Ebenezer - Part 1 — Ric Vargas

Thank you, Lord, for thou hast spoken, O Lord. Hallelujah. O God, that the ears, O Lord, would hear. Lord, the heart would receive, O God, what thou hast spoken, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. O God, for that great blessing, O God, that you have given us, Lord, that sweet gift of salvation, Lord, that sweet gift of the kingdom, O God, that we would not neglect, O God.

We would not neglect, O Lord, what you have done. Lord, respond, O God. We thank you, Lord. Deep within our hearts, Lord, as our hearts cry out to thee, Lord, we ask for that great response from heaven, Lord, that would quicken our spirits, O God.

Hallelujah, Lord God. Lord, that this earth, Lord, is not our home. Hallelujah. O God, you have prepared a place for us, Lord. And we yearn and desire, O God, to be with thee, O God. Hallelujah. So Lord, we're going to bless your name, O God, this very day, Lord.

Lord, we open up our minds and our hearts to receive of you, Lord. God, quicken us, Lord. Lord, that abundant life that you've given us, Lord. Let it come forth, Lord. Let it flow out of us, Lord, one to another, Lord.

We thank you today, Lord, that you truly care for your people, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. These prophetic utterances, it's the mercy of the Lord. It's the mercy of the Lord because he cares for his people.

Holiness, Repentance, and the Call to Worship

And he goes after, he leaves the 99 to go after that one. There's a great sensing today that some hearts have been spoken to. There's areas that we haven't completely given over to the Lord. Some of the sins that so easily beset God's people are starting to raise the ugly head again.

The Lord charges us that we would be holy as he is holy. That we would worship him. You know, when you really take a hard look, and we should take hard looks at scriptures, not just fleetingly things and say, oh, look at that.

Look at this. Take a hard look at what God is saying. And has continually said, a holy people, a righteous people. And because of his indwelling spirit, we really stand there without excuse when we wander from him.

In his mercy, he spoke words today that they would be received. And no longer will we let that sin that seems to beset many have any yielding part in our life. That it would not grip us. Amen? Glory to God.

I wanted to read a portion of scripture. And I looked at this before. Our sister really felt that strong pull into worship. Concerning worship. And it was on my heart. And I thank God that she moved out.

That she was bold enough to move out the way she did. Sometimes we just need a little prodding. Isn't that so? Isn't that so? We need a little prodding once in a while to come into things of God. You know, a shepherd.

You know, when I think there's like a mantle of that type of, in this fellowship, there's like a shepherding quality, if you know what I mean. I don't mean that movement that had destroyed many lives years back, but where you care about one another.

You may not be the shepherd of the flock, but you have a shepherding heart. There's something where you care. And I know our sister has that. She just wants a little nudge, a little tug at your heart, hand on your shoulder.

We need it sometimes. And we need it today. We need these things. Just that little touch, you know? Hallelujah. Let me kneel with you. Let me stand and praise God with you. That worship that Tozer speaks about, the missing jewel in the church.

Mr. Tozer died in 1963 without seeing that fullness come in. And we know that it did for periods of time that was ushered in mightily of God. When we saw that worship, we saw it in large assemblies. We saw it in small.

I can never forget that one Wednesday night, not too long back, where I thought that just closing my eyes and praising the Lord, where there was maybe a handful of people here, one of the midweek meetings where it's just a sparse amount.

The Lord filled this room with his glory, and the heavenly hosts were heard. And many attested to it, that they heard it. They thought, where did all these people come from? What happened? The Lord does these things.

Every now and then, he does a special thing. He brings us into that worship, that jewel that Tozer speaks so strongly about, that he didn't see in his time. But you know, it's within each heart, and it was said that open your mouth, speak.

It's within the very tongue that's within our body to bring forth worship. You know, we speak about revival, and I know I speak a lot about it. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm not speaking about right now the revival that gives the glory only to God.

Personal Revival and the Purpose of Seeking God

You know, if you're asking for revival to come upon the church, and you want it for yourself or for your congregation, you're asking for the wrong reason. The only reason that we should play for revival is that the God of glory, the God of righteousness, will be seen in the earth, that he will be honored by all.

His power and his majesty will be seen. We've got to be jealous for the things of God. But if you want revival, it's within your very grasp. Personal revival is possible in all seasons. Every man, every saint, every woman that made progress in God, if you read the biographies and just read extensively of the deeper men and women that came into things of God, they had personal revival in their lives, and they brought it into the meetings.

