Back in the 1700s, there lived a British man named Robert Robinson. Robert was born to two Christian parents in England. Sadly, Robert’s father died when he was just eight years old. Like many kids who lose a parent at a young age, Robert’s life was hard and he unfortunately fell into trouble and got involved with a gang in London when he was a teenager.

One day, the gang thought it would be funny to go hear some crazy preacher named George Whitefield. If you’ve ever been an edgy teenager, you get this – it’s cool to make fun of people who have funny (in your opinion) beliefs. But the joke was on Robert Robinson because during George Whitefield’s sermon, the Holy Spirit convicted Robert of his sin and he professed faith in Christ as his savior.

At the young age of 22, he penned one of my favorite hymns giving us a glimpse into his own testimony. That hymn is Come Thou Fount and some of the lyrics go like this:

2 Here I raise my Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;

and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.”

In my early days as a Christ follower, I heard the word “Ebenezer” and was confused. Why is the song talking about a Christmas Carol character? But, I then realized Ebenezer was something found in the bible that carries a significant meaning in the Old Testament but I also think it holds significant meaning to us as a church right now.

As we start a new season here at HBIC, I know we are really excited about the future. But in our excitement, I want us to also look to the past to see the hand of God in our lives and through this church so that we can move forward expecting to see God’s hand even more. During our time together, we are going to see three reminders from Scripture today:

1.      Seek the Lord and he will show up for you.

2.     Stay strong by remembering God’s faithfulness in the past.

3.     God’s faithfulness emboldens us to serve him in the future.

To that end, we’re going to be opening our bibles up to 1 Samuel 7. While we get ready to read, some important context is needed as the Old Testament is often a bit harder for us to jump right into:

1.      Currently, Israel is in a time of being ruled by Judges – think of them as governors who were responsible for Israel’s safety and allegiance to Yahweh. Israel continues to fall into dark seasons of deep idolatry and destructive sin. As a result of their rebellion, God allows the Philistines to defeat the Israelites in battle (Knowing that the defeat would humble the Israelites to repentance).

2.     We’re going to read about Samuel – who was the final Judge of Israel before Saul became king. Since Samuel was a baby, he was set apart to serve the Lord after his mother, Hannah, in a touching prayer begged the Lord for a son.

3.     At this time, Israel still possessed the Ark of the Covenant – which housed the Ten Commandments. God’s presence dwelled there. The Philistines stole away the Ark but are giving it back to Israel after Yahweh began to inflict the Philistines with tumors and disease for their sin. So, we are going to pick up the story with the Israelites getting the Ark back.

So, let’s read God’s Word together.

Read 1 Samuel 7:1-12

Since God’s Word is active and alive today, this story from three thousand years ago still applies to us today. So, let’s dig in. Our first lesson we can learn from Scripture is this:

Seek the Lord and he will show up for you.

Earlier in 1 Samuel, the Israelites go against the Philistines – they bring the Ark of the Covenant to the battle, not out of a desire to be with the presence of God. Rather, they bring the Ark to act like a trump card against the Philistines – kind of like a cheat code. It doesn’t work and the Israelites lose the battle, lose the Ark, and it’s one of the darkest days in the Old Testament. After the Philistines give the Ark back, 1 Samuel says the Israelites lamented or mourned their sin and sought the Lord for 20 years. After the 20 years, Samuel gave them the instructions to forsake their idols, purify their hearts, and return to Yahweh.

They need to tear down the things that are keeping your hearts captive and enslaved.

In this passage, you start to see how their hearts were deeply transformed by God. A few chapters ago, the Israelites only cared about God because they thought the Ark would help them win a battle. But in chapter 7, you begin to see the marks of a deeply changed people: people who admit they sinned against the Lord.  They are people who heard of their enemy coming to attack them and knew their only hope was to ask God for help. They are people who seek God with all their hearts and God shows up for the Israelites in this way: he causes a mass confusion in the Philistine ranks and gives the Israelites the victory.

