Twisted Scripture, God Won’t Give You More Than You Can Handle, Christ Church Sermon, January 4,...

Heat. Heat.

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>> Wonderful.

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>> Heat. Heat.

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Heat. Heat.

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>> One more.

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>> Christmas.

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>> Good morning.

>> Welcome to worship at Christ Church on

this Epiphany Sunday. My name is Kelly

Black. I'm the associate pastor here and

it is a joy to be worshiping with you

today. I want to ask you, if you haven't

already done so, to take the connection

card that's in your bulletins, take a

moment, fill that out, let us know that

you are worshiping here today. And if

you have a prayer request, you can note

that on the right side of the card. If

you want to do that digitally, if you're

worshiping with us at home, or if you

are digitally inclined and you're in the

room, you can scan the QR code and give

us all that information. this way. Our

prayer team and our pastors want to pray

with and for you for whatever is going

on in your life as we roll into this new

year. But now I would invite you to rise

in body or in spirit as we sing together

our opening hymn. It's number 254 in the

blue himnil. We three kings.

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We [music] free kings of hor [singing]

and

giving gifts [music] we travel aart

[singing]

and

war [music] and love

star

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of wonder

[music] of light star with all your

beauty.

white. [music]

Silver

guide [music] us

for a king on Bethlehem's [music] plain.

Gold [singing] I bring to him again.

King forever [music]

ceasing ever over our soul to rain.

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Oh [singing]

star of wonder, star of light, [music]

star with royal beauty brighting,

still proceeding

[music] and to thy perfect light.

Frank [singing]

to offer have I. [music]

and songs [singing]

at deity night. [music]

Prayer and praising voices raising

worshiping God on high.

[music and singing]

Oh

star of wonder, star of

[music and singing] light, star with

royal beauty bright.

Last word leading still [music]

proceeding

guide us to thy perfect light. [music]

There is it bitter perfume

brings a life [music]

of feathering gloom. Sorrowing [singing]

sighing bleeding night [music]

sealed in the stone tomb.

Oh [music]

star of wonder, star of light, star

[music] with royal beauty.

Leting [music]

still

guide [music] us to thy perfect light.

[singing]

Glorious

[music] beholding the right king and

lord and sacrifice. [music]

Halleluah

cry [music]

yourself through the earth and [singing]

twice.

Oh [music]

[singing] star of wonder, star of

[music] light, star with royal beauty

[music] bright.

for leading silver [music]

to life.

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Thank you to our wise men for opening

our worship service today. Will you join

with me in our call to worship? We

gather as people looking for the star, a

sign that God is at work in the world.

God, help us find your

>> We gather as people listening for the

whispers of the spirit, hints of the

good news in the least likely places.

>> Father, help us.

>> We gather as people yearning for love's

presence, the assurance that we are not

alone and that love will have the last

word.

>> God, help us.

On this Epiphany Sunday, may the light

of love shine among us, revealing divine

glory through neighbors, known and

unknown, vulnerable children, and

unexpected gifts.

service to one another and all creation.

Amen.

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Glory

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God.

Heat. Heat.

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>> [music]

>> You may be seated.

Happy New Year. I'm Stacy D and I'm very

happy to be joining you this first

Sunday in 2026 as a liturgist. Every

notion we have about power, success,

wealth, and achievement, God takes and

tosses out the window. More importantly,

God comes to us to upset our idea that

we must save ourselves.

In Jesus, God comes to us removing our

sin, our failures, our expectations so

we might have life. Please join me as we

pray together saying, "Gracious God, we

would like to be among those who saw the

coming of the Christ child, those who

dropped all that they were doing and

traveled to worship the coming of God's

love into this world.

We would like to be those who cared for

God in infant vulnerability,

who cuddled and comforted the growing

child, that he might know love and

safety. And yet, merciful God, we must

recognize all the times we are more like

Herod.

Whenever we in our actions, in our

inactions, find our own need for control

more compelling than the needs of others

for health and safety.

Whenever we cling to the security of our

privilege rather than standing up for

the rights of the oppressed,

whenever we are complicit in the harming

of innocence for the sake of profit or

power or because we fear to know and to

change the injustices of this world.

