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.
We are going to start off with a story of Moses in the Old Testament. In fact, as you look at the life of Moses, you will see more than one time that he’d feel overwhelmed, like there was too much going on. This first story really ministers to me in more ways than you could ever, ever imagine. Moses was leading, perhaps, as many as two million people, and they were crying out, saying, “We are sick and tired of this manna. Could we please have some meat to eat?” It’s funny how I worked this story into the message this week. Numbers 11:13-14, “Where can I get meat for all these people?” Moses asked God. “They keep wailing at me.” Would you say this next phrase out loud with me just for fun? The said, “Give us,” what? Say it out loud. “Give us meat to eat!” I just wanted you to hear that, Amy, at your worship experience. Okay? “Give us meat to eat.” Verse 14, you hear the frustration come out. He says, “I cannot carry all of these people by myself; the burden is,” what? Say it out loud. What is the burden? He said, “The burden is too heavy for me.” “It’s too much. I can’t go on. I’m just, I’m overwhelmed. I’m just, I can’t do it anymore. There’s just too much. The burden is too heavy for me to carry on my own.” As soon as Moses or any of you say something like this, some well-meaning Christian is going to come in and say this to you. “Oh, don’t worry. It’ll be okay. Remember, God will never give you more than you can handle. It’s going to be all right. Everything happens for a reason. Don’t give up. You can do it. You can make it. God will never, ever give you more than you can handle.” You will see it on refrigerator magnets. You will see it on bumper stickers. You will see it on greeting cards, over and over again. Well-meaning Christians will say, “God will never give you more than you can handle.” The problem is, scripture never says that. It is a spiritual myth. It is an urban legend.
Where do we get this wrong belief? Well, chances are very good, most people are misquoting another very important verse in scripture. Let’s take a look at it. It’s in your notes. I Corinthians 10:13 is the verse that most people are trying to quote, but they are missing it by about this much. The apostle Paul, he said this about God. He said, “You need to remember that God is,” what? “God is …” He is always faithful, and God will not let you, what? Would you say the phrase out loud? “He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, God will also provide a way out.” Scripture never says that God will never give us more than we can handle. Scripture says that God will never let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. That, no matter what Satan throws your way, what temptation to take you out of the will of God to destroy your life, God will always give you an escape route, every single time. What people should say is, when you are about to sin, “Hey, don’t worry. God will never let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. There is always an escape route. God is faithful. He will always give you a way to escape Satan’s temptations.”
The truth is, though, when we are talking about the burdens in life, is this. God will often allow you to have far more than you can handle on your own. If you are taking notes, I call it the gift of too much. God will often give us the gift of too much. Why would He do this? Because He is going to teach us to depend on something besides ourselves. The spiritual myth, God will never give you more than you can handle, what that basically says to you is, “Pull your boot straps up. If you just try harder, you can do it.” But the truth is, God may allow us to have more than we can handle so He will teach us to depend on other people, and ultimately most importantly, to teach us to depend on His strength. A lot of people will also say things like, “Well, you know, God may allow you to bend, but He will never let you break.” Oh, no, no, no, no. God loves it when His children are broken before Him, where we cannot handle it all on our own, where we have exhausted our own resources and so that we tap into His ultimate, loving strength. Look at Moses again one more time. If you remember his story, Moses perhaps felt a lot like some of you do right now. In fact, I did, just for fun, a search on blogs, and I wanted to find the phrase that people were journaling about on blogs, “God won’t give me more than I can handle.” And I read about fifty different blogs. I’m going to estimate that about forty-five of them were written by women, okay? And I could hear this desperation coming from women who think about it, raising some kids, doing the lion’s share of the work at home, often many of them paying the bills, trying to juggle a job or career, and children … all this stuff, and these women try to talk themselves into believing that, “I can do it all.” And, there was this sense of desperation and fear and helplessness and inadequacy. “I should be able to do it all. I know God won’t give me more than I can handle, but I just can’t.”