What else can God do when we truly seek him? When we throw off our idols, purify our hearts, and turn to God? We see a powerful act of God happen in the book of Acts. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends, filled with Holy Spirit, gives a convicting sermon and three thousand people were baptized and came to faith in Christ that day. The Spirit of God moved. This early group of people then began meeting together, discipling each other, keeping one another accountable from idolatry, and celebrated the Lord’s supper often. You even realize how astounding it is that Christianity started with Jesus commissioning 11 disciples to go into the world and now there are over 2 billion Christians in the world.

For you, I’d invite you to join with me in seeking the Lord in this new season. What new ways do you feel like God is asking you to grow in? What people are you afraid of talking about Jesus to? What things scare you? Intimidate you? What things or idols do you need to cast out or turn away from? What ways can you seek God and what is he trying to tell you right now? With all these things, I know God would love to show up for you and help just like he did in 1 Samuel.

In our journey of this new season and beyond, we are going to face hard things no question which leads me to the next lesson we can learn from this story:

Stay strong in the Lord by remembering God’s faithfulness in the past.

After the Israelites beat the Philistines in battle, what did Samuel do? He built an Ebenezer or a stone of help to remind the Israelites how God delivered them from the Philistines. It was a literal stone monument to remind them and all future generations that God’s loyal and faithful love saved the people once again. The language of “thus far the Lord has helped us” also implies that God will continue to demonstrate his loyalty in the future as well.

Samuel knew it would be easy to forget how God rushed to bring victory for the Israelites. Samuel knew it would be easy for the Israelites to begin taking credit for their victory. Samuel knew that in the past, the Israelites tried to use God as a cheat code or a trophy to further their own agenda. But, the stone monument reminded them: God is not a trophy to be used. Rather, God is a God who is faithful and will carry out his promises when we seek him and when our hearts are centered on him and his will.

Earlier in 1 Samuel, the Israelites suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Philistines, and they lost the Ark of the Covenant. The Lord allowed the Israelites to face that to bring them to a low point where they’d repent. Where did the defeat take place? It took place at a place called: “Ebenezer.” So as Samuel is building this stone monument, it’s almost as if he is saying: “Hey, I know a few of you were wondering after we lost that battle, where are you God? What were you thinking?” And that stone monument is a reminder that God’s faithful love is able to redeem our perceived losses. God can bring good out of things we perceive as bad.

A few of you know that I finished up an autobiography of a man named George Muller recently. A few things you should know about George:

·       He was a pastor and evangelist in the U.K. during the 1800’s

·       He came to faith during an at-home bible study as a young man who used to lie, cheat, and steal.

·       He cared for over 10,000 orphaned children in the U.K. during the time of Oliver Twist where it was common to all street children to just die on the street

·       He built multiple homes for these children

·       He never took any sort of salary; he instead simply asked God to bring the funds that he needed for his family and his ministry. He never sent out fundraising appeals asking for funds for the children.

His autobiography follows a simple format: it’s his journal. Throughout, you’ll find entries from the morning saying: “I don’t know how we are going to get more food for the hundreds of children in our care. I must pray about this at once.” The evening journal entry will then read: “By God’s grace, we had a baker friend who provided us with more than enough bread to feed everyone and a dairy farmer who gifted us 15 liters of milk. God is so gracious to us!”

And in his journal entries, he penned this quote: “God delights to increase the faith of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hands as a means. Trials, obstacles, difficulties and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith.”

In his autobiography, there are moments of real questioning for George. Moments where he asks: “How long, Lord?” But, God was extremely faithful to George, and his eternal impact cannot be measured. George’s journal entries functioned like an Ebenezer as they were reminders to him of God’s faithfulness in the past. And as he reflected on that, he was able to stay strong in his present moment.

You may be thinking: That’s great, Anthony. But, I’m not George. You’re right but in his autobiography, George wrote an entire chapter reminding his readers that he’s not special. He merely asks for things out of faith and God responds to his prayers, in God’s time. What does Jesus tell us? Seek and you will find, ask and it will be given to you, and knock and the door will be opened to you.

It’s a plot of the enemy to get us to pray safe prayers and then wonder why we don’t see the faithfulness of God. It’s also a plot of the enemy to believe God isn’t answering your prayers or taking too long. Be bold, pray big prayers, earnestly wait, and God will delight in displaying his faithful love to you.