Maybe it flowed over to another one and to another one. So in essence, a congregation can have revival if a few of us would start seeking deeper things of God and coming into that. And I believe that's what we are doing.

I'm not diminishing anything that's going on here. But I believe that we're tasting it. But we can really get a good chunk, a good bite of it. And maybe it won't be in that church there, and that church there, and that church there, but it can be in the church that you go to.

You might be one of the keys to bringing that revival in a congregation by personally seeking the Lord in a deeper and profound way. Just to speak about worship, this was on my heart a little bit, even before my sister just moved out and probably was stirring in our midst.

Worshiping the Father in Spirit and Truth

In John 4, Jesus was speaking to the woman at the well. And in verse 19, it says, The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship, you know not. Know not what? You know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour cometh and now is when a true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

He was straightening out this woman who had a zeal and a desire, a Samaritan woman who knew about things of God. It was that overlay. They were like that, not quite with it, but not away from it either.

They knew something about God. And she was saying it's the mountains, because the hour comes and now is, even in that time when those who want to worship will worship in spirit and in truth, which opens up the whole globe.

Every country, every prayer closet, every little place, it's opened up to those who would seek and want to worship God in spirit and in truth. Hallelujah. Worship, I've seen it in the large assemblies.

I remember when we were involved with the Catholic Charismatic, and we went to Atlantic City. Then we went to Notre Dame University. And hungry hearts were there. The Lord didn't look upon the outward.

He looked upon the inward of the hearts that were poured out to him. And the worship, that profundo, they say, that real deepness you could feel in that. Tremendous worship of God. Thousands upon thousands on their knees.

Thousands upon thousands standing on their chairs. Men with collars on and women with gowns, these big, heavy, nunly type of gowns, just stopped and ceased from their own labor and met the Lord because he visited that place and danced around circles of people dancing and couldn't stop.

The meeting was over hours before, and they couldn't stop praising and worshiping the Lord. There was a spirit that called them into worship. Small prayer groups, maybe six or seven, attending. The spirit of worship fell upon us.

You couldn't get off your knees. You were just caught up in God. Went to a church in Hicksville, big church. And I never heard anything like it in my life. When I first went there, first introduction to things of Pentecost.

There was Pentecostal ministers at that Catholic church who minister today and not the Catholic church. It's amazing. The spirit of God was there. He wasn't looking to the outward. He was looking to see and receive of the worship that was through him.

There was voices coming from out of the beams on top of the ceiling. There was heavenly voices. It was the most amazing thing. The Lord is in the worship. He's in that worship. Hallelujah. Upstate and Pinecrest, tremendous worship I've heard there, where you just couldn't stop.

Right here, the Bible school. You remember those days of worship? The days when the Lord was just moving amongst us. So it's not limited to any one group, any one denomination, any place. Anywhere you go, you can worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

As our sister exhorted, it's so close. It's right in your very mouth. It's right here where it starts. And the Lord can bring you into those. So what Mr. Tozer prayed for has become a reality. And I'm sure it was then, maybe he just wasn't in some of the circles where it went on, probably very small groups.

And he spoke to thousands in his lifetime, missionary people, and that was his prayer. And his prayer was answered. Sometimes, you know, you don't see your prayer. You don't see it answered. But the Lord's gonna answer it.

If you fervently persist in prayer, maybe not in your lifetime, as George Mueller didn't see some of his, but the Lord will answer. Isn't that just a beautiful thing to know in your heart? If you sincerely are praying, the Lord will answer that prayer.

Amen. And we should be praying more and more that his people will commit to that worship, that profound worship that seems to be sometimes left back in the 70s and the 80s, but yet it isn't. It's still available.

It's as close as your very mouth. Glory to God. Amen. As a people that gather together on a regular basis, as people who have committed one to another, as people that are forming a local church, a local body, maybe there'd be somebody here today that would just stand up and just say, I just wanna say something about the dealings with the Lord in my life, the blessings, the way he's touched me, the way he's dug deep into my heart.

There's some of you that have never given testimony here. And I know that the Lord has done things in your life. He's done profound things. Maybe just get up just a short little something. So I just wanna say this today.

