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I raise a Hallelujah so in case you didn't know our session at church camp starts today and we are excited about it um and as Cade mentioned you know in your bulletins it talks about we'd love to have everybody come out on Wednesday night but you're welcome to come out any night of the week we have worship every night at seven o'clock and so you're welcome to come out uh any night of the week and be a part of that but we're going to spend some time uh and the word together for a little bit this morning and again I'm so glad to see so many of you guys I miss seeing you last week I'm glad to be back with you today uh we we wrapped up our our last series and we're starting a new one today I'll talk about in just a minute back I kind of want to start out this morning sharing some things that I discovered that I thought were absolutely true and they're not they're not quite totally true and I want to share some of these with you and see if you knew that these weren't completely accurate as maybe you might have thought they were so one particular statement is that George Washington had wooden teeth did you know that that's not completely true how many I thought no I heard that George Washington had wooden teeth he didn't have wooden teeth he did have fake teeth well some of them were fake a lot of them weren't his I'll put it that way and they were made of gold some of them some of them are made of ivory some of them were human teeth from other people but none of them were made of wood so yeah you have false teeth but you know he didn't have wooden teeth so it's not completely accurate right okay how about bulls get angry when they see the color red anybody heard this one before seen this I know there's Bugs Bunny cartoons that talk about this so I mean it's it must be true right both are at least as far as the colors like red and green some of these colors are colorblind they can't tell the color red all they're interested in is the motion so when the when the guy is
out there shaking the cape it just happens to be red but they're charging the motion not the colors that make sense so yeah Bulls charge but not not necessarily because of the color red what about um cholesterol is bad for you how many of you had a doctor tell you this uh some of y'all and some of y'all aren't confessing but um yeah cholesterol is bad for you which is true right I mean kinda there is good cholesterol I don't know which one it is I couldn't tell you which one it is I just eat the cholesterol I'm fine with whatever you know the good outweighs the bad right or it cancels it out one of the two so but there is some cholesterol that is good for you it's actually you know a positive thing to have that certain kind of cholesterol how about this now I know I heard this one growing up a lot cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis anybody ever heard that one crack in your nug and see some of y'all are already starting to crack them right now cracking your knuckles leaves your arthritis well it doesn't there's no scientific proof that cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis and um honestly it's just you know when you're not like cracking bones when you're cracking your knuckles there's actually a little you know sacks of fluid in there and that's what's popping now it can lead to eventual loss of like you know grip strength and stuff like that but it's not going to lead to arthritis so crack away I guess you know just go ahead and and break your fingers if you want to you have to wait 30 minutes after eating to go swimming you might heard this one anybody told your kids this and you might watch the clock and be like oh man counting down like 30 minutes is never going to get here okay some of your parents are going to be upset at me especially if your kids are in the room right now there is no scientific evidence that your body cramps up and things go horribly wrong if you go swimming before 30 minutes have passed there's you know the whole thought was you
know all your all the blood in your body is rushing to your stomach to digest food and so therefore you're going to end up getting cramps and then when you cramp up you drown and so you have to wait for 30 minutes until your food's done digesting that's not actually true so swim away swim with food in your hand I guess you know just go for it um Richard Nixon was impeached is that true by now you're like no because none of these are true the impeachment process had started but then he resigned before it was completed so technically he wasn't impeached although they had started the process but there are those who would say Richard Nixon is the only president that was impeached well he started to be impeached but then he resigned how about this one Twinkies have no expiration date especially if you're a fan of the movie Zombieland you know the Twinkies have no expiration date right now um they do okay they do have an expiration date now they will last longer than a lot of other pastries and Hostess goodies and things like that they they last longer than a lot of them but they do eventually go bad so eat at your own risk I guess and and I share some of these with you and you could probably come up with more I mean there's all sorts of things that you can that you can google and find out you know is this actually true or not there's a lot of things that that we have come to believe that are true that either somebody taught us or told us or or we figured those things out on our own and it's not that they're completely absolutely false there may be some truth to it may be partially true but it's still not completely accurate and yet my belief in those things has probably dictated my actions I've probably chosen to do things or not do things because of certain things like that list I just gave you some of those things that I thought were absolutely and completely true but now I have this fractured vision of what is actually true about those things but you know I've I've
waited 30 minutes uh before to go swimming I I don't remember being around a bull but I'm sure that if I did I wasn't going to wear red I know I've eaten Twinkies past the expiration date I know that's happened uh but there's there's things that that we believe to be true and we choose to act a certain way or to do a certain thing or to not do a certain thing because of something that may not actually be true we're mistaken about it and that happens with our understanding of God as well I think there's things that many of us have come to believe about God and about who he is about how he works in our lives that aren't completely true and maybe some of those things have some truth to them maybe they're not just you know complete lies and falsehoods but they're still not completely true they give us a a partial picture of who God is they they don't give us a completely accurate picture of how God is working and in essence they're mistaken it's a mistaken truth it's a misperception that I have of God it's it's not a complete it's not a complete picture of my relationship with him or what it should look like and that's what we want to focus on today and that's where we're going to spend time focusing on for the next few weeks are some of these mistaken truths some of the things that we may have been taught about God some of the things that we may have come to understand about how he works and about our relationship with him that isn't completely true and yet we still believe it anyway and some of those mistaken truths that we have come to believe have impacted how we interact with him and how we interact with others and what we choose to believe about him and what we choose to believe about us in our relationship with them that aren't completely accurate I'll give you an example today I want us to go through something that I've heard people say I've probably said it before maybe more than once in my life I've seen people posted on different social media platforms I
know I've I've heard people say in conversations and that is is this God will not give me more than I can handle God will not give me more than I can handle I've heard people say that I've heard people say that uh up in front of a crowd of people I've heard people say that in conversation if people have said that to me again I've seen people post it on their social media and it comes from this from this uh completely innocent perception I I'm a God's child God loves me God wants good things for me and even if God doesn't keep necessarily bad things happening uh you know from happening to me he cares about me so much that he'll never let me get completely overwhelmed and never let anything happen that I can't completely handle he knows how much I can handle and so he's only going to allow me to be you know have problems that extend that extend to the level of my strength to and my capacity to handle it does that make sense and we have this perception of God and maybe we've been maybe we've been told that maybe we've been taught that and it's reinforced by how we look at certain scriptures too and one of the one of the main scriptures that we look at comes from First Corinthians chapter 10. so if you got your Bibles your Bible apps feel free to turn there it's going to be on the screen as well but first Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 13 Paul says this 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're tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it and it seems like it seems like Paul is saying that God won't give me more than I can handle right he will not allow me to be tender beyond what I can bear he will not give me a problem so big that I can't handle it and the problem with this is not completely true this is a mistaken truth this is a fractured way of looking at this verse it's a fractured way of of looking at God and how how he works in
our lives and I got a couple reasons why I believe that why it is that I think this verse doesn't teach that God will give me more than I can handle first of all if the scripture does in fact teach that God will not give me more than what I am able to bear in any problems any hardships in my life then that is in direct conflict with other passages of scripture I mean we're looking here at First Corinthians chapter 10 right this is the Apostle Paul writing these words to a group of Christians to a church in the city of Corinth and he writes you know you you're going to be tempted and God's not going to allow you to be 10 to beyond what you can bear and if we read that as Paul's saying God's not going to give you more than you can bear then how do we accept that is true and then see what Paul writes in a different letter a few years later in second Corinthians chapter one so if you got your Bible apps just scroll to the next book second Corinthians chapter one you got your Bibles with you it's just a couple of pages over in second Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 8 Paul says this we don't want you to be uninformed brothers and sisters about the troubles we experience in the province of Asia we were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired of life itself what does Paul say here we have problems we had a lot of problems and pressures and it was so much it was beyond what what we could handle it was beyond our ability we thought we were going to die we thought we were going to be completely overwhelmed we thought there's no way that we can handle whatever it is that we're experiencing same guy writing to the same people who at one point says in our minds God won't give you more than you can handle and then a little while later says God gave us more than we could handle I don't think Paul would contradict himself like that I don't think scripture contradicts itself like that and if we believe that that's what First Corinthians
