{This is a sermon from Shaw Ranch Sermons, a preview from the book coming at the end of summer.}
The Gospel You Carry in Your Scars
A sermon on calling, courage, and the mission God gives to wounded people
There’s a lie many believers carry quietly, tucked somewhere behind their ribs where no one else can see it. It’s the thought that whispers, “God can’t use someone like me.” We look at our past, our failures, our wounds, and we assume they disqualify us. We assume our scars make us unworthy of being part of God’s mission. But the truth is far different. God has never once asked for perfect people. He has always chosen the broken, the bruised, the doubting, the ones who walked through fire and came out with smoke still clinging to their clothes. Your scars are not the reason God can’t use you. They are the reason He can. Because scars tell a story. Scars prove survival. Scars preach a gospel that polished religion never could.
And that’s where we begin, understanding that the things you thought would keep you from ministry and faith are often the very things God intends to use.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NIV)
“3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”
God does not comfort you so you can stay silent. He comforts you so you can comfort someone else. The nights you barely survived, the mistakes you regret, the grief you carry, the battles you fought alone, those moments become the language someone else needs to hear. Your scars are not shameful. They are evidence. Evidence that God met you in the dark and carried you through. Some people will only believe in God because they see what He healed in you.
So do not hide your scars, for others will find strength in seeing that you overcame weakness.
Christ Showed His Scars
After the resurrection, Jesus could have appeared flawless. He could have stepped out of the tomb with no marks, no wounds, no reminders of the horrors of the cross. But He didn’t. He chose to keep the scars. He chose to show them. He chose to let Thomas touch them, because He knew that scars speak a truth that untouched skin never could.
John 20:27 (NIV)
“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’”
Jesus didn’t hide His scars. He used them to build someone else’s faith. If the Son of God used scars to reach a doubter, then your scars can reach someone too. The world doesn’t need Christians who pretend they’ve never bled. The world does not need fallowers of faith who appear as magickly flawless and untouched. The world needs Christians who can say, “I’ve been there. I survived. And God walked with me through it.” Your scars preach a gospel that sermons alone never could.
For our faith is not one of scholars who sit untouched in libraries. Our faith is a faith of worriers. Hard tested by the fires of this world. Even Christ said that he who fallows him will be hated by the world. So we must not hide what that hate has done, the wounds it inflicts. The scars it leaves. We must use them to show others the path through. The path of soldiers warriors and fighters.
The Son of Yahweh was a fighter.
Tourn, bruised, beaten. Beaten viscously by his enemies. And yet still had the strength to stand up with his cross and carry it to the hill.
Your Story Is Someone Else’s Lifeline
There are people God will place in your path who need the exact wounds you carry. Someone who needs to hear how you survived heartbreak, and even those who need to hear how you are surviving heartbreak.
Someone who needs to hear how you crawled out of depression, continued to walk with broken bones and held your own wounds closed so you could stay in the fight. Someone out there needs to hear how you held onto God when everything else fell apart. Someone needs to hear how you forgave people who never apologized for the atrocities they caused you.
There is someone who needs to hear how you kept your faith when you had every reason to lose it.
Your story becomes their survival guide. Your healing becomes their hope. Your scars become the proof that God still rescues people. And the perseverance you showed when those around you would have given up needs to be a beacon of light shining to all those who are lost in the dark.
Revelation 12:11 (NIV)
“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…”
Our enemies can strike our bodies. They can tear the flesh from our bones. They can even kill us. But our story goes on. Though man may kill the flesh, he can not kill the soul.
The enemy cannot undo your salvation, so he tries to mute your voice. He tries to convince you that your past disqualifies you, when in reality, your past is the very thing God intends to use. Your testimony is a weapon. Your scars are ammunition. Your story is a battlefield where someone else might finally win where we may have lost.
Courage, Doubt, and the Faith That Walks Through Fear
Courage is not confidence, courage is being overcome with fear and persisting regardless. Courage is integrity, it is doing what God asks even when your voice shakes, even when no one is around to see you kneel. It is stepping forward even when fear tells you to stay silent. It is choosing to speak even when you feel unworthy. And faith works the same way. Faith is not the absence of doubt. Faith is choosing to trust God despite doubt. Faith is not the absence of fear. Faith is choosing to walk with God through fear.
Faith and courage are twins. Both require stepping into the unknown. Both require trusting God when your knees tremble. Both require believing that God is bigger than the voice in your head that says, “You can’t do this.” Faith is not pretending you have no questions. Faith is looking at your questions and choosing God anyway.
Joshua 1:9 (NIV)
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
God never said, “Be fearless.” He said, “I’ll be with you.” And that is enough.
Some of us hide our scars out of fear. Fear of others looking upon us and seeing a flawed being. Fear of blemishes in our skin and in our minds that make us imperfect, that make us not beautiful. Though many may not understand and look upon you with distaste, Christ looks at you and sees a friend.
If God can look at us and see our beauty, than no one can say we are ugly. For there words are meaningless and our scars are not marks of imperfection. They are signs of strength, determination, and perseverance.
Let God Use What Tried to Break You
Your calling is not always built on your strengths. Your ministry is not built on your perfections. Your purpose is not built on your victories.
Our calling is built on the places we have bled. Our ministries are built on the places where God has healed. Our purpose is built on the places where we survived, despite the odds being stacked against us.
God does not waste pain. God does not waste suffering. God does not waste a story that is surrendered to Him. There is someone out there waiting for the story you’re afraid to tell because you might be afraid our embarrassed by what is in it. Someone is waiting for the testimony you’ve been hiding because you think it shows your imperfections or your flaws. Someone waiting for the scar you’ve been ashamed of because you think they make you look ugly.
As soldiers listen to soldiers. As those who struggle with addiction find strength in those who have conquered it. As those who lost, find comfort in the stories of those who made it through loss. So to can your stories that you once thought where imperfect shine a light that inspires others to crawl out of their own darkness.
When you finally speak—when you finally shine your light—you will discover that your scars preach the gospel in a language only the broken can understand.
You are not too broken to serve God’s purpose. You are not too wounded to walk with Christ. You are not too stained to show beauty.
You are not too late to tell your story. Your scars are not your shame, they are your ministry. God is calling you to speak, to stand, to shine, to step into the purpose He carved into your life through every trial you survived. Every wound, every scar, every blemish is a beautiful tapestry of art that sings the Lords name.
The gospel you carry in your scars is powerful. It is holy. It is needed. And someone out there is waiting for it.
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