Dr. Tony Evans challenges the notion that God won’t give us more than we can handle, and emphasizes the importance of embracing brokenness and relying on God’s power in times of overwhelming adversity. Join him as he encourages us not to lose hope, reminding us that even in our darkest moments, God is at work. If you would like to download two encouraging, FREE full-length MP3s of Tony’s popular sermons: “The Sovereignty of God” and “How to Handle a Crisis,” you can do so by clicking on this link: https://share.hsforms.com/1atT9MJvXQN…

If you would like to sign up for our daily devotional bringing you hope and inspiration, please go to this link: https://share.hsforms.com/1CkOLA910Sm…

▶ Do you know Jesus as your Savior? https://tonyevans.org/know-jesus-christ/

▶ Stream Sermons: https://tonyevans.org/podcast/

▶▶ Free Sermon App: https://subsplash.com/tonyevans/app/

▶▶ DONATE: https://give.tonyevans.org/the-altern…

▶ Facebook:   / drtonyevans  

▶ Instagram:   / drtonyevans  

▶ Are you a preacher? Free sermon outlines: https://go.tonyevans.org/dr-tony-evan…

Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

most people have had that feeling at

some time and if you haven’t there will

be a time when you

do when you feel like God is doing a

number on

you you either feel it

because it could only be explained by

God or you feel it because God could

have stopped it and he

didn’t he could have changed it and he

didn’t he could have he could have made

it better and he

didn’t and you become disappointed with

God and you feel like he’s just killing

you meaning you just want to die you

just you’re just dying either literally

or emotionally or you know you’re just

dying God why are you killing

me the last 24

hours I’ve talked talk to five people

five different

individuals who were dying dying that is

who felt like they were unraveling

either emotionally or circumstantially

or careerwise or they were they were

hurting and God was nowhere to be

found in

fact sometimes it looks like God is

toing with

you cuz sometime it looks like it’s

getting better then it gets worse it

looks like it’s getting better then it

gets worse then it you

know finally look like he answered your

prayer now not answering your prayer you

know you feel like he just he’s killing

you because I’m I’m praying to you and

it’s not getting

better you tell me you love

me I don’t feel like like you love me

you tell me you’re going to be with me I

can’t see

you and it’s getting

worse and I’m

dying why is God Killing

Me 2 Corinthians

1 says in verse

8 for we do not want you to be unaware

Brethren of the Affliction which came to

us in

Asia that we were

burdened

excessively beyond our

strength so that we despise the

even of Life wow how bad was it Paul

verse nine the first line indeed we have

the sentence of

death written on

ourselves

he says it was

bad I mean it was really really

bad he says it was Affliction and then

he throws in this phrase it was beyond

our

strength so what I want to do right now

is I W to

demythologize I want to remove a

myth that we have

all we have

all quoted said

felt repeated to other people and to

ourselves and the myth

is God won’t put more on you than you

can

bear I want to remove that myth it sound

good sound like something God would

say sounds like it

works that God won’t put more on us than

we can

bear not

true Paul says it was beyond our

strength in other words it was beyond

our capacity to Bear it we couldn’t you

know we couldn’t take anymore I can’t

take this

I can’t handle

this I’m

dying he says and the sentence of death

was on

us in other words the the next thing on

the agenda was to die rather than live

like this rather than bear this rather

than go through this he’s saying God put

more on us than we could bear because

only there was only one thing left to

die how many of you been through that

you you just want to die you want to die

you know maybe you’re too scared of

dying but too afraid to live too afraid

to die but too don’t want to live

anymore you know dying he says it was

all over me and and it was more than we

could

bear

Sunday we talked about a

phrase

in knowing god that said being conformed

The Fellowship of his suffering being

conformed to his

death and the statement I made

was when God sends us through and it’s

getting worse and worse and worse and

worse and worse you praying and praying

and praying and praying it’s not getting

better that is an invit itation to a

deeper experience with him the

fellowship of his sufferings Fellowship

is is our sharing of

life being conformed to his

death he wants to change something

remove

something something is

there Paul goes on to say listen to his

words

in verse nine indeed we have the

sentence of death within

ourselves so that we would not trust in

ourselves but in God who raises the dead

listen to

me when you are

dying the sentence of death you’re

dying

that will always have one reality tied

to it and that one reality tied to it

because you know you’ve hit this place

cuz you can’t fix

this that that’s the common

denominator the reason that you want to

give up is there is no fixing in sight

you can’t fix it and you don’t know

anybody who

can all your Human Resources have been

depleted

why did he do that to you Paul he says

so that we would not trust in

ourselves God allows us to get to the

point where if this is ever going to be

fixed he is the only one who can do it

Paul said the reason God put me here was

to train

change my focus of

trust I had to deal with a trust

issue see Paul is a very talented man PA

Paul Paul isn’t kind of some get by Guy

Paul is very

talented his resume reads to the top of

the list Paul could do it

all so to take Paul

deeper in

faith he had to put him in a situation

he could not fix that his resume could

not handle that his abilities could not

change so that he would learn to trust

God so to force him to a deeper Faith

level he put him in a situation he

couldn’t could handle Beyond his

strength he couldn’t deal with it cuz he

was driving him to a deeper level of

experience with

him the word we use for

this is