chapter 10 verse 13 is saying there's there's a problem there there's a contradiction but also First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13. if you look at it again Paul is not talking in that context about hardships about problems what is he talking about he's talking about Sin he's talking about Temptation now can we have hardships and problems as consequences to our sin and our ungodly choices absolutely but we can't just lift this one or these couple of sentences out of the whole context what Paul is talking about here in First Corinthians chapter 10 which is about Sin it's about Idols it's about following other things instead of God it's about choosing other paths instead of the path that God has laid out for us and when I choose to do that that gets me that gets me in conflict with God I leave his Direction I'll leave his purpose for my life I do things that he doesn't want me to do because I'm following something else and in the middle of that conversation Paul says listen it's going to happen to all of us we're all going to be tempted we're all going to be tempted to walk away we're all going to be tempted to do something different we're all going to be tempted to do something that God doesn't want us to do that's not uncommon and when those times come when you are tempted to do something ungodly when you are tempted to sin when you are tending to make choices that you shouldn't make just understand that in those moments God is not going to allow that temptation to move Beyond something that you can handle but in instead God is going to provide a way for you to escape from it a way for you to stand up under it a way for you to stand against it and choose not to do that thing you see the difference so this verse that we look at sometimes to say see God doesn't ever say he's going to give me uh or a guy says he's never going to give me more than I can handle it's not what he says that's a mistaken truth the mistaken truth is that God will not give me more than I
can handle the actual truth is that God will sometimes allow me to experience difficulties that are bigger than I think I can handle God never promises that there will never be a time that I feel so overwhelmed that I can't handle it but God does always promise that he will be with me through the difficulty God does always promise that even if he doesn't protect me from the difficulty from the problem he will walk with me through it God never promises that he's going to make it obvious as to why I'm going through the hardship we see that multiple times through scripture there's there's lots of different people that are having just awful times and God is allowing it to happen and some of you can cry out to God and say why is this happening and sometimes God tells them here's why this is happening you've made these choices or I'm I've got this purpose in mind or whatever it is and there's sometimes where God just doesn't even answer the question you ever read the book of Job 38 chapters of job is job going or 39 maybe is job going God why are bad things happening to me why have I lost everything why is my family die why am I dealing with this awful sickness why it's not fair I don't deserve it why and God in the last couple of chapters of job shows up and basically says I'm God and all I got a lot of things going on that you don't even understand and not once and all that description to job how God is in control and got things going on that job doesn't understand does God ever say job here's why this is happening the promise is not that God will always make it obvious as to why I'm going through the hardship the promise is not that God will always keep me from going through a hardship the promise is God will always walk with me through the difficulty sometimes even Carry Me Through the hardship until I get on the
other side of it and that is the real truth that is something I can know for sure about my God so if that's the case then what do I do because maybe there's some of us this morning you're like me you just you just popped a really big balloon for me there's this understanding that I had that even when things even when bad things happen that God's never going to let me be completely overwhelmed by it and now you're saying oh no yeah he will sometimes I don't want that what do I do how do I handle it when God allows difficulties hardships problems in my life when he allows those things to seemingly overwhelm me what do I do let me give you some ways to handle it the first thing that I need to do well let me back up let me share a story with you that may help that may help us see how we can handle these problems and it comes from Mark chapter four we've been in first and second Corinthians if you back up a few books to to the Book of Mark there's a story that we've talked about before as a church family and maybe familiar to some of you maybe many of you but Matthew Mark Luke and John are the four books to talk about Jesus life when he was here on this Earth in The Book of Mark in chapter four there's a story of Jesus being in a boat with his disciples and he's exhausted he's been teaching he's been performing Miracles he's been interacting with people he's just drained and so they get in this boat to go across what we call the Sea of Galilee is this giant Lake and as they're as they're going across in this in this fairly good-sized boat Jesus goes up to the front of the boat and he falls asleep and at some point while they're trying to get across the lake a storm comes up which wasn't uncommon for this particular body of water but this storm is bad the winds are blowing there's probably thunder and lightning and rain coming down and and the waves are crashing over the boat and there's at least four guys on this boat that grew up on this Lake that has seen storms
before that had been a part of really bad storms before and and yet are still so fearful about what they're in the middle of about the storm that is that is surrounding them in this moment they think they're going to die and they do everything These Guys these disciples do everything they possibly can to deal with this storm and we don't get a lot of description of what that is in the Book of Mark but you got to imagine they raise a sale they lower the sale I don't know do the sale halfway they're they're messing with the rudder they're trying to steer towards Shore and they get blown away from Shore so now let's go this direction now they're getting blown back the other way and let's try to dump water out there's more water pouring in and we just don't know what to do and they're probably screaming and they're doing everything they can they're exhausted and the whole time Jesus is asleep he's just laying there in the front of the boat sleeping through the whole thing and they come to Jesus and they and they wake him up and basically like look around you look at what's happening do you even do you even recognize what's happening right now I do you even care they're in the middle of a storm that they had no control over they're doing everything they can to keep their heads above above water and not sink and maybe there are people in this room and in my and mine who have been or maybe right now in this moment or in the middle of a storm and they are doing everything they can to keep their heads above above water and not sink and maybe the finances are falling apart and maybe the marriage is falling apart and maybe there's fighting in the family we don't know what to do about it and maybe they've lost their job maybe they got bad news from the doctor and maybe it's a combination of all those different things then there's just things that are
overwhelming and crashing down and I'm doing everything that I know to do and it's still not working I'm still sinking the storm is still here and I can't get through it I can't get around it and it seems like it's it's just causing me to sink what do I do let's look at what the disciples did first thing I got to do when those times happen in my life when I am dealing with something that is more than I can handle first thing I need to do is talk to God about it I need to talk to God about it I need to pray and for some of us that might be the automatic thing that we do that might be the very first thing that comes to mind for some of us that's the last option we'll do everything we can first we'll seek other people's advice and we'll take action and we'll we'll you know find all sorts of resources and and I've got to fix this and I've got to pull myself up and I've got to take action I've got to do the things to get me out of this situation and maybe the first thing that I need to do before I do anything else is just talk to God about it and and there's a couple of different things that I think are important in this conversation with god and one thing that need to talk to God about is just is just to ask him to intervene to ask him to do something God I'm sinking I'm in the storm I don't know what to do I'm overwhelmed this is hard this is difficult I don't know what the answers are talk to him about that God will you do something will you intervene because that's why the disciples did the storm was scary and it was powerful and it was more than they could handle and they asked Jesus to do something so I need to be willing number one to ask for for God's help but also when I talk to God about it I'm allowed I'm allowed to vent to him too which is kind of really what the disciples did if you think about it if you look in Mark chapter
four in verse 38 as Jesus is asleep in the front of the boat and the storm is Raging says the disciples woke him and said to him teacher don't you care if we drown Jesus don't you care we're scared we feel abandoned we've done everything we know to do and you're not doing anything and they weren't being disrespectful they're just venting Jesus we don't know what to do and I want I want to share that with this church family with a guess this morning because I want all of us to understand we're allowed to vent to God we're his kids he loves us we can come to him with anything that's on our heart we can be sincere we can be genuine in those moments when I feel completely overwhelmed and when the storm is Raging and I don't know what to do next I am more than allowed to talk to God and say God where are you I don't like this I'm scared I'm tired I'm frustrated I'm angry I'm overwhelmed I'm sinking I'm calling out to you I'm venting to you why don't you talk to God about it we need to be willing to be honest with him to share with him what's on our hearts not to be disrespectful but just honest and when the storm comes when the hardship comes when when it feels like I'm dealing with something that's bigger than I can handle I can talk to God about it I can vent to him and I can ask him God please intervene do something the second thing that I need to do is when I have that conversation with them when I talk to God then I need to sometimes stop and watch and see what God does the disciples had a front row seat to what happened next they got to watch what Jesus did when they asked him to do something about the storm if you go in verse 39 the next verse there in Mark chapter 4 it says he got up rebuked the win of the waves and said uh rebuke the wind and said to the ways quiet be still and the wind died down it was completely calm once they vented to Jesus and once they asked him to
