God is revealed in Scripture as both an awesome God and a personal God.  In the Old Testament, He is both the Creator of Adam and Eve and the Friend who walks with them in the cool of the day.  He personally speaks to Moses, but does so miraculously through a burning bush.  God personally enters into the dreams of prophets and demonstrates His power to them by raining fire from heaven.  God is both mighty and personal.

Luke 12:1-7 reflects this great, yet personal God.  Luke writes in verses 6-7, “Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies?  Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.  Indeed, the hairs of your head are all counted.  Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows!”  What Jesus is trying to make clear is that God knows you.  In His greatness He created you.  In His love He sustains you.  He perfectly knows you.  Luke 12 tells us three ways in which God knows us.

  1. God knows your motives.  In Luke 12:1-3, Jesus makes it clear that all that we try to cover and hide will be brought to light.  Those sins that no one else knows about?  God knows them.  Our heart – who we really are – is not hidden before the mighty Creator God.  The facade we put on may fool some people, but it doesn’t fool God.  How does understanding that God knows your motives change how hard you try to hide them?
  2. God knows your fears.   When your motives are exposed, your fear immediately kicks in and you ask, “who else knows my heart?”  Luke 12:4-5 says “…don’t fear those who kill the body…. Fear Him who has authority to throw people into hell after death….”  Even our fears are misplaced!  God knows that you fear what people think of you, but He wants you to be more concerned with obeying Him.  As faithfully serve Him, our fears dissipate because we are pleasing God.
  3. God knows your worth.  The world tells us that we are inadequate, and we see ourselves as worthless.  But in the eyes of God, we are created in His image and have immense value.  Luke 12:6-7 reminds us that sparrows are only worth two pennies, but God cares for them.  Then Jesus points out the obvious: “you are worth more than many sparrows!”  God values you so much, that when you were worthless in your sin, when you were running away from Him, when nothing you did was up to the standard God created you to live by, He died for you.  Jesus Christ saw your immense worth and willingly sacrificed His life to pay the great price for your life.

Jesus Christ, in His great power, went to the cross for the entire world.  But in His personal nature, He went to the cross for you.  God the Father sacrificed His Son in order to bring you into a right relationship with Him.  What will you let keep you from trusting in that God?  Will your secret sins and hidden motives be too much of an embarrassment to confess to Jesus?  He already knows them.  Will your fear of what others may say or think keep you from trusting Him?  There is only one who you need to please.

God knows you intimately.  He created you.  His desire is that you confess your sins – even your hidden ones – to Him.  Seek forgiveness for those sins and trust that Christ will save you from the penalty of those sins.  And fear God completely.  Trust that His way is better than your way.  Stop trying to please people or please yourself and strive to please the One who has given worth to the worthless.  Trust in Christ today.

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