JEHOVAH EBENEZER (GOD OUR HELP IN TIMES OF NEED)

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES

TOPIC: JEHOVAH EBENEZER (GOD OUR HELP IN TIMES OF NEED)

SERMON BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
1st Samuel 7:12

Samuel led a great revival in Israel and beat the Philistines with God’s help. This sermon is background and context. Samuel burned a sucking lamb to secure God’s help and honored Him with a memorial – Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.

The state of the children of Israel in the above scripture was pathetic and also appalling. They had gone astray from God and were rendered destitute by their enemies, the Philistines, because of sin. Divine protection was taken away from them, and they became exposed to palpable fears and danger. The only antidote at this time was repentance. As soon as the Israelites repented and put away strange gods in their midst, the Lord showed
forth. He discomfited the enemies. God’s covenant with the Israelites was renewed and sealed up with the Stone of our Help- Ebenezer.

It is near the end of the period of the judges.
The children of Israel had gone back to serving idols, again.
So, they had been under Philistine control for the past twenty years.
Samuel the prophet was now of age and preaching for the people to repent.
They heard his voice and put away the idols.
The Philistines heard about this and brought their entire army against Israel.
Samuel offered a lamb as sacrifice for the people and implored God to deliver them.
The text says that Yahweh thundered a great thunder against the Philistines.
Israel pursued them to a place that was between Mizpeh and Shen.
There, Samuel erected a stone and called it Ebenezer: the stone of help.

Today, the Lord has renewed His covenant with Kingdom Power during the twenty “Sundays of Jehovah Our Ebenezer.” Various battles were fought and won. Going down memory lane, the dark world staged serious battle to frustrate the efforts of redemption, but the Lord put them to flight. All that man lost from inception had been restored. The Lord has officially handed them over to us. Different kinds of kingdoms that ravaged the world and the gospel have submitted to Kingdom Power because redemption won. Sickness and failures have no power over Kingdom Citizens. Powers in the sea, ocean, air and underground have been rendered ineffective.

The rights man willingly gave to the devil at the Garden of Eden have been recovered to him. Freedom from sin and captivity from the enemies was given back and celebrated by man. During this period under review, the African continent regained its lost glory among comity of nations. Nigeria captivity was also broken to pieces. The world powers and the islamist jihadists that subjected Nigeria and other African countries under their control will lose their grip, so that we can boldly say that we are set free by Jehovah our Ebenezer. Kingdom Citizens will finally take their place. The entire world shall quiver in the spiritual realm, as its strongholds will be totally devastated. No occult group, world over, can ever function effectively because they will be incapacitated.

It is certainly a very delightful thing to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints. How profitable an occupation to observe God’s goodness in delivering David out of the jaw of the lion and the paw of the bear; his mercy in passing by the transgression, iniquity, and sin of Manasseh; his faithfulness in keeping the covenant made with Abraham; or his interposition on the behalf of the dying Hezekiah. But, beloved, would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to remark the hand of God in our own lives? Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of his goodness and of his truth, as much a proof of his faithfulness and veracity as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before? I think we do our Lord an injustice when we suppose that he wrought all his mighty acts in days of yore, and showed himself strong for those in the early time, but doth not perform wonders or lay bare his arm for the saints that are now upon the earth. Let us review, I say, our own diaries. Surely in these modern pages we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to our God. Have you had no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers, supported by the Divine presence? Have you walked through no fires unharmed? Have you not been saved in six troubles? yea, in seven hath not Jehovah helped you? Have you had no manifestations? The God that spoke to Abraham at Mamre, hath he never spoken to you? The angel that wrestled with Jacob at Peniel, hath he never wrestled with you? He that stood in the fiery furnace with the three holy children, hath he never trodden the coals at your side? O beloved, he has manifested himself unto us as he doth not unto the world. Forget not these manifestations; fail not to rejoice in them. Have you had no choice favors? The God that gave Solomon the desire of his heart, hath he never listened to you and answered your requests? That God of lavish bounty, of whom David sang, “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s,” hath he never satiated you with fatness? Have you never been made to he down in green pastures? Have you never been led by the still waters?
Surely, beloved, the goodness of God of old has been repeated unto us. The manifestations of his grace to those gone to glory has been renewed to us, and delivering mercies as experienced by them are not unknown even to us, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

I beg you, therefore, dear friends, for a little time this morning, to fix your thoughts upon your God in connection with yourselves; and, while we think of Samuel piling the stones and saying, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us,” let us lay the emphasis upon the last word and say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped US,” and if you can put it in the singular, and say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped ME,” so much the better.

if this day the glory of God’s grace resteth upon you, pile the stone, and anoint the pillar, and write thereon, “Ebenezer, hitherto the Lord hath helped us.”

Beloved, let me encourage you when you are faced with undertaking any difficult situation, be it in suffering or service for Christ, choose to recall that God is your Helper and that He has delivered you before and will yet deliver again. The trial won’t necessarily disappear but your perspective concerning the trial will likely be quite different.

In all future time Jehovah will stand up for his chosen. Our Great Ally will bring up his forces in the heat of the battle. He shall deliver them from the wicked. As he rescued Daniel from the lions, so will he preserve his beloved from their enemies; they need not therefore fret, nor be discouraged.

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my EBENEZER;
Here by Thy great HELP I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

SHALOM!

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