intervene then they watched what he actually did and that's important it's important sometimes to just to just be still and watch what he's going to do watch how he takes care of the storm and that's what sometimes I need to be willing to do maybe it's just me maybe I'm just confessing to you something that I struggle with for there are times when there's problems there's hardships or stresses that I'm dealing with and I talk to God about it I vent about it I ask him to do something and then I just go ahead and keep trying to fix it myself and really I'm just like you know God just just you know jump on my back and make sure that I'm doing everything through my own strength to get through this difficulty and there are times that I think I I I miss God's presence I I miss recognizing that he's already in this storm with me I don't see how he's how he's walking with me through this I don't see how he's carrying me through this because I'm so focused on the Storm and I'm so convinced that it's up to me to get through it that I don't I don't even take the time to to be still and just breathe for a minute and take a step back and watch what he does watch how he rescues watch how he moves watch what actions he takes because he's walking me through it now I've talked to him about it I watch what he does but then the next thing that the disciples did that I got to do is keep rowing there's kind of a balance here I need to be still and watch what God is doing and watch where he's leading and watch how he's beginning to rescue me but I don't need to just be comfortable with just sitting back and going okay well God's just going to carry me through and there's nothing left for me to do right there's no changes I need to make there's no there's nothing I need to change about my life there's no habits to to deal with there's there's nothing to do different he's just going to fix it and while it's true that I think God will rescue us from our problems maybe allow us to deal with them for a while but rescue us from them there's also a responsibility on my part to keep
moving forward if he is providing a path of Escape I need to walk that path if he is providing a way for me to get through the storm I need to go through the storm I need to keep rowing I need to take the next step again I think the disciples had done everything I think they raised sales I think they turned to Rudder I think they got some paddles out and started rowing they are doing everything they can to get to the storm but I think even when Jesus calmed the storm they still kept rolling how do I know that you go back to Mark the next chapter we're here in the chapter four the next chapter is chapter 5 and verse one it says what they went across the lake to the region of the garrisones they kept going they ended up getting on the other side of the lake they didn't just sit there in the water and go well that was that was good that he called that once you carried him through the storm once he calmed the storm down they need to keep moving and you keep going forward I need to do that too I call out to God I ask him to intervene I vent to him I watch what he's doing but when he starts when he starts to part the clouds when he starts to calm the waters when things start to get better I need to keep moving forward what is the direction that he's leading me where is it that I need to go what's the next step to take that's what I need to do if I've prayed if I prevented if I've seen what God is doing I need to take the next step I need to move forward I need to keep rowing and then the last thing throughout this whole process while I'm in this difficulty while I'm dealing with it while God is dealing with it for me and through all that I need to trust I need
to trust that God can rescue I need to trust that God will walk with me that he will carry me through this difficulty but even more than that I don't want us to miss this even more than just trusting in his power and his ability to do something I need to to trust that he wants to do something I need to trust that he actually does care about me and does care that I'm In This Storm and does care about what's going on in my life that he recognizes this is something that I can't handle on my own and he wants to do something about it because he cares that much about me this is the question this is the struggle I think for the disciples go back again uh you know to this story in Mark chapter four after the storm is calm after things die down Jesus looks at his disciples in Mark chapter 4 and verse 40 it says why are you so afraid do you still have no faith and for the longest time when I saw this scripture I thought that Jesus was talking about their lack of faith and his ability to do something do you still have no faith do you not believe that I could calm this storm but I don't think that's what's going on with this question because they had no expectation for him to calm the storm they didn't know that's what he was going to do because if you keep on reading they were amazed that he did it they the expectation wasn't for Jesus to calm the storm and wondering why he wasn't calming it go back to their original question back in Mark chapter 4 and verse 38 when the disciples woke him up what do they say to him teacher don't you what care don't you care if we drown their question was not teacher can you do anything the question was teacher do you even care Jesus do you even care that we're in the middle
of a storm right now that we can't handle so maybe maybe their lack of faith wasn't in Jesus ability maybe their lack of trust wasn't in Jesus power over nature maybe what they didn't trust was Jesus concerned maybe what they didn't trust was that Jesus really cared and so what's Jesus response why would you think that don't you realize how much I care about you of course I care of course I want good things for you so what does that mean for me when Hard Times come when things are difficult when when it feels like I'm dealing with something that's bigger than I can handle I need to pray I need to talk to God about it I can vent to him if I want to but I need to talk to him about it I need to watch and see what he does in response what how he goes to work and watch how even if he doesn't eliminate the problem he carries me through it I need to keep moving forward I need to keep rowing I need to take the next step I don't need to just stop I need to keep moving and through all that process I need a trust not just in God's power but in God's concern God's love for me God's desire for me to get through this difficulty and it's a conscious decision I have to I have to choose to trust that God actually does things that I'm significant I had to choose to accept that God really does love me and until I trust in those things I'm until I trust that to be true about God it's going to be difficult for me to talk to him and watch what he does and keep moving forward if I don't trust in the first place that he even cares about the storm that I'm dealing with it's a mistake it's it's a misperception of who God is and and how he works to believe that God will never give me more than I can handle and I want to say this as we wrap up this morning if it if my hardships were only limited to what I have the ability to handle down I don't even need God in the first place if my hardships are only limited to what I have the capacity and the strength to handle I don't
need him because I can handle it and the reality is there are things that happen in my life this is a fallen broken world that I'm living in the promise of Jesus in in John chapter 16 is you're living this world you're going to have trouble and sometimes those troubles are going to be more than I'm not just ready for more than I can deal with and I can't handle it but my God can and I need to trust in that going back to second Corinthians chapter one Paul says we we had this hardship that we were dealing with that was beyond our ability to endure he says got into this rhetorical question that he doesn't ask in the text but you know why was that why did God give us this this overwhelming problem these overwhelming difficulties to deal with and he answers the question verse 9. he says this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God it's not about me this is all about him and there are times when I have a bigger burden I can handle but anytime that I have a bigger burden than I can handle I have a bigger God than the burden and he's going to carry me through it if I trust him to there was a long time ago several decades ago there was a a minister named Bruce Wilkinson that wrote this little book called The Prayer jabeth and in that book he describes the story of taking one of his little boys to the park one day and this big city park or neighborhood park that they were in had three slides and they were you know growing side there was a smaller slide there was kind of a medium-sized slide and there's this huge slide he took his little boy to the park and he's running around and he decides he wants to go on the slide and so uh this is like the first time I can't remember if he said how old this little boy was but this is the first time that he's gonna let him go down the slide by himself and so he goes to that smaller slide and he climbs up and and he slides down and he's so much fun and he does it multiple times just does laps and going around that slide and then he runs over to the medium slide and Bruce said his wife is like hey maybe you should go help him he's like no no let's see let's see how this goes typical dad responds and so I looked over there and he looked back at his parents he looked back at his dad and anytime he looked back at his dad his dad just kind of turned like hmm look at this over here and he wasn't acting like he wasn't paying attention and it took a little bit he kind of walked you know got about halfway at the steps and then he paused for a second and then finally got all the way up to the top of that slide and he looked down
and he slid down and he survived and it was great and he he went back like three more times he was just screaming and laughing and having a great time and so then he goes running over to the big slide and Bruce's wife was like okay go help him and he's like no no let's just let's just see what happens and so he's standing in line he's waiting for his turn and finally he starts climbing he gets maybe like a quarter of the way up and and he says you know from his perspective from his little boy's perspective that ladder must have looked like it was going up into the clouds and he just he freezes and there's other kids in line they're like come on kid hurry up or get out of the way or whatever and he's just he's just Frozen and Bruce is like looking around like he's not paying attention I found his little boy calls out to him dad Daddy will you help me he walks over the slide what's the problem son I can't do this by myself will you go with me and he helped him climb up to the top they got up to the top together wrapped his arms and legs around him and went down that huge slide and Wilkinson tells that during his book and says that's what my God does for me in those moments when I think I can't do this I have a father who is waiting and ready for me to ask and recognize I can't do this myself I Gotta Have You in that moment he runs to us he wraps his arms around us and we go through that challenge together and if you've never known that about my God I want you to know today that's the real truth that's the kind of father that we have and if you don't have a relationship with him you need to change that today and we're going to stand in just a second we're going to sing a song together and as we're standing singing that song If you if you recognize I don't have the kind of relationship with God where I feel like I can call out to him or I feel like he's on my side where I feel like he will rescue and he will calm the storm when everything seems overwhelming I want you to know we do have a father like that you can have a father like that and if you want to come to the front say I'm ready to have a relationship with him please do that and we'll help make that happen and if it's been a long time since you've recognized that about your guide you've tried for so long to get through the storms on your own and you're still sinking you're welcome to come forward this morning and confess that I need I need help I need a father I need a community that will love me and help me and we'll do whatever we can to help the storm quite honestly may be bigger than what you can deal with it might be but we have a god who's bigger than any storm and when you have a church family that can row through it with you until we get to the other side so let us do that for you this morning if we can well together we stand the same it goes

