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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey friends. Welcome back to the Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Gunter. This week, in this sermon we start a new series called 9 Common Lies Christians Believe and Why God's Truth is better. This is a book by Shane Pruitt.
John Gunter:Each week kind of tackles a different lie. So, this is one of those things where you can miss a week and you're not gonna miss anything but, man, are these interesting. So week 1 is God's not gonna give me more than I can handle. Is that true or is that a lie? You'll find out in the sermon.
John Gunter:Thanks again for listening. Come see us sometime. Tomorrow, we're gonna start a new study. Since we are kind of getting into summer, and people are in and out and everything, I want to kind of do something topical, and Shane Pruitt wrote the book, 9 Common Lies Christians Believe. And the thought behind this is kind of, sometimes we can get our theology, our understanding about God, from memes or bumper stickers or just things we've grown accustomed to saying that may or may not line up with what's in the scripture, right?
John Gunter:And so each week, we are going to tackle one of those. And this morning, we are going to tackle the idea that God won't give you more than you can handle. How many of you have heard that before? Yeah. Yeah, and if you are actually going through something more than you can handle, that's not very helpful, is it?
John Gunter:In this book, Shane Pruitt talks about another Texas family, the Faske family, and that is spelled f a s k e. And what he talks about in using them as an example for this chapter is they were just a couple of people who decided they wanted to adopt. Well that reaches my heart. I am adopted. I'd love to adopt myself, if it wasn't so crazy expensive to do it privately.
John Gunter:But this couple started out, they wanted to adopt, and what that ended up with is they ended up adopting What do you think? I've got 2 and I think I've reached my max. No. Some days, though, it seems like I've reached my max. But the Fasky family is fascinating.
John Gunter:You can imagine, coming from several different countries, that's probably a crazy blend of people. I mean, imagine 28 people in your home. Kind of crazy. We have about that on small group nights. So can you imagine my life being that all the time?
John Gunter:Oh, man. But in their life, they, of course, have all kinds of different things, but one of their sons, when he was 21, had just dropped off some of the other kids and he was going to his new home where he drove, or where he lived, and the family was out fishing and it seemed like just a few minutes later all of a sudden a police officer showed up. And they thought at first he was pulling in the driveway and was going to back up and leave, and then it became apparent that he was trying to get in touch with somebody. And Miss Fasky, I think looking out of the house, out of the window, sees a police officer hand what she knows to be her son's wallet or billfold to her husband. It is at that moment she understands that her son has probably passed away.
John Gunter:That's exactly what had happened. He had fallen asleep on his way home and had passed away. God had certainly given them more than they could handle. 30 days later, they were still processing all of this and just wanted to do something to get back to normal, as much as one can after something like that. And they took the whole family out and they thought they would go horse riding.
John Gunter:And right as they were getting everyone saddled up and everything, one of the little girls was on a horse and they got the the reins caught up somehow, and the horse kind of bucked and kicked back so violently that the horse went backwards, knocked itself out, and landed on her, and the saddle horn crushed her sternum, her chest. Actually, the they were still trying to get her away from the horse when it came to and was just kind of spinning in circles. So 30 days before, they had lost a son, and now they have a daughter who has just been crushed by a horse and a saddle horn and and trying to deal with that, and the mother is just cradling her, just trying to keep her from passing on, just trying to keep her awake and Shane says every time the little girl came to, she would say, Mommy, I don't want to die. When the paramedics got there and they saw who it was, they remembered the family. It had been that close and they said, We've got to do everything we can because they just lost a son last month.
John Gunter:I'm happy to say the little girl lived. But God gave them more than they could handle. Can you imagine trying to handle that? A lot of times when we talk about God won't give you more than you can handle, we come to this verse, 1 Corinthians 10:12-thirteen. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall.
John Gunter:No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. What is the difference in God won't give you more than you can handle in this verse? The difference is the context. What are we talking about?
John Gunter:Temptation. We are talking about temptation here. That God won't allow you to have more than you can bear or withstand with temptation. Is this family facing temptation at the loss of their son and at the injury of their daughter? No.
John Gunter:The temptation you and I, experience throughout the week, is different, isn't it? If you're someone who gets road rage, you understand you have the ability, hopefully, to get mad, but then to let it go. Do you know that? Some of y'all, they're hearing it for the first time. You can let it go.
John Gunter:You don't have to tailgate back. You don't have to, give any kind of salutes out the window. You know, certainly good salutes, I'm sure. If your temptation throughout the week is is, seeing something on a screen that you shouldn't see, you understand you have a power button. Temptations.
