Lamentations 2:19 (5/15/24)

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Lamentations 2:19 (5/15/24)

What To Do After Repentance

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.

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.