Samuel No.6 Raising a memorial

Turn to the word of God, shall we? Those of you who are visitors, we're glad to have you with us. Let me explain. Sunday mornings, we make our way through books of the Bible at varying speeds.

Ephesians took quite a number of years, but 1 Samuel, we're racing through. And we're on the seventh chapter of this lovely historical book, which has embedded within it many truths if we're prepared to come to grips with what it has to say. So it's particularly important that you concentrate as I read these verses to you, because they're the context from which I want to share what I believe, if I may say this very sincerely, the Lord has placed on my heart as God's word for us this morning.

The context refers to the Ark of God having been captured by the Philistines. It's now been returned to Israel. And Samuel comes to his own again after 20 years of ministry without much result.

And he leads the people in renewal and restoration. Chapter seven, 1 Samuel. So the men of Kiriath-Jerim came and took up the Ark of the Lord.

They took it to Abinadab's house on the hill and consecrated Eliezer, his son, to guard the Ark of the Lord. It was a long time, 20 years in all, that the Ark remained at Kiriath-Jerim. And all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord.

And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, if you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourself of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths, Ashtoreths were female deities, and commit yourself to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So the Israelites put away their bales and Ashtoreths and served the Lord only. Then Samuel said, assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will intercede with the Lord for you.

When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, we have sinned against the Lord, and Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah. When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them.

And when the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. They said to Samuel, do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines. Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to the Lord.

He cried out to the Lord on Israel's behalf, and the Lord answered him. While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.

The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth-kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shenn. He named it Ebenezer, saying, thus far has the Lord helped us.

So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again. Throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. The towns from Ezron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to her, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the part of the Philistines.

And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. Samuel continued as judge over Israel all the days of his life. From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places.

But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was. And there he also judged Israel. And he built an altar there to the Lord.

Very early this morning, I was thinking of a song that used to be in the old CSSM book, at least I think that was the origin, which says very simply, all your anxiety, all your care, bring to the mercy seat, leave it there. Never a burden he cannot bear, never a friend like Jesus. Do you know that? Lift your hand if you do.

Good, well that delivers you from a solo. Let's stand and sing that, shall we? Let's really mean this as we come to the Lord with our burdens and maybe our pressures this morning. Believe that he'll lift them and help us to move into a place where we just receive from him the peace that he can give.

All your anxiety, all your care, bring to the mercy seat, leave it there. Never a burden he cannot bear. Let's sing that unaccompanied and softly.

All your anxiety, bring to the mercy seat, leave it there. Never a burden he cannot bear, never a friend like Jesus. Let's have our Bibles open at that reading that we had a moment or so ago.

The 12th verse of 1 Samuel 7 says this, Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mishpah and Shenn. He named it Ebenezer, saying, Thus far has the Lord helped us. So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again.

I do believe that God speaks to his people today directly through his word. I don't believe that there's any additional word from the Lord apart from what is in here, this book. And yet I believe that God, through the exposition of scripture and through the placing of the word of God upon the mind of an individual, be he a preacher or a member of a congregation, can remind in a very pertinent and particular fashion those who have gathered what the Lord is trying to say.

And I find myself once more privileged to bring such a word to you today for someone who's drooping in spirit and for someone who's known great blessings during these last few days. And I say to you that in this 7th chapter of 1 Samuel God would speak to your experience and direct you as to where to put your praise and lift you up perhaps from the depression into which you have sunk. We cannot go around London without from time to time being brought face to face with memorials.

Some were memorials that we placed in honour of great men, others were things that we pinched during the Victorian era. And we've got most of them stashed away in the British Museum. One we've got on the Thames Embankment, a memorial, Cleopatra's needle.

If you were to take a flight to Egypt you would see memorial stones there in the form of pyramids. If you were to go into the Old Testament era you would discover that from time to time great men of God raised a memorial to the Lord for what he had done for them. For example, you recall Abraham? This man had this strange request from the Lord to take his son, his only son Isaac, and to offer him to the Lord.

