How Low Can You Go?

"When He, Christ, ascended to the heights, He led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to
His people. Notice it says, 'He ascended.' This clearly means that Christ also descended
to our lowly world."

- St. Paul, Ephesians 4:8-9

"I believe deeply that God does His best work in us during times of great heartbreak
and loss, and that most of that rich work is done by people who dive into our wreckage
and show us who God is..."

- Shauna Niequist

In 1564, Michangelo shocked a crowd of admiring students when, standing before a lovely half-finished sculpture with a hammer and chisel, he suddenly went berserk and shattered it - sending shards of marble everywhere! Then… turning to his bewildered audience… he asked them,

"Why would a sculptor break something so lovely? Answer: Because there's something beyond lovely called Divine."

- Michelangelo

You ever done that? You ever taken something perfectly good… and ripped it up?... torn it down?... broke it into pieces?... in order to make something more beautiful? God did! On Easter, God took something perfectly good - and broke it - to make something beautiful in you and in me. Do you know where the Easter story begins? In a cemetery! Why does the Easter story begin at a dead man's grave?

Write this down: So you'd know how low God's love can go!

In Ephesians 4:8-9, the Apostle Paul said that, in Christ, God came all the way down to where you and I hit bottom.

Some of you old hippies from the 70s remember "The Limbo." It was a party game where two people would hold a wooden pole between them while another person would bend backwards, and without their knees touching the floor, scooch under it. Do you remember what everyone would yell? "How low can you go?" Today, you may be wondering how low God's love can go.

Can His love reach all the way down to my failure, to my divorce, to my cancer, to my anger, to my depression, to my addiction, to my wayward son?

Listen… Easter is the story of something as good as the Son of God being broken on a cross, by the Creator God, in order to create something better… something more beautiful in you and in me - a life of Amazing Grace! How low can God's love go? A number of years ago, a friend's dad came to one of our Christmas Eve services "hammered." At the end of that service, he raised his hand and invited Jesus to forgive his sins and come into his life as Lord. (He later told me my sermons are best listened to… just a little tipsy… Ha!) Six months later… at his funeral… his son said, "I've had people ask me why I took my Dad to church intoxicated. I told them because my Dad would never have gone to church sober." The truth is… this boy's Dad is in heaven today because…

That's How Low God's Love Can Go!

Hey… if today, all you can see are the broken pieces… the mess… the wreckage of something once good…. Remember, Easter begins at a Cemetery - at the bottom. The Risen Christ came down to meet you right where you are... to lift you up… with His grace and His love… so you can live as a beautiful daughter, as a beautiful son. Amen.

Pastor Harry

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