Raise Your Ebenezer
John 12:20-33Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.
23
Jesus replied, "The hour has come
for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it
dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while
the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever
serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father
will honor the one who serves me. Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I
say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came
to this hour. 28 Father, glorify
your name!"
Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify
it again." 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others
said an angel had spoken to him.
30 Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine.
31 Now is the time for
judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men to myself." 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
(Ashtoreth = the moon goddess of the Phoenicians,
representing the passive principle in nature, their principal female deity;
frequently associated with the name of Baal, the sun-god, their chief male deity.
This deity is spoken of as Ashtoreth of the Zidonians. She was the Ishtar of
the Accadians and the Astarte of the Greeks.
There was a temple of the Ashtoreth goddess among the Philistines in the
time of Samuel.
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.
7 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.
10 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. 11 The men of
Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them
along the way to a point below Beth Car.
1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He
named it Ebenezer,
saying, "Thus far has
the Lord helped us." 13 So the Philistines were subdued
and did not invade Israelite territory again.
SPECIAL MUSIC: Saved by Grace – Teddy
Jesus was tempted to raise a stone (false Ebenezer)
and turn it into bread.
COMMUNION BREAD – Jesus took the bread
(lift it up) and gave thanks…
In 1 Samuel 7, the prophet Samuel and the Israelites
found themselves under attack by the Philistines. Fearing for their lives, the
Israelites begged Samuel to pray for them in their impending battle against the
Philistines. Samuel offered a sacrifice to God and prayed for His protection.
God listened to Samuel, causing the Philistines to lose the battle and retreat
back to their own territory. After the Israelite victory, the Bible records:
“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its
name Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us’ ” (1 Samuel 7:12).
The word Ebenezer comes from the Hebrew words ’Eben
hà-ezer (eh’-ben haw-e’-zer), which simply mean “stone of help”. When Robinson
wrote his lyrics, he followed the word Ebenezer with the phrase, “Here by Thy
great help I’ve come.” An Ebenezer, then, is simply a monumental stone set up
to signify the great help that God granted the one raising the stone. In
Robinson’s poem, it figuratively meant that the writer—and all who subsequently
sing the song—acknowledge God’s bountiful blessings and help in their lives.
Now when you sing about raising your Ebenezer, you
will be able to “sing with the understanding” that you are acknowledging God’s
help in your life.
SONG:
Come Thou Fount – Praise Team
COMMUNION CUP - Jesus offer the cup (lifted up) and gave thanks…(surely the presence…)
3 songs: I
could sing of your love forever/ No other love/ We Fall Down
This
is a story of my Ebenezer. Emily Peterson
On a warm night in July, I found myself in a quiet,
dimly lit dorm room in Ankara, Turkey. I had the window propped open and
somewhere in the streets below the final azan (call to prayer) was being sung
out into the darkness. That night at 11:55, I submitted my application for the
World Race.
A
week later in the same dorm room, I was having a wrestling match with God. Though
I was confident at the moment I pressed "submit", it didn't take long
for doubt to work its way into my thoughts. The more I considered the
situation, the more absurd it all seemed. There were so many reasons for me not
to go in January. Lots of things would have to work out perfectly, and if they
didn't... I simply couldn't go. I told God these things as if to say,
"Look, I don't know if you thought about all this but I want you to know
that I'm pretty sure this won't work so don’t make me say I told you so."
As I prayed really sloppy, weak prayers, the Lord
kindly interrupted me and said, "Make a list, Emily. Write down all you
need from me - everything I have to provide in order for you to go in January.
Write a list and watch me provide."
In my journal I scribbled down the list. Some of it is
shamefully trivial, but other things were serious: "I need a sub-leaser
and/or someone to pay my rent" and "I need a job for the
semester." In all, there were eleven things that God had to provide or
else it wasn't going to work. Three days
after I wrote that list, I got an email about a job opening in Austin. A day
later I’d applied and got the job. I also got a call from AIM welcoming me to
the World Race. The phone calls were minutes apart.
One by one I scratched through something that had
previously been a barrier blocking my way to leaving in January. The bricks in
my Wall of Jericho were coming down and it had nothing to do with me and
everything to do with God keeping his promises.
As the months passed, things continued to line up
perfectly. But then, days before Training Camp and two months before
graduation, I went to my advisor to apply to graduate. After doing a “degree
audit”, my advisor turned to me and gave me the worst possible news. In the
most irritatingly nonchalant way he said, “It looks like you’re one hour short
of graduating in December.”
