God Will Give You More Than You Can Handle Series

No More Than You Can Handle

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Rev. Brian Bill

June 24-25, 2017

Last weekend we considered the context of this text from Joshua 1: “Be strong and courageous” and learned 5 leadership lessons.

• Submit to the Purposes of God

• Seize the Promises of God

• Stand on the Precepts of God

• Soak in the Presence of God

• Stay on Point with God

Edgewood has been blessed with many strong and courageous servant leaders for more than a century. At our December business meeting we honored Randy Matya for serving over 30 years as a deacon and trustee and today I want us to show our appreciation to Jim Koehler, who has served as a deacon for over 30 years, most of them as chairman! Jim, come on up!

I asked those who’ve served alongside Jim to share some words that best describe him. We came up with a list of 25 descriptive words and phrases.

1. Dedicated

2. Faithful

3. Hardworking/Industrious

4. Humble

5. Honest

6. Tenacious

7. Wise

8. Courageous

9. Generous

10. Tender

11. Fruitful

12. Spiritual

13. Genuine

14. Unselfish

15. Godly

16. Caring

17. Compassionate

18. Thorough

19. Goes above and beyond for “such a time as this”

20. Determined – “If he sets his mind to a project, there’s a high probability it’s going to happen!”

21. Gracious

22. Insightful

23. Loving

24. Heart for God, for people and for his family.

25. Biblical model of marriage with Marcia

Marcia is his partner in marriage and ministry, his sounding board and faithful encourager!

Jim reminds me a lot of Joshua because he is also a man of Scripture. Jim and Marcia taught the college/career class some time ago and they’ve been leading a Sunday morning Growth Group for many years – it’s so full that they’ve run out of space!

Speaking of Scripture, there are many sayings in our society that find their source in Scripture. Here are just a few…

• “Like a drop in a Bucket” comes from Isaiah 40:15: “Behold, the nations are as a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales.” This declares God’s sovereignty and power over the nations and would have meant a lot to a people that had been exiled to Babylon.

• “Nothing but skin and bones” refers to someone who is emaciated because of sickness as first used in Job 19:20a: “My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh…”

• “To escape by the skin of your teeth,” means to have a narrow escape. Job 19:20b: “And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.”

• “A scapegoat” refers to someone who takes the blame for something and comes from Leviticus 16:9-10 where a goat was chosen by lot to be sent into the desert to make atonement for sin.

• “See the writing on the wall” is a way to say that something bad is about to happen in Daniel 5:5: “Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace…”

• “Go the extra mile” is from the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said in Matthew 5:41: “ And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”

• “Wash your hands of the matter” communicates that one no longer has responsibility and comes from Matthew 27:24: “So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’”

And there are common cultural sayings that are often quoted as if they come from the Bible, but they don’t…

• “To thine own self be true.” This saying originates from Shakespeare but is not found in Scripture.

• “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Sorry, moms, but this verse is not in the Bible.

• “Money is the root of all evil.” Actually, we learned two weeks ago that 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…”

• “God wants you to be healthy and wealthy.” This certainly sounds good to us Americans and is propagated from many pulpits and popularized by TV preachers but is not found in the Bible. We’ll tackle this topic July 15-16.

• “God helps those who help themselves.” We’ll consider this common quotation July 22-23. Actually, God helps those who cannot help themselves.

• “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” That’s our topic today.

In a post called, “God Will Give You More Than You Can Handle,” Mitch Chase writes: “Christians can make the strangest claims when comforting those who are suffering. What do you say to someone whose life is falling apart? If you have but a few precious minutes with a person who’s lost a job, home, spouse, child, or all sense of purpose, what comfort do you give? We might turn to conventional wisdom instead of Scripture and end up saying something like, ‘Don’t worry, this wouldn’t happen in your life if God didn’t think you could bear it.’ The sufferer may object, head shaking and hands up. But you insist, ‘Look, seriously, the Bible promises God won’t ever give you more than you can handle.’ There it is—conventional wisdom masquerading as biblical truth. You’ve promised what the Bible never does.”