John Gunter:And hopefully, we understand what we struggle with, and we are preparing for those as well. Understanding God will not give us more than we can turn away from. That we would never come to a point in our lives to say, well, temptation just has me. I'm I'm just done. This is the context of this that god will never allow you to be tempted more than you can handle.
John Gunter:So, power off. Let it go. I'm not going to sing but let it go. We have that idea. We have that understanding.
John Gunter:God's actual promises are different than this. God's actual promises, from Psalm 46:1, God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. From Isaiah 4 110, So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you.
John Gunter:I will uphold you with my righteous hand. That sounds a little different, doesn't it? That God will help you, that He will strengthen you. And he says it this way, the promise is not that He won't give you more than you can handle, but rather that He won't give you more than He can handle through you. You gotta say amen to that this morning, church.
John Gunter:Because there are a lot of things in in life that are more than I can handle. And the question is whether I'm going to focus on myself, on John Gunther, or am I going to focus on what God can do through me using His power and not mine? Because there are a lot of things out there that we can say, I'm just not qualified for, I just don't have the power, the knowledge, the anything to do. But God. Now, that's a different conversation, isn't it?
John Gunter:How many of you have lived through situations that you wouldn't choose again and you don't know how you got through it? But again, looking back, I know some of your stories. I know. I know it's true. But looking back, you know good and well that god was with you, strengthening you, and bringing you through it.
John Gunter:Life gave you more than you could handle, but god working through you, said, I will give you strength. I will be with you. There is, we live in a world that is seasons come, don't they? If you're in a good season, you want to enjoy it. I'm a I'm a big office fan and one of the best quotes from all 9 seasons of the office was Andy saying, I wish I wish there was a way to know, basically, when you're in the good times right now.
John Gunter:So much so that you could enjoy them. Right? Because we can all look back to a part of our life and think, man, that was that was pretty nice. We had it going on. There are also times that I don't wanna revisit ever again.
John Gunter:You ever done the idea? If you could go back to high school, would you? I would go back to play baseball, but that's it. I mean, that is you can have the rest. I miss I miss baseball.
John Gunter:My kids chose soccer. I I don't know. But I miss baseball, but that's it. I wouldn't I wouldn't do that. We read a we read a, a scripture often at at funerals, which kind of gets us into that mindset that there are seasons for everything.
John Gunter:From Ecclesiastes 3:1-four, there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. And everyone of you in here has experienced all of that, I'm sure. Every bit of it. It.
John Gunter:Some of those we really like and some of those we'd rather not do again. But god's promises, again, are not that nothing will ever come to you, no harm will ever come, that you'll never experience one of these sad times or anything like that. And it's not that, again, that you will be given, you know, just just under what you can handle. No, life can throw some things at you that I don't think any of us are prepared for. But He is with us all the way.
John Gunter:From 2nd Corinthians, 129 through 10, But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all more glad all the more gladly about my weakness weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties for when I am weak, then I am strong. That does not come from a person, that comes from God. That is where our security lies, that is where we should be looking for our hope.
John Gunter:God identifies with His creation. That's what I love about Scripture. That's what I love about understanding the story from beginning to end. That even in the beginning, as God makes this perfect place for Adam and Eve, God's desire was not to live on high and look down. God's desire was to, what?
John Gunter:Walk among them. To be with them. Now, we mess that up and, again, the rest of scripture is showing us how God wants to get us back to what He created in the beginning. And through that, God has experienced life on earth through His Son. We've talked about it before, how weird would it be if Jesus never experienced life like we did?
John Gunter:How would you take that? That God sent His one and only Son to live life on earth, to experience all the things we do, and so he identifies with creation. Jesus knew what it was like to experience poverty. Jesus replied in Luke 9, foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Jesus did not come to earth in the flesh and live in a a mansion, mansion, robe, and crown, right?
John Gunter:He didn't live in a castle commanding from on high. Jesus lived a life of a common person, walking the earth every day with a menial task or job, and he lived, not with money, but he lived as a homeless person. He said this in response to someone who said, I will follow you. And he said, you better watch out because it's not that glamorous. Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.
John Gunter:Jesus also knew what it was like to experience exhaustion. Just think about Jesus' ministry for a second. Can you imagine doing that day in and day out? Now, I know a lot of us have very, very busy lives. And when soccer is going on for 8 or 10 weeks, in the fall and spring, I feel like I have got no extra time.
John Gunter:It just ended and it's like my calendar opened up. And then I get my kids this summer. Man. But exhaustion is a real thing. God doesn't, you know, look down and quit whining.
