More Than You Can Handle Series

Urban Legends #3

[Video] Well, welcome today to all of our campuses. We are in the third week of our study called “Urban Legends.” If I could get a little help from you, my wife, Amy, ready this book, you see. All of her friends read this book, and this book says that eating meat is bad, and eating vegetables and salads and stuff like that is good. Is eating meat bad? [Congregation shouts “No!”] Or, is that an urban legend? [“Yes!”] Praise be to God in heaven. If you wonder why I look like I’m losing weight, it’s because I am. I haven’t had meat in a long time, unless I smuggle it and sneak it. I am so weak, I am forgetful. Last week, I preached the whole seven o’clock Saturday experience with my zipper down. [laughter] That’s the bad news. The good news is, there are people calling for Jesus all over the place! Hands were going up like crazy. I came back stage … that is true. I actually did have my fly down. I went backstage afterwards, and all of the staff members were back there, and like, “Did you know that …” “Yes, I figured it out,” and they all would say, “Bless your heart. Bless your heart.” Well, I finally figured out is that what bless your heart really means. Whenever someone says that, they’re saying, “You’re an idiot.” That’s what it means. I figured that out. You see a girl wearing some kind of weird outfit, “Look at her. Look at that outfit. Bless her heart.” You see what I’m saying? “I didn’t get the job until late for my interview because I overslept, and then I got my fingers stuck in the car.” You know, “Bless your heart.”

Urban legends, all of our campuses, how many of you are, would like to see a little bit more about the ghost girl, the haunted house? Anybody curious as to that? Let’s take one more look.

[Haunted house video] Well, there’s more controversy about this little video than you could ever imagine. If you are new with us, we went out to shoot a promotional video for Urban Legends at a house where there is an urban legend, where a little girl was supposed to be murdered, and now haunts the house. When we were shooting the video, we found something that was rather shocking. If you look right here, it looks like an image right there. I want to show it to you one more time. It looks like it could be a little girl. It actually appears a second time going this way. Watch carefully. Right there. What is this? Everybody wants to know. A lot of people think it’s a ghost or a demon. The house is haunted. My mom is convinced that it was somebody walking by that we set up. What is it really?

Let’s go to our Mesa, Arizona, campus to get some opinions. What’s up with the video?

[narrator] This thing, there’s probably a decent amount of conversation going around about whether this thing is real or not.

[2nd narrator] I think it is, could be probably a trick just to build up, you know, a little bit more of hype about urban legends, stuff like that. I’d, I don’t know. Reflection? I mean, people don’t stop talking about it. The first thing out of people’s mouths when they are walking into this campus is, “What is up with the ghost on the screen?”

[lady] I don’t really like to think about it. It kind of disturbs me. Nightmares.

[3rd man] And, man, that’s real. Absolutely.

So, what do you think? Is the ghost real? Or, is it an urban legend? Let’s solve this mystery once and for all. Here’s a little tour. This is our video studio. We do a lot of production in here, and right over my shoulder is what is known as a green screen. A weather man will use that to point at different states. Let me also introduce you to Grant. Grant is one of our video guys. This is Grant walking in front of the green screen with a towel, or a blanket over his head. Was the ghost real? I’ve got bad news for you. The little girl is simply Grant walking in front of the green screen. The mystery has been solved. The haunted house, it’s only another urban legend.

Just curious, all of our campuses, how many of you, and be honest, how many of you thought it could have actually been something kind of weird? Raise your hands. Raise your hands. All over the place, bless your heart. Ha ha ha ha [laughter] Bless your … hahaha ha ha …

Let’s, today, deal with another urban legend. I will tell you, next week, the one that we talk about next week is absolutely one of the most important spiritual myths that must be debunked for us to be successful as followers of Christ. Today, we are going to deal with a very common one. Before we do, let me ask you a question. All of our campuses, I am curious as to how many of you often feel overwhelmed with life. You feel there is too much going on. You feel stressed. You feel busy. What’s funny today, if you ask anybody, “How are you doing?” one of the most common answers you are going to hear is, “Oh, busy.” “How are you doing?” “Well, I’m busy.” “What’s been going on?” “I’m busy.” “How are you?” “Busy.” And in our culture, it’s almost as if it has become more acceptable and normal to be busy and overwhelmed than it is to do life, perhaps, in the rhythms that God intended us to do them. If you feel overwhelmed, if you feel like there is too much going on, if you feel like you are at the tipping point, where just one more thing could put you in the crazy bin, then perhaps today’s message will speak to you.