• Our problem today is not the presence of darkness, but the absence of light.
• When we go to bed at night we don’t turn the darkness on, we turn the light off.
• We have the wrong image of “light” today - we think of a candle.
• The wind can blow a candle out.
• We need to replace the image of a candle with that of a coal - like a burning ember in a fire pit.
• The same wind that extinguishes the candle’s light actually ignites the coal’s light.
• The devil wants to extinguish our light, but if we hide God’s Word in our hearts like Jeremiah, it will become like coals inside of us.
• The very act of the devil trying to blow it out will actually ignite it!
• God’s fire is either going to eat us up or heat us up - it all depends on our dedication to reading His Word and our surrender to obeying it.
• How do we know if we’re a coal?
• By how we respond when we’re persecuted.
• Candles can shine quickly, but coals take time.
• Candles shine on the outside, but coals shine from the inside out and get brighter the harder the wind blows.
• Let’s be coals!
Candle or Coal?
Which light are you?
October 13, 2016 • Benham Brothers
The Foundations of Church
January 15, 2013 • Benham Brothers
* Covenant with Noah (8:20) * Covenant with Abe (Gen 12) * Description of Covenant (Gen 15) 15 years later he had Isaac 1000 years later Moses came 2000 years later Jesus came Gen 9 - Civil Govt Gen 9:20-24 - Covering Nakedness * Ham - cursed because he didn't cover Noah (father of Canaanites) * Shem - father of Israelites * Japheth - father of Gentiles Gen 12 - First thing's first * The first thing Abe did when he came into a land was build an altar to show honor to the maker of the Covenant * When Abe told Sarah to lie he had not yet built the altar - he failed to do it first!
Huddle Up
January 10, 2014 • Benham Brothers
God's command was to multiply and fill the earth, but the people wanted to huddle up God's plan was for us to possess and take dominion, and we can't do that in a crowd They also wanted to build something that would make their names memorable They wanted to build something so tall they couldn't be flooded out again God confused their language, which was the opposite thing He did on Pentacost God waited until they spent a lot of time and money before He busted it up - He gave them time to repent Our natural tendency will be to huddle in a comfortable group and not go into all the world (our neighborhood)
The Cost of the Covenant
January 12, 2017 • Benham Brothers
* When God made a covenant with Abraham He required Abraham to honor it. * It was going to cost Abraham something in order to enter the covenant. * For him, he had to cut his junk. * He had to remove the needless skin from his unit. * Can you imagine this? He was 99 years old at this time. * The first blessing from God to man was procreation. * Now, the sign of the covenant required pain to enter it. * If Abe didn’t want the pain he didn’t get the covenant. * For us, to be in covenant with God it cost Jesus His life. * The price we have to pay is the same - to give up our lives. * But to remain in the covenant we have to endure the pain. * Are you willing to pay that price?