And at the point of killing his son God withstood Abraham's sword and he provided in place of Isaac a lamb and Abraham offered an altar or built an altar and offered the lamb to the Lord. I think of Jacob. You remember this man who was running away really from his circumstances.

He had dealt pretty badly with his twin elder Esau. And on one occasion as he's trying to get to sleep at night God comes down upon him at a place called Bethel. And Jacob says, and you'll read it in the book of Genesis, surely the Lord was in this place and I didn't know it.

And so what does he do? Well, he takes the pillow which has been a stone actually and he upends it and it becomes a memorial as he pours oil upon it and he acknowledges the fact that God has moved into his circumstances in a most remarkable way. When the Israelites were going back into the land that God had given them he divided once again a river not this time the Red Sea but the Jordan and as they passed over Joshua said that he wanted 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel plucked from the center of the river and there it was to form on the other bank a little monument indicating that God had so miraculously preserved the Israelites during the 40 odd years of their wandering in the wilderness. Memorials.

You find them throughout the Old Testament and indeed, spiritually speaking, on in the New Testament. And I want to ask you have you ever erected are you in the process of erecting a memorial in your life something that will help you to recall the most wonderful interposition the most wonderful way in which God reacted in your circumstances and helped you and demonstrated the fact that he's a living and a personal God? That's what I want to try and get you to do this morning. To think of God's blessings and to lift a memorial up to him and be stimulated as a result of that memorial to realize that God is placing you in the present so that you can cope with the conditions that are just around the corner in the future.

Now you say what's all this to do with Samuel? Well he's got a lot to do with Samuel. You see, here he is in the seventh chapter of the book that bears his name, the first book. And he's brought all the Israelites together.

They have come on a particular plane and they're listening to this man. Actually they've sought his help because they've been in great political difficulty. And Samuel puts to them certain propositions which they accept as to why it should now be that God will bless them and repulse their enemies.

And as a result, as I shall show you, of Samuel's intercession, in a most miraculous way God intervenes. Now what does Samuel do? Well that verse which I've just read to you for the second time indicates his action. He takes a stone and he sets it up between Nisba and Shenn and he names it Ebenezer saying thus far has the Lord helped us.

This is what Samuel does when God has particularly blessed his children. Now I want to bring all my thoughts just around that verse of Scripture for a moment. And I want you to consider with me first of all the position of the stone.

The position of the stone that Samuel erected. Here is a monument that he's raising to the Lord. And I say that the first thing that's important for you to realize is the place where Samuel puts the stone.

You see, if you're going to have a monument to commemorate your life and you're relatively influential then do what Winston Churchill did. He had for himself reserved in Parliament Square a place where the plinth that now carries his statue would be put. And Cleopatra's needle, well she got not that she had anything to do with it but she's got a rather outstanding sight on the Thames Embankment, hasn't she? So it's very important at the literal level of lifting a stone as a monument to ensure that you've got a good plinth, a good sight.

Now the position of this stone is a very interesting one. The stone that Samuel raises to the Lord. You see, you are told geographically that it's between Nisbar and Shen and that doesn't help us one whit unless you happen to have an uncommonly good knowledge of Old Testament geography.

The point however is that this stone was raised, this memorial was erected at the place where the Israelites previously had suffered a most terrible routing by the Philistines. In the fourth chapter references made to this and the opening verses. Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines.

The Israelites camped at Ebenezer and the Philistines at Aphek. And it was just there, the place where Samuel now erects this monument that the Israelites received one of the greatest setbacks in the whole of their lives. 20 odd years have elapsed and they go back to the place of failure.

And I want to tell you this, my dear Christian friend this morning, that when God has by His Spirit a monument erected in your life because of His peculiar dealings with you and the way that He has helped you and blessed you, He invariably at the beginning will take you back to the place of failure. He will take you back to the place of failure. You see, this plane where this memorial is going to be erected by Samuel is a plane that will remind the Israelites of the delusion that blinkered them.

The delusion that blinkered them. Years ago they had gone into that self-same territory with the ark of the Lord. You remember I preached on that some weeks ago.

