God Uses Broken Things

This powerful message invites us into a profound truth that challenges our natural instincts: God uses broken things. From broken soil that produces harvests to broken clouds that bring rain, we see throughout Scripture that brokenness is not the end of our story but often the beginning of God's greatest work in us. The sermon walks us through the honest reality of our brokenness, drawing from Isaiah's vision in the throne room where he encountered the holy, holy, holy Lord and immediately recognized his own unworthiness. We're reminded that we cannot lower God's standard of holiness to make ourselves feel better; instead, we must honestly admit where we fall short. Yet this isn't a message of despair. Through the pierced body of Christ on the cross, through ongoing repentance, through spiritual regeneration fed by truth and community, and through daily reliance on God rather than ourselves, we find healing. The story of Gideon defeating a vast army with just 300 men armed with trumpets, torches, and jars beautifully illustrates this principle: when we allow God to break us, when we surrender our self-sufficiency, His light shines through our brokenness in ways that defeat the darkness. Like a glow stick that only illuminates when broken, we too can shine brightest when we stop trying to appear whole and instead embrace our need for the One who heals the brokenhearted and binds up our wounds.