Broken People | Good God

Introduction:

Good morning!

Have you ever felt like your failures disqualified you from being used by God?

Maybe you’ve thought, “With all the mistakes I’ve made, how could God have a plan for me?” Or, “Surely, with billions of people in the world, God’s purposes will work out just fine without me.”

Today is the first Sunday of our break in our year-long series, The Story. I don’t know about you, but this journey through Scripture has been powerful. Reading the Bible together as a church? That’s a gift. We’re not just studying isolated verses; we’re seeing the big picture—God’s grand story of redemption.

And that’s important. Because if we don’t understand the big picture, it’s easy to feel lost. It’s easy to wonder where we fit in, or if we even do.

And if we’re honest, that question feels even heavier when we look in the mirror.

Because sometimes, when you look at yourself, you don’t see purpose. You don’t see God’s hand at work in your life. Instead, you see brokenness.

You see the mistakes you’ve made. The people you’ve hurt—or the people who’ve hurt you. The failures. The missed opportunities. The rejection. The sin you can’t seem to shake.

And in those moments, the enemy whispers a lie: “God can’t use you.”

But let me tell you something—that is absolutely not true.

Because the Bible is filled with people just like you and me—people who were flawed, messy, and broken—yet God used them in extraordinary ways.

Take Abraham—the father of faith—but also a man who doubted God’s promises and took matters into his own hands. Or Isaac—who repeated his father’s mistakes, struggling to live up to the legacy before him. Or Jacob—a deceiver, a man who spent much of his life wrestling with both God and people.

And yet, despite their brokenness, God used them. Not because they were perfect, but because He is.

That’s what we’re going to see today as we dive into the lives of these men.

The title of this sermon is "Broken People, Good God."

And my prayer is that as we look at the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you’ll begin to see that your brokenness does not disqualify you—it positions you for grace- To be used by God in ways you could never imagine.

If God could use them, He can use you.

Abraham: Liar, Disobedient

Let’s talk about Abraham. Turn your bibles to Genesis Chapter 12. Abraham, the father of Isaac and the grandfather of Jacob- he is a man of faith. In the scriptures we see him called, a friend of God. But like everyone else, he is human. He falls short of God’s standard of holiness and makes mistakes. In chapter 12 of Genesis we see Abraham make a mistake that to many seems small but the consequences are great and I think some of us just might find ourselves in his story. Let’s read, Genesis 12:1-3,

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

At the beginning of this story, God speaks to Abraham and gives him direction. He gives him a call. He says to Abraham, pack up everything that you have here in the Land of Ur and head to the land of Canaan which is roughly 1100 miles. And when you do that, I promise that I will make of you a great nation and your name will be great and you will be a blessings. And I also promise to bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. Which this call of God on Abrahams life, Abraham started off great. He trusted God faithfully, he left the comfort and walked in faith by brining with him his wife, Sarah and Lot his nephew and others that were with them because of the promises of God. When they arrive to the land of Canaan they noticed that people were already living there, the canaanites already had possession of the land. You know, sometimes God calls us to do things even when it seems impossible or daunting. While they were their, God appears to Abraham and promises that his offspring will receive and occupy this land. So Abraham obeys God and sets up camp in between these places called Bethel and Ai.

As a bonus, in between these two locations, excavations have been done revealing a past flourishing Canaanite city dating to the patriarchal time period of the middle bronze age around 2000-1500 B.C. Here is a picture showing some of those excavations-

Okay lets get back to it, Abraham and his family have obeyed the Lord, everything is going great. The Lord is blessing them, they are in the Land that God has promised them. But then this is where things get interesting. A Famine hits. And not just any famine, but here in Genesis 12 verse 10 & 11 it describes this famine as a severe famine. This is the point where Abraham starts making mistakes. We can be thankful that its Abraham were talking about and not any of us haha! This is famine hits the land that God promised Abraham, there is a severe food shortage and when their is food shortage, there comes with it malnutrion, starvation and sometimes death. Peopel are more susceptible to disease becaus etheir bodies are weakened. And as we would expect if you have seen the movies, there comes with famine is social unrest because people become desperate. So Abraham is in a tough spot, right? He brings his family, all these people, animals to this Land that God promised him and assured him that his descendants will have it and now things begin to look troubling. So what does Abraham do when trouble comes his way? Well hes a man of faith, surely he went to the lord in prayer and pleaded for rain and civil peace. Surely he spoke with his family and discussed what they can do to make it through. Surely, he encouraged the younger people of the group to stay strong, be encouraged, care of one another. Surely he did those things right? Hes Abraham! He is the father of all those that believe the bible says.