Loving God, we confess our sins against

you and one another and pray that you

will fill us with your light that we may

live our lives as true disciples in your

name without counting the cost. In the

name of Christ, the one who showed us

the way, we pray. Amen.

>> [music]

>> Now hear these words of assurance. God's

light is present in this world. Present

in the Christ child, born to lead us out

of darkness. Present in the star, in all

that guides us to love. God's light is

in this world and the darkness did not

overcome it. God's grace is in this

world and our missteps will not overcome

it. We are loved. We are forgiven.

Allelujah.

Thanks be to God.

The light of God fills this sanctuary

and exposes the darkness that stalks our

souls. The love of God offers us grace

and forgiveness so we may share that

grace with others.

As we take a moment in this time of

worship to share the peace of Christ.

Whether we are worshiping here or at

home, lift up your neighbors in prayer

with the words, "The peace of the Lord

be with you, knowing that as we worship

together, we are united in Christ." Now,

please stand and share the peace of

Christ with each other.

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>> Happy

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birthday.

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>> Please be seated.

Our scripture reading this morning is

from 2 Corinthians 1:es 8 and 9.

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

despared of life itself. Indeed, we felt

we had received the sentence of death.

But this has happened that we might not

rely on ourselves but on God who raises

the dead.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Well, happy new year again.

>> It's a new year. It's a new sermon

series. We're calling this one twisted

scripture. We'll spend the next few

Thank you for whoever chuckled for that.

It was a good one, right? I actually um

am on the team that uh comes up with the

sermon series that we dreamed that up

and and and and put that together for

the year. And I recall wanting to name

this sermon series crappy statements

that make us feel bad about ourselves

and question everything about our faith.

but I lost um I think because it doesn't

fit on the slides that we used. Also, we

wanted to honor a very important uh '8s

hair metal band. So, we have done a

couple of different things by calling

this new sermon series Twisted

Scripture. We're going to spend the next

few weeks looking at passages of the

Bible or or listening to things rather

that people say that they think are from

the Bible that actually are not. And

today we're getting started with this.

God won't give you more than you can

handle. Has anyone ever said that to

someone else? Raise your hand. Few of

you. All right, you're fessing up. Okay.

Has anybody ever had that said to them?

Okay. Yeah. More people have heard it

said to them than have said it in all of

the worship services so far. And before

I say anything else about this

particular uh statement, let me say

this. I believe that every time that

sentence has been said, whether you said

it or whether you had someone say it to

you, it was well-meaning. It's not

scripturally accurate, but it was

well-meaning. We human beings generally

have very little idea what to say in the

face of someone else's grief or pain or

heartache. And we want to say something

that is um helpful and hopeful. Um we

want the person who needs to hear it to

feel God's peace and God's presence. And

maybe one day we'll preach a sermon

series on the things that you should say

to someone who is experiencing heartache

or hurt. But for now, let me say that

God will not give you more than you can

handle is not one of those things we

should say.

While it may sound reassuring on the

surface, it can actually be hurtful. And

in reality, like we've already said, the

Bible doesn't actually say it. Before we

get into what the Bible does say, I want

to address why we think it says that. I

think the confusion comes from 1

1 Corinthians 10:13

Corinthians 10:13. So, let me read that

verse to you now. 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.

a quick read of that verse and it does

sound pretty close to God won't give you

more than you can handle. But it

actually says that God will not let you

be tempted beyond what you can bear.

Temptations and trials are two totally

different things.

The context of this verse is Paul

writing a letter to the Corinthian

church reminding them of some of the

temptations that the Israelites faced

hundreds of years prior. He lists them

in this chapter, namely idolatry, sexual

immorality, and grumbling, which I think

is a funny third part to sexual

immorality and idolatry. But there it

is. At the end of that verse I just

read, Paul offers reassurance to the

Corinthians. They are going to face

those same temptations, the temptations

that the Israelites faced. But then Paul

says this, "But when you are tempted,

God will also provide a way out so that

you can endure it." Just like God

faithfully provided a way for the

Israelites to escape temptations

temptations centuries before, God will

provide a way for the Corinthians to

conquer those same temptations.

Now, let's look at what today's

scripture says, the one that Stacy just

read for you. So, let's hear part of it

again. 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1:8

1:8 through the first part of verse 9.