I appreciate the Lord. Some little thing like that. I give glory unto God today. Can anybody do that? Anybody maybe that usually don't? Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord Jesus. Hallelujah. Father, this morning, we just thank you, Lord.

Hallelujah, Lord, that you do come, Lord, in your mercies, you come. You touch us, you refresh us, you challenge us. You restore us, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord. We marvel at that, Lord. A love that is so great that it refuses to let us go.

We just thank you for that, Lord. And may there be a full response from our hearts, Lord, to that wonderful love, Lord. As we sense it, as we're made aware, Lord, as we understand the beauty of the Lamb of God.

Lord, may it just cause a full-hearted response. Hallelujah, Lord. Lord, that we will truly lay all at your feet. Hallelujah. And follow you, Lord. Hallelujah. Just open your word, Lord, this morning to us.

Cause us to hear, Lord, and to see, Lord. Hallelujah, by your Spirit, Father. Thank you. Hallelujah. Let's go back to 1 Samuel 7 here. Finish this story of Mizpah. We're talking about the gathering of Mizpah and all that that represented.

Mizpah, Separation from Idolatry, and the Call to Intercession

The beginning of the work of restoration. The beginning, the signs of the restoration that is going on. Just one more thought before we continue. We had mentioned about Ashtaroth and Balaam and the need to put away those things and what they represented.

But also, Ashtaroth and Balaam were forms of worship that allowed or that condoned a catering to the flesh. They were messages that condoned a fleshly activity to have the flesh just be able to do as it please.

And the part of the rites, the worship of Ashtaroth and Balaam, if you know anything about Old Testament history, that there were orgies and many vile things were involved with that worship. So it was a message that catered to the allowance of the flesh to continue in these avenues.

And what Mizpah and what Samuel is saying that you must put that away. That must be put away. Hallelujah. All of that that caters to the flesh, all of that desire, all of that ability that you have been able to go to and still have a semblance that I'm serving God.

You see, that's what they were doing. They thought they were worshiping Ashtaroth and Balaam and yet their flesh was being catered to and it was allowed to go on. And yet the mentality was, well, I'm all right, I'm serving God.

And Samuel was saying that must be put away. That must be dealt with and you must separate yourself from that. And they respond. We're coming to the point of the dealings of the weakness of God, Mizpah were being made weak, no confidence.

We'll start in verse eight. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. It was a recognition of the prayer of Samuel and of the life of Samuel.

And if you look at Isaiah chapter 62, I believe this goes hand in hand of what Samuel represented as the watchman at Mizpah, at the watchtower, this prophetic ministry. Isaiah 62 says in verse six, I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night.

And that was the cry from Israel to Samuel, cease not, cease not to cry out for us. Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

And they were calling upon Samuel to hold firm to this call of this prophetic ministry, this true call of the intercessor, where there is a cry that is without ceasing. There is an utterance that is given and they were recognizing the ministry of Samuel to stand firm to the desire for the full restoration, to the full establishment of Jerusalem as a praise in the earth.

And that is the cry that must be returned as a prophetic people within our lives, that it is the establishment, the establishment of a people in the earth that will fully be able to display the beauty of the Lord in the earth, that will be fully the dwelling place of God that Jerusalem represents.

It is the place of his kingdom. It is the place where he dwells. It is the place where he reveals himself. It is his rest forever. And there must be this unceasing cry within us. Hallelujah, for the full restoration.

And Samuel says, and it says, and Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it, offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.

But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them and they were smitten before Israel. Hallelujah. What a principle we have here. The first thing we want to see is that in Samuel took a sucking lamb.

And what this speaks to us, this should encourage us because it speaks of two things it shows us, but what it shows was that the sucking lamb, probably a lamb that was seven days old, still sucking, still fully dependent, not mature at all.

And this shows us that this is the true response that God is after. That even from the babes, that even from those that are still sucking lambs, if you will, freshly lambs in the house of God, that God is desiring, even from them, a whole burnt offering.

And that it isn't impossible for the sucking lamb to be a whole burnt offering, but that even the babes can respond with the fullness of their life given over to Him. That this full burnt offering, this full dedication in God's eyes is something that doesn't have to take place after you've been saved for five years.

It isn't something that has to take place after you've been walking with Him for oh, many, many years and finally, oh, I'm a whole burnt offering. No, but it's the sucking lamb that can become a full burnt offering unto God.

