So far the Lord has helped me

Listen well to what the word of the Lord says in First Samuel, Chapter 7 verse 12: "...Samuel then took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Sen and named it Ebenezer, saying, Jehovah has helped us up to this point... ”

You can tell your brother, so far the Lord has helped me. Can you tell him? So far the Lord has opened roads. So far the Lord has shown his healing. So far the Lord has shown his provision. So far the Lord has been with me. You believe it? Can you remember a moment? Close your eyes for a moment and in these few minutes we are going to try to remember how many times the Lord has provoked his Ebenezer in our lives.

Close your eyes for a moment and maybe remember an illness, maybe remember a family problem, a financial problem, maybe remember some uncomfortable situation where only the hand of the Lord caused the Ebenezer in your life. Doesn't it excite you to remember the touch of the Lord at an opportune moment, at a certain moment? So I want to invite you to celebrate the Ebenezer daily in our lives.

When we celebrate the Ebenezer in our lives, we are celebrating the mighty hand, the hand of provision, the prodigious hand of our Almighty God. How many say amen?

Ebenezer, do you know what Ebenezer means? It means stone of help, stone of help means Ebenezer. Do you know what moved the prophet to declare the Ebenezer for the people? It was the commitment that the people had made with God to leave all other gods, to leave a lifetime of paganism, to leave all habits that were not in accordance with what God was demanding of his people.

If you can read Chapter 7 in verse 1 you realize, 1, 2 and 3, you realize how Samuel begins to challenge the people, stop living that way. If you want the grace of the Lord again in the midst of this town, stop living as you are living. Many times the people of God lose the grace of the Lord because we begin to look at foreign Gods, because we begin to look at the things that the Lord has entrusted us not to look at.

This word Ebenezer came to my heart, it is a very evangelical word. How many are evangelicals by birth? This every year I don't hear a sermon from Ebenezer, and what does it mean? So far Jehovah has helped us. No, it means, help stone.

And it takes me back to this great statement of Peter, in Matthew, Chapter 16, verse 18, the great statement of Peter and he says:

“… And you Pedro, who do you say that I am? And you know what Peter tells him, You are the Christ, the Son of whom? Whose Son? It seems that the God is not very alive. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, to which the Lord responds, Wow, Peter, flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven, therefore, on this rock On this rock I will build my church..."

Who was the stone? Pedro or Pedro's statement? What did Peter declare, and who was that declaration? Who did it belong to? To Jesus. And if Jesus is our stone, he is our stone of help, he is our Ebenezer in these times. Every day we must declare an altar with that help stone called Jesus Christ, in our lives.

And I want to invite you today so that we can develop in our lives a model of life that is pleasing to the Lord, and we begin to leave behind all those ways of living that the Lord does not like, that do not correspond to him, all those ways of living that many of them, do you know what Galatians 5:19 says? Many of them are not going to take us, nor are we going to inherit the kingdom of God.

Not drunkenness, not a series of lists there, a long list of habits, adorations, ways of living. That is what the Lord wants, that as a church, we can say every day, Ebenezer until now you have been my help, you have been my rock, you have been my strength, you have been my refuge, you are my help, you You are my coat, you are my shadow. Thanks God. Thank my Lord.

So Peter's statement for these times is the starting point for our Ebenezer. Every day when you get up, you must say to the Lord, thank you because until now you have allowed my eyes to open. Thank you, Lord, because your help has not been conditioned on anything and you have always been with me, you have always protected me.

In Matthew, Chapter 7, verse 24 and 25 there is another characteristic of this help stone, it serves to build a model of life. The wise man who built his house on the rock. So if you want to build an adequate model of life, if you want to build a model of life that really exalts the name of the Lord, start building your house on this stone of help, every day this stone will be the foundation of your house. and winds will come, storms will come, rains will come, earthquakes will come, whatever it is and your house will not fall. What you have built on the foundation of Jesus Christ cannot fall. The devil has no power to tear down what the Lord has built. That is our stone of help.

The rock of the Lord is scattered throughout the Scriptures. Back in the Old Testament with Moses, in Exodus, Chapter 17, there was Christ as the rock of Oreb where you water in water that you are thirsty for. Thank you because that has been my Ebenezer, Lord, because when I have been thirsty you have been the one who has quenched that moment in my life.

ebenezer. It is a word that we should not forget. Not because it is a fashion, but because it represents a change of attitude of the people of God towards their God. Do not believe in the Ebenezer only for the blessings, do not say I am going to put the Ebenezer in my head so that the Lord continues to bless me. Put your Ebenezer in your heart for the love of God, because he loved him first, because he has designed this structure of blessing for your life, for my life.

ebenezer. So far the Lord has helped us. Ebenezer, so far the Lord has kept us. Ebenezer up to here the Lord has supported us. Ebenezer, the Lord has always taken me up to here. Every day his hand is stretched out with his eyes of love and with his hand of power, he is waiting for his people to look at him and say, thank you, Lord. I feel that you are with me.

