Amen. Our scripture reading is 1 Samuel 7, verses 3 and 4. This is God's word. And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, if you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only. and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreth, and they served the Lord only. Father, we thank you for your word this morning, and we thank you for the reminder that you are the good shepherd, and you will lose none of your sheep. We are happy and glad to be in Christ and to rejoice in you this morning and gather together with your children. your lambs your sheep and praise the name of the Lord together. We ask your blessing on the preaching of the word now and pray that you would instruct us and help us and minister to us. Lord we are sheep and we easily go astray. And so by your word would you corral us and lead us and guide us and feed us. This morning we pray in the name of our Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I love 1 Samuel. This has been such a great, it's been so fun for me, such great stories, so packed with application and theological elucidation. Quite honestly just naturally entertaining. Last week we left off with the Ark of the Covenant, the center of gravity for the nation of Israel being stored in a barn. That's where we left off after an epic display of Divine Red Rover. The Ark winds up in a barn and it's there for 20 years. Our passage reaches a decisive turning point in verses three and four, our scripture reading. And these two verses highlight really the main point of the chapter. Samuel is now the main character and it's really a launch of a new era. He's pictured as a kind of reformer, a leader, a priest. He's the last of the judges. And he calls the nation to repent. And after 20 years of lamenting, they finally do. It's a marvelous passage on repentance, marvelous passage on idolatry, and really a marvelous passage on what to do about it. I've outlined it in terms of repentance, six characteristics of repentance. But really, this is also largely about idolatry. What are idols? What were their idols? What are our idols? What do we do about it? How do we faithfully serve the Lord? So let's pick up our story back in verse two from the day that the Ark was lodged at Kiriath-Jerum, a long time past, some 20 years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. So absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Israel now misses the Lord. Two decades is all it took, but they are ripe now. Look at our first point, verse three. Samuel said to all the house of Israel, if you're returning to the Lord with all your heart. So let's just pause there and consider this. The very first thing Samuel addresses is the seriousness of their commitment, the seriousness of their resolution, their sincerity. If you remember the story of Joshua, at the end of Joshua, the end of his life, he stands before the nation and gives a rousing speech. And he says, and I want to just read it. Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness. Put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It's a very similar scenario. Samuel is calling for resolution and sincerity, and true repentance includes resolution and sincerity. Let's just consider this a little bit. First of all, resolution. Samuel's saying there's no middle ground. If you're returning to the Lord with all your heart, notice the if. Samuel can't make them return to the Lord. He can't force them. It's something they have to do. You can't repent for someone else. You can't change for someone else. They need to choose. They need to decide. They need to resolve. There's a lot of things we can't choose. Can't choose where I was born. Can't choose my skin color. Can't choose my family heritage. Can't choose my genetic makeup. A lot of things I can't change. Can't change the past, can't go back and redo certain things, can't change history. What's done is done. But we can choose and we must choose who our master will be. We can choose who we'll serve. We must decide. In the case of Joshua, he says, choose today, this day, who you will serve. Today is a day of decision. John Piper, in his book Don't Waste Your Life, said this, he says, you don't have to know a lot of things in order to make a huge difference for the Lord. But you do need to know a few things that are great and be willing to live for them and die for them. People who make a huge difference in the world are not people who've mastered a lot of things, they're people who've been mastered by a few things that are very, very great. Samuel calls the nation to return to the Lord with all their heart, and this includes sincerity, be mastered by one thing, have one master. And this takes resolution. And also sincerity. This means just being single-minded. Repentance involves the whole person. All the heart, be fully devoted. It's not enough to merely call oneself a Christian. It's not enough to just go through the perfunctory religious activities of a Christian. A nominal Christian is someone who's a Christian by name only. He or she is a cultural Christian. Traditional Christian values are a good thing, they're a blessing, but it's not enough to be a cultural Christian. Cultural Christianity saves no one, delivers no one, redeems no one. And if you're insincere about where your loyalty lies, you'll be swayed by the cultural winds and trends. True repentance includes returning to the Lord with all your heart. Verse 3 goes on and explains the next steps of repentance. Resolution and sincerity have a