His Eye is on the Sparrow

Verse 1

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

Chorus

I sing because I’m happy I sing because I’m free
For His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me

Verse 2

Let not your heart be troubled
His tender words I hear
And resting on His goodness
I lose my doubt and fear
Tho’ by the path He leadeth but one step I may see
His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me
His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me

Verse 3

Whenever I am tempted whenever clouds arise
When songs give place to sighing
When hope within me dies
I draw the closer to Him from care He sets me free
His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me
His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me

 

 

Holiness in Paul’s letters

With modeling you’re supposed to open the box get all the parts out, look them over, make sure everything is there, then take the instructions and start crafting something impressive.

Paul approaches holiness in the same way.  He first opens up the glory and majesty of our salvation, shows us all the parts, and then instructs how to build a holy lifestyle.

1. Majesty of salvation

I Cor 2:12-14  Spiritually discerned wisdom

2 Cor 3:7-10  Glorious new covenant

Gal 2:20  Crucified with Christ, raised with Christ

Eph 1:18-20 (really all of Eph 1-3)  Our inheritance and position in Christ

Col 1  Who Christ is and what He has done

Phil 2:5-11  Christ emptied Himself to become a man obedient unto death

I Thess 1:8-10  Awaiting Christ’s return

I Tim 2:5-6  Christ, our mediator

Titus 3:5  Washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit

Rom 6:19-23

Paul draws upon his experience as a zealous Pharisee to explain slavery to sin.  In Rom 7:14-19 Paul describes the anguish he experienced trying to live rightly (as a Pharisee) but failing miserably.  We know this passage cannot refer to the believer’s experience because in verse 14 he describes himself as sold into the bondage of sin, which is a Rom 6:19-22 description of the unregenerate.

Rom 6:19 says, “resulting in sanctification”.  Sanctify or make holy means simply to separate for a godly purpose.  The insinuation is the world behaves recklessly and freely with their sin-slavery, but as people now indentured to righteousness we must set ourselves apart from the world in our hearts and our actions.  (1 John 2:15-17)

“free in regards to righteousness”.  Rom 6:20 describes the God-less heart as having no compulsion to do the right thing.

“slaves to sin” refers to the fallen human nature untouched by God’s grace unable to be free of self-centered desires and actions.

Rom 6:23 sums up the experience beautifully and poetically.

2. Stage two is working out your salvation (Phil 2:12)

Eph 4:1  walk in a manner worthy

2 Cor 5:20  Ambassadors

Rom 12:1  Present your bodies as a living sacrifice

Gal 6:2  Bear one another’s burdens

Col 3:1  seek the things above

Paul uses “therefore” so that we know action must follow our understanding.  He also uses the word “urge” to impress us with the importance of practical follow-through.

Jesus showed us how when he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday knowing his death would follow.  He also knew the grave couldn’t keep him.  Gal 2:20

Holiness, for Paul, begins with a clear understanding of our own utter sinfulness, and the lavish grace of God offered to us in the sacrificial, substitutionary death of Jesus, and subsequent victorious resurrection and ascension.