And they were of the assumption that that ark was a lucky charm and that they could somehow or other ensure that God was with them simply because they brought that most holy piece of furniture from the tabernacle. But it was a delusion. A delusion perhaps of, well, if not of grandeur.

A delusion that they would be safe although everyone else might be threatened by the enemies that were around them. As though they could come across the Philistines and suffer no discomfiture whatsoever. Doubtless they felt this because the ark was with them.

They had no knowledge whatsoever in their recall of the fact that before God will work for someone to holy life, He expects a commitment to Him for the outworking of His purposes. So the position of this stone, it brings back to the attention of the Hebrews as Samuel ministers to them the delusion that blinkered them. The terrible consequences that they suffered in thinking that somehow or other God was on their side despite the way that they were living.

Not only does it speak of the delusion that blinkered them but of the desertion that blunted them. The desertion that blunted them. You see, God had previously made it very plain through a man that He had sent as spokesman to Israel in earlier times when these people were living in a most inconsistent way.

Those who honor me I will honor but those who despise me will be disdained. That's in the second chapter and in the 30th verse. So here are these Israelites you see and they go into battle and they've had this word from the Lord and yet they seem to believe that it doesn't really matter how they live God would be on their side.

Do you remember how the Philistines came along and routed the Israelites and thousands and thousands of men fell in that one day? And the sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas were slaughtered and when the old priest heard of the death of his sons and the capture of the ark he fell back, broke his neck and as a result he died. And do you recall the name that was given to the grandson that Eli never saw? His daughter-in-law referred to the new infant as Ichabod which means the glory has departed. The glory departed from Israel from this plain where Samuel now comes back with the rest of the people and the fact that he's there and that the monument is going to be erected there is a reminder to them of the delusion that blinkered them that God was on their side no matter how they lived of the desertion that blunted them God had distanced himself from these people for more than twenty odd years and the deterioration finally it reminded them the deterioration that blighted them.

Twenty years is a long time isn't it to spend out in a spiritual wilderness but such we learn of these people. Twenty years had gone by before Samuel was able really to commence his ministry again and know some effective response as a result. Look at the second verse of the seventh chapter.

It was a long time twenty years in all that the ark remained at Kiriath-Jerim and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord. My friend, let me try again to make this word very clear. Do you feel terribly hot in this place this morning? Let me make this very clear that if God is going to cause you to be victorious in your life as a Christian He will have to take you back to the place where you started to deny Him or the place where you compromised with others as the Israelites had compromised in their testimony.

He'll take you back to the point of failure and it will be at the point of failure where He will erect a plinth and on top of that plinth will be the monument that will define the fact that the Lord has moved back into your circumstances and given to you the victory. There may be somebody here who's suffering from the problem of pornography. It's a blight that eats into the heart of men and sometimes women in the 20th century and it doesn't necessarily stop short of the Christian community because we're exposed to the immorality of a promiscuous society.

Maybe that God has got to take you right back to the years when this started to be a blight in your life. Right back to the very beginning and to erect a monument of holiness and to release you from the problem that at the moment grips you. It may be that someone here has got a difficulty in terms of drink or in terms of materialism and perhaps this was something that built up because most sins as they get stronger and stronger in our lives do so over a period of years.

Perhaps this built up over a long time and He's got to take you right back to the beginnings when this sin began to be a blight in your own life and then ultimately deliver you from it. You see, it was very important as to where this stone was being erected in Israel. It was being erected in a plain between Misper and Shen and bringing the people there would be a reminder to them of the delusion that once blinkered them.

They could have God with them no matter how they lived. It would recall for them the desertion that blunted them. God had seemingly left their midst because of their the way that they lived.

The deterioration that blighted them. Twenty years is a long time isn't it? To spend without living productively in the service of God. Where is the blessedness I knew when first I sought the Lord? Maybe there are people here in the tab.

I remember one dear, dear man who I love very, very much in South Africa saying to me Tony, I feel that I've wasted my life. Seventy years of age. Believing that somehow or other way back I think he was being hard on himself.

He'd compromised. And as a result he hadn't known the blessings of God upon his life. Now I say if you're in that condition the Lord has to take you back to the point of your compromise and there clear the ground so that a plinth can be built so that a monument can be erected and so that you can deal with the problem that has confronted you.