specific action item here. Namely, you get rid of idols. Look at verse 3 and 4. Put away the foreign gods and the as-toreth from among you. So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Astoroth. Now, we're not given the specifics of this, but this call to put away these idols and foreign gods must have meant that Israel, on a large scale, had embraced these foreign gods. Israel, under the leadership of Hophni and Phinehas, had embraced a Canaanite lifestyle. They'd become like the world around them. They had embraced the customs and lifestyle, sexual practices of the world around them. And just a word about these particular idols. We read about the Ashtoreth poles all over the Old Testament. The Yale Anchor Bible Dictionary made the observation that when we read of the Baals and Ashtoreth, it may be that this is simply a way of speaking about Canaanite gods and goddesses generally. Ashtate was the god of love and fertility. And they had their cult prostitutes. And if you wanted good crops and you were lonely, this cult was a more entertaining way to get what you want or get a better yield for your harvest than praying to the God of Israel. It's interesting and noteworthy, and you really do need to note this, how idolatry is often connected to immoral sex. Porneia becomes a major pipeline and highway of idolatry in the Old and New Testaments, same is true today. And the command couldn't be more clear, put it away, stop doing that. In fact, putting away idols and turning to the God of Israel is the most basic way to describe conversion in both Testaments. For example, 1 Thessalonians. Arguably the first letter written in the New Testament, or one of the first ones, written around 50 AD, very fresh, a couple decades after the crucifixion, resurrection. Listen to how Paul describes Gentile conversion. Gentile just means pagan. He says, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." That's exactly what Samuel is exhorting here in our passage. And it's a very helpful way to describe conversion even today. As Gentiles, we forsake our idols and we serve the living and true God. This, of course, is the first commandment. have no other gods, have no other idols. The Lord says, I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me. And part of the reason idolatry is wrong was because it imagined God to be different than what he actually is. And that's kind of a big deal. Stephen Ashford makes a great comment on this. He says, imagine if a woman's husband found out that his wife routinely told her friends I'd like to see my husband as a six-foot-two Antonio Banderas who lifts weights, whose perfect idea of a date night is perusing the aisles of TJ Maxx, who drinks frou-frou smoothies made out of strawberry, and who delights in talking about fashion trends and home furnishing ideas. If she kept saying that, her real husband, five-foot-six Frank, who likes to work on his truck, wears Wranglers, and whose idea of a perfect date is to shoot deer together, who drinks his coffee black, might get a little upset at being misrepresented so badly. And he would have the right to ask her why she has to reimagine him in order to love him. And that's how idolatry works. We essentially remake God or reimagine God in order to love him. And it's wrong. It's very wrong. The classic example of this is the golden calf. And it's so helpful. Moses takes too long. You know the story. He's on the mountain. And Aaron takes it upon himself to proclaim to the people that the golden calf was actually who led them out of Egypt. Now I don't think personally that the Israelites were actually worshiping Baal, but they were trying to worship Yahweh, but do it in their own way, in the wrong way. And they might have been saying something to the effect of, you know, Yahweh is precious, he's like gold. Yahweh is a provider, he's like a cow. And the people tried to worship the Lord, but they reimagined him and they remade him according to their own ideas. And you need to know that never works. You always end up with something lesser. The clearest example of this is in Romans 1. I'll just read it. Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking. Their foolish hearts were dark, and claiming to be wise, they became fools. And they exchanged, and this is what the Israelites did, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, animals, creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring their bodies among themselves. And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who's blessed forever, amen. That's idolatry, exchanging God for images, exchanging God for the creature rather than the creator. That's idolatry. Stuart Douglas lists a handful of examples of idolatry in the Old Testament. I'll just rattle them off. He said, number one, idols were selfish. If you've got needs, you turn to your idol. You need crops, feed your idol. Your idol will bless your crops. Idols were easy, not a lot of commands, not a lot of demands, not a lot of need for repentance required, not a lot of life change expected. Just feed them and make them happy, pretty easy. Idols were convenient. 