Main Idea: You are so valuable that God reached down to rescue you in the midst of your sin.
Key Verses: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7 NKJV).
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NKJV).
Illustration: I have a friend who went with me on a trip to India. Right before the trip, he bought an expensive new camera. He loved his camera. He kept it in a special pouch on his belt. Every few minutes, he pulled out his camera to take a picture. We walked by a cute little girl and he took a picture. He saw a beautiful flower and he took a picture. He looked out the window of his hotel and took a picture of a mountain. He was so proud of his valuable camera.
But, in one village a tragedy happened. My friend needed to use the toilet. The only toilet available was an outhouse, basically just a hole in the ground. As my friend was using the toilet, the camera fell off his belt and dropped into the toilet. “Oh, no!” he screamed! “My camera is lost.” He was so sad because all of his precious pictures were on his valuable camera.
Do you know what he did? He looked down into the toilet and he saw the strap of the camera far below. He held his nose and he reached down into the toilet. Can you imagine the smell? He reached down, down, down until he touched the strap. He reached a little farther and grabbed the strap with his fingers. He carefully lifted his camera out of the toilet. He washed the filth off the camera and soon it was as good as new.
This story reminds me of what God does. Humans without God are living in the filth of sin. The Bible says, “all have sinned” (Romans 6:23). But God sees you in the midst of your sin and He thinks you are valuable. You are precious in God’s eyes. God reaches down from heaven and grabs you and rescues you from sin. He lifts you up out of the dirty, dark depths of a sinful life. He cleans you and makes you brand new.
