Mind Change Monday: Three Life-Changing Decisions

Good morning, my friend. I hope you're doing well. Dr. Lee Warren here with.

You on Mind Change Monday, one of my favorite days, Mind Change Monday.

We're going to get after it today.

I'm going to bring you back the second episode of Mind Change Monday.

This was way back, Season 5, Episode 100, Three Things You Need to Change Your Mind About.

I've got a sleeping grandson just down the hall here, and we have some family in town.

I'm going to get after spending some time with my family today,

day, but I want to bring you back to this Mind Change Monday episode because

this coming next two to three weeks, we're going to be changing our minds about

some things and we need to be off to a good start.

Okay. I have some incredible guest interviews coming up, some incredible people

coming on the show that you're going to love.

And we're going to get after it. We have four episodes left after today of season nine and season 10.

We're going to go deeper than we've ever gone before and do exactly how a great

physician, the great creator built your mind and your brain to work together

to help you become healthier and feel better and be happier.

Before we can get any of that done, we've got to change our mind about three

ideas. I'm going to give them to you today.

Before we can do any of that, I just have one question for you.

Hey, are you ready to change your life? If the answer is yes, there's only one rule.

You have to change your mind first. And my friend, there's a place where the

neuroscience of how your mind works smashes together with faith and everything

starts to make sense. Are you ready to change your life?

Well, this is the place, Self-Brain Surgery School.

I'm Dr. Lee Warren, and this is where we go deep into how we're wired,

take control of our thinking, and find real hope.

This is where we learn to become healthier, feel better, and be happier.

This is where we leave the past behind and transform our minds.

This is where we start today. Are you ready?

This is your podcast. This is your place. This is your time,

my friend. Let's get after it.

I often hear people say, quote, God won't give you more than you can handle.

The notion is that God will never allow anything into our lives that's beyond our ability to bear it.

And I'm just here to tell you a little bit of bad news, friend.

That statement that God won't give you more than you can handle is not a biblical

concept. It is not in the Bible, and it is, in my opinion, a false teaching.

It's a misunderstanding and a misapplication of Scripture.

The idea that God won't give you more than you can handle, from what I can ascertain,

largely comes from a misquote and misinterpretation of a Scripture, 1 Corinthians 10.13.

1 Corinthians 10.13 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 are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it now

understand that scripture is not talking about god not allowing things into

your life that are more than you can handle alone that's not what what it's talking about.

It's specifically talking about the fact that when you are tempted by sin,

God will always provide an opportunity for you to not sin in that circumstance.

And the verse even further says that no temptation will come to you except what is common to man.

In other words, the things that we are tempted around, the things that we are

tempted by in our lives in order to sin are fairly common among culture, race, gender, and time.

Sex, money, power, deceit, deception, self-advancement, greed,

all those things that we tend to be tempted by are common among all people.

And what God is saying to you, you're not going to be tempted in any way that is unique to you.

You are not singled out in the world that's going to face a temptation that

is impossible to overcome.

And the second part of that promise is, so the first part is,

hey, the stuff that you're tempted by in your life, everybody else is tempted by too.

So don't think that you're uniquely being singled out to suffer some unavoidable

temptation to sin. That's not what it is.

The second part is, and God is faithful with every temptation,

he will open a door, he will tug on your conscience, he will give you some avenue

where you don't have to fall into that sin trap.

If you're meeting somebody in a hotel to do something that you ought not to

be doing with that person, there's gonna be a moment.

There's going to be a moment when your heart says, hey, I need to get out of

here. Hey, moron, you need to leave. You're about to blow up your family.

Hey, you need to stop this right now. If you are about to embezzle from your

employer, there's gonna be a moment where your conscience says,

hey, you could go to jail over this, or hey, you shouldn't do this.

Hey, stop that right now.

Hey, give that money back. If you're about to tell a lie, there's gonna be a

moment where you say, gosh, is this really what I should do?

Shouldn't I just tell the truth?

You're going to have an opportunity to escape.

That's what the promise is, okay? Sin never comes along in a way that tempts

you beyond your ability to bear it,

never tempts you beyond something that is relatively common to other people,

and there was never an opportunity to sin that God won't give you an opportunity not to sin.

Nowhere in that scripture, however, does it say that you won't be faced with

some circumstance or some trial or some problem that you can't handle on your own.

And I can tell you from having lived life for a long time that there are some

things that you cannot handle.

And God forbid, but if you lose a child, if your beautiful, brilliant son is

stabbed to death, you can't handle that on your own.

You can't. You can't bear that without some help.

If you undergo certain things, you need God's help to get through those things.

And there are some things that will come along in your life that you can't handle by yourself.

Matthew 11, 28 through 30 says this,

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

What is God saying here? What is Jesus saying here?

He's saying your life is going to give you some stuff that's too heavy for you

to carry, but I can carry it.

Let me give you something to carry that you can carry, and I'll take what you're

carrying that you can't carry. That's what he's saying.

There are some things, my friend, that come along in life that you can't handle on your own.