How can you create your own Ebenezer? I’d encourage you to journal, collect photos, write out on a sheet of paper how you are blessed, etc. As you reflect on your own ebenezer, George Muller, or this story from 1 Samuel, you will stay strong amidst your challenges. You can’t see the faithfulness of God if you’re not even bothering to look for it. I journal for friends, clarity on pastoral calling, etc.

And when you look at your Ebenezer, your heart begins to change and you find new confidence that God’s faithfulness still applies which leads us to our last point:

God’s faithfulness emboldens us to serve him.

In 1 Samuel 7:10, it says that the Lord caused a mighty thunder that threw the enemies into confusion. From there, the Israelites (not their army, just ordinary farmers, vineyard owners, etc.) defeated a superior military force. This would be the equivalent of a tiny country like Luxembourg defeated the United States of America’s military. Why did Israel march out with such confidence? They were emboldened to be brave because they were reminded of God’s faithfulness when they heard the thunder. They knew God was truly on their side and felt courage to do something that was extremely scary and led to a crushing defeat last time. But with their hearts in the right place, God led them to victory.

As I’ve been getting settled into the office this past week, I found a history of HBIC bin that Brian had. In it, I found some amazing things:

·       A brochure promoting our bus ministry with none other than Bob Malehorn as the bus captain

·       Board meeting minutes containing the names of people like Mike Henze and Rick Free

·       Sunday school records with people like Elaine Stern or Pat Palmer listed as teachers

·       Old photos of Jim Emenheiser serving as a trustee during our kitchen and fellowship hall additions

·       Youth group brochures with Jeff Stern as the leader

·       A church calendar with our old address of 214 High Street before this building was even built

·       List of baptism records from the early 1900’s

And when I was finding this, I was so deeply moved because it reminded me of God’s faithfulness to his big, global church but also to our local church here in Hanover. We are standing on the shoulders of giants, of people who have come before us and served this church. Through their efforts, we can see how faithful God has been to all of us here. Without folks who came before us, I wouldn’t be standing here as a follower of Christ. I would be spiritually dead. The same could be said for many of you or that you wouldn’t be as strong of a believer as you are.

Because of that, I know God will continue to be faithful to us in the future. This year, there are going to be changes. Some big changes, some smaller changes. With any sort of change, there can be excitement but there can also be grief as things you once knew and cherished must change. But just like this church has changed from meeting on 214 High Street, Hanover, PA, these changes are a part of God’s plan to continue to amaze us with his faithful love.

I want to see more people who are spiritually lost and dead in their sin to come find abundant life in Jesus Christ through this church. I want us to get extremely serious about discipling one another and confessing sin to one another. I want us to ruthlessly pursue local missions and outreach to demonstrate that our church takes Jesus’ commands seriously.

Worship and prayer team, you can make your way up to the front as well.

Will everything work perfectly? Of course not. But as we head into this new season of ministry at HBIC, I want you to remember something.

This passage of Scripture points to a day where there would be another raising of a monument except this monument would be lifted up not by a holy man like Samuel, but rebels who said a man who did no wrong deserved to die. 1,000 years after the Ebenezer moment, Jesus Christ was also lifted up to display the ultimate faithful love of God. The cross is the nucleus of history, it is the apex of our world because it demonstrates God’s serious commitment to redeeming his people and his creation.

Just like we learned in 1 Samuel today: When we seek God, he will respond with mercy and grace. When we are weak, the cross points us to what is strong. When we are afraid of the future, the cross points to a God who cares and will walk with us in our fears.

Christianity offers something real and vulnerable that no other religion does: a God who became human. A God who understands what it’s like to feel betrayed, abandoned, or misused. A God who suffers, weeps, and dies. But, a God whose faithful love to his people compels him to deal with our core problem which is our sin. He deals with that himself on the cross. A God who doesn’t stay dead but rises back to life. A God who now invites all to believe in him and to have the powers of sin, Satan, and death be broken off from them. And man, if you haven’t said yes to Jesus’ invitation, now is a really good time to say yes and begin the adventure of following him.

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is the ultimate faithfulness of our God. In this new season, let that faithfulness compels you to pursue him, to stay strong, and embolden you to serve him well.

Let me pray.