The position of the stone. That's the first thing that we need to draw our attention to. And then the occasion of the stone laying.

The occasion of the stone laying. Now when you lay a monument in London there's always a great deal of pomp and circumstance and sometimes legitimately so. You remember that police woman who was terribly shot outside the Libyan embassy just a couple of years ago.

They've now got a plaque commemorating the valour of that young girl. And there was a lot of circumstance a lot of pomp that was attached to that unveiling of the plaque and rightly so. Sometimes there are trumpets sometimes there are fanfares and sometimes it's not as justifiable as in the case that I cited.

But what about here? You see once more I bring you back to this. Samuel is in the presence of thousands of Israelites. He takes a stone and he sets it up between Mizpah and Shem and says thus far has the Lord helped us.

What was the occasion of the stone laying? Well the circumstances that surrounded it were these if I can list them very quickly. Danger was threatening the people. You read of that in the seventh verse.

When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had assembled at Mizpah the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. You see here these people have gathered together they've been under the power of the Philistines for twenty odd years and now they've all come together in one place and the Philistines are afraid. Perhaps Israel is going to try and get rid of their yoke.

And so their enemies encircle them as they come together with their leader Samuel to ask that God might correct them and forgive them for their past misdemeanors. The occasion of the stone laying was one of great danger and threatening. Now don't you see my friend if perhaps you've been compromising on your Christian faith for a long time or just for a short period when you determine in God's grace to make your covenant renewed again with the Lord then all of Satan's emissaries who have in some way invaded had power over your life will be on their guard because they don't want you to have your edge sharpening.

They prefer for your Christian testimony to be blunted. The occasion of the stone laying I say was one when danger threatened. It was also one when prayer was offered.

Look at the requests of the people in the eighth verse will you. They said to Samuel do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines. Now if you're going to know delivery whatever it is in your life and maybe it's not one of the sins that I've just illustrated maybe it's the problem of depression.

Maybe it's a problem of a loss of faith. I notice this very often particularly with older friends. You know their life's partner is gone.

It's not so easy to keep faith in a pristine wholesome condition. And you want the return of that. You want the return of the first flush of enthusiasm that you knew when years ago God became very real to you.

Now how are you going to receive this? Well the devil certainly doesn't want you to have it. He stalks a man even to his deathbed. I've seen it time and time again.

My pastoral advice is not plucked these days from books. It's plucked from my own experience. The devil will stalk you.

The Philistines will be around you. Now how do you cope with this? Well notice the occasion of this stone laying. This stone of help as it's really to be interpreted from the Hebrew.

It was one when danger threatened and prayer was offered. Samuel, will you pray for us? Here you see the people are submitting to a God ordained leadership. Now that's another problem that very often people suffer from today.

They don't see that when Ephesians and Corinthians tells us about the leaders that God has placed in His church that God has put those people there for their spiritual good. You see one of the problems with the Israelites was 20 years ago they took the ark onto the battlefield and they never consulted with their spiritual leaders. They believed that they could do things on their own.

No submission whatsoever. And I tell you I'm horrified of the Christian people today who will never submit themselves to any authority outside their own will which can often be very capricious. I put it stronger.

I'm horrified at Christians who cannot understand the biblical teaching of committing themselves to a local fellowship wherever that fellowship may be and coming under the pastoral guidance and leading of men whom God has elected into office to serve in that particular fellowship. When you try and go independently of God, when you try to isolate yourself and think that you can be on your own living in the service of God, I tell you that you're running great risks. I don't know of any great man of God of Scripture who tripped out from this whole challenge of being bound into a fellowship with its leaders and submitting his life to them as they submit their lives to one another.

This is one of the problems, you see, of the people and they're learning from it. They come to Samuel. Samuel will tell you later on that his ministry in Israel is to pray for the people.

In fact, he says, as for me, in the 12th chapter and the 23rd verse, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you and I will teach you the way that is good and right. So, you see, this occasion of stone laying, this monument that is erected that's of great significance to those who've got spiritual insight as they read the Old Testament today, it was erected during a time when there was great danger and prayer was offered on behalf of the people by Samuel himself. And what's more, a sacrifice was made.

