Matthew 6:24 (NASB), “… do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they?” Jesus, in this great sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, commands His followers to be birdwatchers. • Look at the birds, does NOT mean become an ornithologist. • Look means “Behold,” “consider,” “think,” how the birds teach us about God and what it means to have faith in Him. • “Orni – theology” is the study how the birds teach us about God and faith. • See the book by John Stott, “The Birds our teachers.” Biblical Lessons from a Lifelong Bird-watcher. Our feathered preachers today: the raven, the sparrow, the stork, and the eagle. **First, what spiritual lessons can we learn from the raven? ** • The raven mentioned in the Bible (11x). • Genesis 8 – Noah sent a raven out of the ark to see if the water had dried up (then the dove). • Lev. 11 – the raven is listed with other unclean birds that Israel was not to eat. • 1 Kings 17 – God sent the ravens to feed the prophet Elijah. They brought him bread and meat in the mornings and evenings. • Ravens are mentioned 1x in the NT by Jesus. • In another sermon in Luke 12, instead of saying ,“Look at the birds,” Jesus says— "Consider the ravens… that they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!” • Ravens don’t worry, so followers of Christ must not worry. • They expect and they accept God’s daily provisions in nature. • If God provides for ravens, these unclean and obnoxious birds, how much more will God provide for His own followers? Jesus diagnoses our worry problems, as theological problems. • When we don’t believe in God’s providential provision – we worry. • When we don’t believe in God’s benevolent care – we worry. • The things we worry about, have likely taken the place of God. • When we worry, we are not worshipping. • The medicine for our worries is in Mt. 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.” • If the raven can beat worry, how much more can we? Second, what spiritual lessons can we learn from the sparrows? • In Matthew 10, Jesus sends his disciples on a mission trip. • As part of their training, He reminds them of the sparrows. Matthew 10:28 (NIV), Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” • First, Jesus says to consider the ravens when we worry about provisions. • Next, Jesus reminds us of the sparrows when we fear persecution. • In Luke 12, Jesus adds, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.” • You probably spotted 100 sparrows last week and never gave them a thought. • Why does Jesus talk about sparrows in His mission training? • He is trying to tell the disciples, as missionaries, they will face apathy, rejection, persecution and possibly death. • People will treat the disciples as pesky sparrows and try and shoo them away! • Others will ignore them completely. But God doesn't overlook a sparrow. • God won't overlook the faithful and suffering disciple. • Even if the mission leads to death, God will see and save their souls. • Like the hymn says, “His eye is on the Sparrow and I know he watches me.” Sparrows teach us about the omniscience and omnibenevolence of God. • The bird nobody knows or values is known and valued by God. • The Christian or the missionary who feels forgotten and unnoticed and who suffers in service to the Lord, is never forgotten by the Lord. • Our soul is seen and safe with God – so do not fear. In 1967, Johnny Erickson Tada broke her neck in a diving accident in the Chesapeake Bay. It left her totally and permanently paralyzed. After 25 years in a wheelchair, she began to have health problems and had to go back to bed. Hoping to cheer her up, her husband Ken hung a bird feeder outside her window. At first she envied their freedom. But then she remembered what Jesus said about sparrows. She wrote, “I glanced at the bird feeder and smiled. I could understand Jesus noticing an eagle… but a scrappy Sparrow? They are a dime a dozen… Yet from thousands of bird species the Lord chose the most insignificant, least noticed, scruffiest bird of all. A pint-sized thing that even dedicated birdwatchers ignore. That thought alone calmed my fears. I felt significant and noticed… If the great God of heaven concerns himself with a ragtag little Sparrow ... he cares about me and you. Third, what spiritual lessons can we learn from the storks? • The prophet Jeremiah preaches to the people about storks. Jeremiah 8:7, NET. “Even the stork knows when it is time to move on. The turtledove, swallow, and crane recognize the normal times for their migration. But my people pay no attention to what I, the Lord, require of them.” • If birds like the raven and the sparrow teach us faith, birds like the stork, the swallow, and the crane teach us about repentance. • Migrating birds know when it’s time to turn around and