1 Kings says the high places, the sacred stones, the Ashtoreth poles, were on every high hill and under every spreading tree. They were everywhere, like 7-Eleven, on every block, available under every shaded tree, as opposed to the temple, or the tabernacle in this case, which was super inconvenient and time consuming. Idols were normal. It was mainstream. Everyone did it. It was what the celebrities, the powerful people did. Fifth, they were pleasing to the senses. Idols were not ugly. They were pieces of art, visually stimulating. There was industries of idol making. Idols were indulgent. The Gentiles usually only ate meat after they sacrificed to an idol, so it was a double blessing. You know, do a good deed, feed your idol, and you get to be fed some nice meat in the process, usually accompanied with heavy drinking and getting wasted. Normal parts of idol worship, because you want to be generous to your idol. Idols were erotic. Sexual immorality and idolatry went hand in glove. Temple prostitution was a problem all throughout the Old Testament. How convenient to make your sexual appetites an act of worship and devotion. So what about idols today? You might be thinking, well, that was then. What about now? I mean, we don't have idols today. Whatever your thoughts on Tim Keller, he wrote a very helpful book on idolatry called Counterfeit Gods. And he made some really, really helpful statements on idolatry. He said, an idol is anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you, what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life, that should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. He also said, you can spot an idol by what keeps you up at night. What do you daydream about? The Bible uses three basic metaphors to talk about how people relate to their idols of their hearts. They love idols, trust idols, and obey idols. I want to talk a little bit about this. And there may be a number of idols we could list, but just give you some relevant examples for us. Number one, idolatry and sexual sin. This probably is the main idol. As I mentioned, the Old Testament describes a direct connection between sexual immorality and idolatry, closely related. And the porn industry is a case in point here. I was reading Ephesians 5 this week and Paul says something interesting. He says, but sexual immorality, the word he uses is porn, And all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving." Interesting why he says that. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who's sexually immoral, porn, or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Covetousness, in this case, is covetousness about porn. You're wanting something that's not yours. Instead, he says, be thankful. Be thankful for what you do have. Porn is a huge temptation and a problem today. So accessible, just like 7-Eleven, on every block, or in everyone's phone. seconds away from it. But God's word is very clear. You've got to be resolved. You need to put away and root out any kind of sexual immorality, any kind of porneia. It's incompatible with God. It's an idol that needs to be smashed at all costs. And it doesn't deliver. It's a lie. And you know this. It will ruin you, destroy you, destroy your family, destroy your future family, create obstacles. God's word is true. God is better. Serve him alone is the message. And if you've fallen in this area, there's hope and forgiveness and restoration that this passage even teaches. And we'll get there. Second of all, idolatry and greed. Jesus said you can't serve two masters. Well, he's talking about idols. He's talking about money as an idol. You can't serve two gods. Now, money isn't bad. Money isn't wrong. But money as a god will destroy you. Money is a cruel master. And there's no question Jesus is abundantly clear on this, that one of the biggest hindrances to serving the Lord and discipleship and following Jesus is money. Affluence can become an idol. Money gained righteously is a good thing. We see this all throughout the book of Proverbs, for instance. But beware, the New Testament associates idolatry with greed. And what can happen is you end up trusting it. You end up loving it. You end up serving it like it's a god. In his book, The Agony of Affluence, William Wells gives a great statement. of how you know when you've crossed into polytheism, basically. He says, the Bible does not condemn the desire for worldly goods, but it does condemn perversions of that desire. Specifically, the Bible condemns desire that eclipses our love for God, our love for those around us, and our love for the weak and the poor. There are, therefore, limits on the pursuit of wealth. To transgress those limits is to be guilty of greed, covetousness, and oppression. And we could also add worshiping another god. It is and can quickly become a form of idolatry. Here's another one, idolatry and pleasure. Pleasure is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. But pleasure in the place of God idolatry. If video games and Netflix trump the Word of God and prayer, you might have identified a competing idol. And serving Christ means we reject the competing idol of pleasure. There's another threat to service for Christ, and we could call it the idolatry of the self, of me, myself and I. Greek mythology tells a story of a handsome young man named Narcissus. A beautiful nymph named Echo fell in love with him, but his good looks drew enough admirers, so he sent her away into the woods. Later, Narcissus tried to find her, but he refused her invitation to come where she was and left the forest. All alone in the woods, Echo prayed, may he who loves no one love himself. Meanwhile, Narcissus had gone to find water, was kneeling over a lake. Staring into the water, he saw his reflection and realized how beautiful he was. And in essence he fell in love with himself and Echo's prayer had hit its target. But Narcissus also became aware of how much