It says this, "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 despared of life

itself. Indeed, we felt we had received

the sentence of death."

In the midst of this second letter to

the Corinthians, Paul wants them to know

about the trials that he and his fellow

Christ followers have been up against.

In trying to spread the gospel, they

faced pressures far beyond what they

could bear. It was just too much. God

had given them more than they could

handle. Things far beyond, as the

scripture said, our ability to endure.

One biblical commentary said, "They were

utterly burdened beyond their own

strength, and they were sure that they

would die."

In other words, God gave them more than

they could handle on their own.

But then immediately after expressing

that they were hopeless to the point

that they expected death to come, Paul

says the words that changed everything

for the Corinthians and it changes

everything for us today.

He says, "But this happened that we

might not rely on ourselves but on God

who raises the dead."

They experienced what they did so that

they would learn to stop depending on

their human strength and instead turn to

God's divine strength. That was the only

thing that could save them. Depending on

God didn't make the hard things go away.

I think that's really important. It

didn't make the struggles stop, but it

meant that they could face those

challenges and they could survive them.

In verse 10, Paul says, "God 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."

Once Paul and his companions

acknowledged that they could not depend

on or save themselves, once they gave

their whole situation over to God, God

saved them. Not even a sentence of death

was too big for God to handle. Jesus was

already raised from the dead. So, we

know God defeats even death.

What was too much for them to handle by

themselves was something that God could

handle and God did.

So, it sounds like I'm saying that the

statement, "God won't give you more than

you can handle," is not true. But it is

true that God will give you more than

you can handle. Yes, it's exactly what I

just said. That's a really hard pill to

swallow. mainly because it challenges

what we know about God. We know that God

is loving and good. We read that all

throughout scripture. And would a loving

God really allow us to struggle and to

suffer?

Evil takes many forms and a few of them

are suffering and disease and sin.

Evangelist Billy Graham said that over

the course of his lifetime he was asked

hundreds of times why God allows evil to

happen. And his answer I found extremely

refreshing. It was this. Honestly, I

don't know the answer. Not fully.

He went on to say he does know three

important things about evil all from

scripture.

The first is that God is not the source

of evil.

God does not cause our struggles.

Deuteronomy 32:4 says, "God is the rock.

Deuteronomy 32:4

His works are perfect and all his ways

are just." Pair that with 1 John 3:8,

1 John 3:8

which says that the devil has been

sinning from the beginning. And when you

put those two together, God is perfect

and just, and Satan has been sinning

forever. So, we know that our struggles,

our suffering, the evil that we

experience come from Satan.

The second thing Billy Graham said was

that all evil will go away one day.

Revelation 20 is a description of the

defeat of Satan and highlights victory

over death. To bring home this point

into the next chapter, chapter 21:4,

it says there will be no more death or

crying or mourning or pain. In other

words, all suffering, all evil will be

gone, and in its place, we will know

only joy and love.

Those two promises from scripture help

to bring us a little bit of peace as we

hope for the future. But what about

today?

What about the evil and the suffering

that we are facing right now in our

lives?

It's comforting for sure that God didn't

cause the bad things to happen and that

God will one day eradicate all of the

evil in the world. But I've got to be

honest, I have had some pretty low

points in my life and I have seen and

walked with a lot of people who have

been at some very low points in theirs.

And those promises, while beautiful and

wonderful and really the bedrock of our

Christian faith in many ways, do not

always provide the comfort for the here

and now. When we are in the thick of

dealing with evil in the form of a

horrible diagnosis,

a sudden death, an addiction relapse,

a job loss, a broken relationship,

a financial crisis, a dying loved one,

an uncertain future, or a combination of

any of the above.

For that comfort, for that hope, we turn

to scripture again and to the third

statement that Billy Graham made about

evil. He said this, "Before God banishes

all evil, in the end, God will allow us

to triumph over it."

When you feel like life has just piled

it all on and there is not one more

thing that you can handle and then there

is one more thing that you have to

handle.

Remember Paul

remember how Paul and his fellow Christ

followers gave everything to God and

depended not on their own strength but

on God's. Paul told the Corinthians that

God had delivered them and his

companions. And remember that God told

them that he would also deliver the

Corinthians from whatever they would

face. And from that, we know that God

will deliver us, too.