What does God want from you? 1 Peter 5, 7 says this, cast all your anxiety on

him because he cares for you.

He's saying, hey, there's stuff you can't handle. There's stuff that's so big

that you can't even worry about it on your own. So throw it off to me.

Let me take it. I'll give you something you can carry.

If you're listening to this in Brazil or Iran or Alabama or Central America

or Canada or somewhere else in the world, all those are places that people are listening to this show.

If you're listening to this and you're going through something that's hard and

your friend says to you, well, God won't give you anything you can't handle,

then you might find yourself thinking, well, there must be something wrong with me then.

There must be something wrong with my faith because I can't handle this.

I don't know what to do. I can't carry this anymore. more. Well,

you need to hear me say this, friend.

It is not true that the Bible says that God will never give you anything you can't handle.

That is a false teaching, and it will lead to a faith problem if you believe it. It is not true.

God will sometimes put things in your life or allow things into your life that

you can't handle on your own. Why?

Because He wants to handle them him for you.

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you, friend.

Now, I want to change the subject for a second. When I was a little boy in southeastern

Oklahoma, my mom used to, I would go to the grocery store with her.

And when you checked out at the grocery store at the Piggly Wiggly in Broken

Bow, Oklahoma in the seventies, when you checked out along with your receipt,

you usually got a few of what they called S and H green stamps.

I don't know if you you remember green stamps or if they had them in your

part of the world when you were a kid or or if you're a lot

younger than me they probably didn't even make them anymore so from the

research i can do the sperry and hamilton company

snh stopped making the green stamp program available to retailers in the late

1980s so this doesn't exist anymore but what green stamps were basically is

sperry and hamilton would go buy stuff from retailers furniture tools toys junk

basically basically stuff,

and then they would go to grocery stores and retail stores and they would sell these stamps.

And basically they sold the stamps for more than it cost them to buy the stuff.

And then as a loyalty program for the grocery stores to get better customers

or more customers, I should say, they would give you rewards.

Now we call them reward points, and we often get reward points when we shop.

But back then you got physical green stamps, and you would take these green

stamps and you would lick them and stick them in a book. And when you filled

up a book, you could go down to what they called the Redemption Center.

And you could trade those green stamps in for the stuff that Sperry and Hamilton

had purchased, whether it might be a new tool or a mop or a vacuum cleaner or

a toy or some clothing or some silverware or something.

There was this whole little, usually a trailer, full of this stuff that you

could trade your green stamps in for. You could redeem them.

It was called the Redemption Center. center.

And I'm talking about green stamps today because I want to read you a verse, Isaiah 44, 22.

God says this, I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,

your sins like the morning mist, return to me for I have redeemed you.

And just think about that for a second. Now, when I was a boy,

one of my jobs that my mom would give me would be to take all the green stamps

and tear tear them out and lick them and put them in the book.

And it was kind of a nasty process because the gum on the back of the green

stamps had a taste that wasn't pleasant and your fingers got sticky and it would

stick to the green stamps and your tongue would get sore and get distasteful

because of all the goo and the glue on the back of those stamps.

It was kind of an arduous process of doing something in order to be able to

redeem those things for something else.

Well, here in Isaiah, we have God saying, I have swept away your offenses like a cloud.

Okay, friend, there's stuff in your life, there's stuff in my life that when

God tries to deal with it, it doesn't taste very good.

I've told lies, I've been dishonest before, I've made bad decisions,

I've made poor financial decisions, I've had trouble in my life in different ways, and so have you.

And when God tries to clean that up and tries to put it in the book so he can

redeem it, it costs him something, it's arduous, and it doesn't taste very good,

and it's not very easy for him.

And when he redeems it, he's done that by shedding the blood of his son who never sinned.

So God says, I have redeemed you. I've done this thing for you.

When I was a kid and we wanted to redeem the green stamps, we had to do the work.

But God says, I've done that for you. I have redeemed you.

So I'm telling you that because I want you to think about the idea that there's

a reason why God will allow things into your life that you can't handle.

And it's because he wants you to come to the realization.

He wants you to come to a locked gate or an insurmountable obstacle school,

where you recognize that you can't get through this life on your own,

where you've got to get to a place where you say, Lord,

you got to take this from me because I can't carry it anymore.

You've got to lift this because I can't lift it.

You've got to redeem this because I can't.

And God's saying, you don't have to do anything except surrender and let me

have it. You don't have to lick the stamps.

I've already done that. You don't

have to redeem it in the trailer because because I did it on the cross.

And you don't have to worry about this thing that you can't handle because I can handle it.

Now, the last thought is about my book, I've Seen the End of You.

Now, I wrote this book, I've Seen the End of You, a neurosurgeon's look at faith,

doubt, and the things we think we know.

And part of the metaphor is when I look at a scan and I see the brain tumor

and I think I know what's going to happen over the course of that patient's

life because I've seen that tumor so many times before.

I think I know when the radiation and chemotherapy are going to come and when

your hair is going to fall out and when you're ultimately going to have a tumor

recurrence. and I think I know when you're going to die.

