Hope-Filled Christian
Hope-Filled Christian
More Than a Sparrow: Understanding Our Value in God's Eyes
Have you paused to consider your true value? How do you perceive your worth and how does it compare to how God sees you? Join us for a profound and heart-warming exploration of the concept of value in the eyes of God, delving into the verse Luke 12:6-7 which paints a vivid picture of God's detailed knowledge and care for us - symbolized by the humble sparrow. In this episode, we also reflect on the song "How Many Kings" by Downhere and its profound alignment with our theme.
This episode is not just about understanding how God sees us, but also a call to recognize our own inherent value regardless of worldly opinions. We challenge you to see beyond your mistakes, and to understand that you are more than just your genetics or your physical, mental, and emotional capabilities. More than this, we encourage you to extend grace and mercy towards others as well. We end by revisiting the idea of our identity in Christ, remembering the power and authority that comes with being a child of God. Allow this episode to be a gentle reminder of your worth and the boundless love God has for you.
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of HFC. Kind of weird because I'm recording this in October and tomorrow it's going to be November, so I wanted to focus more on November than October. I mean, there's really nothing special about October other than you know it's another month that we've been alive, which is something to be thankful for, which is kind of our, I guess, focus going into the month of November, since, you know, thanksgiving comes up near the end of it. The idea of being thankful, I guess I'm kind of going in about it in a roundabout way, because it was a verse that I really wanted to talk about but I was like it kind of doesn't go with Thanksgiving and I mean I didn't think about it being the month of Thanksgiving until you know well, right now. So there is the one that I mentioned last week when I said there was two verses and I couldn't decide and ended up going with it with the Luke 16, 15. This one is Luke 12, six through seven. It says are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered, do not fear. Therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.
Speaker 1:And, oddly enough, I'm thinking of a song that is beyond Thanksgiving and I'm thinking more like Christmas. Excuse me, I'm thinking of a song that's called how Many Kings by. I always forget the name, but it's literally it's just how many kings there's. There's only like one person. I know that like will come up when you actually look it up, but because I'm being, I don't know, very neurotic about it, I'm going to look it up anyways. How many kings it's by the down here, and it's just. I don't know if you've ever heard it. I feel like I've overheard it because at my church I feel like everybody's we always do it every Christmas and then people are always singing it, and I'm singing it this Christmas. Not that I dislike it, it's just like I guess when you've heard of something or when you've seen something, it's it's very difficult to understand. You know how you could not know it, I guess which goes into a different topic entirely about.
Speaker 1:You know that relates back into Christianity as well. I feel like sometimes we forget that, that a lot of people who haven't yet to experience God don't really know what to experience and we ourselves kind of forget what it was like initially, which is why I feel like that one verse and I'm getting totally off topic, but it's just like I don't know that one verse where Jesus it's in revelations when they're talking, sending letters to the churches, and one of them was you love me, but you do not love me as you did it first. Essentially that's not the word like word for word, but it basically means that like you do not love me as you love me at first, that first initial love I mean it's like any kind of love really, except this is now magnified because it's, you know, a bigger love. And I just I think that's important to keep in our mindsets. I guess, and I guess it's also important to think of that because we're getting into Thanksgiving and Christmas and that's typically when tons of people are coming to church and you know the one time, two times, three times in the year where they'll come to church and listen to a message. And just remembering that you know we all started somewhere, sometimes you're joining with Christ and even start with you. It could have started with your family members, who you kind of started already like halfway through their journey. So it's just important to remember that we're not all starting in the same spot and to have some you know grace and mercy, to offer grace and mercy towards people, and not our grace and mercy, but asking God to help you. Give that grace and mercy. And just Thanksgiving, november 1st tomorrow, or well, today, if you're listening to this on the very first day.
Speaker 1:If not, well, it may not be November 1st anymore, but it's I, just this verse, it's so I'm just gonna read it again Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins and not one of them is forgotten before God? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear. Therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. It's just If we allow that to be impactful, if we allow ourselves to think about what that means, how privileged, how blessed we are to have a God who loves us and knows us, knows every single hair on our head and knows us, knows us, knows us, knows us, knows us and knows us, knows us, knows us, who loves us and knows us, knows every single hair on our head.
Speaker 1:And this is speaking to the doubters, this is speaking to the people who sometimes forget. You know, the God sees you as more than just your mistakes, as more than just your genetics, more than just your physical, mental, emotional capabilities, more than just what the world says. You are, more than just what you say. You are and I think that's why we're here that even those I mean it's saying sparrows, but that we have value, that our life has value.
Speaker 1:And the one that I go back to I don't really know it off the top of my head but the one that essentially says we are more than just conquerors. You know, he loves us. There's no path that he would not take to chase after us so long as we're willing, granted, he's not going to chase after us forever eventually just comes down to are we willing? The idea of the covenant that, yes, god chooses us, but we also have to choose him. If we're not choosing him, he's not going to chase us. I mean, he'll still fight for us, he'll pop him into her head, pop him into her head. But that last decision, that last step, has to be us, because it's a covenant where we're choosing each other, where God is consistently and is always choosing us and always says we have value. But in that, that last step is us choosing him consistently and valuing him and his love consistently and highly.