Hallelujah. That even the babes can fall into this full dimension of giving their lives and lending them over to Him. The principle here, this principle that Samuel has is the principle that we see in the book of Revelation.

The Sucking Lamb, the Blood of the Lamb, and Overcoming Faith

He offers a sucking lamb. I believe a beautiful type of Jesus Christ, that wonderful lamb of God. And in the book of Revelation, it says, and they overcame Him by what? By the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death.

We see all of these principles at work in this story. Hallelujah. The blood of the lamb, Samuel offering up the sucking lamb, this whole burnt offering that Christ represents. And we'll look at this a little differently.

And by the word of their testimony, what was the word of their testimony that Misbah produced? The word of the testimony that Misbah produced was twofold. One was, we have sinned against the Lord. True confession.

And the other was, cease not to pray and acknowledgement of His ability. That is the word of their testimony. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That's how the overcoming process in this great victory was going on, by the word of their testimony, by a true acknowledgement of their state, of who they were, of their need.

We have sinned. Hallelujah. Oh, but followed right behind it by, Samuel, you can do this. Hallelujah. By the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, a testimony that both declares our inability, but oh, it also declares His great ability.

Hallelujah. And they love not their lives unto the death. They go into the battle. Hallelujah. At the word of Samuel, they go in, not loving their lives unto the death, but charging into the midst of the warfare.

And this great victory, this triumph over the Philistines takes place here. Hallelujah. It says in verse nine, and Samuel cried unto the Lord. And I don't have this fully, this just came to me this morning, this thought, but look at a thought in the book of Job for a minute.

Job chapter 36. We dealt a little bit with this when we were looking in the book of Joel concerning the rain that God would send. In the book of Job 36, we can read the verse 26 here. Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years be searched out.

For He maketh small the drops of water, they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof, which the clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly. It's kind of hard to understand what He's really saying there in verse 27.

But what He is conveying is, and nature, anybody that knows anything about nature knows that this holds true, that there is a cycle in nature. That the rain comes down to the earth, and it gathers in streams and lakes, and that the waters, the vapors go back up.

There's a cycle. And this is what Job is talking about, that there are vapors that ascend. And I began to see this in concerning ask of the Lord for rain, concerning what takes Samuel. And Samuel cried, and the Lord heard him.

That there must be first vapors from us that ascend. Prayers, intercessions, cries, worship, praise, thanksgiving. That from the earth, from this earth first, vapors have to be going up. And as the vapors go up, hallelujah, the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain.

That's why it says, ask of the Lord for rain. Those vapors have to be going up. Ask of the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain, and the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain.

Hallelujah. It's the principle. We see it in the natural. It's a natural principle. It's a natural law. That there is a constant ascending and descending, ascending and descending. And God would have that from our hearts, that there must be something ascending from this earth.

Hallelujah. There must be a response from this earth. Something must be going up. Hallelujah. Those vapors, those waters of life that He has bestowed within us, that river that is resident within us, there must be a vapor that is coming up of praise, of worship, of intercession, of adoration unto Him.

And from that, hallelujah, the rains can come. Glory to God. As Brother Ed was saying, you know that, which cartoon it was, but that cartoon that had the character that always had the thundercloud over his head.

Wherever he went. Well, that could be us. Not necessarily a dark thundercloud, but a cloud with rain. Could follow us wherever we went. Wouldn't that be glorious? But something has to be ascending from us first.

And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. The Lord heard him and begins to respond. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to the battle against Israel, but the Lord thundered with a great thunder.

Two different words in the Hebrew. He thundered. The first one is the thunder that we would consider, but the second thunder is the actual voice of God. He thundered with His voice. Hallelujah. He thundered with His own voice.

God's Voice, Hannah's Prophecy, and the Victory at Ebenezer

And we see, go back, turn back a couple of chapters to chapter two. And Hannah has prophesied in her prophetic song. Hannah has prophesied something that happens 40, 50 years down the road. Verse nine.

He will keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. We were saying how God had brought the children of Israel to a point of weakness.

To a point of being aware that their strength could not prevail against the Philistines. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall He thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth.

The renewal, we said, of the ministry, the new ministry that Samuel was talking about. The judge has come. Hallelujah. And He shall give strength unto His king and exalt the horn of His anointed. Hallelujah.

