her to take her Bible, and you'd always go into the room and she'd be holding that Bible up close to her chest. Why? Because she battled this thing called fear. How can I overcome fear? Well, it's right here in verse 31. Fear you not, therefore. Why? Because you're of more value than the sparrows. That's how you overcome, because you're valuable to God. Now, there's a scripture, I've never focused on it before, but I think we ought to highlight it. I think maybe we ought to underline it and look at it on a regular basis. I uh found out some time ago how you need to treat everybody, treat them as though they're hurting. And 90% of the time you're gonna be right because people are hurting. Now, here's the scripture. When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, the stars that thou hast ordained. When you look up into the sky at night, and there's the queen of the night, the moon, and God has sprinkled the ceiling like a like a black backdrop with beautiful diamonds, we call them stars. And God made the Milky Way and all of that. And then he asked the question then, what is man that thou art mindful of him? What a verse. Could I ask you? Do you think of God all the time? Anyone like that? I think of God all the time, preacher. You say, Pastor, that's silly. None of us think of God all the time. Did you know that God thinks of you all the time? If he had a refrigerator, he'd have your picture on it. If God carried a wallet, he'd have your photo in it. God sends you new flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. And of all the places that he could live in the universe, he chooses to live in the human heart. So I want to say with affirmation the sparrow is of value, even if it feels like it has no value. I uh brought a $50 bill with me tonight. You're not taking up an offering, I hope now. Do you know what this is worth? Well, maybe we better not get off on that. But it says $50. It says that it's a federal reserve note. So it's supposed to be backed up with some gold someplace. $50. I could probably buy my lunch if I go to a restaurant that's not too high and pricey. We we try to check it out on the internet before we go, just so I'll know how much to take. But I've got this will buy. It has value. It's $50. Now, you take this $50 bill that I have, and I can wad it all up. And I can mess it up. And many times that's the way our life is. Our lives many times get messed up. It may be messed up by divorce, it may be messed up by a bankruptcy, it may be messed up by some addiction that we got involved with and we can't seem to shake it. And our lives get all messy and messed up. But you know I can take this same old $50 bill and kind of straighten it out a little bit, and it'll still buy my lunch. And I'm simply trying to say to you tonight that you can take that $50 and we can throw it on the carpet, and I could stomp on it, I could grind it under my feet, but when it's all said and done, still $50 bill. And you and I may be stepped on by life. Maybe the world casts us to one side. Maybe a spouse has lied to us and walked off after cheating. Maybe a boyfriend dropped you. Maybe you've been diagnosed with some kind of a disease. Maybe you have no stock and no property. But God said you're still of value, and God has stamped on you the very image of Himself when He made us. A lady was on her deathbed. It was a low-income housing project. It was bad. Somebody had gotten word to a preacher, and the preacher had made his way onto that side of the town and slipped into this rooming house and found this lady's room and got inside and stood by her bed. And she said, Who are you? He said, I'm a preacher. I happen to be a holiness preacher. Well, she said, Nobody asked for you. No, but he said, Somebody sent me. Well, she said, What do you want? He said, I want to talk to you about your eternal, never dying soul. And she said, Preacher, I don't want to talk to you about my eternal soul. I've lived an awful life. I've lived a sinful life. My life has been horrible and terrible. And there is no future for me. All I've got left ahead is just to die and go to hell, and that's the way it's going to be. He sat there kind of stumped and didn't know what to say. His mind drifted off. He looked over her body and over the bed, and he saw a dresser, and on that dresser was a picture. And he looked at the picture and it was unbelievable. A beautiful lady. And he said to the woman on the bed, kind of under his breath, he said, I wonder who that picture is with that beautiful lady. I wonder who she is. And she spoke up and said, That's the only good thing that's come out of my life. Said, That's my daughter. I've lived a life as a harlot. And the only good thing that's ever happened to me is that girl. And I'm looking for her to show up. She promised that she would come, and I'm hoping she shows up before I go. He looked at that picture for a moment and he said, Lady, if she were to mess up, would you forgive her? Why she said, You know I would. Or said, if she made a bad mistake with her life, would you let it go? And would you give her another chance? She said, You know I would. Well, he said, Do you realize that God's got your picture on his dresser? And he's waiting for you to show up. And you may have made some mixed mistakes, but God's inviting you to return to him. Here's observation number three.

