Hola Divas! Welcome back to our Crash the Chatterbox Bible Study! If you are just joining us…GREAT!
Here are the deets:
1. We are in the middle of an awesome Bible Study by Pastor Steven Furtick called Crash the Chatterbox.
2. The chatterbox is the voice in our heads that utters lies. Lies unfortunately we believe. The chatterbox can be non-stop, intimidating, insinuating, irritating and tiring.
3. The thoughts we think become actions and emotions.
During each session of this study, we review a tactic the chatterbox uses against us and a strategy to CRASH the chatterbox. Last week, we focused on condemnation.
The chatterbox tells us how bad we are. He or she diminishes the seriousness of sin when they are tempting us and magnifies it after we have fallen. This is a successful tactic because when condemnation is at play, there is usually some truth mixed in with guilt.
What the chatterbox is essentially trying to get us to believe is that we are disqualified by our actions.
In our quest to overpower Condemnation…Pastor Furtick challenged us to know the difference between condemnation and conviction because condemnation is counterfeit conviction.
Here are just a few examples:
Condemnation leads us to believe that we’ll never change and that we aren’t worthy of God’s love. Conviction gives us hope that, even though we sinned, God is still at work in us.
Condemnation paralyzes faith for change, keeping us in bondage. Conviction bears the fruit of faith for change, freeing us to fully grow in the love of God.
Condemnation causes us to wallow in despair and self-pity. Conviction leads to God-centered hope.
To further drive his point home, Pastor Furtick used the “3 P’s” to describe condemnation.
Condemnation makes us think our sin is:
Permanent-there is NO HOPE for any change
Personal-tainting our very identity
Pervasive-extending to every part of our lives
Condemnation does NOT come from God. God will convict us but he does not condemn us.
We read a Biblical Example of this in John 8:1-11 when Jesus was asked what should be done to a woman “caught in the act of adultery”. The Pharisees reminded Jesus of the “stoning to death penalty” rule for “those type of women”. Completely calm, Jesus made the following statement: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Surprisingly..cough cough..no one said a word. In fact, they all left the scene and Jesus told the woman: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Since condemnation does not come from God, we can refuse to accept it just like we do an unwanted package. Without even opening and engaging, we can simply write ” RETURN TO SENDER”.
At the end of our study time, each of us wrote down some of the things the Chatterbox had been screaming at us on a sheet of paper. We folded the papers and put them in envelopes and wrote RETURN TO SENDER on the outside of them. Then each woman put her envelope full of the Chatterbox’s condemnation INTO THE SHREDDER!
Read Chapters 11-13 to be ready for our next session!
Watch the Week 3 Session Recap with Pastor Steven on Condemnation. (This excerpt is different from what we saw in class an excellent reminder!)
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