I raise a Hallelujah so in case you didn't know our session at church camp starts today and we are excited about it um and as Cade mentioned you know in your bulletins it talks about we'd love to have everybody come out on Wednesday night but you're welcome to come out any night of the week we have worship every night at seven o'clock and so you're welcome to come out uh any night of the week and be a part of that but we're going to spend some time uh and the word together for a little bit this morning and again I'm so glad to see so many of you guys I miss seeing you last week I'm glad to be back with you today uh we we wrapped up our our last series and we're starting a new one today I'll talk about in just a minute back I kind of want to start out this morning sharing some things that I discovered that I thought were absolutely true and they're not they're not quite totally true and I want to share some of these with you and see if you knew that these weren't completely accurate as maybe you might have thought they were so one particular statement is that George Washington had wooden teeth did you know that that's not completely true how many I thought no I heard that George Washington had wooden teeth he didn't have wooden teeth he did have fake teeth well some of them were fake a lot of them weren't his I'll put it that way and they were made of gold some of them some of them are made of ivory some of them were human teeth from other people but none of them were made of wood so yeah you have false teeth but you know he didn't have wooden teeth so it's not completely accurate right okay how about bulls get angry when they see the color red anybody heard this one before seen this I know there's Bugs Bunny cartoons that talk about this so I mean it's it must be true right both are at least as far as the colors like red and green some of these colors are colorblind they can't tell the color red all they're interested in is the motion so when the when the guy is out there shaking the cape it just happens to be red but they're charging the motion not the colors that make sense so yeah Bulls charge but not not necessarily because of the color red what about um cholesterol is bad for you how many of you had a doctor tell you this uh some of y'all and some of y'all aren't confessing but um yeah cholesterol is bad for you which is true right I mean kinda there is good cholesterol I don't know which one it is I couldn't tell you which one it is I just eat the cholesterol I'm fine with whatever you know the good outweighs the bad right or it cancels it out one of the two so but there is some cholesterol that is good for you it's actually you know a positive thing to have that certain kind of cholesterol how about this now I know I heard this one growing up a lot cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis anybody ever heard that one crack in your nug and see some of y'all are already starting to crack them right now cracking your knuckles leaves your arthritis well it doesn't there's no scientific proof that cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis and um honestly it's just you know when you're not like cracking bones when you're cracking your knuckles there's actually a little you know sacks of fluid in there and that's what's popping now it can lead to eventual loss of like you know grip strength and stuff like that but it's not going to lead to arthritis so crack away I guess you know just go ahead and and break your fingers if you want to you have to wait 30 minutes after eating to go swimming you might heard this one anybody told your kids this and you might watch the clock and be like oh man counting down like 30 minutes is never going to get here okay some of your parents are going to be upset at me especially if your kids are in the room right now there is no scientific evidence that your body cramps up and things go horribly wrong if you go swimming before 30 minutes have passed there's you know the whole thought was you know all your all the blood in your body is rushing to your stomach to digest food and so therefore you're going to end up getting cramps and then when you cramp up you drown and so you have to wait for 30 minutes until your food's done digesting that's not actually true so swim away swim with food in your hand I guess you know just go for it um Richard Nixon was impeached is that true by now you're like no because none of these are true the impeachment process had started but then he resigned before it was completed so technically he wasn't impeached although they had started the process but there are those who would say Richard Nixon is the only president that was impeached well he started to be impeached but then he resigned how about this one Twinkies have no expiration date especially if you're a fan of the movie Zombieland you know the Twinkies have no expiration date right now um they do okay they do have an expiration date now they will last longer than a lot of other pastries and Hostess goodies and things like that they they last longer than a lot of them but they do eventually go bad so eat at your own risk I guess and and I share some of these with you and you could probably come up with more I mean there's all sorts of things that you can that you can google and find out you know is this actually true or not there's a lot of things that that we have come to believe that are true that either somebody taught us or told us or or we figured those things out on our own and it's not that they're completely absolutely false there may be some truth to it may be partially true but it's still not completely accurate and yet my belief in those things has probably dictated my actions I've probably chosen to do things or not do things because of certain things like that list I just gave you some of those things that I thought were absolutely and completely true but now I have this fractured vision of what is actually true about those things but you know I've I've waited 30 minutes uh before to go swimming I I don't remember being around a bull but I'm sure that if I did I wasn't going to wear red I know I've eaten Twinkies past the expiration date I know that's happened uh but there's there's things that that we believe to be true and we choose to act a certain way or to do a certain thing or to not do a certain thing because of something that may not actually be true we're mistaken about it and that happens with our understanding of God as well I think there's things that many of us have come to believe about God and about who he is about how he works in our lives that aren't completely true and maybe some of those things have some truth to them maybe they're not just you know complete lies and falsehoods but they're still not completely true they give us a a partial picture of who God is they they don't give us a completely accurate picture of how God is working and in essence they're mistaken it's a mistaken truth it's a misperception that I have of God it's it's not a complete it's not a complete picture of my relationship with him or what it should look like and that's what we want to focus on today and that's where we're going to spend time focusing on for the next few weeks are some of these mistaken truths some of the things that we may have been taught about God some of the things that we may have come to understand about how he works and about our relationship with him that isn't completely true and yet we still believe it anyway and some of those mistaken truths that we have come to believe have impacted how we interact with him and how we interact with others and what we choose to believe about him and what we choose to believe about us in our relationship with them that aren't completely accurate I'll give you an example today I want us to go through something that I've heard people say I've probably said it before maybe more than once in my life I've seen people posted on different social media platforms I know I've I've heard people say in conversations and that is is this God will not give me more than I can handle God will not give me more than I can handle I've heard people say that I've heard people say that uh up in front of a crowd of people I've heard people say that in conversation if people have said that to me again I've seen people post it on their social media and it comes from this from this uh completely innocent perception I I'm a God's child God loves me God wants good things for me and even if God doesn't keep necessarily bad things happening uh you know from happening to me he cares about me so much that he'll never let me get completely overwhelmed and never let anything happen that I can't completely handle he knows how much I can handle and so he's only going to allow me to be you know have problems that extend that extend to the level of my strength to and my capacity to handle it does that make sense and we have this perception of God and maybe we've been maybe we've been told that maybe we've been taught that and it's reinforced by how we look at certain scriptures too and one of the one of the main scriptures that we look at comes from First Corinthians chapter 10. so if you got your Bibles your Bible apps feel free to turn there it's going to be on the screen as well but first Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 13 Paul says this 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're tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it and it seems like it seems like Paul is saying that God won't give me more than I can handle right he will not allow me to be tender beyond what I can bear he will not give me a problem so big that I can't handle it and the problem with this is not completely true this is a mistaken truth this is a fractured way of looking at this verse it's a fractured way of of looking at God and how how he works in our lives and I got a couple reasons why I believe that why it is that I think this verse doesn't teach that God will give me more than I can handle first of all if the scripture does in fact teach that God will not give me more than what I am able to bear in any problems any hardships in my life then that is in direct conflict with other passages of scripture I mean we're looking here at First Corinthians chapter 10 right this is the Apostle Paul writing these words to a group of Christians to a church in the city of Corinth and he writes you know you you're going to be tempted and God's not going to allow you to be 10 to beyond what you can bear and if we read that as Paul's saying God's not going to give you more than you can bear then how do we accept that is true and then see what Paul writes in a different letter a few years later in second Corinthians chapter one so if you got your Bible apps just scroll to the next book second Corinthians chapter one you got your Bibles with you it's just a couple of pages over in second Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 8 Paul says this we don't want you to be uninformed brothers and sisters about the troubles we experience in the province of Asia we were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired of life itself what does Paul say here we have problems we had a lot of problems and pressures and it was so much it was beyond what what we could handle it was beyond our ability we thought we were going to die we thought we were going to be completely overwhelmed we thought there's no way that we can handle whatever it is that we're experiencing same guy writing to the same people who at one point says in our minds God won't give you more than you can handle and then a little while later says God gave us more than we could handle I don't think Paul would contradict himself like that I don't think scripture contradicts itself like that and if we believe that that's what First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 is saying there's there's a problem there there's a contradiction but also First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13. if you look at it again Paul is not talking in that context about hardships about problems what is he talking about he's talking about Sin he's talking about Temptation now can we have hardships and problems as consequences to our sin and our ungodly choices absolutely but we can't just lift this one or these couple of sentences out of the whole context what Paul is talking about here in First Corinthians chapter 10 which is about Sin it's about Idols it's about following other things instead of God it's about choosing other paths instead of the path that God has laid out for us and when I choose to do that that gets me that gets me in conflict with God I leave his Direction I'll leave his purpose for my life I do things that he doesn't want me to do because I'm following something else and in the middle of that conversation Paul says listen it's going to happen to all of us we're all going to be tempted we're all going to be tempted to walk away we're all going to be tempted to do something different we're all going to be tempted to do something that God doesn't want us to do that's not uncommon and when those times come when you are tempted to do something ungodly when you are tempted to sin when you are tending to make choices that you shouldn't make just understand that in those moments God is not going to allow that temptation to move Beyond something that you can handle but in instead God is going to provide a way for you to escape from it a way for you to stand up under it a way for you to stand against it and choose not to do that thing you see the difference so this verse that we look at sometimes to say see God doesn't ever say he's going to give me uh or a guy says he's never going to give me more than I can handle it's not what he says that's a mistaken truth the mistaken truth is that God will not give me more than I can handle the actual truth is that God will sometimes allow me to experience difficulties that are bigger than I think I can handle God never promises that there will never be a time that I feel so overwhelmed that I can't handle it but God does always promise that he will be with me through the difficulty God does always promise that even if he doesn't protect me from the difficulty from the problem he will walk with me through it God never promises that he's going to make it obvious as to why I'm going through the hardship we see that multiple times through scripture there's there's lots of different people that are having just awful times and God is allowing it to happen and some of you can cry out to God and say why is this happening and sometimes God tells them here's why this is happening you've made these choices or I'm I've got this purpose in mind or whatever it is and there's sometimes where God just doesn't even answer the question you ever read the book of Job 38 chapters of job is job going or 39 maybe is job going God why are bad things happening to me why have I lost everything why is my family die why am I dealing with this awful sickness why it's not fair I don't deserve it why and God in the last couple of chapters of job shows up and basically says I'm God and all I got a lot of things going on that you don't even understand and not once and all that description to job how God is in control and got things going on that job doesn't understand does God ever say job here's why this is happening the promise is not that God will always make it obvious as to why I'm going through the hardship the promise is not that God will always keep me from going through a hardship the promise is God will always walk with me through the difficulty sometimes even Carry Me Through the hardship until I get on the other side of it and that is the real truth that is something I can know for sure about my God so if that's the case then what do I do because maybe there's some of us this morning you're like me you just you just popped a really big balloon for me there's this understanding that I had that even when things even when bad things happen that God's never going to let me be completely overwhelmed by it and now you're saying oh no yeah he will sometimes I don't want that what do I do how do I handle it when God allows difficulties hardships problems in my life when he allows those things to seemingly overwhelm me what do I do let me give you some ways to handle it the first thing that I need to do well let me back up let me share a story with you that may help that may help us see how we can handle these problems and it comes from Mark chapter four we've been in first and second Corinthians if you back up a few books to to the Book of Mark there's a story that we've talked about before as a church family and maybe familiar to some of you maybe many of you but Matthew Mark Luke and John are the four books to talk about Jesus life when he was here on this Earth in The Book of Mark in chapter four there's a story of Jesus being in a boat with his disciples and he's exhausted he's been teaching he's been performing Miracles he's been interacting with people he's just drained and so they get in this boat to go across what we call the Sea of Galilee is this giant Lake and as they're as they're going across in this in this fairly good-sized boat Jesus goes up to the front of the boat and he falls asleep and at some point while they're trying to get across the lake a storm comes up which wasn't uncommon for this particular body of water but this storm is bad the winds are blowing there's probably thunder and lightning and rain coming down and and the waves are crashing over the boat and there's at least four guys on this boat that grew up on this Lake that has seen storms before that had been a part of really bad storms before and and yet are still so fearful about what they're in the middle of about the storm that is that is surrounding them in this moment they think they're going to die and they do everything These Guys these disciples do everything they possibly can to deal with this storm and we don't get a lot of description of what that is in the Book