Moses felt just like this, and you can hear this almost panic in these words. Numbers 11:15, he said to God, “If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now …” I can’t take it anymore. Verse 16, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders … and I will take the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will,” do what? All of our campuses, say that phrase out loud. They will do what? “They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not,” what? “So you will not have to carry it alone.” Because, you were not designed to do it on your own. God won’t give you more than you can handle? The truth is, God will often allow you to have more than you can handle, and He will give you the gift of too much.
Three things this gift teaches us, if you are taking notes, and I hope that you will act on the lessons of this gift. The first one, if you are taking notes, is this. God’s gift of too much, it teaches us to put something down. When you have so many options, the gift of too much, it teaches you to prioritize. It’s a lot like going to a great buffet.
[video] I’m standing outside of the future home of the northwest Oklahoma City campus, which is awesome, and what is equally exciting is, I am next door to the incredible Pizza Buffet. I love a big buffet. There’s so many choices, there’s almost too much to choose from. [music] Looks delicious, but there’s no meat. So many options? Where’s the meat? Haha I don’t know. It all looks good, and there’s so many options, it forces you to prioritize. That looks good. No meat. Looks good. No meat. Let’s check out the pizza. No meat there. No meat there. No meat there. Ah, pepperoni. Pepperoni’s a meat, isn’t it? The great thing about a buffet is, there’s so many choices, it makes you choose what’s most important. “You got anything with more meat on it?” “No problem.” [music]
Here’s what I want you to think about. I’ll just tell you from my life. I have the daily blessing of too much. It’s a daily blessing. I have six children, and I will tell you right now, they are too much in a good way. Just to spend thirty minutes a day with each one individually is three hours, and it can’t be done to schedule. I’ve got, I don’t know, nine or ten campuses right now. One location would be more than enough. I have got all the staff, all the responsibilities. I wake up daily with the gift of too much, and what that does for me is, it forces me to prioritize. I don’t, like a lot of people think I can do it all, I know that I can’t, and it forces me to say, “These things are the most important.” If, right now, you are hurting because you’ve got too much going on, let the Spirit of God lead you to put some things down. There is a classic story in Luke 10, when Jesus visited the home of Mary and Martha, and they got confused. Martha, if you know her story, she thought that she could do it all. She thought she could have the house perfect, have it smelling good, have all the perfect dishes out, and then later on, she could spend time with Jesus. But, she freaked out, like so many of us, because she was overwhelmed, trying to do it all. Luke 10:41, Jesus spoke to her and said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many, many things.” Verse 42, “But only,” how many things is needed? Would you say it out loud? “But only one, only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” The gift of too much, it forces us to prioritize. What is most important?
Now, if you will, I am going to give you just a real side, quick leadership thought, and this is something that really, really benefits a lot of people. If you are taking notes, write this down. Too much, it teaches you to say “or” instead of “and”. It’s all about the conjunction. Remember the song when we were kids? “Conjunction junction … what’s your function?” Edit out, okay? Haha Help me out here. Say this with me. Too much, it teaches you to say what? It teaches you to say “or” instead of “and.” What do most people say today? “Well, I can do this, and this, and this, and this,” so we can get the kids there, and here, and this , and I can be a wife and mom, and a professional, and an executive, and a soccer mom, and this, and I can be this and this and this …” The gift of too much, it forces you to say “or” instead of “and.” One of the most important leadership principles I teach our staff is, say or, not and. I wake up daily saying or. “Craig, how do you do it all?” I don’t. Don’t even try to. God daily gives me the gift of too much, and just because I could do more doesn’t mean I should do more. Just because you think you could do it all does not mean God has called you to do it all, and if you wake up with too much, maybe you should say or. Instead of adding to your “to do” list, most people think that highly productive people do more. Instead of adding more to your “to do” list, maybe you should add some things to your “to don’t” list. This is an and, and an and, and an and, and an and. There is too much, and if I try to do it all, I will miss the most important things. Talk to someone who is sixty, who poured their life into their career, and watched their children just swing right on by out of the house, and they missed it. And they will tell you, they should have said “or” instead of saying “and.” It is a gift of too much. If you are there, let the Spirit of God lead you to His priorities, and let this gift teach you to say “or” instead of “and”.