Hannah's prophetic song of what is going to transpire even in her own land of the Lord thundering over the adversaries. Hallelujah. God's voice coming into the earth. The voice of God speaking. And the response of the enemy that it discomforts them.

And they're smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Bethkar. We don't have time to go into it, but Bethkar means the house of the ram or the house of the lamb.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shean and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Samuel takes a stone and sets it between Mizpah, the watchtower, and Shean, which means the tooth.

Ebenezer as a Memorial of God's Help

And a stone of remembrance is set called Ebenezer, speaking of the help of God, relating to us and letting us know that God, His help, is sure that from the watchtower, from the place of beginning to the place of the tooth, which speaks of full maturity, He will be our help.

From Mizpah to Shean, the journey that we're on. We're on a journey from Mizpah, the place of beginning, the place of the watchtower, the place of birthing, the place of the beginning of recovery. And we're on a journey to Shean, the place of the tooth or maturity, hallelujah, the place of fullness, the place of adulthood, that it is there that Samuel establishes something and declares that God is our help.

Ebenezer, he calls it. The very place a few chapters before that had been the place of defeat, where the glory had been taken, now becomes the place of victory, hallelujah. And only God can do that within our lives.

Only God can turn those defeats, those places where His glory leaves us, those places where we are cut off, those places where we're separated. Only God can fully restore and make that place of defeat a place of triumph, a place of memorial, a place of establishment, hallelujah, where God's glory and His name is revealed and His purpose is recovered in fullness.

Hallelujah, glory to God, hallelujah. Go to Romans chapter eight. Paul in the book of Romans in the New Testament puts into words what this chapter was telling us. We can start in verse 26. See if this doesn't sound like chapter seven of Samuel.

Intercession, Deliverance, and More Than Conquerors

Likewise, the Spirit also help with our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Samuel, you pray for us. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Shen, the tooth, the place of the tooth. The full conformity to Sonship, the full conformity to the maturity of Christ, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called.

And whom He called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, the sucking Lamb, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who are the lords of the Philistines that can dare stand and declare that we cannot make the victory? Who are the lords of the Philistines over our lives in the past can come and tell us that we're not able?

Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for Thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hallelujah. The utter victory of Christ Paul is declaring. The utter triumph over every principality and power. Hallelujah. The renewal by the love of God, the renewal of His commitment to our lives and the assurance.

Hallelujah. That if God is for us, who can stand against us? This is what the children of Israel go into battle with. This renewed acknowledgement of the sacrifice of God, of His ability to intercede.

Samuel, we don't even know how to pray. You do the praying for us. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. According to the will of God, Samuel, you pray. Hallelujah. And all of this is going on. Go to 2 Corinthians.

Calvary as the Everlasting Ebenezer

Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Looking back, Samuel establishes this as a point of reference. Hallelujah. That Ebenezer forever stands as a stone of memorial, as a point of reference to the triumph of God.

Hallelujah. It is forever a point of reference to what He has done. And what He has done is a promise of what He is yet able to do. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength.

That's an unusual word there. That word is that same, that dunamis. That word for strength is the dunamis. We were above strength without it, insomuch that we despaired even of life. Boy, what a positive confession from the apostle.

Poor Paul would have not been able to preach in some pulpits in our land today. He wouldn't have been allowed. He wouldn't have been the man of faith. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves the same principle that is going on at Mizpah, but in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.

And that is what Ebenezer represents. Ebenezer represents what Paul says, who hath delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us. That is what Ebenezer represents.

It represents the fullness of the delivering power of God to my life. The enablement of what He has taken me out of, and the present circumstance that I am in. And because of that I am persuaded, hallelujah, that that same power will be working in me and towards me, to keep me in the way of victory in the days to come.

Hallelujah. And I trust He will yet deliver. God is wanting to put within us, and to make us know that Calvary, hallelujah, Calvary is God's Ebenezer memorial stone forever. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

It is the reminder, it is the reference point for our lives. Hallelujah. Of the victory that He wrought, that He hath delivered me. Yes, He has delivered me out of the kingdom of darkness. He is yet delivering me, even this morning.

He is loosening something within me, and I am confident that He will yet deliver me in the days that are yet before me. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Ebenezer is the assurance. Calvary is the assurance. Hallelujah.

That we will get to Shem, the place of the tooth.