of Mark but you got to imagine they raise a sale they lower the sale I don't know do the sale halfway they're they're messing with the rudder they're trying to steer towards Shore and they get blown away from Shore so now let's go this direction now they're getting blown back the other way and let's try to dump water out there's more water pouring in and we just don't know what to do and they're probably screaming and they're doing everything they can they're exhausted and the whole time Jesus is asleep he's just laying there in the front of the boat sleeping through the whole thing and they come to Jesus and they and they wake him up and basically like look around you look at what's happening do you even do you even recognize what's happening right now I do you even care they're in the middle of a storm that they had no control over they're doing everything they can to keep their heads above above water and not sink and maybe there are people in this room and in my and mine who have been or maybe right now in this moment or in the middle of a storm and they are doing everything they can to keep their heads above above water and not sink and maybe the finances are falling apart and maybe the marriage is falling apart and maybe there's fighting in the family we don't know what to do about it and maybe they've lost their job maybe they got bad news from the doctor and maybe it's a combination of all those different things then there's just things that are overwhelming and crashing down and I'm doing everything that I know to do and it's still not working I'm still sinking the storm is still here and I can't get through it I can't get around it and it seems like it's it's just causing me to sink what do I do let's look at what the disciples did first thing I got to do when those times happen in my life when I am dealing with something that is more than I can handle first thing I need to do is talk to God about it I need to talk to God about it I need to pray and for some of us that might be the automatic thing that we do that might be the very first thing that comes to mind for some of us that's the last option we'll do everything we can first we'll seek other people's advice and we'll take action and we'll we'll you know find all sorts of resources and and I've got to fix this and I've got to pull myself up and I've got to take action I've got to do the things to get me out of this situation and maybe the first thing that I need to do before I do anything else is just talk to God about it and and there's a couple of different things that I think are important in this conversation with god and one thing that need to talk to God about is just is just to ask him to intervene to ask him to do something God I'm sinking I'm in the storm I don't know what to do I'm overwhelmed this is hard this is difficult I don't know what the answers are talk to him about that God will you do something will you intervene because that's why the disciples did the storm was scary and it was powerful and it was more than they could handle and they asked Jesus to do something so I need to be willing number one to ask for for God's help but also when I talk to God about it I'm allowed I'm allowed to vent to him too which is kind of really what the disciples did if you think about it if you look in Mark chapter four in verse 38 as Jesus is asleep in the front of the boat and the storm is Raging says the disciples woke him and said to him teacher don't you care if we drown Jesus don't you care we're scared we feel abandoned we've done everything we know to do and you're not doing anything and they weren't being disrespectful they're just venting Jesus we don't know what to do and I want I want to share that with this church family with a guess this morning because I want all of us to understand we're allowed to vent to God we're his kids he loves us we can come to him with anything that's on our heart we can be sincere we can be genuine in those moments when I feel completely overwhelmed and when the storm is Raging and I don't know what to do next I am more than allowed to talk to God and say God where are you I don't like this I'm scared I'm tired I'm frustrated I'm angry I'm overwhelmed I'm sinking I'm calling out to you I'm venting to you why don't you talk to God about it we need to be willing to be honest with him to share with him what's on our hearts not to be disrespectful but just honest and when the storm comes when the hardship comes when when it feels like I'm dealing with something that's bigger than I can handle I can talk to God about it I can vent to him and I can ask him God please intervene do something the second thing that I need to do is when I have that conversation with them when I talk to God then I need to sometimes stop and watch and see what God does the disciples had a front row seat to what happened next they got to watch what Jesus did when they asked him to do something about the storm if you go in verse 39 the next verse there in Mark chapter 4 it says he got up rebuked the win of the waves and said uh rebuke the wind and said to the ways quiet be still and the wind died down it was completely calm once they vented to Jesus and once they asked him to intervene then they watched what he actually did and that's important it's important sometimes to just to just be still and watch what he's going to do watch how he takes care of the storm and that's what sometimes I need to be willing to do maybe it's just me maybe I'm just confessing to you something that I struggle with for there are times when there's problems there's hardships or stresses that I'm dealing with and I talk to God about it I vent about it I ask him to do something and then I just go ahead and keep trying to fix it myself and really I'm just like you know God just just you know jump on my back and make sure that I'm doing everything through my own strength to get through this difficulty and there are times that I think I I I miss God's presence I I miss recognizing that he's already in this storm with me I don't see how he's how he's walking with me through this I don't see how he's carrying me through this because I'm so focused on the Storm and I'm so convinced that it's up to me to get through it that I don't I don't even take the time to to be still and just breathe for a minute and take a step back and watch what he does watch how he rescues watch how he moves watch what actions he takes because he's walking me through it now I've talked to him about it I watch what he does but then the next thing that the disciples did that I got to do is keep rowing there's kind of a balance here I need to be still and watch what God is doing and watch where he's leading and watch how he's beginning to rescue me but I don't need to just be comfortable with just sitting back and going okay well God's just going to carry me through and there's nothing left for me to do right there's no changes I need to make there's no there's nothing I need to change about my life there's no habits to to deal with there's there's nothing to do different he's just going to fix it and while it's true that I think God will rescue us from our problems maybe allow us to deal with them for a while but rescue us from them there's also a responsibility on my part to keep moving forward if he is providing a path of Escape I need to walk that path if he is providing a way for me to get through the storm I need to go through the storm I need to keep rowing I need to take the next step again I think the disciples had done everything I think they raised sales I think they turned to Rudder I think they got some paddles out and started rowing they are doing everything they can to get to the storm but I think even when Jesus calmed the storm they still kept rolling how do I know that you go back to Mark the next chapter we're here in the chapter four the next chapter is chapter 5 and verse one it says what they went across the lake to the region of the garrisones they kept going they ended up getting on the other side of the lake they didn't just sit there in the water and go well that was that was good that he called that once you carried him through the storm once he calmed the storm down they need to keep moving and you keep going forward I need to do that too I call out to God I ask him to intervene I vent to him I watch what he's doing but when he starts when he starts to part the clouds when he starts to calm the waters when things start to get better I need to keep moving forward what is the direction that he's leading me where is it that I need to go what's the next step to take that's what I need to do if I've prayed if I prevented if I've seen what God is doing I need to take the next step I need to move forward I need to keep rowing and then the last thing throughout this whole process while I'm in this difficulty while I'm dealing with it while God is dealing with it for me and through all that I need to trust I need to trust that God can rescue I need to trust that God will walk with me that he will carry me through this difficulty but even more than that I don't want us to miss this even more than just trusting in his power and his ability to do something I need to to trust that he wants to do something I need to trust that he actually does care about me and does care that I'm In This Storm and does care about what's going on in my life that he recognizes this is something that I can't handle on my own and he wants to do something about it because he cares that much about me this is the question this is the struggle I think for the disciples go back again uh you know to this story in Mark chapter four after the storm is calm after things die down Jesus looks at his disciples in Mark chapter 4 and verse 40 it says why are you so afraid do you still have no faith and for the longest time when I saw this scripture I thought that Jesus was talking about their lack of faith and his ability to do something do you still have no faith do you not believe that I could calm this storm but I don't think that's what's going on with this question because they had no expectation for him to calm the storm they didn't know that's what he was going to do because if you keep on reading they were amazed that he did it they the expectation wasn't for Jesus to calm the storm and wondering why he wasn't calming it go back to their original question back in Mark chapter 4 and verse 38 when the disciples woke him up what do they say to him teacher don't you what care don't you care if we drown their question was not teacher can you do anything the question was teacher do you even care Jesus do you even care that we're in the middle of a storm right now that we can't handle so maybe maybe their lack of faith wasn't in Jesus ability maybe their lack of trust wasn't in Jesus power over nature maybe what they didn't trust was Jesus concerned maybe what they didn't trust was that Jesus really cared and so what's Jesus response why would you think that don't you realize how much I care about you of course I care of course I want good things for you so what does that mean for me when Hard Times come when things are difficult when when it feels like I'm dealing with something that's bigger than I can handle I need to pray I need to talk to God about it I can vent to him if I want to but I need to talk to him about it I need to watch and see what he does in response what how he goes to work and watch how even if he doesn't eliminate the problem he carries me through it I need to keep moving forward I need to keep rowing I need to take the next step I don't need to just stop I need to keep moving and through all that process I need a trust not just in God's power but in God's concern God's love for me God's desire for me to get through this difficulty and it's a conscious decision I have to I have to choose to trust that God actually does things that I'm significant I had to choose to accept that God really does love me and until I trust in those things I'm until I trust that to be true about God it's going to be difficult for me to talk to him and watch what he does and keep moving forward if I don't trust in the first place that he even cares about the storm that I'm dealing with it's a mistake it's it's a misperception of who God is and and how he works to believe that God will never give me more than I can handle and I want to say this as we wrap up this morning if it if my hardships were only limited to what I have the ability to handle down I don't even need God in the first place if my hardships are only limited to what I have the capacity and the strength to handle I don't need him because I can handle it and the reality is there are things that happen in my life this is a fallen broken world that I'm living in the promise of Jesus in in John chapter 16 is you're living this world you're going to have trouble and sometimes those troubles are going to be more than I'm not just ready for more than I can deal with and I can't handle it but my God can and I need to trust in that going back to second Corinthians chapter one Paul says we we had this hardship that we were dealing with that was beyond our ability to endure he says got into this rhetorical question that he doesn't ask in the text but you know why was that why did God give us this this overwhelming problem these overwhelming difficulties to deal with and he answers the question verse 9. he says this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God it's not about me this is all about him and there are times when I have a bigger burden I can handle but anytime that I have a bigger burden than I can handle I have a bigger God than the burden and he's going to carry me through it if I trust him to there was a long time ago several decades ago there was a a minister named Bruce Wilkinson that wrote this little book called The Prayer jabeth and in that book he describes the story of taking one of his little boys to the park one day and this big city park or neighborhood park that they were in had three slides and they were you know growing side there was a smaller slide there was kind of a medium-sized slide and there's this huge slide he took his little boy to the park and he's running around and he decides he wants to go on the slide and so uh this is like the first time I can't remember if he said how old this little boy was but this is the first time that he's gonna let him go down the slide by himself and so he goes to that smaller slide and he climbs up and and he slides down and he's so much fun and he does it multiple times just does laps and going around that slide and then he runs over to the medium slide and Bruce said his wife is like hey maybe you should go help him he's like no no let's see let's see how this goes typical dad responds and so I looked over there and he looked back at his parents he looked back at his dad and anytime he looked back at his dad his dad just kind of turned like hmm look at this over here and he wasn't acting like he wasn't paying attention and it took a little bit he kind of walked you know got about halfway at the steps and then he paused for a second and then finally got all the way up to the top of that slide and he looked down and he slid down and he survived and it was great and he he went back like three more times he was just screaming and laughing and having a great time and so then he goes running over to the big slide and Bruce's wife was like okay go help him and he's like no no let's just let's just see what happens and so he's standing in line he's waiting for his turn and finally he starts climbing he gets maybe like a quarter of the way up and and he says you know from his perspective from his little boy's perspective that ladder must have looked like it was going up into the clouds and he just he freezes and there's other kids in line they're like come on kid hurry up or get out of the way or whatever and he's just he's just Frozen and Bruce is like looking around like he's not paying attention I found his little boy calls out to him dad Daddy will you help me he walks over the slide what's the problem son I can't do this by myself will you go with me and he helped him climb up to the top they got up to the top together wrapped his arms and legs around him and went down that huge slide and Wilkinson tells that during his book and says that's what my God does for me in those moments when I think I can't do this I have a father who is waiting and ready for me to ask and recognize I can't do this myself I Gotta Have You in that moment he runs to us he wraps his arms around us and we go through that challenge together and if you've never known that about my God I want you to know today that's the real truth that's the kind of father that we have and if you don't have a relationship with him you need to change that today and we're going to stand in just a second we're going to sing a song together and as we're standing singing that song If you if you recognize I don't have the kind of relationship with God where I feel like I can call out to him or I feel like he's on my side where I feel like he will rescue and he will calm the storm when everything seems overwhelming I want you to know we do have a father like that you can have a father like that and if you want to come to the front say I'm ready to have a relationship with him please do that and we'll help make that happen and if it's been a long time since you've recognized that about your guide you've tried for so long to get through the storms on your own and you're still sinking you're welcome to come forward this morning and confess that I need I need help I need a father I need a community that will love me and help me and we'll do whatever we can to help the storm quite honestly may be bigger than what you can deal with it might be but we have a god who's bigger than any storm and when you have a church family that can row through it with you until we get to the other side so let us do that for you this morning if we can well together we stand the same it goes