No. He doesn’t. He doesn’t do any of those things. In the very same verse, in verse 10, its says, “Now there was a famine in the land… So Abraham went down to egypt to sojourn there.” Why did he go to Egypt? Because thats where his needs were. Thats where there was plenty, thats where there was money, thats where comfort would be. Abraham didnt trust God with what God promised him. As soon as some trouble came, as soon as some friction came in between him and God’s promise, he bails. His faith shrunk. He went where the world could fulfill his needs. The Abraham, the patriarch, the one whome God promised to be the one that he would be blessing to the whole world. He failed. He fell short. He was standing on God’s promise but left because things got difficult. He jumped ship because he believed his problems were bigger than His God. So he left, he departed to Egypt.

But Abrahams problems weren’t solved as he thought they were going to be. You know, sometimes we convince ourselves that we know whats best. In verse 11, as they are about to enter Egypt, Abraham turns to his wife, Sarah, and he says, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” and here follow that verse is the product of those choices-

When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

So not only does Abraham not trust God in the land He promised him, but now out of fear of the Egyptians, Abraham not only lies but convinces his wife to lie. And I know what some of us are thinking- I would like too if I was afraid of someone taking my life. But you have to remember, he wouldn’t have to be lying right now if in the first place he trusted God. And this isnt just a little white lie. This isnt just a lie so that him & sarah can live happily ever after in egypt. This lie that they told, Got Abraham the security that he was wanting. The lie got the pharaoh to take care of him by giving him wealth, he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servents, female donkeys and camels. He had water, he wasnt going to thirst and starve like he mightve out in the promise land. However, because of his selfish lie to presevre his own life and desires got his wife, Sarah, to be taken in by the pharoah to be one of this wives. His lie caused his wife and pharoah to commit adultery. His lie, his plan, his going against God got him what we wanted but got the most powerful man of that time to take his wife and sexually assault her, which is explicity stated in this text but is easily to think that happen as she was his wife.

Abraham’s mistakes had costed him. And when we look at this text, we can think, “How could God use a man like that? How and why would a God use a liar, deceiver, a man who should lay his life down for his wife but does the complete opposite, and a man who had the promise of God under his feet and left with a lack of faith-

Why would God use such a broken man such as Abraham for his purposes?

My answer, the same reason he might use someone like you. The same reason he might use someone like me!

If God only used perfect people, cancel Christmas. Cancel easter. Cancel Sunday service. Cancel discipleship groups, Cancel the amazing rehab groups that churches have. There would be no need for them!

God delights in working through his broken Children. God desires to work through his broken people. This does not mean, he is okay with or rewards our sin. No there are consequences and he punishes our sin but he delights in working in us. Seeing us become like him. Seeing us trust him more. He didn’t delight in Abraham making those choices, but to continue to love, pursuer, and chase after Abraham he delighted in. That is the type of God he is. And we have the same God now as we did then.

In my middle school though mid highschool years was really hard for me. I went though a season of deep depression. This was a seaon in my life that I really began to wrestle with the thought of God, who he was, who am I and what all of that meant in terms of life. If God was real, I wanted to be used by him. I wanted to be useful, I wanted my life to have purpose because I was really struggling with that. In 6th grade, because of my behavior, failing grades, alot of time spent outside of the classroom I had psychological exam done.

Isaac: Liar, Favoritism, Secretive, Old

Jacob: Deceiver, Thief, Fearful

Paul:

Peter:

Noah:

Prostitute:

Girls:

I remember as a teenager, I went through an extremely hard season of depression. It had felt like I was a mistake after

Reflection-

Take a moment ask God to remind you of the ways you have been used by him.