Urban Legend: God Won’t Give You More Than You Can Handle Series

Spiritual Urban Legends

God will never give you more than you can handle

Numbers 11:4-6, 10-23

Luke 10:38-42

God allows us to face more than we can handle so we learn to…

Carry each other’s burdens (Numbers 11:17; Galatians 6:2)

Rely on God’s strength (Numbers 18-23; 2 Corinthians 1:8-9; Daniel 3:16-18)

Prioritize the Best Choices (Luke 10:38-42)

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Series Introduction

Have you ever seen or heard something that looked so true or sounded so true but only later found out wasn’t true?

Big Foot

We have all probably seen pictures of Big Foot,

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the elusive Sasquatch who roams the forests of unpopulated areas.

Elusive until late in 2008 when a couple of guys found the corpse of Big Foot.

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There was a lot of hype and this was being broadcast on national news outlets, however, it turned out that the corpse of the Big Foot was a rubber costume available at high end costume stores for $499.

You know what that means, don’t you. Big Foot is not dead, he is still out there!

Cell phone popcorn

Or maybe you have heard how detrimental the energy that comes out of your cell phone can be.

People have even said that your cell phone can pop popcorn or cook food.

if you don’t think that is true, check out this video.

Popcorn video

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Is it true or is it an urban legend?

If it is true, it could be bad for us if we use cell phones.

If it is false, it could be bad for us because if we believe it to be true, because it will hinder us from using a great tool.

Transition

We will look further at the truth or falsity of the ability of a cell phone to cook food next week. But the fact that I can Google urban legends and find so many different stories shows that it does not take a lot of investigation to verify the truth or falsehood of many urban legends, but often times people don’t because they either see a picture or it supports a preconceived notion,( i.e cell phones emit bad energy to your brain), so they believe it without investigation.

In the spiritual realm there are also urban legends.

Things that sound true, or go along with a preconceived notion we may have of God, but turn out not to be true from a Scriptural stand point and if only we would do a little investigation, we would see that.

Now the problem with believing something that is not true, is that it can affect our actions.

For instance,

If we believe Big foot is out there, we may not go camping.

If we believe cell phones can pop popcorn or cook food, we may stop using them.

Now while this would not necessarily bring harm to us, this false belief

could hinder our ability to have a great tool at our disposal and even

could be detrimental to us if we were ever stranded along the road and needed to call someone for help.

The same thing is true with spiritual beliefs. If we believe something that is not true, it will affect our actions and that could be detrimental to our relationship with the Lord and our living of this life.

So, for the next several weeks we are going to be talking about Spiritual Urban Legends, things that some people have said to others or believe to be true, but it turns out that there is no Scriptural support for.

We want to consider these things so that we can

know the truth and

live according to the truth

because it is the truth that brings freedom.

This morning we are going to consider the statement

God won’t give you more than you can handle

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I have often heard well meaning Christians say this to those struggling through a difficult time.

“You’ll get through this. God won’t give you more than you can handle.”

I know the intention is to encourage a person and help them know that they can get through a difficult time, but there are 2 problems with this statement.

Not in the Bible

First, it isn’t in the Bible. It is probably based upon 1 Corinthians 10:13

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1 Corinthians 10:13 - 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. 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 stand up under it.

This doesn’t say God won’t give you more than you can bear. It says He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear without providing a way out.

There is a difference between being burdened with circumstances and life and being tempted to sin.