I raise a Hallelujah so in case you didn't know our session at church camp starts today and we are excited about it um and as Cade mentioned you know in your bulletins it talks about we'd love to have everybody come out on Wednesday night but you're welcome to come out any night of the week we have worship every night at seven o'clock and so you're welcome to come out uh any night of the week and be a part of that but we're going to spend some time uh and the word together for a little bit this morning and again I'm so glad to see so many of you guys I miss seeing you last week I'm glad to be back with you today uh we we wrapped up our our last series and we're starting a new one today I'll talk about in just a minute back I kind of want to start out this morning sharing some things that I discovered that I thought were absolutely true and they're not they're not quite totally true and I want to share some of these with you and see if you knew that these weren't completely accurate as maybe you might have thought they were so one particular statement is that George Washington had wooden teeth did you know that that's not completely true how many I thought no I heard that George Washington had wooden teeth he didn't have wooden teeth he did have fake teeth well some of them were fake a lot of them weren't his I'll put it that way and they were made of gold some of them some of them are made of ivory some of them were human teeth from other people but none of them were made of wood so yeah you have false teeth but you know he didn't have wooden teeth so it's not completely accurate right okay how about bulls get angry when they see the color red anybody heard this one before seen this I know there's Bugs Bunny cartoons that talk about this so I mean it's it must be true right both are at least as far as the colors like red and green some of these colors are colorblind they can't tell the color red all they're interested in is the motion so when the when the guy is out there shaking the cape it just happens to be red but they're charging the motion not the colors that make sense so yeah Bulls charge but not not necessarily because of the color red what about um cholesterol is bad for you how many of you had a doctor tell you this uh some of y'all and some of y'all aren't confessing but um yeah cholesterol is bad for you which is true right I mean kinda there is good cholesterol I don't know which one it is I couldn't tell you which one it is I just eat the cholesterol I'm fine with whatever you know the good outweighs the bad right or it cancels it out one of the two so but there is some cholesterol that is good for you it's actually you know a positive thing to have that certain kind of cholesterol how about this now I know I heard this one growing up a lot cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis anybody ever heard that one crack in your nug and see some of y'all are already starting to crack them right now cracking your knuckles leaves your arthritis well it doesn't there's no scientific proof that cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis and um honestly it's just you know when you're not like cracking bones when you're cracking your knuckles there's actually a little you know sacks of fluid in there and that's what's popping now it can lead to eventual loss of like you know grip strength and stuff like that but it's not going to lead to arthritis so crack away I guess you know just go ahead and and break your fingers if you want to you have to wait 30 minutes after eating to go swimming you might heard this one anybody told your kids this and you might watch the clock and be like oh man counting down like 30 minutes is never going to get here okay some of your parents are going to be upset at me especially if your kids are in the room right now there is no scientific evidence that your body cramps up and things go horribly wrong if you go swimming before 30 minutes have passed there's you know the whole thought was you know all your all the blood in your body is rushing to your stomach to digest food and so therefore you're going to end up getting cramps and then when you cramp up you drown and so you have to wait for 30 minutes until your food's done digesting that's not actually true so swim away swim with food in your hand I guess you know just go for it um Richard Nixon was impeached is that true by now you're like no because none of these are true the impeachment process had started but then he resigned before it was completed so technically he wasn't impeached although they had started the process but there are those who would say Richard Nixon is the only president that was impeached well he started to be impeached but then he resigned how about this one Twinkies have no expiration date especially if you're a fan of the movie Zombieland you know the Twinkies have no expiration date right now um they do okay they do have an expiration date now they will last longer than a lot of other pastries and Hostess goodies and things like that they they last longer than a lot of them but they do eventually go bad so eat at your own risk I guess and and I share some of these with you and you could probably come up with more I mean there's all sorts of things that you can that you can google and find out you know is this actually true or not there's a lot of things that that we have come to believe that are true that either somebody taught us or told us or or we figured those things out on our own and it's not that they're completely absolutely false there may be some truth to it may be partially true but it's still not completely accurate and yet my belief in those things has probably dictated my actions I've probably chosen to do things or not do things because of certain things like that list I just gave you some of those things that I thought were absolutely and completely true but now I have this fractured vision of what is actually true about those things but you know I've I've waited 30 minutes uh before to go swimming I I don't remember being around a bull but I'm sure that if I did I wasn't going to wear red I know I've eaten Twinkies past the expiration date I know that's happened uh but there's there's things that that we believe to be true and we choose to act a certain way or to do a certain thing or to not do a certain thing because of something that may not actually be true we're mistaken about it and that happens with our understanding of God as well I think there's things that many of us have come to believe about God and about who he is about how he works in our lives that aren't completely true and maybe some of those things have some truth to them maybe they're not just you know complete lies and falsehoods but they're still not completely true they give us a a partial picture of who God is they they don't give us a completely accurate picture of how God is working and in essence they're mistaken it's a mistaken truth it's a misperception that I have of God it's it's not a complete it's not a complete picture of my relationship with him or what it should look like and that's what we want to focus on today and that's where we're going to spend time focusing on for the next few weeks are some of these mistaken truths some of the things that we may have been taught about God some of the things that we may have come to understand about how he works and about our relationship with him that isn't completely true and yet we still believe it anyway and some of those mistaken truths that we have come to believe have impacted how we interact with him and how we interact with others and what we choose to believe about him and what we choose to believe about us in our relationship with them that aren't completely accurate I'll give you an example today I want us to go through something that I've heard people say I've probably said it before maybe more than once in my life I've seen people posted on different social media platforms I know I've I've heard people say in conversations and that is is this God will not give me more than I can handle God will not give me more than I can handle I've heard people say that I've heard people say that uh up in front of a crowd of people I've heard people say that in conversation if people have said that to me again I've seen people post it on their social media and it comes from this from this uh completely innocent perception I I'm a God's child God loves me God wants good things for me and even if God doesn't keep necessarily bad things happening uh you know from happening to me he cares about me so much that he'll never let me get completely overwhelmed and never let anything happen that I can't completely handle he knows how much I can handle and so he's only going to allow me to be you know have problems that extend that extend to the level of my strength to and my capacity to handle it does that make sense and we have this perception of God and maybe we've been maybe we've been told that maybe we've been taught that and it's reinforced by how we look at certain scriptures too and one of the one of the main scriptures that we look at comes from First Corinthians chapter 10. so if you got your Bibles your Bible apps feel free to turn there it's going to be on the screen as well but first Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 13 Paul says this 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're tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it and it seems like it seems like Paul is saying that God won't give me more than I can handle right he will not allow me to be tender beyond what I can bear he will not give me a problem so big that I can't handle it and the problem with this is not completely true this is a mistaken truth this is a fractured way of looking at this verse it's a fractured way of of looking at God and how how he works in our lives and I got a couple reasons why I believe that why it is that I think this verse doesn't teach that God will give me more than I can handle first of all if the scripture does in fact teach that God will not give me more than what I am able to bear in any problems any hardships in my life then that is in direct conflict with other passages of scripture I mean we're looking here at First Corinthians chapter 10 right this is the Apostle Paul writing these words to a group of Christians to a church in the city of Corinth and he writes you know you you're going to be tempted and God's not going to allow you to be 10 to beyond what you can bear and if we read that as Paul's saying God's not going to give you more than you can bear then how do we accept that is true and then see what Paul writes in a different letter a few years later in second Corinthians chapter one so if you got your Bible apps just scroll to the next book second Corinthians chapter one you got your Bibles with you it's just a couple of pages over in second Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 8 Paul says this we don't want you to be uninformed brothers and sisters about the troubles we experience in the province of Asia we were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired of life itself what does Paul say here we have problems we had a lot of problems and pressures and it was so much it was beyond what what we could handle it was beyond our ability we thought we were going to die we thought we were going to be completely overwhelmed we thought there's no way that we can handle whatever it is that we're experiencing same guy writing to the same people who at one point says in our minds God won't give you more than you can handle and then a little while later says God gave us more than we could handle I don't think Paul would contradict himself like that I don't think scripture contradicts itself like that and if we believe that that's what First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 is saying there's there's a problem there there's a contradiction but also First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13. if you look at it again Paul is not talking in that context about hardships about problems what is he talking about he's talking about Sin he's talking about Temptation now can we have hardships and problems as consequences to our sin and our ungodly choices absolutely but we can't just lift this one or these couple of sentences out of the whole context what Paul is talking about here in First Corinthians chapter 10 which is about Sin it's about Idols it's about following other things instead of God it's about choosing other paths instead of the path that God has laid out for us and when I choose to do that that gets me that gets me in conflict with God I leave his Direction I'll leave his purpose for my life I do things that he doesn't want me to do because I'm following something else and in the middle of that conversation Paul says listen it's going to happen to all of us we're all going to be tempted we're all going to be tempted to walk away we're all going to be tempted to do something different we're all going to be tempted to do something that God doesn't want us to do that's not uncommon and when those times come when you are tempted to do something ungodly when you are tempted to sin when you are tending to make choices that you shouldn't make just understand that in those moments God is not going to allow that temptation to move Beyond something that you can handle but in instead God is going to provide a way for you to escape from it a way for you to stand up under it a way for you to stand against it and choose not to do that thing you see the difference so this verse that we look at sometimes to say see God doesn't ever say he's going to give me uh or a guy says he's never going to give me more than I can handle it's not what he says that's a mistaken truth the mistaken truth is that God will not give me more than I can handle the actual truth is that God will sometimes allow me to experience difficulties that are bigger than I think I can handle God never promises that there will never be a time that I feel so overwhelmed that I can't handle it but God does always promise that he will be with me through the difficulty God does always promise that even if he doesn't protect me from the difficulty from the problem he will walk with me through it God never promises that he's going to make it obvious as to why I'm going through the hardship we see that multiple times through scripture there's there's lots of different people that are having just awful times and God is allowing it to happen and some of you can cry out to God and say why is this happening and sometimes God tells them here's why this is happening you've made these choices or I'm I've got this purpose in mind or whatever it is and there's sometimes where God just doesn't even answer the question you ever read the book of Job 38 chapters of job is job going or 39 maybe is job going God why are bad things happening to me why have I lost everything why is my family die why am I dealing with this awful sickness why it's not fair I don't deserve it why and God in the last couple of chapters of job shows up and basically says I'm God and all I got a lot of things going on that you don't even understand and not once and all that description to job how God is in control and got things going on that job doesn't understand does God ever say job here's why this is happening the promise is not that God will always make it obvious as to why I'm going through the hardship the promise is not that God will always keep me from going through a hardship the promise is God will always walk with me through the difficulty sometimes even Carry Me Through the hardship until I get on the other side of it and that is the real truth that is something I can know for sure about my God so if that's the case then what do I do because maybe there's some of us this morning you're like me you just you just popped a really big balloon for me there's this understanding that I had that even when things even when bad things happen that God's never going to let me be completely overwhelmed by it and now you're saying oh no yeah he will sometimes I don't want that what do I do how do I handle it when God allows difficulties hardships problems in my life when he allows those things to seemingly overwhelm me what do I do let me give you some ways to handle it the first thing that I need to do well let me back up let me share a story with you that may help that may help us see how we can handle these problems and it comes from Mark chapter four we've been in first and second Corinthians if you back up a few books to to the Book of Mark there's a story that we've talked about before as a church family and maybe familiar to some of you maybe many of you but Matthew Mark Luke and John are the four books to talk about Jesus life when he was here on this Earth in The Book of Mark in chapter four there's a story of Jesus being in a boat with his disciples and he's exhausted he's been teaching he's been performing Miracles he's been interacting with people he's just drained and so they get in this boat to go across what we call the Sea of Galilee is this giant Lake and as they're as they're going across in this in this fairly good-sized boat Jesus goes up to the front of the boat and he falls asleep and at some point while they're trying to get across the lake a storm comes up which wasn't uncommon for this particular body of water but this storm is bad the winds are blowing there's probably thunder and lightning and rain coming down and and the waves are crashing over the boat and there's at least four guys on this boat that grew up on this Lake that has seen storms before that had been a part of really bad storms before and and yet are still so fearful about what they're in the middle of about the storm that is that is surrounding them in this moment they think they're going to die and they do everything These Guys these disciples do everything they possibly can to deal with this storm and we don't get a lot of description of what that is in the Book