Look at the 10th verse. When Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage in battle. If you read in an earlier verse, the 9th verse, then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to the Lord.

He cried out to the Lord on Israel's behalf and the Lord answered him. You see, the people have sinned. They've fallen well short of what God expected of them.

Now, what is the antidote for sin? Turning over a new leaf? No, that's modern theology and it really doesn't have any biblical argument whatsoever. The only antidote for sin is the shedding of blood. In the Old Testament, it was the blood of a lamb, of a young lamb, of a perfect lamb that was shed on behalf symbolically of the people's sins.

But all the lambs of the Old Testament prefigured the Lamb of God who one day accosted John the Baptist, you remember, on the banks of the Jordan. And it was our Lord Jesus Christ who makes His way. Some years later, to Calvary's Cruel Cross.

And there He offers Himself up as an atonement for the sins of people like you and me. And when you move into the book of Revelation, you find that time and time again, prayer and praise is offered to the Lamb who was slain. It's in the victory of the blood of Calvary that people are able to overcome sin and temptation.

To go forward in the name of Jesus, to conquer and to conquest. Samuel makes a sacrifice as this monument is erected. And the obvious application must be made by you and me today as we think of the monument that God erected at Calvary and the benefits of the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God, our place to our account.

Now will you notice, not only were these features that I've suggested to you part of this monument erection, the danger that threatened, the prayer that was offered, the sacrifice that was made, but the power of God is released. Look at the 10th verse, will you. While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage in battle.

But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. You see, this stone-laying ceremony was to know a most remarkable release of the power of God amongst the ranks of the Israelites. Now it's always the case, my friend, that when you mean business with the Lord, when you come back to Him as these Israelites came back to God via Samuel, and when an atonement is made, when the blood of the Lord Jesus is applied to your account, when prayers are offered, then the power of God is released amongst you.

Does not the history of the early church just teach you that? Here were the apostles of our Lord on the day of Pentecost, very, very weak men. No way could they offset the power of Rome, the power of paganism. But the blood of the Lamb had been applied to their account.

And as a result of this, they are in a position where God can allow His Spirit to come down and drench them. And in a very dynamic fashion, they can move into the Roman Empire to conquer and to conquest and to make an impact for Jesus Christ. Now all these, don't you see, all these New Testament principles are embedded in the Old Testament.

What was the problem for the Israelites for twenty-odd years during the ministry of Samuel, who during that time, incidentally, hardly saw a person one for the Lord? What was their problem? Their problem was the Philistines. Why were the Philistines a problem? Because of their compromise, because of their failure to understand that as the people of God they were to live differently. But when God released His power, then the Philistines were routed themselves.

And we're told throughout Samuel's lifetime, verse 13, the last part, throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. And the territory that had been captured by the Philistines earlier was returned to Israel, the towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to her, and so forth. So what have we looked at? Well, we've considered the position where this stone-laying ceremony took place and the occasion of the ceremony.

What happened? Now, finally, the inscription on the stone. The inscription on the stone. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mishpah and Shen.

He named it Ebenezer, saying, thus far has the Lord helped us. Most memorials have an inscription on them. I'm not saying that you've got to take the word inscription here literally, but as far as Samuel was concerned, it would always stand that monument for these words, hitherto or thus far has the Lord helped us.

What can you say about the inscription? It places the credit where it rightly belonged. It placed the credit where it rightly belonged. Hitherto, thus far, has the Lord helped us.

Not has the sword helped us. Not has our ingenuity helped us. Not even thus far has Samuel helped us.

Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. That's the importance of this monument, you see. Now, some of you have monuments like this in your own life.

Some of you, as I projected just a few moments ago, have known blessings in terms of your spiritual life in these last few weeks. How do you understand your blessing? Where did it come from? Your own innate strength? Not a bit. The influence of other people? No, not directly.

Any blessing that you have received comes from this fact. Hitherto, thus far, the Lord has helped us. The inscription on the stone, it places the credit where it rightly belongs.

