The Chatterbox - Week 6 Series

Crash the Chatterbox - 6

2 Kings 13:14-20

June 1, 2014

VIDEO -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnN7G8HXLcw

How true is that video in your life? Have you ever felt that way about life? The chatterbox hits hard and hits right on our weakest spot. After all, the chatterbox knows us so well, because — — the chatterbox is always with us.

I love that the woman punched the chatterbox in the nose. He was shocked, dropped his coffee cup and walked away. But notice what she said — “See you tomorrow.” Ugh! That’s not what we want, is it? But that’s what happens in life, the doubts, the worries, the hangups, the apprehension, the dread, the resistance, the uncertainty. It’s all there, and it comes back . . . over and over again.

Well, today, we’re concluding our series on the Chatterbox. I hope it’s been a good series for you and helped you to understand a little more about yourself and find some ways to fight against the chatter we hear in our head and heart.

I want to start out with a little bit of bad news, but we’ll end with hope and good news. Here’s the bad news and I think most of you already know it. All of our lives we will have that chatterbox with us. We sometimes think – as we get older, as we gain more knowledge, as we get closer to Christ — — the chatter goes away, the road becomes easier.

We think, ‘well, I’m a Christian, life should be easier, not more difficult, yet, we realize that’s not the way it works. We think we life should be rosy, but as Lynn Anderson sang, “I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden.”

And friends, God never promised us we’d have no problems. He promised us the gift of life, He promised us His Son, He promised us His love, He promised to give us a purpose, He promised us forgiveness of sins . . . but He never promised us an easy life — just because you have faith in Christ. That’s not how it works. That would be nice, but there are too many of you here today who I look up to, who I know your stories, and it hasn’t been a rose garden. But you’ve endured despite the hardships of life.

Understand the chatterbox will never stop talking to us. Whatever it is that causes the chatterbox to kick in —

our insecurities

our lack of confidence

our fears

our self condemnation

our low self esteem

our doubts

You can choose one of the above or add yours.

They don’t stop. Just like Peter we will hear our rooster crowing, then the chatterbox kicks in, whispering those sweet nothings in your heart and head. And you know whose voice most resembles the chatterbox? YOURS. It’s your voice. Because the chatterbox knows you best and speaks to you in order to defeat you.

The chatterbox doesn’t discriminate. Billy Graham said, “The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’”

Or how about Mother Teresa journaling – “I speak of love for souls, of tender love for God, words pass through my lips and I long with a deep longing to believe in them.”

Mother Teresa wrote ~ “When the pain of longing is so great I just long and long for God, then it is that I feel He does not want me, He is not there. I feel nothing before Jesus — yet I would not miss holy communion for anything.”

Those are powerful words from two very famous and spiritual Christ followers. If it can happen to them, it can and will happen to us.

So, as we move towards the end of our time looking at the chatterbox, what can we do? Well, I want to look at a passage of scripture, it’s kind of obscure, and it’s not really talked about much. I’ve never preached on it, so that makes it a little more fun for me. And better yet, I believe it really applies to our lives.

The story can be found in the book of 2 Kings. We’re looking at the OT. If you remember a few weeks ago we looked at Elijah, now we are looking at the final story in the life of his protégé, Elisha.

Let’s look at the first part of this passage ~

14 Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, crying, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”