Thought number one, say it with me, the gift does what? It teaches you to what? To put something down. The second thing it does is, it teaches us to hand something off, to delegate, or to give something away. Again, Moses, another time in scripture, the guy, like many of us, he was overwhelmed. All of these people from morning until evening wanted advice, wanted him to settle their arguments, wanted him to give them counsel and direction, and his life was falling apart because he believed he could do it all. “God will never give me more than I can handle. Surely, I can handle these two million problems a day.” Jethro, his father-in-law, spoke up in Exodus 18:17 and said, “Moses, what you are doing is not good.” Maybe the Spirit of God will speak to some of you in that same way today, and say, “What you are trying to do is foolish. It is not good. You and these people who come to you, you are only going to do,” what? “You are only going to wear yourselves out. This work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.” So, Jethro gave him some good advice. He said, “Go find some Godly men, some people whose word is good that they can’t be bought. They are people of integrity, and have some oversee thousands of people, and have another group under them oversee hundreds, another group oversee fifties, another group oversee ten. In other words, we are going to spread this out. We are going to hand some things off, because God did not design you to do it all. God often gives you the gift of too much to teach you to put something down and to hand something off.” The problem is, too many of us, if you are like me, we are too full of pride to actually do that.
At our house, we’ve had snow and ice for weeks and stuff, and I have this really long driveway, and all of Amy’s friends will come over and they slide off the driveway, and their cars get stuck. And so, I came out with a shovel, and we have a real snow shovel, but it is somewhere out under the snow, and so I’ve got one those little thin ones, little bitty thin fake looking things, and so that’s all I had, and so Amy said, “Can you go clear the driveway?” And so I’m out there, taking this thing … blat … chuck … chu, chu, chu … My driveway’s about 2/10ths of a mile long. It’s a long, honkin’ driveway. Okay? Hour-and-a-half later, I cleared about a six foot by six foot area. This is not good. My neighbor has this huge, long thing, and I hear his chug, chug, chug, chugggg, and I looked up, and my neighbor was pulling up with this tractor, with this huge snow plow. He looked at me and my little shovel … haha … and he said, “Craig, do you need any help?” What did I say? “No, I’m doing fine.” Why? Too full of pride. Too full of pride to ask for help, so he just went, “Okay. Bless your heart,” [laughter] and he drove on off.
Hand something off. Not just the physical pressures that you may face, but maybe, maybe you need to share some emotional burdens, too. That’s hard for a lot of us. That’s hard for me, because I want to appear strong. I don’t want anyone to know when I’m hurting, and when I am overwhelmed. Did you know that you cannot fully experience the glory of the presence of God on your own as much as you can with someone else? Whenever two or three are gathered in His name, He is there in the midst of them, and some of you right now, you are believing God won’t give you more than you can handle, so you don’t open up. It’s time to put something down. It’s time to hand something off. This is what Moses did in verse 22 and verse 23 of Exodus 18. Here’s what happened. He handed some things off and Jethro said, “That will make your load lighter, because they will,” do what? “They will, they will share it with you, and you will be able to stand the strain and all of these people will go home satisfied.”
Put something down, give something to God, hand something off, and number three, if you are taking notes, give something to God. Give something to God. The challenge for so many of us is that we want to believe that we can do it all, especially if someone tells us we can’t. “You can’t do it,” “Oh, yes, I can.” When I was a little kid, maybe eight or ten, we used to drive from our house to grandma’s house. It was about two hours away, and I got the coolest little sisters who ever lived, but when we were kids, we used to always fight in the back seat of the car. Okay? “She’s touching me.” “He’s poking me.” “She broke the plane.” You know, that kind of stuff, and so, what dad would do is to just to get me distracted, he would give me a handkerchief, a little white hanky, and he would say, “Son, I bet you can’t roll down the window and hold this handkerchief outside the car window all the way from Beaumont, Texas, all the way to Houston, Texas.” I’m like, “You don’t think I can? Give me that hanky and step aside,” okay? So, what would I do? Roll down, they didn’t have ziiipppp, roll down the window. We were drving the Buick Century seventy miles per hour, and what am I doing? [imitating] All the way there … haha … and I thought I was winning. Haha … I thought I could do it all, when it would have been so much easier just to let go.