of Mark but you got to imagine they raise a sale they lower the sale I don't know do the sale halfway they're they're messing with the rudder they're trying to steer towards Shore and they get blown away from Shore so now let's go this direction now they're getting blown back the other way and let's try to dump water out there's more water pouring in and we just don't know what to do and they're probably screaming and they're doing everything they can they're exhausted and the whole time Jesus is asleep he's just laying there in the front of the boat sleeping through the whole thing and they come to Jesus and they and they wake him up and basically like look around you look at what's happening do you even do you even recognize what's happening right now I do you even care they're in the middle of a storm that they had no control over they're doing everything they can to keep their heads above above water and not sink and maybe there are people in this room and in my and mine who have been or maybe right now in this moment or in the middle of a storm and they are doing everything they can to keep their heads above above water and not sink and maybe the finances are falling apart and maybe the marriage is falling apart and maybe there's fighting in the family we don't know what to do about it and maybe they've lost their job maybe they got bad news from the doctor and maybe it's a combination of all those different things then there's just things that are overwhelming and crashing down and I'm doing everything that I know to do and it's still not working I'm still sinking the storm is still here and I can't get through it I can't get around it and it seems like it's it's just causing me to sink what do I do let's look at what the disciples did first thing I got to do when those times happen in my life when I am dealing with something that is more than I can handle first thing I need to do is talk to God about it I need to talk to God about it I need to pray and for some of us that might be the automatic thing that we do that might be the very first thing that comes to mind for some of us that's the last option we'll do everything we can first we'll seek other people's advice and we'll take action and we'll we'll you know find all sorts of resources and and I've got to fix this and I've got to pull myself up and I've got to take action I've got to do the things to get me out of this situation and maybe the first thing that I need to do before I do anything else is just talk to God about it and and there's a couple of different things that I think are important in this conversation with god and one thing that need to talk to God about is just is just to ask him to intervene to ask him to do something God I'm sinking I'm in the storm I don't know what to do I'm overwhelmed this is hard this is difficult I don't know what the answers are talk to him about that God will you do something will you intervene because that's why the disciples did the storm was scary and it was powerful and it was more than they could handle and they asked Jesus to do something so I need to be willing number one to ask for for God's help but also when I talk to God about it I'm allowed I'm allowed to vent to him too which is kind of really what the disciples did if you think about it if you look in Mark chapter four in verse 38 as Jesus is asleep in the front of the boat and the storm is Raging says the disciples woke him and said to him teacher don't you care if we drown Jesus don't you care we're scared we feel abandoned we've done everything we know to do and you're not doing anything and they weren't being disrespectful they're just venting Jesus we don't know what to do and I want I want to share that with this church family with a guess this morning because I want all of us to understand we're allowed to vent to God we're his kids he loves us we can come to him with anything that's on our heart we can be sincere we can be genuine in those moments when I feel completely overwhelmed and when the storm is Raging and I don't know what to do next I am more than allowed to talk to God and say God where are you I don't like this I'm scared I'm tired I'm frustrated I'm angry I'm overwhelmed I'm sinking I'm calling out to you I'm venting to you why don't you talk to God about it we need to be willing to be honest with him to share with him what's on our hearts not to be disrespectful but just honest and when the storm comes when the hardship comes when when it feels like I'm dealing with something that's bigger than I can handle I can talk to God about it I can vent to him and I can ask him God please intervene do something the second thing that I need to do is when I have that conversation with them when I talk to God then I need to sometimes stop and watch and see what God does the disciples had a front row seat to what happened next they got to watch what Jesus did when they asked him to do something about the storm if you go in verse 39 the next verse there in Mark chapter 4 it says he got up rebuked the win of the waves and said uh rebuke the wind and said to the ways quiet be still and the wind died down it was completely calm once they vented to Jesus and once they asked him to intervene then they watched what he actually did and that's important it's important sometimes to just to just be still and watch what he's going to do watch how he takes care of the storm and that's what sometimes I need to be willing to do maybe it's just me maybe I'm just confessing to you something that I struggle with for there are times when there's problems there's hardships or stresses that I'm dealing with and I talk to God about it I vent about it I ask him to do something and then I just go ahead and keep trying to fix it myself and really I'm just like you know God just just you know jump on my back and make sure that I'm doing everything through my own strength to get through this difficulty and there are times that I think I I I miss God's presence I I miss recognizing that he's already in this storm with me I don't see how he's how he's walking with me through this I don't see how he's carrying me through this because I'm so focused on the Storm and I'm so convinced that it's up to me to get through it that I don't I don't even take the time to to be still and just breathe for a minute and take a step back and watch what he does watch how he rescues watch how he moves watch what actions he takes because he's walking me through it now I've talked to him about it I watch what he does but then the next thing that the disciples did that I got to do is keep rowing there's kind of a balance here I need to be still and watch what God is doing and watch where he's leading and watch how he's beginning to rescue me but I don't need to just be comfortable with just sitting back and going okay well God's just going to carry me through and there's nothing left for me to do right there's no changes I need to make there's no there's nothing I need to change about my life there's no habits to to deal with there's there's nothing to do different he's just going to fix it and while it's true that I think God will rescue us from our problems maybe allow us to deal with them for a while but rescue us from them there's also a responsibility on my part to keep moving forward if he is providing a path of Escape I need to walk that path if he is providing a way for me to get through the storm I need to go through the storm I need to keep rowing I need to take the next step again I think the disciples had done everything I think they raised sales I think they turned to Rudder I think they got some paddles out and started rowing they are doing everything they can to get to the storm but I think even when Jesus calmed the storm they still kept rolling how do I know that you go back to Mark the next chapter we're here in the chapter four the next chapter is chapter 5 and verse one it says what they went across the lake to the region of the garrisones they kept going they ended up getting on the other side of the lake they didn't just sit there in the water and go well that was that was good that he called that once you carried him through the storm once he calmed the storm down they need to keep moving and you keep going forward I need to do that too I call out to God I ask him to intervene I vent to him I watch what he's doing but when he starts when he starts to part the clouds when he starts to calm the waters when things start to get better I need to keep moving forward what is the direction that he's leading me where is it that I need to go what's the next step to take that's what I need to do if I've prayed if I prevented if I've seen what God is doing I need to take the next step I need to move forward I need to keep rowing and then the last thing throughout this whole process while I'm in this difficulty while I'm dealing with it while God is dealing with it for me and through all that I need to trust I need to trust that God can rescue I need to trust that God will walk with me that he will carry me through this difficulty but even more than that I don't want us to miss this even more than just trusting in his power and his ability to do something I need to to trust that he wants to do something I need to trust that he actually does care about me and does care that I'm In This Storm and does care about what's going on in my life that he recognizes this is something that I can't handle on my own and he wants to do something about it because he cares that much about me this is the question this is the struggle I think for the disciples go back again uh you know to this story in Mark chapter four after the storm is calm after things die down Jesus looks at his disciples in Mark chapter 4 and verse 40 it says why are you so afraid do you still have no faith and for the longest time when I saw this scripture I thought that Jesus was talking about their lack of faith and his ability to do something do you still have no faith do you not believe that I could calm this storm but I don't think that's what's going on with this question because they had no expectation for him to calm the storm they didn't know that's what he was going to do because if you keep on reading they were amazed that he did it they the expectation wasn't for Jesus to calm the storm and wondering why he wasn't calming it go back to their original question back in Mark chapter 4 and verse 38 when the disciples woke him up what do they say to him teacher don't you what care don't you care if we drown their question was not teacher can you do anything the question was teacher do you even care Jesus do you even care that we're in the middle of a storm right now that we can't handle so maybe maybe their lack of faith wasn't in Jesus ability maybe their lack of trust wasn't in Jesus power over nature maybe what they didn't trust was Jesus concerned maybe what they didn't trust was that Jesus really cared and so what's Jesus response why would you think that don't you realize how much I care about you of course I care of course I want good things for you so what does that mean for me when Hard Times come when things are difficult when when it feels like I'm dealing with something that's bigger than I can handle I need to pray I need to talk to God about it I can vent to him if I want to but I need to talk to him about it I need to watch and see what he does in response what how he goes to work and watch how even if he doesn't eliminate the problem he carries me through it I need to keep moving forward I need to keep rowing I need to take the next step I don't need to just stop I need to keep moving and through all that process I need a trust not just in God's power but in God's concern God's love for me God's desire for me to get through this difficulty and it's a conscious decision I have to I have to choose to trust that God actually does things that I'm significant I had to choose to accept that God really does love me and until I trust in those things I'm until I trust that to be true about God it's going to be difficult for me to talk to him and watch what he does and keep moving forward if I don't trust in the first place that he even cares about the storm that I'm dealing with it's a mistake it's it's a misperception of who God is and and how he works to believe that God will never give me more than I can handle and I want to say this as we wrap up this morning if it if my hardships were only limited to what I have the ability to handle down I don't even need God in the first place if my hardships are only limited to what I have the capacity and the strength to handle I don't need him because I can handle it and the reality is there are things that happen in my life this is a fallen broken world that I'm living in the promise of Jesus in in John chapter 16 is you're living this world you're going to have trouble and sometimes those troubles are going to be more than I'm not just ready for more than I can deal with and I can't handle it but my God can and I need to trust in that going back to second Corinthians chapter one Paul says we we had this hardship that we were dealing with that was beyond our ability to endure he says got into this rhetorical question that he doesn't ask in the text but you know why was that why did God give us this this overwhelming problem these overwhelming difficulties to deal with and he answers the question verse 9. he says this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God it's not about me this is all about him and there are times when I have a bigger burden I can handle but anytime that I have a bigger burden than I can handle I have a bigger God than the burden and he's going to carry me through it if I trust him to there was a long time ago several decades ago there was a a minister named Bruce Wilkinson that wrote this little book called The Prayer jabeth and in that book he describes the story of taking one of his little boys to the park one day and this big city park or neighborhood park that they were in had three slides and they were you know growing side there was a smaller slide there was kind of a medium-sized slide and there's this huge slide he took his little boy to the park and he's running around and he decides he wants to go on the slide and so uh this is like the first time I can't remember if he said how old this little boy was but this is the first time that he's gonna let him go down the slide by himself and so he goes to that smaller slide and he climbs up and and he slides down and he's so much fun and he does it multiple times just does laps and going around that slide and then he runs over to the medium slide and Bruce said his wife is like hey maybe you should go help him he's like no no let's see let's see how this goes typical dad responds and so I looked over there and he looked back at his parents he looked back at his dad and anytime he looked back at his dad his dad just kind of turned like hmm look at this over here and he wasn't acting like he wasn't paying attention and it took a little bit he kind of walked you know got about halfway at the steps and then he paused for a second and then finally got all the way up to the top of that slide and he looked down and he slid down and he survived and it was great and he he went back like three more times he was just screaming and laughing and having a great time and so then he goes running over to the big slide and Bruce's wife was like okay go help him and he's like no no let's just let's just see what happens and so he's standing in line he's waiting for his turn and finally he starts climbing he gets maybe like a quarter of the way up and and he says you know from his perspective from his little boy's perspective that ladder must have looked like it was going up into the clouds and he just he freezes and there's other kids in line they're like come on kid hurry up or get out of the way or whatever and he's just he's just Frozen and Bruce is like looking around like he's not paying attention I found his little boy calls out to him dad Daddy will you help me he walks over the slide what's the problem son I can't do this by myself will you go with me and he helped him climb up to the top they got up to the top together wrapped his arms and legs around him and went down that huge slide and Wilkinson tells that during his book and says that's what my God does for me in those moments when I think I can't do this I have a father who is waiting and ready for me to ask and recognize I can't do this myself I Gotta Have You in that moment he runs to us he wraps his arms around us and we go through that challenge together and if you've never known that about my God I want you to know today that's the real truth that's the kind of father that we have and if you don't have a relationship with him you need to change that today and we're going to stand in just a second we're going to sing a song together and as we're standing singing that song If you if you recognize I don't have the kind of relationship with God where I feel like I can call out to him or I feel like he's on my side where I feel like he will rescue and he will calm the storm when everything seems overwhelming I want you to know we do have a father like that you can have a father like that and if you want to come to the front say I'm ready to have a relationship with him please do that and we'll help make that happen and if it's been a long time since you've recognized that about your guide you've tried for so long to get through the storms on your own and you're still sinking you're welcome to come forward this morning and confess that I need I need help I need a father I need a community that will love me and help me and we'll do whatever we can to help the storm quite honestly may be bigger than what you can deal with it might be but we have a god who's bigger than any storm and when you have a church family that can row through it with you until we get to the other side so let us do that for you this morning if we can well together we stand the same it goes

