November 11, 2021 • Benham Brothers • Lamentations 1:9
* Those who only consider the short-term consequences of their decisions may experience temporary comfort but will end up with permanent chaos.
* But those who consider the long-term consequences of their decisions may experience temporary pain but will end up with permanent gain.
* EX: Eat one dessert a day with no workout for 180 days.
* EX: Workout once a day for 180 days w/no dessert.
* EX: Would you take $1 million today or 1 penny a day for 31 days if it doubles? (Over $10 million)
* This is from compound interest - Ben Franklin tried it.
* In 1790 he left $4,000 to each to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia when he died in 1790.
* For the first 100 years they were to invest that money at 5% interest and loan it to fund entrepreneurs starting out in business.
* At 100 years they could pull out 75% and spend on public works (biz first, then roads!).
* For the next 100 years they were to invest it, and at the 200 year mark they could take the money and use it for whatever they wanted.
* In 1990 both cities received their money - Boston got $5.5 million and Philly got $2.5 million.
* Compound Interest - Principle Amount + Interest = Ending Amount
* a physical manifestation of a spiritual truth.
* When you’re faithful, God compounds it!
* Matthew 25 parable of talents - Faithfulness = MULTIPLICATION.
* You won’t multiply unless you have a long-term vision for your life that is the filter for your decisions.
* Kingdom Agenda book - what we do today determines our position in Christ’s millennial kingdom.
* BACKSTORY - Israel fell prey to the danger of not considering her future, and it cost her dearly.
* Now they had been taken away to Babylon.
* Jeremiah wrote a book of lamentations, weeping over her demise.
* It’s a book of reflection.
* Vs 1 - God punishes nations!
* Vs 5a - people who hate her rule over her.
* Vs 5b - the Lord is the one who did it.
* Vs 9 - she was near-sighted, not far-sighted.
* Hebrews 12:2 - “Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross …”
* And we today are still reaping the rewards from that decision!
Lamentations 1:20 (5/8/25)
May 8, 2024 • Benham Brothers • Lamentations 1:20
* Anxiety has many root causes.
* Trauma, ambition, self-consciousness, over-work, etc.
* Another cause of anxiety is sin (often unconscious).
* Conviction and anxiety often feel the same.
* Jeremiah had his bout with anxiety and he found the cause:
* vs 20 - “See, Lord, how distressed I am! I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is only death.”
* The root cause of heartache and despair was rebellion against God.
* A great place to start is to ask, “Have I rebelled against God in any way?”
* It may not always be the case, but quite often our experience of brokenness is due to our lack of surrender to Him.
* Psalms 88:7 - “Your wrath lies heavily on me; and you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.”
* The term for “wrath” is ḥēmâ and it’s used a few times to indicate physical heat in body.
* Like the heat from a fever.
* The term is used to convey the concept of an inner, emotional heat that rises from within.
* In various places where ḥēmâ appears it refers to God’s reaction to people who have been unfaithful to Him in some way.
* God is aroused to great heat because he, as a jealous God, sees the people He loves disobey him.
* According to this verse, the psalmist is feeling divine heat.
* In fact, it’s a weight that is almost too much for him to bear.
* God is pressing, pressing, pressing—squeezing the life out of him.
* Why?
* Because He wants us to need Him, to draw close to Him.
* Conviction draws us close.
* EX: My bout with anxiety.
* God revealed some things I needed to get right.
Lamentations 2:14 (10/29/15)
October 29, 2015 • Benham Brothers
• Paul talked about how Titus and Timothy were to use the Scripture - to teach, train, reprove (expose), rebuke (forbid), exhort (make courageous).
• He then said “you have many teachers, but few fathers.”
• A father not only teaches and trains but exposes and forbids.
• God tells Jeremiah that the spiritual leaders of his day are not exposing their sin so as to restore them.
• We gather two things from this:
• 1) We must expose sin. How? By being the light.
• How we live & Words we speak.
• 2) We need to have hearts of restoration.
• A dad always wants a good relationship with his kids.
• Focus must be on the Person of God, not anything else.
• If we focus on anything else then we operate strategically and not spiritually.
Lamentations 2:19 (5/15/24)
May 15, 2024 • Benham Brothers • Lamentations 2:19
- When we’ve sinned and confessed, what do we do then?
- This verse tells us.
- The Israelites were on their way to Babylon, and there was no going back.
- Regardless of repentance, the consequences remained the same.
- Jeremiah shares five things we must do.
- vs 19 - “Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at every street corner.”
- 1) GET UP!
- Don't wallow around in self-pity.
- You don’t have to “keep repenting.”
- But you also don’t want to forget what you’ve repented of.
- This memory will keep you from doing it again.
- Get up! And then...
- 2) GET ON YOUR KNEES!
- Posture yourself before the Lord.
- Submit in reverence to Him.
- Dr. Towns at Liberty taught the importance of posture.
- After you posture yourself, then…
- 3) POUR OUT YOUR HEART TO GOD!
- Pray fervently.
- Don't hold anything back.
- Pouring it out to God keeps you from pouring it onto others.
- They can’t handle that weight.
- God likes it when we come to Him in fervency.
- 4) SURRENDER TO HIM!
- This is what "lifting up your hands" means, like a child reaching for his dad.
- Full surrender to God.
- Acknowledge His sovereignty, Declare your dependency, and Surrender your will to Him.
- 5) INTERCEDE FOR OTHERS!
- Don't just pray about you, but others.