John Gunter:You ever had that said? Quit whining about that. Jesus also experienced exhaustion. Think about Jesus' ministry. Oftentimes, many times in Scripture, it talks about how Jesus is tired, exhausted, he goes away to pray and to be with God.
John Gunter:Jesus experienced exhaustion. Jesus also knew what it was like to be betrayed. 1st, by his family. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, again, Jesus, for they said, he's out of his mind. Is anybody's family said that about them?
John Gunter:Don't raise your hand. Right? He's out of his mind. He's lost it. We don't know.
John Gunter:He was raised here. We don't know why he's different. But he was, again, betrayed by his family. They thought he was he thought he lost his mind. Jesus is a crazy person.
John Gunter:He also was betrayed by Peter. Immediately, the rooster crowed the second time, and Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him. Before the rooster crows twice, you will disown me 3 times. And said, Peter broke down and wept. Not only was he experiencing this by Peter, the betrayal, but also by Judas.
John Gunter:Matthew 26 and asked, what are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?' So, they counted out for him 30 pieces of silver, which was apparently what it was worth to give up Jesus' life for him. One of the hardest things that we experience as humans on this earth is grief. You want to talk about something that is too much for us to handle, and that is the loss of a loved one. And that is why Shane uses the example of this family, I'm sure. But Jesus also knew what it was like to suffer, from grief.
John Gunter:Luke 19, as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it. Seeing his his fellow kinsmen rejecting him, turning away from him, Jesus wept over the city. Jesus also wept over his friend, Lazarus. In the shortest verse in the New Testament here, Jesus wept. I think the, people who put the verses to it said, That's enough.
John Gunter:Jesus wept. To show his humanity, the way that he could empathize with law lost even knowing that he was about to bring Lazarus back. I think again, he knew that Lazarus was not gonna stay alive forever and so Jesus wept. And, finally, in Isaiah 53, talking about the son of man, he was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised. Now that's pretty bad.
John Gunter:I, I I watched a documentary this week, about Hiroshima. And to to see people who lived through an atomic bomb and the life they've had to live. I don't know, I didn't know a lot of the things. Did you all know we brought some people over to give them plastic surgery and things like that? Because people were so disfigured from this horrible thing that happened to them.
John Gunter:Can you imagine living your life like that? Some of the people they interviewed still said, you know, when I show up somewhere, people are disgusted. That's what it says, from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. That's pretty bad, but Jesus understands it. Jesus also understood what it was like to be tempted.
John Gunter:Jesus walked this Earth like you and I. And he was also tempted. Hebrews 2/18, because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Now, that is not just a comment for Jesus and us, that is a comment for us and us. You understand that?
John Gunter:We talked about this recently. When we share those struggles that we have, those sins that we have, the way we deal with temptation, when we share those things, we are encouraging other people who absolutely struggle with similar things. What we do is we feel like, well, we're the only one when scripture is never about that. Even Jesus understood temptation and said because he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. That's a promise from God.
John Gunter:Jesus also knew what it was like to experience suffering. From Matthew 26, Then He said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. I don't know what your picture of Jesus is, that he woke up every day, just jumped out of bed and said, oh, thank you. Thank you, Lord.
John Gunter:This is a perfect day. Jesus experienced some hardships, and I'm guessing a lot of us have had these kind of days as well, right? He experienced suffering. And finally, Jesus can empathize with us because of all of this. From Hebrews 4:15, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet He did not sin.
John Gunter:That's the difference. God does not give us any temptation that is too much for us. We always have an out, even though sometimes it feels like we don't. But life may very well give you things that are too hard for you, or too much for you, But understand this, the promise is not that He won't give you more than you can handle, but rather that He won't give you more than He can handle through you. That ought to change our outlook.
John Gunter:We limit ourselves when we talk about all the reasons I can't, or there's somebody better. That God's promise is to be with us, to strengthen us, to encourage us, to walk with us through this crazy thing we call life. That's the promise we should hang on to. So through this series, we may need to change our language. We may need to reconsider.
John Gunter:Some of these things just flow out like they're truths from god's word. And just as a preview, next week, we're talking about god just needed another angel. I bet you've heard that one before too. And so I hope this is interesting to you. I hope that it helps your life understanding what the real promises of God are.
John Gunter:We've got an invitation song this morning. If you want to move closer to God, we'd love to pray with you about that. If you'd like to put on Jesus in baptism today, we'd love to see that happen as well. Would you come as we stand and as we sing?