Well, let me just tell you something. There is somebody who actually has seen

the end of you. And it's not Lee Warren, because I'm not always right.

Read the book and you'll see that. But when God says, I've seen the end of you,

he knows it. He knows what he's talking about.

In Isaiah 46.10, God says, I make known the end from the beginning.

From ancient times, what is still to come. I say, my purpose will stand and

I will do all that I please.

Friend, God has seen the end of you.

And I'm not saying that in a negative way. That should actually comfort you. Why?

Why should it comfort you? Because God says, even though he knows the end,

he's also promised to be there all the way through.

The same chapter, Isaiah 46, up in verse four, God says this,

even to your old age and gray hairs, I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you, and I will carry you. I will sustain you, and I will rescue you.

And that, my friend, is great comfort to a man who lost his son when he was 44.

Because I can tell you that I'm carrying that. As much as I've tried to get

God to lift it, there are days, Sunday was Mitch's birthday,

February 9th, would have been his 26th birthday.

And I am still very much carrying the weight of having lost my son.

And God says, you know what, Lee?

When you're an old man, you're still going to be sad about losing your son and

I'm going to be there to carry you.

I'm going to sustain you and I'm going to rescue you from that.

And that's great comfort, my friend. Here's how this all ties together, friend.

God will absolutely give you more than you can handle because he wants you to

come to the place in your life where you run into a locked gate,

an insurmountable obstacle, something you cannot carry or get around,

overcome, or get through on your own.

Of all people, I recently heard an interview with Kobe Bryant.

After he passed away, a lot of people were posting things about him,

and one of the things that I saw, I didn't know much about Kobe Bryant except

that he was a great basketball player.

And I remembered that he had been through a really public difficulty with his

marriage when he, frankly, had made some mistakes.

And ultimately, I think he reconciled that. But apparently, he also was a Christian

who basically found his way again

in the days and months after that public shaming that he went through.

And what Kobe Bryant said, and he said it to Stephen A on an ESPN live interview,

he said something to the effect of,

When you need to pick up the cross and it's too heavy for you and God picks

it up and carries it for you, that's when you know that you can't make it in

your life without God. So take it from Kobe Bryant.

Even if you can't take it from me, there is going to come a time when something

happens in your life that you can't handle without some external power,

without some help from God.

You are going to run into something that you can't handle.

And the way that your life plays out after that will be determined largely in

your response to that moment when you need to cry out for help.

Are you willing to do that or are you not willing to do that?

I am thankful and God will make you come to a place where you have to recognize

that he will take it from you.

He took it from me and I'm super grateful for that.

And I want you to be too. I want you to come to the place where you're grateful

that he bothered to do that sticky, distasteful, messy work to redeem you,

to fill that book up with all the stuff from your life, even though he'd seen the beginning,

he'd seen the end of it from the beginning, even though he knew how yucky that

process can be sometimes of taking the stuff out of our lives that doesn't belong

there and lifting that stuff away from us that we can't carry on our own,

even though that's a hard process.

Praise be to God, we don't have to do it on our own. He's done it for us.

I want us to be grateful that God was willing to take that process on himself,

to lift those burdens from us and redeem us with his precious son's blood.

He wants us to get to the place where we understand that he has seen the end

of us, and his promise is that he will be there with us all the way through it.

He wants to be there for you, to carry the cross for you, to handle what you

can't handle, and he wants you to start Start believing that he will.

That when you feel like you've seen the end of yourself, that you've really

only just seen the beginning.

I want you to change your mind so you can change your life. And the most important

thing is to settle the matter today.

Isaiah chapter one, the very first chapter of that book, he says,

come now, let us settle the matter. Though your sins were as scarlet,

they shall be white as snow.

So God is saying, I'm gonna take care of you.

All the stuff that's hurting you, all the stuff that's limiting you,

All the stuff that's weighing you down, I can take care of it for you.

And I've seen the end of you, and I'm going to be there with you all the way through.

And I'm going to redeem this big, sticky, bad-tasting mess for you if you'll

just let me, if you'll just settle it.

So today, friend, settle it. When you can't handle the things that come along

in your life, it's time to let go and give them to the one who can handle them.

I didn't mean for this to be a gospel sermon today, but I felt heavy on my heart

that this message was necessary for somebody in some part of the world,

somewhere, even if it's just for me because sometimes,

especially a day or two after my son's birthday, I need to be reminded that

God can in fact handle and carry those things.

So friend, when you can't handle the things that come along in your life,

it is time to let go and give them to the one who can.

It's time to redeem those stamps, my friend, and it's time to start.

Music.

Hey, thanks for listening. The Dr. Lee Warren Podcast is brought to you by my

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And go to my website and sign up for the newsletter, Self-Brain Surgery,

every Sunday since 2014, helping people in all 50 states and 60-plus countries

around the world. I'm Dr. Lee Warren, and I'll talk to you soon.

Remember, friend, you can't change your life until you change your mind.

And the good news is you can start today.

Music.