When You Fall, God Still Sees

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God sees the sparrow when it falls, a simple little thing. It doesn't say that God saw the sparrow when it was flying into the sky, but God saw it when it fell to the ground. Doesn't say that God saw the sparrow on cloud number nine. God saw it when it was down and out. And the good news, by the way, is that he sees us even when we fall. He went to his dad and he said, Dad, I want everything that's mine. I want everything. Everything that's coming to me. I hope I don't get everything that's coming to me. I hope I don't get what I deserve. I went to a church the other day, and when they went to pay me, said, Here's how I said, Well, I couldn't live on what I'm worth, so do a little better than what I'm worth. But the prodigal son said, I want what's mine, and he divided the substance between his boys. The prodigal took everything that was coming to him and went out and went into deep sin. Began to blow his life. He began to party. I didn't know what partying meant. I got saved when I was nine, so I'm not much into parties. I don't even know about them. But it said that he parted. I don't know if he had his women. I'm sure that he was down in some kind of a lizard lounge, some kind of leap-in, little limp out hellhole, some kind of a bar, drinking, and all the good time Charlies always show up to help you spend your money, don't they? But when he had spent all, good time Charlie's gone and the crowd is gone. The Bible said that he was down there in the hog pen. And he got to thinking. Maybe even the servants at home have it better than I do. And they have food and probably food to spare. I've come to myself. I think I'm going to go home to Father's house and I'm going to say, Daddy, can I come home? I'm sorry I left. And you know what the Bible said? An interesting thing. The Father, which symbolizes God Himself, the Father saw him a great way off and ran to meet him. Why did he see him? Because his eye is on the sparrow. That's why he saw him. And God sees us when we fall. And the father said he was dead, he's now alive. He was lost, but now he's found. Now here's the good news: God sees the sparrow when it falls. I like Psalm 103, verse 3 who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all of thy diseases. And then the 12th verse, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Anything that you and I can remember, God's able to forget. And you know, people remember not who we are, but they remember what we did. But God remembers who we are, and he forgives what we've done. The good news, God forgets. Now the devil doesn't. Oh, he's got a great memory, doesn't he? He always shows up and throws your past in your face, or at least he has mine. When he does, I always try to tell him a little bit about his future. You say, What's his future? It's Revelation chapter 20, verse 10. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the fire and tormented day and night forever and ever. So just tell him what his future is. He'll quit reminding you of your past.

Depression, Bedridden Joy, And A Hymn

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There was a lady by the name of Sevilla Martin. Sevilla Martin battled depression. When she would really get down and get discouraged, she would go to an elderly couple by the name of the Doolittles, Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle. And they would always encourage her. She couldn't figure out how they were always encouraged. She had gone over this one afternoon, and uh here was Mrs. Doolittle. She had been bedridden for 20 years. The only time she was out of bed was in a wheelchair. And yet her face radiated joy. The Bible said the joy of the Lord is our strength. And she would encourage Sevilla. And Sevilla said to her, I don't understand. I get down a lot and you're bedridden for 20 years now. How is it that you you stay happy? Well, she said, You know, the eyes of the Lord's on the sparrow, so his eyes are on me. He sees me where I'm at on my back, and I see him because I'm looking upward, his eyes on the sparrow. And that so penetrated the heart of Sevilla that when she went home, she picked up a pen and she began to write, Why should I feel discouraged? And why should the shadows fall? 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 that he watches me. And it repeats, and his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. And then she went on to write, I sing because I'm happy, and I sing because I'm free, for his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. The good news is when you're all alone like the sparrow, God says, I'm watching you. And when you feel like you're of no value, God reminds you that he made you in his own image. And when you feel like you're about to fall, God sees the sparrow when it's falling. You know the Bible talks a lot about valleys. Jesus said he was the lily of the valley. Not the lily of the mountaintop, but of the valley. A lot of valleys in life. And if you look around when you're down, you'll see that lily of the valley. And I promise you that you'll learn more in the valley because life has its painful moments and its hurtful moments, but it's those times that we that we learn.