The sermon explores the theme of facing overwhelming challenges and the common misconception that God will not give us more than we can handle. The speaker begins by emphasizing the importance of taking responsibility and actively moving forward in one's faith journey, using the example of the disciples who continued rowing after Jesus calmed the storm. The speaker encourages trust in God's ability to rescue and carry us through difficult times.

The speaker then discusses the purpose behind the overwhelming problems and difficulties that God allows us to face, teaching us to rely on God rather than ourselves. A story from "The Prayer Jabez" illustrates the importance of trusting in God's guidance when facing burdens that seem too big to handle.

Addressing the misconception surrounding 1 Corinthians 10:13, the speaker clarifies that the verse is often misinterpreted. It is not about God never giving us more than we can handle, but rather that God will provide a way to overcome difficulties and temptations.

The concept of mistaken truths about God is further discussed, with the speaker challenging the belief that "God will not give me more than I can handle." The speaker encourages the audience to examine these mistaken truths and their impact on their faith.

The importance of both talking to God and watching what He does in response is emphasized. The speaker shares their struggle with trying to fix problems on their own, acknowledging the need to be still and watch God's actions while also taking action.

The speaker relates the story of Jesus asleep in a boat during a storm to the audience's own life storms, emphasizing the importance of talking to God about these challenges and making prayer the first step in dealing with overwhelming situations.

The speaker also highlights the freedom to vent and express our honest emotions to God, just as the disciples did when they were caught in a storm.

The speaker uses the story from the Book of Mark, where Jesus and his disciples face a storm, to illustrate how to handle life's challenges and offers ways to deal with such situations.

The speaker invites anyone navigating life's storms on their own to seek help, emphasizing the importance of having a guide, a father figure, and a loving community.

The importance of prayer and trust in God when facing challenges beyond one's ability is underscored. The speaker encourages the audience to talk to God, observe His responses, and keep moving forward.

The speaker emphasizes trusting that God cares about us and our circumstances, referring to the disciples' experience in the storm and Jesus' assurance of His care.

The speaker discusses the idea that God allows us to experience overwhelming difficulties, promising to be with us and walk with us through them, using the story of Job as an example.

The speaker begins by announcing the start of the church camp session and shares some misconceptions they discovered, such as George Washington's wooden teeth and the belief that bulls get angry at the color red.

The speaker shares a story about a little boy who is afraid to climb a big slide and compares it to how God helps us when we feel incapable, inviting those without a relationship with God to come forward.

The speaker discusses the idea that there are beliefs we hold to be true but may not be accurate, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and correcting these mistaken truths to have a more accurate relationship with God.

The speaker addresses common misconceptions and myths, such as the belief that cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis and that Twinkies never expire, applying this concept to our understanding of God.

Key Takeaways:

- Personal action and responsibility are crucial in one's faith journey, even when trusting in God's ability to provide rescue and guidance. It is important to actively seek the direction God is leading and take the next step, balancing trust with action.

- Challenges and difficulties serve a divine purpose, teaching us to rely on God's strength rather than our own. Trusting in God's guidance is essential when facing burdens that appear insurmountable.

- Misinterpretations of scripture, such as 1 Corinthians 10:13, can lead to mistaken beliefs about God's role in our hardships. The true meaning of this verse is that God provides a way to overcome temptations, not that He will prevent us from facing overwhelming difficulties.

- Honest communication with God, including expressing our fears and frustrations, is encouraged. Venting to God is a form of prayer that acknowledges our human limitations and God's sovereignty.

- Recognizing God's presence and support during hardships is a source of comfort and strength. While God may not always make the reasons for our struggles clear, His promise is to be with us and carry us through to the other side.