Street preacher Dan’s sermon on Broken People are God’s Favorite Building Material

There are people listening to me right now who think God only uses clean people.

People who think your cheating and lying disqualified you.
Your addiction disqualified you.
Your prison sentence disqualified you.
Your relapse disqualified you.

But I came out here tonight to tell somebody the Devil lied to you.

BROKEN PEOPLE ARE GOD’S FAVORITE BUILDING MATERIAL.

Not polished people.
Not stage people.
Not people with rehearsed prayers and cold stares.

God specializes in ruins.

Look at your Bible.
Moses had blood on his hands.
David had lust in his heart.
Peter denied truth.
Paul hunted believers.

And God said, “I can use that.”

The Bible says in Psalm 51:17:
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

And Isaiah 61:1 declares:
“He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.”

Did you hear that?

HE WILL NOT DESPISE IT.

You despise yourself.
Religion may despise you.
But God says, “Bring Me the broken thing.”

Because broken soil grows things.

Sometimes God has to shake your frame to wake your flame.
Sometimes He breaks the chain through the crushing pain.

Pain is often the front door of purpose.

Moses met God in exile.
David wrote worship in caves.
Peter became a rock AFTER he shattered.

We love victory stories but hate the breaking seasons.

But there is no glory without the story.

The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:9:
“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Not strength.
Weakness.

God says:
“Give Me the addiction.
Give Me the shame.
Give Me the panic attacks.
Give Me the nights you almost ended it.”

Because grace looks best on people who know they need it.

Religion says:
“Fix yourself and maybe God will love you.”

But grace says:
“Come as you are and let mercy rebuild you.”

The Devil wants your shame to become your name.

But God calls things by their future, not their past.

That’s why the warfare is intense.
That’s why the pressure is heavy.

Oil only comes out when olives are crushed.

Maybe your pain became the language that lets you reach wounded people.

Stop hiding your scars.

Friend, one day becomes never real fast.

And I need you to hear this quietly.

To the person in the back pretending this sermon isn’t for you:

He’s not done with you.

The Bible says in Ezekiel 36:26:
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.”

A NEW HEART.

A NEW SPIRIT.

And I don’t care what you’ve done.
Grace is still enough.

Still enough for the addict.
Still enough for the liar.
Still enough for the preacher secretly falling apart.

So don’t walk away from this.

Drop the mask.
Drop the pride.
Drop the performance.

Stand in the middle of your wreckage and hear Heaven say:
“Come home.”

Not polished.
Not perfected.

Just come.

Come trembling.
Come ashamed.
Come broken.

Because BROKEN PEOPLE ARE GOD’S FAVORITE BUILDING MATERIAL.

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Essays, Art and Plays by Dan