Damaged Goods
Pastor Johnathan opens his message with a disarming and personal illustration — a worn-out guitar case that has been kicked, dropped, and battered across airports around the world. The guitars inside bear the scratches and dents to prove it. But here's the point: they still play. They are still useful. And with that image firmly in mind, Pastor Johnathan turns to the congregation and declares that many of us feel exactly like those guitars — beat up, tossed around, and convinced we are too damaged for God to use. But that simply isn't true. Citing Edward T. Welch, he reminds us that "trauma breaks life into pieces," but when those pieces are reorganized around the person and work of Jesus, a new story begins to emerge. Charles Spurgeon adds, "There was never a broken heart brought to Jesus that he did not heal." Jesus never called the Samaritan woman unforgivable, never called the demon-possessed man unredeemable, never called Peter a betrayer, and never called the lame man unfixable. Mark 1:41 captures it plainly — moved with compassion, Jesus said, "I am willing, be healed."
The sermon's anchor text is Psalm 63, written by David during one of the lowest seasons of his life. He is hiding in the wilderness of Judea — a dry, barren, miserable landscape — hunted by the Amalekites and by King Saul simultaneously. Yet this same man who killed a bear, a lion, and Goliath is crying out, "O God, you are my God. I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you. My whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water" (Ps. 63:1). Pastor Johnathan highlights the weight of David's opening declaration — calling on Elohim, the mighty Creator God, and declaring Him as Jehovah, his personal Lord. Even in the wilderness, David is not silent. He is communicating. And the key verse of the entire message lands in Psalm 63:3 — "Your unfailing love is better than life itself."
From there, Pastor Johnathan turns to a diagnostic question: what dries out and damages our soul? He identifies several culprits that lead to spiritual dehydration. The first is relentless noise — the busyness, the demands, the distractions that crowd out time with Jesus. When we consistently prioritize everything else over our relationship with God, we become spiritually dry, and the whole household feels it. The second is performance-based living — measuring our lives against the ever-shifting standards of others, trying to match their cars, their houses, their lifestyles, and ending up financially and spiritually depleted. The third is continuous arguments — and Pastor Johnathan gently suggests that constant conflict may itself be a symptom of spiritual dehydration, with anger filling the space where living water should be. The fourth is constant worry, which he firmly states was never meant to be part of our identity. Jesus did not go to the cross so that worry could define us. The fifth is unconfessed sin, which leads to hidden sin, which leads to returning sin, which leads to justified sin — and James 1:7-8 is clear that a divided heart produces instability in everything. Finally, there are the tragedies — unexpected loss, divorce, grief — that batter our identity and whisper that we are damaged goods beyond repair.
But Pastor Johnathan refuses to leave us there. He turns to the God of the impossible, quoting Matthew 19:26 — "Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God, everything is possible." The problem, he says, is that we read that verse casually, when we should be reading it with the full weight of who God is — the God who opened the Red Sea, who heals the brokenhearted, who has done miracle after miracle. We serve a Jesus who walked up to a leper and healed him on the spot. We serve a Jesus who, as Pastor Johnathan puts it, "rented the grave, went down to hell, and told the enemy: paid in full." His unfailing love is not a consolation prize — it is better than life itself.
So how do we replenish? How do we allow God to use our damaged goods? Pastor Johnathan lays out a path. First, we must learn to trust God in the low points, and trust is built through communication. David wasn't just whining in Psalm 63 — he was talking to God, honestly and passionately. And God is not afraid of our questions. Jeremiah had questions. Moses had questions. Habakkuk had questions. David had questions. Even Jesus on the cross cried out, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" Psalm 10:1 asks, "Oh Lord, why do you stand so far away?" Psalm 42:9 cries, "Why have you forgotten me?" Asking is not faithlessness — but God is not obligated to answer on our timeline or in the way we expect. We also have to remember the authority Jesus has given us. Luke 10:19 says, "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy." All means all. We have the authority to silence the voices of the enemy in Jesus' name.
Second, we must shift our question. Pastor Johnathan uses the image of a coin spiraling down a funnel — around and around, faster and faster, into the dark abyss — to describe what happens when we get stuck in the "why." Why did this happen? Why did God allow it? Why me? The spiral only leads deeper into darkness and dryness. But if we change the question — "Lord, what do you want me to learn from this? How can I glorify you through this pain?" — we stop the spiral and start moving toward the living water. And third, we must trust and acknowledge that some things will not be understood this side of heaven. First Corinthians 13:12 reminds us that now we see imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but one day we will see with perfect clarity. Some of the "whys" we carry may not be answered until we stand in His glory — and when we do, Pastor Johnathan says, we won't even remember the question.
The sermon closes with a declaration and a call to action. Quoting A.W. Tozer, Pastor Johnathan reminds us that even when things look out of control, behind the scenes there is a God who has not surrendered His authority. When we are troubled by what we don't know, we fall back on what we do know — the unfailing love of God is better than life itself. The liar, the enemy, the voice that says you are too damaged, too dry, too far gone — it is time for that voice to be silenced. Psalm 63:11 says, "All who trust in him will praise him, while liars will be silenced." As adopted sons and daughters of the living King, we are called to lay down our "whys," pick up our praise, and declare with David: "I will praise you as long as I live." The grave is empty. The enemy doesn't get to hold us down. Living water is alive and available — and His unfailing love is better than life itself.