A Dark Drive And A Sparrow

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I had let me tell you a story and I'll close. I uh I'd gone through a dark period. I maybe none of you have ever had that happen. I hope you never have. I went through about a month. I was an evangelist, I was in evangelism 23 years full time. I went through this dark, dark period where I'd try to pray, and it was just like the ceiling was the top of where my prayer went. That the heavens were as brass and God wasn't listening. And I I took inventory, I checked my pulse and felt for a spiritual heartbeat. And did I do something wrong? Is there sin in my life? What's happened? And when you're preaching every night to somebody and you're trying to get a message out of the Word of God, and the book's closed and heaven's closed, and it was so dark, and I had uh had devotions at a little motel and then got back on the road, and I was driving to the southern part of the states to start a meeting. I was going through Tennessee. Have you ever been in Tennessee? I was uh climbing a mountain, I had a big old Mercury. I wasn't paying any attention to the speed, I wasn't paying attention to anything. I was thinking about the fact. I wonder why are the heavens silent? Why isn't God responding? God sees the broken and the contrite heart, and my heart is is broken, and my my heart is hurting. And why doesn't God respond? And I'm trying to figure it all out. And by the time I'd got to the top of the mountain and started down, it was about 12 miles. And I mean it was back when the two-lane roads. Anybody remember two-lane roads? I'm older than you think, maybe than you think. I don't know. But uh I was going and I saw a sign, it said a hairpin curve, and I looked down at the speedometer. I was over 80 miles an hour. I thought there's no way I can get through that hairpin curve. And I I thought, hey, I don't mind if I die, but when I saw that sign, I guess I thought maybe I didn't want to die so bad. And I got on the brakes, and we're talking about an S. I hit the first part of that thing at nearly 50 miles an hour, slid through the curve sideways, and the car turned, and I slid to the next part, and by the time I got through the last part of the curve, I was probably down to 30. Tar squalling, smoke rolling, and I pulled over to the side on the burn and shut the car down and held on the steering wheel. I couldn't unlock my fingers. They were still holding that steering wheel. And I said, God, where in the world are you? I just about died. And it just seemed like the Lord whispered, look out of the window. And I looked out the window, and there was a little sparrow on the burn. And it was huddled down into the blacktop. By this time I'd finally gotten my fingers loosened from the steering wheel, got the door to the car open, looked to be sure nobody would hit me, and I got out and I went around to the front of the car, and the little bird saw me coming, and it couldn't seem to get away, and it just hovered down as if to say, I'm hiding, and you can't see me. And I looked and I saw that one wing looked like it was broken. I noticed it was standing on only one leg, so evidently the other leg had been broken. I noticed flecks of blood, flecks of blood around its little beak, and its eyes were blinking at me. And I got real close and I knelt down and I said, Little sparrow, don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. But in devotions this morning, I told God I can't keep going like this. God hadn't spoken to me in over a month. And I saw a little verse that God sees every little sparrow that fell from the sky. And when I saw you, I thought if I could get close enough to you, maybe God would see me. And about that time all of heaven began to open. And I knew that God had looked in on the scene. He not only saw the sparrow that had fallen, but he saw a young preacher boy struggling spiritually during a dark, dark time. And what I want to conclude is by saying to you, if you're going through a dark time, remember one thing. If God spots the sparrow even in its loneliness, and he keeps his eyes on it, if God sees that it doesn't have a lot of value, but God sees some value, that God has value in you, enough so that he sent his son from heaven to earth, stepping from cloud to cloud and from hill to hill till his feet touched the sheep-covered hills of old Judea, and made his way out to a hill called Calvary, and died on a cross for my sins and for your sins. Aren't you glad that he cares? And then the very fact that Jesus Christ would look in on that little sparrow and seize it even when it falls. God sees you, Father.

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Thanks for being a part of the Voice of the Nazarene.

Final Encouragement And How To Connect

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Visit us every Sunday at 9 a.m. with BNC's pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding BNC, visit UsirusNazarine.org.