* Familiarity breeds contempt.
* Christ’s hometown.
* The result - they lost out on the presence and power of God!
* But does familiarity really lead to contempt?
* Definitions of familiarity:
* “close acquaintance with or knowledge of something.”
* “the quality of being well known; recognizability based on long or close association.”
* “relaxed friendliness or intimacy between people.”
* Shouldn’t we want familiarity in our relationships? YES! But…
* Familiarity breeds contempt when COMFORT is experienced apart from CONQUEST.
* Contempt - “the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn.”
* Comfort - “a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint.”
* Conquest - “the act or process of conquering.”
* Comfort, apart from Conquest, leads to Contempt.
* We should approach our relationships like we’re climbing Mount Everest.
* But we never reach the top - we simply grow comfortable with the process.
* If we reach the top, then we’ll start looking for other peaks to summit.
* Imagine if Christ’s hometown would’ve asked Him questions and then studied Scripture in search for knew knowledge concerning Him?
* BACKSTORY - David penned this Psalm in his old age.
* Look what he says:
* Vs 17a - “O God, You have taught me from my youth…”
* Vs 17b - “…And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.”
* Hebrew for “I still” is “ad-hennah.” But this word is “ve-ad-hennah.”
* The “ve” is added emphasis - like, “YO! LISTEN! I STILL…!!!!”
* David was still in awe of God after all these years. Why?
* Because God’s deeds don’t stop! They’re never ending.
* He was on a conquest to know God more.
* EX: My wife and I went to Rome and were in awe of the Colosseum.
* But the natives just brushed passed by it (probably agitated at the traffic).
* Why? Because they’re so familiar.
* Comfort, apart from Conquest, leads to Contempt.
* Imagine if, however, a native was on a quest to find all the people who’ve written their names and schools on the columns inside?
* They’d never stop going!
* This is what David is getting at.
* As an old man, after all this time, after all the things God has done in the past, it’s so easy to just get used to it.
* But David wants his readers to be tourists - those in constant discovery!
* To be overwhelmed by the whole experience of God and men.
* To stand in wonder and praise His benevolence.
* How do you fight off familiarity in your relationships with God and others?
* Think in terms of Conquest!
* You will never fully conquer, but you are always conquering!
* This is why reading the Bible is so important - it’s keeps you moving up the peak!
Psalms 71:17 (8/24/22)
Fighting Familiarity
August 24, 2022 • Benham Brothers • Psalm 71:17
We Were Made For Relationship
January 4, 2018 • Benham Brothers
* God + Adam = not good. * God + Adam + Eve = good. * What was missing? Relationship! * This is why we have the ability to communicate - apart from others who are equal to us (human beings) we cannot relate as God relates in the Trinity. * In the beginning God created “adam” (awh-dahm), not the male but humankind. * “It is not good for “humankind” to be alone.” * vs 17-23 - “she was taken out of man.” * This is the “splitting of the adam,” so to speak. * Feminine was taken from masculine. * The two joined together creates the perfect picture of mankind made in God’s image. * vs 24 - this is why God wants men to “cleave” to their wife - to create the oneness required to give the full picture of God’s image. * Man alone is not God’s full image. Neither is woman alone. * It’s the man/woman bond that creates it. * This is why marriage is under attack today - Satan hates the image of God.
Relationships Thrive on Intimacy
January 8, 2014 • Benham Brothers
3 ordinances of God existed before the fall: 1) Sabbath 2) Work 3) Marriage (this was for intimacy) Two foundational truths: Spiritual truths have physical manifestations & Satan tries to mess up what God sets up 1) God created us for intimacy (to be fully known and fully accepted) - it was a desire of His and not a need 2) The PURPOSE for intimacy was LIFE! As we're intimate with God LIFE is birthed 3) God created a physical manifestation of intimacy when He created woman & Satan wants to thwart this intimacy 4) He made the act of intimacy PLEASUREABLE so we would want to do it often 5) Pleasure overtook Purpose (Gen 6:2) - it's like pornography: it seeks pleasure but not purpose, and the result is a lack of intimacy with the woman God gave to you, but maintaining a ravenous apetite for the act of it 6) When a man and woman are intimate LIFE is seeded 7) Children are a physical manifestation of the LIFE that's seeded in us when God comes into us. Our kids are a perfect mix of two different people and are a product of the LOVE that each person has for the other. Trae is a mix of Jason and Tori and his life proves my love for Tori. Spiritually it's the same - the fruit we bear is a product of the love we have for God and is a mix of God and us. 8) Satan hates this life, so going after the seed. He will: 1) Try to stop the life from taking seed in the first place by convincing men that sex is for pleasure 2) Try to kill the life if it's already taken seed by convincing women that the life that's seeded in them isn't really life. 9) Killing the baby is getting rid of the consequence of seeking pleasure over purpose 10) When you don't have consequences then your behavior will never stop 11) Broken Intimacy (Gen 3:7) - they no longer wanted to be fully known Two issues always manifest themselves when a nation kicks God out: Sexual promiscuity & Child sacrifice (killing kids) So now we see sexual promiscuity and abortion at an all time highs - why? Because we have forsaken our purpose - INTIMACY with God! Satan hates our intimacy with God because he knows it produces LIFE, and he hates our intimacy with our spouses because it does the same - the physical union of a man and woman bringing forth physical life is simply a physical manifestation of what takes place spiritually with human beings and God - LIFE explodes! The devil can't stand that so he not only tries to destroy life itself but he also tries to destroy the very process that brings life into being (sexuality).
The Power of Presence
January 14, 2016 • Benham Brothers
• Three times times in this chapter Abe uses the phrase “Here I am.” • When God called to him to sacrifice his son, when his son called to him, and when God called to him again not to kill his son. • He was so attuned to God’s voice he could here Him and he was ready for what God would say. • He was also attuned to his sons’ voice. • Wherever Abe was he was “all there.” • I struggle with being “all there” with my kids often times. • If Abe wasn’t “all there” he would have mistaken God’s voice for the devils’. • The secret to the great leader is being a great follower. • Abe followed God and therefore he was equipped to lead his family.