And not only will God deliver us from

our sorrows, but here's the best part.

God will turn our suffering from which

he has delivered us into something good.

Paul wrote again with Paul in his letter

to the Romans chapter 8 28. In all

Romans 8 · chapter mention

things, God works for the good of those

who love him.

In all things, there is no exception.

God is working everything for good. We

may not understand it. We may not

realize it, but God is at work.

Kinugi is an ancient Asian art form that

takes broken ceramics and puts them back

together into one piece.

A specific Japanese lacquer is mixed

with a rice or a flower glue and it

creates a strong adhesive that is then

used to bond the broken pieces back

together again.

Once the adhesive has dried, the cracks

um where the adhesive now is are

painted, usually red or black, and then

they are dusted with a metallic powder.

It's usually gold.

Then the whole thing is glazed.

It is a painstaking and a timeconsuming

process. The finished product looks like

this.

We live in an age where just about

everything is disposable.

Where we don't fix broken things, we

toss them out and we replace them. But

Kugi teaches us that nothing is beyond

repair. And what's so special about it

is that that's not mended to look like

it was never broken. Instead, the repair

process highlights where there was once

a break. It highlights where there is

now healing.

According to historians, kinugi not only

extends the life of a piece of pottery,

obviously, but it proudly displays its

history, and it may even give the piece

a greater emotional value than it had

before it was broken.

For those of you who feel like you are

living in a moment where you have been

given more than you can handle, I want

you to hear something. And if you are

not in that moment right now, because

you may not be, I want you to file it

away. Because one thing we know is that

we're all likely to be there at some

point.

God will give you more than you can

handle on your own.

But God will never give you more than

you can than God can handle.

There is absolutely nothing that you can

ever experience that God cannot deal

with or take care of.

There is no depth of despair or mourning

that is so deep that Jesus cannot reach

you. There is no darkness that is too

black to keep the light of the world

from finding you.

There is no pain that is too

overwhelming that the great physician

cannot heal it.

There is no path that you can go so far

down that the good shepherd cannot lead

you back.

And when you feel like your heart has

been shattered by suffering in any of

its many forms, by having to deal with

so much and handle so much in this life,

know that your heart cannot possibly

shatter into more pieces than God can

put back together.

Because it turn as it turns out God is

an expert in kinugi when it comes to our

hearts.

Psalm 147 verse3 says God heals the

brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

And when he does bind up those wounds,

when he does put those pieces back

together, not if, but when. You better

believe he is painting those mended

cracks in your heart gold.

Not to highlight your trauma, but to

celebrate your survival and the ways

that he has made you new in the

aftermath of that trauma, not to draw

attention to your past, but to remind

you of the strength that God has given

you to face your future.

Those gold lines, those remarkable scars

are an incredible testament not only to

your story, but to God's.

They tell the story of a God who never

gave up on us.

who never left us alone and who healed

us, maybe even brought us back from the

point of death.

We could not do it on our own,

but God can and God has and God will.

Jesus once told his disciples that in

this world you will have trouble. That

was a fact. Those disciples had some

trouble.

In this world, we too will have trouble.

We are going to face trouble. We're

going to face struggle. We're going to

face heartache more than we can handle

on our own.

But Jesus did not just leave his

disciples to face their struggles by

themselves. Instead, he offered them

divine reassurance when he said to them,

"In this world, you will have trouble,

but take heart. I have overcome the

world.

Jesus did indeed overcome the world and

everything evil then and he is still

doing it today. He is helping us

overcome the evil and the suffering that

we are experiencing right here, right

now today.

And when he has walked us through it, we

will have the beautiful golden scars to

prove God's love.

Let us pray.

God, some days it feels like there is

too much for us to handle and we are

struggling to see a way out.

Remind us

that you are the way out. remind us that

we cannot get through these things on

our own, but we can get through them

when we depend on you. Plant that seed

in our hearts. Help us to hear that

message every time we despair.

And help to heal us so that the scars we

end up with are beautiful and a

testament to a life changed by your

love, your grace, your mercy, and by

your presence always, no matter what.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.