What are you holding on to right now, that God says, “If you just let go, I’d carry it for you.” What are you holding on to because you are believing the old urban legend that God won’t give you more than you can handle, and He has allowed you to have more so you could even learn in a greater way to depend on His strength and His goodness? Let me give you a little visual illustration of how it looks.
[video] Let’s review one more time. Suppose God has allowed you to have more than you can handle. He’s given you the gift of too much. What do you do? The first thing, if you put something down, then you give something away, and finally, you give something to God. How do you do that? Psalm 55:22 tells us that we are to “Cast our cares on the Lord and he will sustain us.” The Hebrew word translated as cast, if you are taking notes, is the word shalak, and it means to cast. It means to hurl. It means to throw. So, if you have a burden, you have got more than you can handle, put something down, give something away, and cast it on God. [music] Let God take it, because He wants to. Cast your cares on Him, because He cares for you and He will sustain you. I like the story of the apostle Paul in the New Testament when he actually had too much. You can read his story in II Corinthians 12, where he had what he called a thorn in his side, and we are not sure what that exactly was. Scholars debate one way or the other, but he begged God three different times, “God, you’ve got to take this away. I can’t handle it. It’s too much. Please, God, take this away.” Chapter 12, verse 9 of II Corinthians, “God said to him, ‘My grace is,’ “ what? Would you say it out loud? “My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in,” what? “It is made perfect in weakness.” The power of God is made perfect when you come to the end of your strength, and you are completely weak. Satan wants you to believe that God won’t give you more than you can handle. It’s an urban legend. It is a spiritual myth. The truth is, God often allows you to have more than you can handle.
I used to think this. With everything in me, I used to think, “I have to be strong for my wife. I have to be strong for my kids. I have to be strong for you, the church. I have to be strong for my staff. I have to be strong for my friends.” That is a lie. The truth is, here’s what the truth is. I have to be weak. I have to be weak. I have to be broken. I have to daily go before God and say, “You know what? I can’t do it. I don’t have the power. Thank You for giving me the gift of too much. It teaches me to learn and to depend on You.” Polly Carp is an incredible story. Read about him some time. He was the bishop of Smyrna, and in 155 A.D., the enemies of Christ were killing martyring believers, and they said to this eight-six-year-old man, a hero to many, “Deny Christ and we will let you live. Just say, ‘Caesar is lord.’ “ And Polly Carp said the famous line. He said, “Eighty-six years, Christ has been faithful to me. He has never done me any wrong. How could I deny and blaspheme the king who saved me?” And so, they said, “Okay, instead of throwing you to the lions, we are going to burn you at the stake,” and they did, and all of his loved ones, and friends’ tradition tells us, were saying, “How are we going to know you are going to be okay?” And at eighty-six years of age, he said, “God’s grace will be sufficient for me. When they burn me and I am dying, I will hold up one finger to show you as a symbol, God’s grace is enough.” They tied him to the stake. They put the wood around him and lit it. The women were screaming. They guys were trying to stay strong. They smelled the aroma of the burning flesh, and before he died, tradition says, “Polly Carp held up one finger and said, ‘His grace is enough.’ “ And the disciples looked on and smiled and said, “Yes, God’s grace is enough.” And then, right before his death, he held up a second finger, “God’s grace is more than enough, more than enough, for his strength is made perfect in weakness.” Stop trying to be so strong, and be weak.
All of our campuses, let’s pray together. “Father, we ask that in Your holy presence that we would embrace those seasons when You give us the gift of too much, and that gift, God, You would teach us to prioritize, to put something down, to hand something off, and to give everything we possibly can to You.”
All of our campuses, today God is going to speak to some of you, and we are going to flash this out in our LifeGroups this week together and really give some practical life to these things, but some of you right now, you would say, “You know what? I am barely hanging on. I’m in survival mode over and over and over again, and it’s just not right. It’s just not healthy. I’ve tried to do it all, and I’m recognizing now, maybe God has allowed me to have too much so I could put something down, add something to my “to don’t” list. Maybe I need to hand something off and say, “I need help. I need counseling. I need care. I need assistance. I need more out of you. I need help.” There are those of you here, too, that you are going to recognize you have been trying to do it all, and you’ve been doing it outside of God’s power, in your own strength. In a very real sense, you are hindering the power of God. You are trying to be strong for everyone else, and you recognize you need to be weak. In your weakness, His strength is made perfect.
