Crash the Chatterbox - 3
May 11, 2014
What are your afraid of? I’m not talking about some of the stuff out there that scares us. If I had to admit it, I would say I’m afraid of heights. I could say I don’t like heights, but honestly, I have a fear of heights. I’m not sure about snakes and other things I would consider creepy crawly creations. And I assume I could add a few other things.
But, I’m really not talking about those types of fears. If you look it up, there are literally 100's of fears or phobias. What I want to talk about today are the fears we experience on a more regular basis. After all, I don’t come across snakes and heights everyday. But in living life, there are fears that can stop us in our tracks ...
Maybe it’s the fear of —
Life death
success failure
loneliness germs
crowds intimacy
Rejection
Now, I’m not here to analyze and give you the one secret of overcoming all of your fears, but I believe after looking at today’s passage and story from the Bible, maybe we will have a better clue on how to handle those fears and see how God is with us.
Too often we allow the chatter all around us to influence us in negative ways, so that we miss out on hearing God’s Word which breathes life into our heart and soul. So, with that in mind, if you have your Bible, would you please turn to the book of 1 Kings. This book is found in the Old Testament.
We’re going to look at part of the story of Elijah. Elijah was a prophet who had an amazing faith. In fact, only Elijah and Enoch didn’t die. God took Elijah to heaven on a chariot in a whirlwind. Elijah was a great and powerful prophet, but something happened along his journey. Something absolutely devastated him, as we read ~
SLIDE3 Then Elijah was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life.
WOW!! Something really freaked out Elijah. Let’s look at the background to this story and see what was happening. This would make a great movie!
Elijah was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. Remember the kingdom split in two, there was the southern kingdom, called Judah, and there was the northern kingdom, called Israel or Samaria. The northern kingdom never fully worshiped God. So, God brought judgement upon the people and in 1 Kings 17, Elijah said there would be no rain, a drought for 3 ½ years. During the drought, this is what God did for Elijah ~ 6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Then Elijah lived with a widow and her son and they never ran out of food. Elijah even brought her son back to life after he became ill and died. So, we see God’s presence was very evident to Elijah and those he was with.
Now, in 1 Kings 18, it still hasn’t rained and Elijah is out to prove to the Israelites and their King, Ahab, that God is real and powerful. Elijah calls for a contest between the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob vs. the gods of baal (the false gods the Israelites were worshiping).
This is the game plan. Each side gets a bull to sacrifice to put on an altar. Each side will pray to their gods, for fire to consume their offering. The god who consumes the bull is declared the real God. Elijah has the king call all the people of Israel to be witness to this. The gather all 450 prophets of baal. And the contest begins. The prophets of baal go first.
26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made.
27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”
28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them.
29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.
Now it was Elijah’s turn. He had his bull prepared, put wood on the altar, then they filled jars with water and poured it over the bull. Then they did it again, and then they did it a 3rd time. So much water that the people were thirsting for the water as the water flooded the trenches. Then Elijah prayed to God ~
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”
Can you imagine the sight. That would have been so cool to witness. Now Elijah said to the people, go and grab those 450 prophets of baal, bring them to me and they were all killed. Yes, I know that’s gruesome, especially on Mother’s Day!
But this is such a cool story. And now we’re getting to the running part for Elijah. This should have been a day of celebration. They should have had a massive party, because after that, Elijah said, “I hear the thunder. It’s going to rain!” There should have been dancing in the streets, dancing in the rain. The people were worshiping the true God, it couldn’t get any better! It didn’t.
King Ahab told his wife, Queen Jezebel what Elijah did, really what God did through Elijah, and she was furious. She sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, 2 “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”
3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life. (1 Kings 19)
Can you believe that? Now, she was the queen and she was a mean, evil and vicious woman. And she was threatening death to Elijah; and he wasn’t ready to die. But do you hear the craziness in this story?
Elijah could have stood up to her and said, ‘Have you watched CNN? Did you see what happened on Mount Carmel? Do you know what God did? Do you know how many prophets of baal are left? Hmm, not a one!! That’s right, not one is left, and your next. Do you really hear yourself, Jezzy? Are you feeling lucky? Go ahead, make my day!’
But what does Elijah do? He runs and 4 he went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. WHAT?!
Elijah was running for his life. He had some of the greatest victories ever, and one woman with an attitude calls him out and he freaks out, runs away and asked God to kill him. He fell asleep and didn’t expect to wake up, not under the broom tree.
