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      "It's About Time for Ebenezer"
      I Samuel 7:2-14
      Theme: When true revival occurs in a believer, there is nothing but blessing and joy.

      1. The Need for REVIVAL is Compelling – 7:2-3

        1. The Ignoring of the Lord – v. 2

          1. From the last section of Scripture, we remember that God judged had judged those who had profaned the ark by opening it up and inspecting its content -–something forbidden by God
          2. As a result, they sent the ark away to Kiriath-jearim, a place noted for its idolatry – Joshua 15:9; 18:14
          3. We are told here that "from the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim that the time was long, for it was twenty years" – a period of time when Jehovah was not worshipped.
          4. Thus there was a departure from the fellowship and intimacy with the Lord that resulted in the deliberate attempt to please the Lord.
          5. Instead, we are told that every man did what was right in his own eyes – and worshipped whatever deity one chose – cp. Judges 21:25
          6. This is exactly where we are today – the spiritual condition of the church is horrible with carnality, sensuality, mysticism, relativity that fails to focus on what pleases the Lord and instead seeks to find what fulfills and pleases men.
          7. The ultimate consequence of such failure to pursue the Lord is a spiritual misery that is often not understood or identified for what it is.
          8. Here we are told that those who were de-prioritizing the glory of God began to regret their departure from the fear of the Lord – "and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord."

        2. The Infiltration of the World – v. 3

          1. When God is no longer the object of worship and men attempt to please themselves through their religious affection, they become susceptible to the encroachment of the world.
          2. The world infiltrates and causes tremendous compromise within the church – which embraces the "gods" of the world with which it is seeking to be relevant.
          3. The problem with this is to embrace the world’s god ultimately means the rejection of the true God – cp. James 4:4
          4. There is a sweeping condition in the church today that identifies the effort to remain the friend of God as judgmental and suspect – even identifying the maintenance of Godly standards as irrelevant triviality that has no place in the "hip" and relevant church of today.
          5. Clearly, Samuel comes to the podium and "spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, ‘If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines’."
          6. Clearly the desire for relevance as caused the church today to become the slaves of a type of Philistia from which it needs to be delivered.

      2. The Evidence of Revival is Clear – 7:4-6

        1. Purification – v. 4

          1. When God began to move in their hearts, and Samuel called on them to repent of their sins of idolatry, they immediately responded by ridding themselves of their idols – "So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone."
          2. They desired to rid themselves of that which drew them away from the Lord.
          3. In our experience – anything that would draw us away from a Spirit-filled intimacy with God must be put away from us as well if we are to know true revival.

        2. Prayer – v. 5

          1. Another feature whenever there has been true revival has been a centrality of prayer.
          2. Here we are told that there was an intense desire on the part of the godly for prayer – "Then Samuel said, ‘Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you’."
          3. One reason why prayer is linked to revival is because when the heart is warmed toward God, one desire to commune with Him – and conversely when there is no desire to commune with God, one needs revival.
          4. in addition is the realization of one’s dependency upon the Lord for His grace.

        3. Penitence – v. 6

          1. Another matter that is characteristic of true revival is the desire to honestly and squarely deal with sin – "They gathered to Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day and said there, ‘We have sinned against the Lord.’ And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah."
          2. The act whereby they "drew water and poured it out before the Lord" was a symbolic act demonstrating that they were repentant – their sin was like water hitting the ground, it cannot and would not be taken up again.
          3. In addition, to demonstrate their genuine repentance, they "fasted" and verbally confessed their sin against the Lord.
          4. Repentance that expresses itself in words alone – without action is cheap and ineffective repentance.

             
      3. The Hindrances to Revival are Constant – 7:7-14

        1. The Failure to Resist the World through Prayer – vv. 7-11

          1. As Israel was in the midst of great revival, purifying themselves, praying, and doing penance for their sin, "the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel."
          2. The world will never leave the revived and vibrant saint alone – it will always seek to attack and render powerless those who would stand for the Gospel
          3. The immediate impact on Israel was not good – "when the sons of Israel heart it, they were afraid of the Philistines."
          4. However, because of their newly revived spiritual sensitivities, Israel knew what should be done: "Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, ‘Do not cease to cry to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines’."
          5. Too often, we are susceptible to the world because we are not strengthened in spirit through prayer.
          6. Here we see that Samuel "took a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the Lord; and Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him."
          7. Notice the effectiveness of praying when we are faced with the onslaught of the world – "But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel."
          8. A church that cannot pray, or christians who refuse to pray are both tremendously vulnerable to the world and need revival.

        2. The Failure to Remember the Deliverance of the Lord – vv. 12-14

          1. Often, we forget what God has done for us in the past, causing us to fail to honor the Lord as He deserves.
          2. Here Samuel "took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and name it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us’."
          3. By doing so, he acknowledged that the battle was not yet over, but that not only could God be glorified for what He has done, but that He could be expected to faithfully provide in the future as well.
          4. This deliverance was indeed sustained: "So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel."
          5. When true revival hits a church, the ground that had been lost to the enemy (Satan) can be recovered by God’s grace – "The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel".
          6. True, lasting peace is the long-term consequence of revival – "Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites."

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