Do you remember a man by the name of Nebuchadnezzar? You read of him in the Old Testament, of course, in the book of Daniel. He's the king of Babylon. He gets inflated in his own opinion of himself.

One day he struts around the walls of his palace. He surveys this great metropolis, nothing like Babylon in the whole of the ancient world of his day. And he says, this great Babylon, which I have built for myself.

He arrogates to himself a power that is little short of deity. And then you read of one of the most remarkable events in the whole of the Old Testament, in the outpouring of the judgment of God. He humiliates Nebuchadnezzar.

He becomes as a beast of the field, eating grass with his nails growing like the nails of a vulture. When a man arrogates to himself the blessings of God as though he is the originator, then I tell you he's in great difficulty. Now, my friend, be careful.

Whatever it is that you have in life that you bask in, your comfortable home, your good job, your family, your health, make the inscription over those things. The same inscription as Samuel engraved on that stone that was upended between Mishpah and Shen. Hitherto, thus far, has the Lord helped us.

Give the credit where it's due. And this stone, it rightly interprets the past. You see, the problem with the Israelites is this, they were prodigals.

I mean by that that their spiritual salvation did not begin nor end in the ministry of Samuel. As a nation, they had received God's blessing for many, many a long year, many a century. I remember once I was driving through northern France and it was a very, very long road.

And on either side of the road were the most wonderful trees, tall trees, going right into the heavens. And I drove for miles and I stopped my car and I looked back and I could see all those trees standing erect on either side, going on almost into infinity, or so it seemed. The trees that I'd passed, the Ebenezers of God, the trees, the stones that I look back on, maybe some of you from 70 years of life or 80 years of life or 60 or 50, they're all there.

They tell you of past blessings. Hitherto, in perplexity and clarity, He was there. In health, in pain, He was there.

In the sunshine, in the darkness, in unemployment, in work, in war, in peace. Thus far has the Lord helped me. You see what you're doing? When you start to look on things like this, you're looking biblically upon the way that God has interposed Himself on your behalf and you're seeing again, you're reviewing again the monuments that have already been upended.

Why is it so important? Well, it's important, my friend, because of the position that it gives you for the future. Augustus Toplady got it right. His love in times past forbids me to think.

He'd leave me at last in trouble to sink. Each bold Ebenezer I hold in review confirms His good pleasure to see me right through. How can I cope with tomorrow if tomorrow offers me loneliness? If tomorrow offers me unemployment? If tomorrow offers me a failing health? How can I cope? I can't.

Not on my own. But I don't have to cope on my own because there's a stone, there's the memorial stone that's been erected in my life and it has this inscription, Hitherto has the Lord helped me. Lord, You did it years ago.

You took me back to the very territory that Satan possessed in my life. And You stripped me of the problem that I couldn't get away from. And You erected a memorial as You freed me from the sin that enslaved me, Lord.

And I remember the occasion how the blood of Jesus was credited to my account. How the prayers of the saints were around me. And how I moved on in Your service.

And Lord, since those days, there's been many an Ebenezer. There's been many a time when You've come into my life and You've blessed me. Now, Lord, You're not going to let me go.

I stand poised for the future. And I do so confidently because I look at my Ebenezer and I believe thus far the Lord has helped me and I can count on Him in the days that are yet to come. Amen.

416 All the way my Saviour leads me. What have I to ask beside? Jesus knew and taught me. Jesus knew and taught me.

Holy is His mind. Gives me grace for ev'ry trial. Leads me with Him to victory.

Holy is His mind. Gives me grace for ev'ry trial. Now, Father, many of us here have nothing else in life to hold on to but our belief that You involve Yourself in our affairs and at the end we have nothing but the blood of our Lord Jesus to plead for our sin and to make us right with You.

Help us, therefore, to embrace each day Your love as You embrace us to cling to the old-fashioned gospel and to look to that great memorial stone of all the cross of our Lord Jesus and see the inscription there Thus far has God helped us and with that in mind we dare to believe we can face not only tomorrow but eternity. Amen.