Object Lessons – More Than We Can Handle – Sermon

Have you ever had a bad day? All of us have!
Have you ever had that bad day turn into a bad week? Many of us have!
Have you ever had that bad week turn into a bad month? Some of us have?
Have you ever had that bad month turn into a bad year? A few of us have!
Do you see where we’re headed here? An honest assessment of life shows us that there are times that life as we know it reaches a point where we’re so beat down and discouraged that we don’t know what direction to go!

Now, when times get tough our friends and family come along side and try to comfort and encourage us, and inevitably some person will utter these infamous words:

“God won’t give you more than you can handle.”

Though their meant to be encouraging, often what is heard are not words of encouragement but something along the lines of… “Suck it up, buttercup!”

Now it’s easy to spout cute Christianese platitudes of bumper-sticker based theology that are designed to make people feel better, but such things do very little good in face of the actual brokenness of our world. In fact, when people buy into them it creates a whole host of spiritual landmines that can do very real damage to our spiritual lives…

WHERE DID WE GET THIS INCORRECT IDEA?

The idea that God won’t give us more than we can handle, though not original to her, is most often attributed to the servant of humanity and Catholic nun; Mother Teresa of Calcutta – “I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much”

This sounds practical, it sounds like the actions of an “all-knowing,” and more importantly “all-loving” God, and on those really hard days, we eagerly embrace this line and then scour the pages of Scripture, looking for proof that this is indeed the way God works… then we breathe a sigh of relief when we find it! (1st Corinthians 10:13)

The only problem is that this verse isn’t about what we think it’s about, and it doesn’t say what we think it says!

What this verse is however, is one of the most helpful verses in the whole Bible for those who wish to confront temptation… do we get that Paul is talking about “temptation” here and  not “suffering”

Paul is encouraging Christians in Corinth who are being tempted to return to an “idolatrous” lifestyle – and that God provides a way of resisting those temptations.

All to often when we read the text… “he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” what we hear is… “when we’re suffering, God won’t let us suffer more than we can handle”

Here is the truth I want you to hear this morning:

GOD DOES GIVE US MORE THAT WE CAN HANDLE!

If you don’t think that God will give you more than you can handle, just tell that to a “a family in the Ukraine,” a “husband who just lost his wife in an accident,” the “girl who was just robbed of her innocence,” that person you know who is “crushed under the weight of depression and anxiety”

A point of clarification… to say that God “gives” us more than we can handle, means that He “allows” us to face more than we can handle! God doesn’t give anyone pain, illness, or death. He allows suffering but never wills it; He permits it, but never causes it.

Now, as much as we’d like to believe that God won’t give us more than we can handle, it’s actually critical for our spiritual life that we learn the exact opposite. All throughout Scripture people were handed impossible tasks

Moses freeing thousands of Israelites,
David slaying a giant,
Joseph sold into slavery and becoming the most powerful man in Egypt,
Daniel in the lion’s den,
Mary becoming a pregnant virgin, etc.

Do you think any of these “heroes” of the Bible were in the middle of these extremely stressful circumstances and thought, “Well, God won’t give me more than I handle, so I’ll just keep hanging on”? We wouldn’t have much of a Bible if God was in the habit of only giving what we can handle!

No, they relied on God to get them through, and in that process show us over and over and over again that sees us through these tough situations.

In Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth he writes these words (2nd Corinthians 1:8-10)

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,…”

If God is only giving us what we can handle, then we’ll never be dependent on Him for anything

If God is only giving us what we can handle, then we’ll never step outside our comfort zone

If God is only giving us what we can handle, then we’ll never grow spiritually

If we ever want God to use us to accomplish something great, it’s going to require things to be “more than we can handle”

God won’t give you more than you can handle – that’s the incorrect interpretation.

The truth, for us that call upon the name of Jesus, is that God won’t give you more that HE can handle!

Church, God’s plans for you and me are “huge”, and if those plans were reliant on human limitations, then He’d never get anything done!

Facing more that we can handle (1) Strengthens us (2) Honours and Glorifies God.

So when we use such a response, based on a miss-reading of scripture, not only is the phrase a “nostalgic heresy” it’s a lie that misrepresents the character of God!

Even Jesus had days when life was more than he could handle:

The night before Jesus was executed, He cried out in the garden,

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death….”

— Matt 26:38

Jesus told His father, “This is too much for me!”

We see this truth in the Psalms, too. The Psalmists cry out, and shout at God, “Why have you forsaken me?” Ps 22:1, and in their sorrow say things like, “darkness is my closest friend” Ps 88:18

What God’s word teaches us is that it’s OK to feel like we can’t handle it, it’s OK to feel like we want to give up. We can cry out, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” And when we do this, we find God—the one who, in the person of Jesus, suffers with us.

When we accept that life will give us more than we can handle, we find a promise:

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

— John 16:33.

God is faithful to meet us in the mess and in the pain.

More than once in life I’ve been driven to my own knees, simply because I’ve had nowhere else to go, and when there, it was God, through His Holy Spirit, who met me there, and gave me the strength to move forward!

My Brothers and Sisters, whatever you are going through, whatever you face…know that you are not the only one to walk that path;

No matter what situation you’re in today, whether it’s a new diagnosis, financial pressure, a stressful family situation, or an unknown future, you can face that situation in VICTORY . How can I say that?

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

— 1 John 4:4.

We face trials and fight not for victory but from victory! Jesus gives victory; Jesus gives freedom… all you have to do is come!