So, let me ask you, as rough and tough as you are, do you have any fears? Any you’re willing to admit? Not to me, to yourself!
Now, what’s really going on in this story? Deep down Elijah knows Jezebel has no power over him. If she did, he’d already be dead. He knows Jezebel has no power through her gods, and Elijah knows he has power through his God. But he was still afraid and ran and wanted to die!
Let me ask you this question . . . is it possible, Elijah wasn’t running for his life, but was running from his life? There’s a huge distinction. It’s not like she really had power over him, but he ran. Is it because he was running from life?
I wonder how many times we’ve missed out on opportunities because we were running from life. We made lots of excuses to justify our running. And that’s where the chatter comes in . . .
Have you ever had to have one of those hard talks with someone. Maybe you’ve had to confront them and you’re really anxious about it. If you’re like me, you play it out with about 34 different possible ways for the conversation to unfold. Out of the 34 different ways, how many turn out good? None!!!! Every outcome is negative. It’s the chatter that’s going on in our head and heart which is freaking us out, so we ignore the conversation. We turn and high tail it away from that traumatic event and we end up losing, because we ended up running from life.
The chatter defeats us before we ever get into battle. Imagine if the chatter defeated David before the battle. Imagine if the chatter defeated Ruth so she wouldn’t have been the great grandmother of David. Imagine if the chatter got to Mary, and she said no way to the angel. What if John the Baptist said no? We could go on and on and on. But what about you!?!? How bad is the chatter in your heart and head which is saying . . . you can’t!
Remember, Jezebel had no power over Elijah. But the chatter had more power over Elijah than she did. And that’s what we have to guard against.
You would think God would have been really disappointed and angry with Elijah. But, that’s our human way of thinking about God, but God provides for Elijah. An angel wakes him up, tells him to eat and drink, he does, then goes back to sleep. The angel wakes him up again, and he eats again. God didn’t threaten Elijah, instead food was put right by his head. What a great God we have!
Elijah should be energized by the food and the angel, and get back to the battle, but he runs another 250 miles away from God, Jezebel and life. He goes from Beersheba to Mount Horeb. It took 40 days, and now Elijah is on the mountain and God asks him, “What are you doing here?” You’ve got to love God’s sense of humor.
Elijah tells God ‘I’ve been zealous for you God. The people have rejected your covenants, they’ve torn down your altars and they’ve killed other prophets. I’m the only one left and now they want me dead, too.” God’s not really feeling sorry for Elijah, so he calls him out of the cave, to go outside and stand on the mountain. Elijah gets out there ~
11 And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
Notice God called Elijah out of the cave, because in the cave, in the darkness, in the dark of the night, when left all to ourselves, we’re also left with all the chatter and we buy into it. But God wanted to show Himself to Elijah and God did it as only God could and would. It wasn’t in the wind or the earthquake or the fire. It came through “the sound of a low whisper.”
When we put ourselves in a place where we can hear God over the chatter our outlook dramatically improves. We hear something new, it’s not the chatter, it’s the voice of God, as He calls us. That’s what Elijah hears. The literal Hebrew tells us Elijah heard a “silent small voice.” What a great description.
He was able to hear God’s soft, almost silent whisper. Notice this wasn’t just any whisper, it was a soft whisper. And another aspect of the beauty and power of this is the fact that God whispers, because why? Why does a person whisper? Because they are so close to you! God is right there with Elijah. That’s His point. God is there in the chaos and fear and anxiety. God is with Elijah.
So, when the enemy is shouting his lies to us . . . leading us to be afraid. Leading us to retreat into the land of darkness, maybe if we stop and realize satan has no power over us, other than the power we are willing to give him. When we stop listening to the chatterbox, and we start listening to God’s low whisper,
maybe we will start to hear ~
You can do it!
Try again!
Don’t give up!
Keep going, you’re almost there!
Trust in me with all your heart!
Lean on me!
I’ve carried you before, and I’ll do it again!
I will never abandon you!
I’m with you, even to the end of the ages!
I’m with you!
I love you!
I died for you!
You’re mine!
What is God whispering to you right now?! Elijah got off that mountain and went back into action. He followed God’s plan and knew he was never, never, never alone.
That’s great news. As the Lord commanded Joshua ~ 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