- God is moved in a special way when we pray for His other kids.
- This helps get us out of our own situation.
- KEY - your discernment is your direction.
- God shows us other’s faults so we can pray for them.
- God will make a message out of your mess when you walk through these five steps.
Lamentations 3:21 (11/2/17)
November 2, 2017 • Benham Brothers
* A picture of prayer that leads to maturity.
* Prayer becomes powerful when we learn to PIVOT!
* A pivot is a rapid change of direction, not a slow turn.
* A pivot takes place in the MIND.
* Your heart will follow where your mind takes it - the battleground of your soul……
* Two parts of a pivot:
* 1) From negativity - negative thoughts focus on problems and people.
* When negativity is reality we need to express these thoughts.
* Why? Negativity only has power when held inside.
* Rule of Thumb - talk to God first, then let Him guide you to another if He chooses.
* 2) To positivity - positive thoughts focus on the PERSON (God).
* Positive thoughts literally bond you to the person you’re thinking about.
* In marriage, concentration leads to captivation - SoS shows us a pic of a captivated man.
* When you’re captivated, the things you used to criticize become cute.
* **NOTE - the difference between being critical and complaining.
* vs 22-23 - “great is Your faithfulness” - this is all about SECURITY.
* vs 24-25 - waiting and seeking - this looks like a contradiction. Two Keys:
* KEY 1 - We will wait for what we seek!
* JO’s ribs - I waited for them because I was seeking to eat them.
* We wait for Him by FAITH.
* We seek Him by PRAYER - this is why praying is so hard, Satan doesn’t want you to do it.
* KEY 2 - Seeking is the fuel for waiting.
* vs 26-32 - all about young men going through tough times - it matures them!
Lamentations 3:24-29 (10/30/14)
October 30, 2014 • Benham Brothers
Jeremiah had just uttered a crazy lament talking about all the suffering he's personally going thru, then He immediately speaks about how ossum God is. That's perspective.
We've all heard the verse about waiting upon the Lord and He will renew our strength.
Two aspects of waiting:
1) State of waiting - patiently looking and listening for the Lord.
2) Service of waiting - serving God like a waiter at a restaurant.
Jeremiah now brings this to a new level when he mentioned that he would wait on God because God was his portion.
Picture this - sitting at a table where you're starving - spaghetti is being served.
You choose to pass on eating it because you're waiting on a steak that you were promised.
You say no to the grumblings of your stomach because you know you have something better in store if you simply wait.
You will wait when you have hope - No hope = No wait.
The best time to learn to wait on the Lord is when you're young.
When you go through trials when you're young it prepares you for when you're old.
Where can young people find hope? Verse 29 - when they're face is on the dust of the ground (at the bottom!).
It's when God gets you to the bottom of yourself that you then find the hope of salvation, just like Peter.
Two questions we have to ask ourselves:
1) Is God our portion?
2) Am I willing to wait for Him?
Lamentations 3:27 (11/1/18)
November 1, 2018 • Benham Brothers
* Hebrews 5:8 - Even Jesus was “made perfect” through what He suffered.
* Made perfect means “complete.”
* God perfects His kids by allowing them to suffer.
* Just like an person makes his body suffer by working out - he will end up having muscles exactly as God designed him to have.
* Strength comes through strain.
* If you never felt lonely or left out how would you ever know what it feels like to have a friend that sticks closer than a brother?
* When suffering comes your way, don’t resist it - embrace it and learn the lesson God wants to teach you from it.
* The prettiest diamonds go through the fiercest fire.
Lamentations 3:40-42 (11/1/18)
November 1, 2018 • Benham Brothers
* When you are in the habit of examining your ways you will be in the habit of returning to the Lord.
* The unexamined life is the unrepentant life.
* Spending time with God alone gives Him the opportunity to comb through your life and point out things you need to fix.
* This gives you the opportunity to work ON yourself.
* You can do this for your marriage, your business, your family, your own life.
* Five Steps to Examine Yourself:
* 1) Get alone.
* 2) Clear your mind - don’t let any thoughts disrupt this time.
* 3) Start with gratitude - it releases oxytocin in your brain, the bonding chemical.
* 4) Ask God to speak to you, then repent if necessary.
* 5) End with truth - get into the Word and let the truth pour over your mind.
Lamentations 5:14 (5/15/24)
May 15, 2024 • Benham Brothers • Lamentations 5:14
- One of the ways you know God is punishing a nation is when righteous leaders grow fewer.
- That’s what happened in Jeremiah’s time.
- They had leaders, plenty of them - but none righteous.
- Look what happened:
- vs 14a - “The elders are gone from the city gate…”
- The church elders, the spiritual leaders of the day, were no longer in places of leadership within the nation.
- Proverbs 29:2 - “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.”
- The gate is where business, education, and government took place.
- It was the hotbed where the people gathered to exchange products, services, contracts, and ideas.
- When Godly people occupy their place in the gate, bringing the rule of God to the place of business, education, and government, it opens the door for people to flourish.
- We do not need to pull the most gifted people out of the workplace and put them into the church.
- Let them stay in the workplace and effect change!
- So what’s the result of good people abandon the gate?
- vs 14b - “…the young men have stopped their music.”
- Music has multiple positive effects, but two of them are:
- It Connects you to others and it Soothes your soul.
- EX: Worship song in church - all hearts beat together.
- When young people make music they are having a good time.
- Those times stop when Godly people abandon their post at the gate.