Speaker 1:So, in a sense, this verse not only speaking to the inherent value that we have, because God loves us and that we should let that value sit in ourselves and realize that it doesn't matter what other people say, that God sees the value and the purpose and sees us and sees us as near and dear. And the only way I can associate it is it's not really applicable, because there are some people who literally just do not care about their family, where they've closed themselves off because that's the only way they can cope, or they have spirits that are on them, that are stopping them from feeling or even just send their emotions are very difficult for them to necessarily navigate. But he loves us as a son. There's verses that we talked about previously.
Speaker 1:Previously we weren't talking about our identity in Christ. We went through the series of who God says we are and what God says we are, and what the Bible says about who we are in Christ and who we are just in general, where it says that we, when we accept Christ, are then clothed in Christ, that we become co-heirs with Christ, that he sees us just like the Son that he sacrificed. He sees us just like his Son that we are in his eyes, his son that we may not be able to see it, that we don't see the direct link. Well, I don't really see. You know divine power, but he sees us as his son and as his sons and as his daughters for the, you know, women. And because of this we have a right Sounds weird saying that, but we have a right to the power that God has for us, and not only a right to it. He wants us to have the right he's like here. Here's the authority that you are deserving of. Here's the authority that you get because you are my child, because you are with me, because you are, I am for you.
Speaker 1:And sometimes people try to take that away from us and they demean you and they belittle you and they tell you so much what you, what you're not, and you know. Then, focusing on what God says you are, I don't know. I just like this verse. I've always found it meaningful and impactful to realize what the Bible says about you and you know when we're thinking about being thankful, not only is this saying you know that we have value, but it's painting an image of a God who loves us, who values us, who knows the very number of hairs on our head at all times, who is watching us so near, nearly and dearly that he can tell us at any given moment how many hairs are on our head. That loves us enough to see that to watch that is almost obsessively watching, like you might watch your I don't know baby crawl for the first time and you're making sure they're not going to hurt themselves because your love is just that great that you, you, you want everything to be the best for them, that you want the best for them.
Speaker 1:But at the same time as that child grows up, you can't make decisions for them and it hurts seeing them make the wrong decisions. And it hurts seeing these kids make the wrong decisions and, as a teacher, it hurts me seeing them. I mean, it's not the same because they're not my children but it still hurts. You know when they're upset, when they're crying, when they're telling me, you know that they're sad because of this or when things happen to them. It still hurts and you still worry and you still care and and that, even in my limited aspect, where I can't even truly have the understanding that God does or have this, that this concept is too big for my mind, my mind, to comprehend, that, no matter how much I think about it, no matter how long I think about it, whether I just sit here for the rest of my life in a vegetable state, literally, because I'm focusing and putting all my brain power towards thinking about what God's love is and what it means to me, and I'm devoting every single aspect of my thought power and, you know, cognitive ability to that. Even then, by the end of my life, I would still not know what God's love is, I would still not know the entirety of it, I would still not know just how much he truly loves me, and I won't know that. We won't know that until we go to heaven, and even then I wonder if I'll know. Even then, I wonder if it'll just be like every day he's revealing new things and he never runs out of things that we spend eternity of him revealing to us over and over how much he loved us and how he was there for us constantly.
Speaker 1:Anyway, like I said, just something to be thankful for, but also something to take inside. You have value, but be thankful for that value because it isn't owed to us, we're not deserving of it. And I say that to make it my students. Sometimes I'm like you know, don't take your parents for granted because they don't have to love you. There are lots of people you know that have parents that aren't so nice. Every time you know your parent does something nice, they thank you and in the same case, like he's, we're not owed that.
Speaker 1:A creator doesn't mean a father, but in the Bible, god says he is both. He is our creator, he is our father, he is our master, he's our healer, he is our soother. Now he is there for us in ways, and he lists them because, just being a creator, I can create something and give no care to it. I could draw a painting and then tear it to pieces, but he doesn't say that. He says I am the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. I just I think that's important to think about as we go into the next giveaway.
Speaker 1:Anyway, as always, let's go ahead and end this in prayer. Dear God, thank you for the value that you see in me. Thank you for the love that we don't deserve. Thank you for just helping us to see this in our verse and giving us this verse as we go through this month. Lord, help us to focus on you and maybe even each day, think about how we're thankful and focus on just one thing we can give thanks to every day, even if that's just the fact that we woke up, because that in and of itself is huge. Help us to be thankful and, through this thankfulness, help us to recognize your impact in your presence in our life. I pray that you forgive us of our sins. Lead us not into temptation. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this week's episode of HFC. I hope you enjoyed it and I seriously focus on this verse. I think it's just so cool to think of a God who sees us like that, who focuses on that. A lot of us are feeling like we're not getting enough attention and not realizing that we have this source of this God who gives us so much attention. We just don't pay attention to him. How ironic is that? Anyways, thanks for listening. Have a great week. God bless you. Bye.