By Steven Furtick – Click here to buy on Amazon
This is the 3rd book by Steven Furtick that I’ve read in the past 2 years. His other 2, Sun Stand Still and Greater were excellent, so I came into this with high expectations.
Crash the Chatterbox is a book about hearing God’s voice above all of the other chatter that goes on inside of our heads. Pastor Steven points out that one of the enemy’s best weapons isn’t temptation, but fear, doubt and self-conscious thoughts that keep us from doing the will of God. To be honest, this book wasn’t as meaningful or as powerful to me as Greater was, but it was still one of the top 5 Christian books that I’ve ever read. The book is broken into 4 sections of simple truths that Pastor Steven calls confessions:
I’m going to briefly summarize each section, then the conclusion, where Pastor Steven talks about how we must continue to “Pound the Ground.” Before I get into the 4 sections, I need to first explain why this wasn’t as good as Greater to me. It’s not because the content isn’t full of great nuggets of information, but its because most of the content contains points that I’ve heard Pastor Steven make every week at Elevation. This is not a bad thing at all, but it does skew my feelings on the book some. The final chapter and conclusion come from one of my favorite Pastor Steven sermon, Pound the Ground. If you haven’t seen or heard that one yet, check it out.
Okay, now back to the summary…
In this section Pastor Steven addresses the issues that we have without selves and with the lies that we tell ourselves, like “I’m never ___ enough.” Fill in the blank. This is all about insecurity. Pastor tells us that God made us perfectly for the tasks that he’s called us to do. He points out that God called us before we were born.
“Before you were born—before any of your defects were apparent to you—they were absolutely apparent to God. That didn’t stop Him from calling your name and setting you apart. He placed you on the earth at a certain time for a pre-decided purpose.”
If God says we are capable, who are we to argue with Him? Pastor Steven also points out that if we criticize a product, aren’t we criticizing the manufacturer? Aren’t we a product of God?
In this section, Pastor Steven reminds us of all the things God has done and how easily we forget what God has done for us. Pastor Steven instructs us to play out whatever it is that we’re afraid of. Play out the worse case scenario and then what? Well, won’t God always provide for us? For me, one of my fears is inviting people to Church. As I play this out, as Pastor Steven instructed, I realize that the fear was all just lies from the Chatterbox.
One of my favorite quotes from the book happens in this section.
“The One who lives outside of time invites you into a reality that is informed by His perfect plans to give you hope and a future. God speaks in the past tense about battles you’re currently fighting. And He buries the shame of yesterday in order to resurrect the moment you are in and sustain you in the season He is calling you to embrace.”
I especially like that Pastor Steven says that God Speaks in the past tense about battles you’re currently fighting. That tells me that the battle is already won. In this section, we learn about overpowering the lies about our condemnation. Many of us, myself included, go through times where we don’t feel like we’re worthy. We say things like, “if they only knew me, they would hate me…” Well God knows us and he still loves us.
Here we overcome discouragement. In one of my favorite stories, the Parable of the Passport, Pastor Steven shows us that we should come to God with Thanksgiving, because that’s our “passport.” But then he ends the story showing us that to do God’s work, we’ve already got what we need and it’s been with us the whole time. This section was exceptionally encouraging for me and my favorite by far.
Buy and read this book or listen to the audio book. I also recommend watching the 6 sermons on ElevetaionChurch.org for the series. Pastor concludes the book with points from his “Pound the Ground” sermon, which tells us to keep going, and don’t stop short.
In full disclosure, Pastor Steven is my pastor. I attend and volunteer at Elevation Church and lead an eGroup (small group) there.
