“Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Luke 12:7 (RSV)
By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”
I’ll let you in on a little pastoral secret if you promise not to tell anyone. Preachers don’t always write a new sermon when they’re going to preach to a different audience.Sometimes they preach one they’ve preached before. I’m sure you’re shocked.
As you can imagine, when you re-preach a sermon to a different congregation, you don’t deliver it word-for-word the way you did the first time. You follow the same basic outline but may change the illustrations a little.
It sounds a little lazy, but if a sermon was worth preaching once, it’s worth preaching again. And, in defense of the practice, we preachers learned it from the best of all teachers, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus preached the same sermon to two different groups at different times. Matthew’s sermon is known as “The Sermon on the Mount”. Luke’s sermon is known as “The Sermon on the Plain”. It’s fascinating when we compare the details. In Matthew 10:29, Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will.” Then in Luke 12:6, He says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.”
See what’s happening here? Even in Bible times, people couldn’t resist a bargain. Sparrows cost one-half penny apiece, but when you bought four, they threw a fifth one in for free!
All silliness aside, there’s an important spiritual truth here. Every sparrow in the world (even the one that didn’t cost anything) is under the watchful care of God, and a part of the eternal, blessed will of that same Heavenly Father. Put your faith in Him, and don’t be afraid. He’ll never forget you because you’re worth more than many sparrows.
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad” * Sing that to the tune of “Secret Agent Man.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and is beginning his third decade of being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi.He and his lovely wife, Susan (who quite often cooks a chicken pie, but never a sparrow pie), and his sons, Spencer (age 17) and Seth (age 14) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church, with their two housecats, Marvin and Sister (who often watch sparrows out the back window and wish they’d never been de-clawed). You can drop him a line at extramailbox@juno.com.