go home. • 40% of birds worldwide migrate. • They fly away in the fall and return again in the spring. • These birds show how faith and repentance belong together. • Repentance means turning from going our own way. • Faith means trusting and going in God’s way. The stork mentioned by Jeremiah was likely the white stork. About a half million white storks migrate across the Middle East every spring and fall – from South Africa to northern Europe – flying 8000 miles each way. • The stork knows how to turn around and fly home – no matter how far! • But my people, God says, don’t know how to turn back to the Lord. • The stork is much wiser and more obedient than God’s people. • Migrating birds are a wonder of creation. • The birds know the seasons, the time to leave, which direction to take, and how far to go and when to return (hundreds/thousands of miles) to their homes – returning to the place of their birth. Jesus lamented for Jerusalem too! • Jesus did not preach about storks. Jesus preached about hens! Matthew 23:37, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” • Jesus portrays Himself as a mother hen, gathering the people, the chicks to protect, shelter and save Jerusalem. • But – they were unwilling. • The birds do what they do instinctively. • But people? • We do what we do either obediently or rebelliously. • The migrating birds preach to us today to repent and turn and find our way home to God and our Savior Jesus. Fourth, what spiritual lessons can we learn from the eagle? • The eagle is the 2nd most mentioned bird in the Bible (30x). • Second behind the dove (50x). • In the Bible, the eagle is a picture of strength, freedom, renewal, protection, and rescue. Isaiah 40:28, Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives strength to the weary, And to the one who lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. • Isaiah 40 teaches us that God is omnipotent – meaning God is all powerful. • God never becomes weary or tired. • Everyone, even young people and strong men grow weary and tired. • But, those who trust in the LORD will gain a new strength, and that source of strength is God. • The Eagle teaches us this lesson: that God’s divine strength is ours by faith. Look at the Eagles! • We see them circling and soaring and riding the wind. • Proverbs says, “The way of the eagle gliding in the sky is too amazing to understand.” • They wait, they catch the thermals and gain altitude, seemingly without effort. • Faith in God is like having wind and wings too. • Trusting in God takes us higher, and farther and longer than we ever dreamed. • People of faith have an inner strength, that people of no faith can’t understand. Why? • Because faith by definition is not self-reliance, it is God-reliance. • The life of faith can only be lived by God’s strength. • None of us can live the Christian life in our own strength. It is impossible. • Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. • Jesus said in John 15, “… apart from Me you can do nothing.” • Here is the promise again, “those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength – they will mount up with wings like eagles.” • The phrase, “wings like eagles” takes us back to the Exodus. When God’s people were slaves in Egypt, God delivered them. • Exodus 19:4, ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. • Isaiah is promising eagle’s wings (rescue) again for God’s people. The only mention of Eagles in the NT is in the book of Revelation! • Rev. 12 describes a fierce spiritual battle in the end times. It says God gave eagle’s wings to the woman (representing God’s people, or Israel) to fly away and escape the persecution of Satan. • In the Hobbit, it is the eagles that come at the last minute and rescue Bilbo and the dwarves from the Wargs and goblins. • In the last days, God will send the eagle’s wings again to save His people from Satan and the wrath of the antichrist. CONCLUSION • Martin Luther, “You see, God is making the birds our schoolmasters and teachers. It is a great and abiding disgrace to us that in the gospel a helpless Sparrow should become a theologian and a preacher to the wisest of men.” • Sometimes the real bird brain is not the birds. It’s us. • Look at the birds and how they preach to us. • The Raven – teaches us not to worry. God provides. • The Sparrows – teach us to not be afraid. God sees us and values us/ • The Storks – teach us about repentance and finding our way home. • The Eagles – teach us that faith gives us a new source of inner strength. Elizabeth Cheney (1859) • Said the Robin to the Sparrow, “I should really like to know Why these anxious human beings Rush about and worry so!” • Said the Sparrow to the Robin, “Friend, I think that it must be That they have no heavenly Father Such as cares for you and me!”