pain his beauty caused his female suitors. So he dove into the lake and took his own life. the ultimate act of narcissism. And that's what preoccupation with self does. It's a kind of prison that drives a person insane. And the only deliverance from the stranglehold of this idol is to transfer your allegiance to another idol and to serve the one true God. Owen Strand said, the greatest threat to biblical Christianity today is not atheism, militant Islam, the sexual revolution, or a hostile public square. The greatest threat to biblical Christianity today is weak, soft, man-centered, sin-affirming, ear-tickling, flesh-pleasing, self-help theology. And one of the challenges today is the worship of self. And we see this in all kinds of ways in our culture today. And it's not just out there, it's in here. And we are all susceptible to its ideology. For instance, self determines sexual identity. Self-determines gender, self-determines goals, dreams, ambitions, self-realization, self-fulfillment, self-absorption. So many examples of this, and I know I've mentioned this before, but in Canada, there's a 48-year-old man who identifies as a six-year-old girl. In California, a woman who identifies as a dragon. And if you disagree with that, you become an oppressor. It becomes a justice issue now, a legal issue. You can see where this is going. I remember a couple of years ago watching a YouTube of a guy who was on University of Washington campus. And he went around just asking a question, can a 5'9 white guy be a 6'5 Chinese woman? And this 5'9 white guy got a lot of people to agree with him, that he was a 6'5 Chinese woman. Now, I'm not making fun of these people. I really am burdened by it. But that's a predominant worldview on many college campuses today. Personal self-identification is the highest value, regardless of whether or not that definition corresponds to reality. Well, the antidote to this kind of thinking and self-focus is found in our passage. Direct your heart to the Lord. Serve him only and he will deliver you. Worship and focus on Yahweh gets the focus off us. We come under his authority and what he dictates and says, not what we say. Losing our lives for Christ, we end up finding it. And if Christ is not your Lord, then something else is, and that something can't save you. Back to our story, what's the solution to idolatry? Well, we see it, it's renouncing. Paul says the grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness. So let's look at this next point, the third point. Again, verses three and four. And direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only. There's a loyalty, an allegiance, a single-mindedness, an exclusivity. God will not tolerate a mixture of him plus some other idols. You get that and see that. In fact, over and over he compares idolatry to adultery, spiritual adultery. Eric Metaxas writes, if a guy is married and he tries to persuade his wife that he needs to have a few other women on the side, his wife will likely say, sorry, Romeo, but that's not gonna fly. If you wanna be married to me, you've gotta forego those other women. Well, it's just like that with the Lord. He doesn't force us to pick him, but he does force us to choose between him and others. We cannot have both. Yahweh is not an option among other options. Direct your heart to the Lord. Serve Him only. And serving the Lord means obeying the Lord. Keep in mind the context of 1 Samuel. This is right off the heels of Judges where at the last verse in Judges says everyone's doing what's right in their own eyes. Lawlessness. Selfishness. And it's a misunderstanding that since we're saved by grace we're just free to do whatever we want. God's grace sort of gives me a pass to obey or not obey. I'm covered so I'm good to go. That kind of thinking is unbiblical. Serving the Lord means you obey the Lord. It's as basic to what it means to be a Christian. Jesus said, if you love me you'll keep my commandments. Does it mean we never sin, don't struggle with sin? Of course we do. The Bible doesn't teach us sinless perfection, but at a very, very basic level, if Jesus is Lord and he asks us to do something, we do it. It's not that complicated. Listen to these other passages. Apostle John says, by this we know that we've come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever believes in the Son is eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. You got it, we can keep moving here. The next section, verses five and six, true repentance includes sincerity and confession of sin. Samuel said, gather all Israel at Mizpah and I'll pray to the Lord for you. So they gathered at Mizpah, drew water, poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, we've sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah. So all Israel gathers together, Samuel prays for them, And they pour out water before the Lord, and they fast, and they confess their sins. We've sinned against the Lord. Now this pouring out of the water, honestly, I don't really know what's going on here. It seems to be some kind of an expression of repentance. It's an unparalleled event. pouring out of the water. And I almost wonder, this is total speculation, but if it wasn't some kind of a primitive kind of baptism of washing, but that's speculation. Or maybe it was a water fast. Some commentators thought maybe they were fasting. You know, we need God more than we need life-giving water. In any case, it was symbolic of their repentance, and what is clear is that they confess their sins in the