All of our campuses, if that’s you, if you would say, “You know what? I am in a season where God has allowed me to have the gift of too much. I want to see what He wants me to see. I want to do what He wants me to do. I want to experience His power in the way that He wants me to know Him. I don’t have what it takes, God. I need You to direct the way.” All of our campuses, if that’s you today, would you lift your hands high right now? Just all over the place. Man, there’s so, so many of you.
“Father, I pray in the name of Your risen Son, Jesus, that You would guide us. God, thank You for the painful gift of too much. God, may Your Holy Spirit speak to us, and show us what we need to put down. What are we doing that’s not important? What are we doing that are blocking the things that are most important? God, show us what we can hand off, and God, destroy our pride that hinders our dependence on other people. God, if You want us to take a step out and ask for help, then show us what area and who to ask, and God, we will humble ourselves and let somebody else be blessed by helping us. And God, there are so many things, so many burdens right now. By faith, we hand them to You.”
If there is something that is really, really heavy on your heart, I want you to hand it to God just in prayer. You’ve got somebody you love that doesn’t know Christ, trust him to God. You’ve got a bad report from a doctor, trust it to God. You are freaking out about financial hardships, believe God. Your kid’s going the wrong way, and you want to try and control it and manipulate. Offer your child by faith to God. Your marriage is struggling. Say, “God, we cannot do this without You.” Tell God right now you want to be really, really weak. Weak, weak, weak, weak. “Now, God, may Your strength be made perfect in our weakness.”
Still praying today at all of our campuses, it’s so fun to me to see when and how people surrender their lives to Christ. Some people, they are on top of the world and they get everything they want, and they realize they are still empty. Others become very, very aware of their sinfulness. Some, they just hit rock bottom, and they’ve got too much going on, and they try, and try, and try in their own power to find some kind of peace with God, but they never quite find it. They think, “If I do more good things, or stop doing more bad things,” and they try to clean themselves up before they come to Jesus, but I want to tell you very clearly what Jesus may be saying to you today, and that is simply this, “Come to Me, Jesus says. Come to Me all who are weary and worn out and over burdened. Come to Me,” He says, “And I will give you rest.” There are many of you, you’ve never had internal rest. You’ve never had spiritual rest. You’ve never had a peace that just says, “You know what? I’m a child of God and I am right with Him.” How do you find rest? Turn from your sin. Repent and say, “Jesus, forgive me for everything that I have done wrong. I want to trust that You are enough to save me.” Scripture says that it is by the grace of God that we are saved. It is not by works. It is by faith in Jesus, alone. “Save me from my sin. Forgive me. I no longer want to strive in my own power. I want to be weak and trust You for my salvation. Forgive me. Change me. There’s too much. I can’t handle it myself. I surrender my whole life to You. Jesus, be first, the Savior and the Lord of my life. There is too much. I am not going to do another moment without You. I surrender to You as the Savior and the Lord of my life. Make me new.” That’s your prayer today, at all of our campuses, lift your hands high right now. Just all over the place, lift them up and leave them up, if you would. Right back here in this middle section. Right back over there, God bless you, as well. On this side, Praise God for you. Others of you, let me just meet you eye-to-eye. Right back over here on this side. Right here, ma’am. Right over here. Right there, ma’am, God bless you. Others of you. Right back over here on this side, saying, “Yes, Jesus, I surrender to You.” Back here in this middle section. Way back there, ma’am. Right back there toward the back. “Yes, I surrender.” Right back over here. Sir, right here. Sir, right there, God bless you guys. Others say “Yes, Jesus, save me. I surrender to You.” Right back here in this middle section. Right there. Awesome! Awesome.
Pray out loud with those around you. Just pray, “Heavenly Father, I want to be weak so You can be strong. I am a sinner who needs a Savior. Forgive me. Change me. Make me like You. I am coming to You as imperfect as I am, because You are perfect. I surrender my whole life completely to You. In Jesus’ name I pray.”