Brokenness Brokenness is simply when God

strips us of our

self-sufficiency when God

removes our tenden

to depend upon

ourselves the problem is not using our

abilities or using our gifts or using

our talents or using our contacts God

puts those things there for us to

utilize in his

purposes but when he sees that we have

relied on

those you know we trust in the horses

the Old Testament talks about and the

bows and the arrows we don’t just use

them we Bank on them so so that even if

we don’t pray we know we got this Ace in

the

Hole even if we don’t look to God we

know we got this thing over here we can

go to in case God don’t

work if God is trying to take us to this

deeper

experience then he literally puts you in

an I can’t

situation I can’t handle it I can’t take

it I’m I’m going to crack under

this

but in God who raises the

dead God who raises the

dead it takes an awful lot of power to

raise something dead yeah you got to

have a little something so you gotta

have some

juice to raise the dead

okay one thing you

know if something was dead that got up

whatever got it up got a little

something something going

on cuz it takes some juice to raise the

Dead one of our

problems with

God is we’ve never seen him raise the

dead we have never seen so many

Christians have never seen God take a

hopeless situation and flip

it cuz it’s in those times when he takes

something that’s

hopeless and you see no way no

how and he flips that that God has now

become real to you at a level that he

was not

before like job it’s easy to say I’ve

heard about him with the hearing of the

ear that’s easy you can do that every

Sunday every Wednesday hear about him

with the hearing of the yeah but it’s a

whole another the thing to say I have

seen him with my own

eyes that’s a whole different Paradigm

when the understanding of the reality of

God has now burst on the scene cuz you

watch the

resurrection that’s why God let Lazarus

die he says I let Lazarus die because I

want to show you

something and Martha and Mary were all

upset they said you know you know if you

would have been here and Jesus stayed

away on

purpose let him die because he wanted to

show them a

resurrection is God being mean is he

being

honory it feels that way when you’re

going through it but what he’s really

doing is trying to take you

deeper he’s trying to blow your mind

because that’s what a resurrection does

it blows your

mind

don’t stop God from blowing your

mind every situation is different every

person is

different so I’m not giving a

blanket scenario for every circumstance

I’m just dealing with a

principle why are you killing me why is

this sentence of death I’m dying here

God I’m

dying Paul says because he wanted to he

wanted us to see a resurrection look at

this verse 10 who delivered us from so

great a

Peril of

death and will deliver

us he on whom we have set our

hope and he will deliver us do you see

that three times in that verse

he says I am delivered I will be

delivered and I will be

delivered I don’t know what grave you’re

in and some of us aren’t six feet under

we 16 feet under you know it’s just

getting a deeper hole the hole is

getting

deeper and you have done everything you

know to do it’s it’s one thing if you

haven’t done what you’re supposed to do

what God tells you do but but you’ve

done

that fact you tired of doing

that and sometimes you feel like you

could just get away from God just just

leave me

alone okay and you might as well tell

God you feel that because you know

you’re thinking it you it’s amazing to

me how people won’t be honest with God

like God won’t know if you don’t say

it he know you’re mad at him he know you

feel like he taking too long he know he

feels like you forgotten him and you’d

have moved on to somebody else trying to

sing Kum by yah my Lord he he knows all

that he is well aware and you might as

well tell him God I you have

disappointed

me he Paul says we had the sentence of

death on

us and God did

it

so that God might let us see that he

raises the dead and will deliver us we

have set our Hope on

him verse 11 says you’re joining us and

helping us through your

prayers so that thanks may be given by

many persons on our behalf for the favor

bestowed on us through the prayers of

many don’t be ashamed to pray and to

call for

prayer when you’re in your

Cemetery there’s some people here

tonight who are in a cemetery and you’re

just looking for your

headstone you’re looking for where

they’ve dug the hole you don’t even need

a casket you just ready to flaw in

there cuz you’re

tired I didn’t know we would begin our

service the way we did tonight but I

think if Paul was here he would tell you

when I was going through that time my

story wasn’t

over cuz I I was ready I thought death

was the next thing but that wasn’t the

end of my story God

delivered there was some more chapters

to be written

wow don’t give up on

God I know you want to sometimes and

there are very few people who don’t go

through this Valley that that there’s

not too many people who don’t go through

this

Valley where it looks like God is

gone job said I looked North and

couldn’t find you said I looked South

and couldn’t find you I looked East and

couldn’t find you I look West and could

not find you but then Joel went on to

say but when you’re finished with me I

will come forth as pure gold

so I want you to tell God in your time

with him this

week how you feel W you be

raw if you’re in this situation this is

not a time for theological

platitudes where you don’t even know

what you’re

saying because you speaking in you know

this this High futin

language now this is time to get

raw thank God God you you killing

me one of the five told me yesterday

they

said if this is God if this is

God this is God trying to teach me or

break me if this is

God he’s killing me

but that was the same one that got the

phone call this afternoon that raised

the

dead don’t give

up know you’re tired I know you’re

hurting I know you’re

crying I know you’re

suffering and I know sometimes he is

hard to

find but

remember when God is

silent he is not

still