midst of all this. Samuel judges them, you know, those who are not my people are not my people again, you could say, and the main lesson here is that true repentance includes sincerity and confession of sin. You gotta have that. You've gotta have that. We have, I have. All of us have, I think, a profound tendency to minimize our sin or blame shift our sin. Adam, we see this in the garden. He did this. We've been inclined ever since. You know, I've sinned because of this reason or that reason or the woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit to eat. We minimize it. You know, it's not that bad. It's not as bad in comparison to others. Could have been worse. But the application here is you got to be honest. It's not like the Lord doesn't know anyway. He knows all about it. Be honest. Don't minimize it. Don't blame shift. Own it. Acknowledge it. Verbalize it. Depending on what it is, confess it to someone else. Ask forgiveness, starting with the Lord. And make lifestyle decisions to sin less. make lifestyle decisions to not let it happen again. And the attitude needs to be it can't happen again. You reorder your life and restructure your life and your loyalty to God translates into action. It has to. It has to. Otherwise it's not real. It's not real repentance. Now again this doesn't mean we never sin, not saying that, but I also emphasize this to know that or just because I know that our flesh looks for any cracks to make excuses. Well what do you expect me to never sin again? Haven't you heard that the Lord is gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love? I'm not perfect. And at some point, at some point, those become just filibusters and empty excuses and tropes for people who really don't actually want to change or repent. There's another related application here to this verse, and we could call it syncretism and mixture. And it's a kind of halfway repentance. I was at CCU this last week and got a chance to sit in with Michael Plato, who attends here, but his class on radical philosophy, he teaches philosophy at CCU, and he's put together some really good thoughts on the topic of paganism. What does the Bible say about paganism? And we had lunch and was able to chat with him about this, but he noted that, I want to give him credit for this, he noted the skyrocketing increase of paganism in America. And the radical secularism of the last 40 years, 50 years has created a vacuum in this country. And that vacuum isn't being filled with nothing. It's being filled with everything. And so paganism or witchcraft, Satanism, which is all basically just versions of self-help, are being mixed together into a kind of personal concoction. Take a little bit of Jesus, take a little bit of that, take a little bit of this and that, and it's not altogether different from what the Israelites did with the ark. They turned it into a kind of magic box to suit their own selfish ends. That's paganism, syncretism, a mixology of beliefs all tailor-made to suit your desires. It serves you. As Alistair Crowley, the father of Satanism said, do what thou wilt shall. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. In other words, do what you want. Do what you want. Well, true repentance isn't do what you want. True repentance is do what God wants. Serve him, not you. And this comes out in all kinds of ways. And Richard Phillips, I thought, made a good point on how this can come out even in the church. He said, in one prominent church, advertisements promoted a sermon series on sexual pleasure by referring to it as a strip club. Another well-known church has used the incentive of raffling off a house to a lucky member who came to church that day. The inevitably large crowds gathered through such worldly means are then cited as evidence of a spiritual revival. So that reluctant Christians should put aside their biblical objections and just get on board. But Samuel's teaching reminds us that true spiritual renewal is always accompanied by repentance from worldliness and sin. Just as true revival also bears fruit in the reformation of Christ's church according to God's word. True repentance includes confession of sin and lifestyle changes. And that's not easy. That's not enjoyable. That's not pleasurable. It doesn't appeal to the senses. But it's the mark of real repentance. Look at verse 7. True repentance results in deliverance. Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. The people of Israel heard of it. They were afraid of the Philistines. They know what had just happened. They got smoked. And the people of Israel said to Samuel, do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines. So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offerings, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them as far as below Beth-kar." So the order here is important. Repentance is displayed. Atonement was made. And then the Lord delivers Israel. And I want you to notice something about verse 9. Samuel offers a lamb as a sacrifice and he cries out to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him. Now you need to see this in light of the previous story. If you remember where the Israelites think of the ark, that it may come among us and save us, that it may save us, like dark magic, they're trying to manipulate God. But Samuel, very different terminology, cried out to the Lord. for Israel. And the Lord answered him. The Lord has responded to Israel. In chapter 4, the Lord was acting in judgment against his people and they lost in battle. But in chapter 7, the Lord is acting in deliverance of his repentant people and they win the battle. And the implication here is that God has forgiven them. They've confessed their sins. Atonement has been made. They're forgiven. Praise the Lord. Look at Joel. I don't need to turn there, but Joel 2.12. It's on the screen. Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he's gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Excuse me. It's also worth noting that the delivering was preceded by atonement. God must deal with their sins in a tangible way. As the author of Hebrews said, without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness of sins. Or as Paul said, in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Or as John said, the blood of Jesus, God's son, cleanses us from all sin. Or as Peter said, You were ransomed not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. We're gonna remember that atonement in just a minute, but sinners can be saved through the blood of the lamb, the lamb of God, Jesus the Christ. All right, let's look at this last section, verse 12 here, the Ebenezer. Verse 12, then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mishpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer. For he said, till now the Lord has helped us. So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. Verse 15, Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. By God's hand, The Israelites defeat the Philistines. Samuel takes a stone and makes a memorial. Ebenezer means stone of help. It was a memorial remembrance. It's the reference from the hymn, I'm sure you know, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Here I raise my Ebenezer, here by thy help I've come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. It's good to have an Ebenezer because we forget. It's easy to forget that Israel was once Ichabod. The glory had left, but now Israel is Ebenezer, helped by God. We may sin but if anybody does sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We may sin and if we do let's not forget the Ebenezer. I was thinking about this, the most relevant Ebenezer in the New Testament for us is the cross of Christ. Truly God has helped us and the Lord's Supper becomes the vehicle to drive that truth home every time we gather. It is an Ebenezer meal, a memorial service. There was an author who told a story I thought was helpful. He said, when my wife and I began dating during college years, I would often offer her a half stick of gum. I always had a pack of gum with me because I had a paranoia of bad breath. This man's in his, I think, 70s or 80s, but he says, yet it was poor etiquette to partake without offering some to one's companion. Hence, we both masticated our respective half sticks of gum. Unknown to me at the time, Barbara always kept her gum. Years later, I saw how. She had two or three sheets of eight by 12 inch poster board on which she had stuck each brownish gray blob. And underneath each chunk, she entered the date on which it was received and chewed. She might have March 11, 1963, for example, and above it, the respective wad of gum. She could get maybe 20 such entries on a sheet. It was her own way, however unique, of remembering our early courtship. One does not need to pluck off each ossified wad and chew it again in order to resurrect the memory Fortunately, seeing is sufficient. But her gum boards do stimulate memories, and memories stir up love and produce appreciation. Maybe it's not gum, but how can you memorialize? And I think you can be creative with this. I've done this in my own life. But think of your own life. Maybe it's your marriage or with your kids. How can you recount the Lord's faithfulness to you and remember? And certainly we do this in the Lord's Supper. It is the greatest Ebenezer memorial we have to stir up love and memories and produce appreciation because the Lord has helped us. Amen. Let me pray. Father we thank you for your word this morning and just just appreciate how you have helped us and Lord we are if we're in touch with reality at all, aware of the fact that we are sinners, and we have broken covenant, and we have messed up in major ways, and we are thankful for your mercy and grace, and pray that you would find in us people with true repentance. Grant us true repentance, that we wouldn't just feel bad for a little bit of time, But Lord, we would double down in our faithfulness to you, in our loyalty to you, that we would serve you, not ourselves. but we would serve you first and give our attention to you first. Lord, we know we fall short of this daily, and so we're mindful of your grace, but pray that you would cultivate in Littleton Bible Chapel and every family here, every individual here, true repentance and confession of sin and lifestyle changes. And help us Lord to just weakly gather together and just be reminded of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and the atonement you've made, the reconciliation provided, the redemption available. And truly, your grace would train us to renounce ungodliness, as the Apostle Paul says. Lord, if there's anyone here who's not bent the knee to Christ, I just pray that you would grant them faith and repentance today and make them a member of your church by your grace. We pray this in Jesus' name. Thank you for listening to this sermon from Littleton Bible Chapel. At LBC, we are passionate followers of Jesus proclaiming Christ and his word. For more information about LBC, please go to littletonbiblechapel.org.