Naturally, I freaked out and assumed this was some
kind of error, but he stared back at his computer and confirmed that I was in
jeopardy of not graduating because one credit hour had slipped through the
cracks somewhere. So I panicked and said something like, “Look you don’t
understand. I have to graduate in December because I’m leaving the country in
January to go be a missionary for a year. I’m going to hold orphans and eat
rice and I ALREADY BOUGHT MY CHACOS!” My advisor dismissed my panic by telling
me about one of his previous students who had done something seemingly similar.
“She did something called ‘The World Race.’ Have you ever heard of it?” he asked.
Okay wow, God, I thought. Okay wow.
I ended up having to take this special test to get the
credit I needed to graduate, but because of Training camp I only had two days
to learn an entire semester’s worth of material. I’ve never had so much riding
on a single exam, nor have I ever been so sick with nerves. Anyway, I passed
the test.
At training camp my teammate Jordynn said the Lord
gave her a message for me: “Fall boldly, because the Lord wants to catch you
boldly.”
When I came home from training camp, the last major
thing on my list was finding a sub-leaser. At that point, I’d posted in every
possible place and though plenty of people had responded, not a single person
worked out. As the weeks passed, it seemed hopeless until eventually, it came
time to buy a plane ticket.
I remember that night very well. I was sitting alone
in my room feeling absolutely terrified at the idea of buying a one-way ticket
out of Texas when I still didn’t have any secured way of paying my rent for six
months. I knew it was the riskiest possible move to buy that ticket, but as I
prayed about it I felt the Lord tell me, “Emily, you have to trust me with no
backup plans. Fall boldly, remember?”
So, I bought the ticket. I told myself that I’d wait
until two weeks before Launch, to find a
sub-leaser. If I hadn’t found one by then, I’d try to raise the money to cover
my rent – nearly $3,000.
On December 15th I still had not found a sub-leaser. A
friend and mentor from home referred me to a family he knew that might be able
to help. I contacted the family and arranged to meet with them when I was back
in town.
On the evening of December 23rd I met with a member of
this family. The conversation lasted no more than ten minutes. I was prepared
for the worst, but I was a little caught off guard when, instead of a polite
refusal to help me, the person sitting across from me said, “My family and I
believe in the kind of work you’re doing, and we want to support you.”
Three days later I picked up a check for $2,850 – six
months’ rent in full. Ten days before I was scheduled to leave home for a year,
the Lord fulfilled the last of the promises he’d made to me almost EXACTLY five
months before. As I think back to that
night in Turkey and the list I wrote that changed my life, there is simply not
a doubt in my mind that the Lord is real.
You can be sure that I’ll carry that list with me
around the world this year. In a moment of doubt or fear, I’ll pull it out and
remind myself of what the Lord has done. When others need reassurance, I’ll
raise my Ebenezer and offer undeniable evidence that the Lord is real, he is
good, and he keeps his promises.
If and when you find yourself before a mountain and it
seems impossible that you’ll ever get to the other side, I encourage you to
raise your Ebenezer, stop telling God how big your mountain is, and start
telling that mountain how big your God is.
An Ebenezer is a Rock that reminds us of
God’s Help. A Rock that reminds us of
God’s help. A rock…God raised a rock and
rolled it away to reveal our eternal help had conquered sin and death once and
for all. The rock was moved to prove
that God was our help!!! That was only
possible because Jesus had first gone to the cross where he had been lifted
up. …
and I, if I be lifted up will draw all men to myself.
Ps
62:6-8
God alone is
my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he
is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in
him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
1
Cor 10:3-4 (Manna and water in the wilderness)
They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual
drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that
rock was Christ.
RESPONSE SONG: Lift Him Up!
WRITER: REBA RAMBO-MCGUIRE
LIFT HIM UP, LIFT HIM UP
LIFT THE NAME OF JESUS HIGHER
LIFT HIM UP, RAISE HIS BANNER TO THE SKY
HE SAID IF I BE LIFTED UP I WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME
LIFT HIM UP ALL YE PEOPLE, LIFT HIM UP
PRAISE THE LORD, PRAISE THE LORD
PRAISE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS FOREVER
PRAISE THE LORD, LIFT YOUR VOICES TO THE SKY
HE SAID IF WE WON'T PRAISE HIS NAME
THEN THE ROCKS AND STONES WILL CRY OUT
PRAISE THE LORD ALL YE PEOPLE, PRAISE THE LORD
SHOW HIS LOVE SHOW HIS LOVE
SHOW HIS LOVE TO EVERYBODY
SHOW HIS LOVE LET YOUR CANDLE ALWAYS SHINE
HE SAID THAT BY THE LOVE WE SHOW
THEY WILL KNOW WE'RE HIS DISCIPLES
SHOW HIS LOVE ALL YE PEOPLE, SHOW HIS LOVE
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