Psalm, Chapter 18, I want to invite you to look at those verses, verse 2:

"... You are my rock, my castle..."

Psalm Chapter 18, verse 31: "... And what rock is there, look at this question, and what rock is there outside of God?..."

What is stronger outside of God? What is more resistant outside of God? What is greater outside of God? If nothing, there is no God before nor will there be a God after, this is the almighty God. What rock is stronger than him?

You are not here simply because you switched from one religion to another. You are here because you understood that Jesus Christ is your strength. Because Jesus Christ is your prompt help, because Jesus Christ is the giver of salvation, forgiveness, and mercy. That is the unshakable rock, that is the rock that has no comparison, that is the rock of help that we need to lift up in adoration and praise every day.

The psalmist says in psalm 61, verse 2 says: "...Take me to the rock that is higher than me, there you will be safe..."

Psalm 40 says, “…I waited patiently for the Lord and he leaned down to me and heard my cry, he brought me out of the miry pit, out of the mire of despair…”

Look at what the following verse says "...he put my feet on the rock...", about that rock of help, about that rock that stabilizes me, about that rock that gives me firmness, about that rock that gives me security.

“…He put my feet on the rock and not only agreed with that, he says, and he straightened my steps. Then he put a new song in my mouth, praises to the Lord…”

How many praise the Lord? They can close their eyes and raise their hands to heaven and say, Lord, I want each day to adore the Ebenezer that you have declared over my life. That Ebenezer that is Christ, that Ebenezer that has caused me to be transformed, can be a moment in the presence of the Lord and declare that the rock that moves him, the rock that sustains him, is Jesus Christ.

Take your time, let the Holy Spirit today reveal to you, remind you of how wonderful he has been with your life. Has anyone been touched by the healing power of the Lord? So, every day you and I need to pick up that rock, that helping stone and say, Lord, Ebenezer, you've helped me this far. Lord, Ebenezer, until now you have been faithful. Oh Ebenezer, until now you have been my refuge, my strength. You fill my heart.

Lower your hand for a moment. The Ebenezer represents a religious tradition to us. The daily evenzer knows what it shows? That every day my love for the Lord is greater, that every day this Ebenezer represents that the knowledge I have of God allows me to enter much more into God's love to understand it in my life.

You and I, as children of God, are, we have the responsibility to raise this stone of help and declare the Ebenezer of the Lord over each one of our lives, in our families, in our jobs.

A moment ago, Pastor Omar encouraged us to pray for the communities, for the neighborhoods, for the cities where we are living, for the immigrant community. Declare that stone of help in each of these places where we are living, where we are participating.

You and I today have the privilege, not only the responsibility, the privilege of declaring before the entire world that God is the one who sustains me, that God is the one who carries me forward, and it doesn't matter what the system says, and it doesn't matter what whatever the economy says, no matter what politics says, God is the one who lights my way, God is the one who leads me on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ.

Every day the Holy Spirit is motivating us and leading us to that instance. Did you thank today? did you thank? Have you declared yourself a grateful son of God's goodness, of mercy? Have you declared yourself a grateful child of the miracles, signs and wonders that God is doing in your life daily?

Sometimes we get so busy that we don't have time for that altar to the Lord. Sometimes our life goes from a full time to a part time and from a little part time as others say, we don't have time for that altar, to recognize the stone of help in its moment daily.

I want to invite you to be truly grateful children and to recognize the power of God over us. Close your eyes for a moment and we are going to pray to the Lord, and we are going to declare his love over us.

Thank you Lord Jesus. You can stand up for a moment. Stand up. Take the hand of your brother next to you. Many times this help stone has to be established by the people, when we feel accompanied by this help stone, it gains strength. We no longer need to physically place a stone because Jesus Christ is already the rock of our salvation.

In him is our rest, in him is in the water we drink, spiritual. Paul reminds us in First Corinthians, Chapter 10 that the water that the people drank there in Oreb was the water that is Christ for us today. Lord God, O Holy Spirit, triune God, come upon this place and move, move in such a profound yet powerful way, Lord, over our lives that there is not a minute that we do not declare an altar before you, acknowledging that your You have been our stone of help, recognizing that you have been our Ebenezer, that up to now you have been faithful, that up to now you have been our helper, that up to now you have been my Lord. Thank my Lord. Thank you Lord Jesus.