Lamentations 1:20 (5/8/25)

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Lamentations 1:20 (5/8/25)

A Root Cause of Anxiety

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.

Psalms 121:6 (5/29/24)

May 29, 2024 • Benham Brothers • Psalm 121:5–7

* God is our protector - He will not allow anything to harm us. * But He will allow things into our lives that will hurt us. * EX: Dentist - hurts but doesn’t harm. * EX: Candy - harms but doesn’t hurt * Which one is better? The doctor, of course. * God does the same with us—He allows hurt into our lives to protect us from harm. * Hurt is all about what happens “in this life.” * You lose a loved one, get sick, or have relational issues with someone you love. * Those are all hurts that will never harm you if you keep your faith in God. * Harm is all about what happens “in the next life.” * vs 5-7 - “The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life…” * If you live a life of ease down here but you end up in hell, you avoided the hurt, but you’ll experience the harm. * Mark 8:36 makes that clear - “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul?” * So embrace the hurts that come your way. * They are God’s way of purifying and protecting you from the harm that could be yours if you didn’t know Him. * EX: Advice to dad whose daughter was upset because he had to leave for an extended work trip.

Proverbs 10:5 (5/29/24)

May 29, 2024 • Benham Brothers • Proverbs 10:5

* God calls us to be prudent. * To be prudent is “acting with or showing care and thought for the future.” * It’s making decisions today based upon what we see in the future. * Anxiety is projecting fear into the future. * Faith is projecting power into the future. * A prudent person operates in faith. * The book of Proverbs has many verses on the prudent person. * vs 5 - “He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” * The ‘harvest’ is a season. It does not happen all year long. * When it does occur, the ‘prudent’ son is ready to go! * He knows the seasons and when to push and when to pull back… * …when to work hard and when to rest. * vs 19 - “When words are many, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is prudent” * The prudent man knows when to back off and when to keep quiet. * There are times when I am free to speak and there are other times when it is best to keep my mouth shut. * The prudent man knows the difference and acts accordingly. * A prudent person knows seasons and times. * He knows that there is a time for everything. * The prudent person “understands the times,” just like the Men of Issachar. * 1 Chronicles 12:32 -“The Men of Issachar, who understood the times, and knew what Israel should do.” * How do we understand the times so we can become prudent? Four ways: * 1) We look up - we spend time with the Lord every day, allowing Him to speak to us about all things. * 2) We look in - we ask God to comb through our lives to see if there be any unclean way in us. * 3) We look back - we pay attention to history and we look back at past experience. * 4) We look forward - we take what we learned by looking up, in, and back and we project into the future what we see. * We do all of this in faith, putting God into the picture. * These four things, done consistently, will help us be the prudent people God has made us to be.

Ezekiel 3:5 (5/22/24)

May 22, 2024 • Benham Brothers • Ezekiel 3:5

- If I told you God called me to be a missionary, what would you think? - I’m moving somewhere overseas. - If I told you I’m called to be a missionary to the business world, what would you think? - I’m going to be a corporate chaplain or something. - But God has called each of us to be missionaries - wherever He puts us is our mission field. - Satan doesn’t want you to see yourself as a missionary. - Satan knows that how you see yourself determines how you behave yourself. - He doesn’t want you to know your true identity. - You’re a Minister - You’re on Mission - Your Work is Worship - Listen to what God told Ezekiel: - vs 4-6 - “…Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them. 5 You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel—6 not to many peoples of obscure speech and strange language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you.” - God told Ezekiel that He had made him a missionary to his own people! - It’s easier to minister to people you don’t know than people you do. - EX: AIA in South America. - We need missionaries in America more now than ever. - Stay home and be a missionary right here until God calls you elsewhere. - When you see your workplace as a mission field, it changes everything. - EX: AAU basketball.