Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed Taylor says, "God wants you to remember his faithfulness, no matter what you're facing today."

Pastor Ed Taylor: Thus far the Lord has helped me. And if God has been faithful in the past, then he will remain faithful today. And for some, we just need a visual reminder.

Guest (Male): This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You laid down your life that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me.

Great to have you along as we present Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Today we polish off our five-part series called Greater, and Pastor Ed will suggest adding to this year Greater Remembrance. We'll recall a time when Samuel took a stone, set it up, and called it Ebenezer. It would help the people remember God's faithfulness. I should add, something we need to remember as well.

Pastor Ed Taylor: I was watching an ad recently. It was in a news article I was reading and they said Chevy did it again. And they had been making these 10-minute little advertisements for different trucks that they have. I'm not into Chevy or into trucks, but I am into good storytelling. So I watched the video. It made me cry. It was so nostalgic. They got me. I'm not buying a Chevy. I don't know what your view is, but it got me.

Whoever put this together, super talented in communicating this nostalgia surrounding a truck, for goodness sake. It was a truck. Did I say what it was? A truck.

It's a heart issue when you walk away from the Lord. It's a heart issue. You've got to prepare your hearts. Get rid of idolatry, prepare your hearts, and then notice the next thing: gather together and pray. They asked Samuel to pray, but really the instruction is for all of us to pray. You want to come back to the Lord? You need to amp up your relational time with the Lord through prayer.

Samuel, as they gathered, they drew water and poured it out as a drink offering before the Lord. They're doing something that they would remember. "This is our drink offering to you, God. We are back." And then notice they did in verse 6, they fasted. They started to sacrifice. They gave themselves to the Lord and then they moved forward. So good. So powerful what God wants to do.

Change is really worthless without putting God first. I'm all for New Year's resolutions and new decisions and new commitments. I'm all for all that, but I'm telling you, change without putting God first ain't going to get you anywhere. You can make some changes, but you won't be able to keep up with it because you don't have the power to navigate in this anti-Christ world to keep those commitments.

New Year is going to be filled with greater abiding. Just stay put, protect your heart. Be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make those requests be known to God. And then what is the promise? The peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Notice in verse 7 now, a great day of revival. Amazing things are happening. Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the leaders of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. This is interesting. Philistines are the arch-enemies of Israel, just like the Hivites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Amorites, all the "ites" enemies. But the Philistines were the arch-enemy.

You see them over and over and over again. They lived on the coastline and they fiercely protected their land and did not do well with all of their competing tribes, especially Israel. When they hear that Israel has turned their lives back toward God, they're upset. What difference does it make to them? What do they care? They have a group of Israelites that have really nothing. They're growing but not significant. They're wandering and trying to find. What difference does it make to them?

I'll tell you, because the Philistines here become a picture and a type of the enemy himself, the devil. And the devil hates it when you're happy. And he hates it when you're committed. And he hates it when you make sacrificial steps toward God. Every time you make progress, the enemy is there to give you pushback. Have you noticed that? You take three steps forward, he is ready to push you four steps back. And this is what happens. Great things are happening and the Philistines are like, "Oh no, we're not having that."

And they do the right thing because they're in the right place spiritually with the Lord. They do the right thing. Notice verse 8: so the children 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." They do not take things into their own hands. They don't muster an army. They don't rally the people. They say, "Would you pray? We need God's wisdom." And it reminded me that it's always a mistake when you choose to take things into your own hands.

You are so powerless compared to God's power. You don't know everything. You don't have all the resources that God has. It's always best to let God be your defender. And that's what they do here. Notice what happens as they're asking for prayer. It says in verse 9, Samuel took a suckling lamb and he offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord of Israel and the Lord answered him.

As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord... don't you need to circle that phrase? Whatever you're facing right now, whatever's coming your way, whatever 2026 has, you don't want to be able to answer, "But I have" and "I've done." You want to be able to answer, "But the Lord." Look what he does. He thunders with a loud thunder. Can you make it thunder with a loud thunder? No. You don't have that power, but God does.

He did this for the Philistines so it was localized that day and he so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and drove them back as far as Beth Car. Victory because they turned to the Lord. Victory because they put their idols aside, checked their hearts, began to pray, fast, come together, offer themselves. And when trouble comes, which it does every time you turn back to the Lord, they turn right back to the Lord.

Samuel takes the suckling lamb, so he offers a sacrifice, a whole burnt offering. He cries out to the Lord and God answers. And he gives them the victory. And in verse 11, they were able to chase them out and pursued them all the way back to the area of Beth Car. Samuel shows us today that God wants to give you the victory in what you're facing in the new year, no matter what comes your way. The nation was ready because they were repentant, so they were humble.

God is attracted to humility. He resists the proud, the Bible says, but he gives grace to the humble. He's attracted to humility, to dependence, to surrender. We saw in our last Bible study that in this new year, what God is going to be looking for is greater sacrifice, greater sacrifice. Because you see this, you have Samuel taking an offering, a suckling lamb and offering it as a burnt offering. Getting a lamb and offering it to the Lord is a lot easier than offering yourself. It's a lot easier.

I'm sure you can buy a lamb around here, and some guy that has my number already looked it up and gave me the link of where I could get the lamb. So I know you can get a lamb around here somewhere. And we can just go and buy, we can Venmo, we can Apple Pay, whatever we can swipe our card, get ourselves a lamb and sacrifice it in some way. That would be much easier than saying, "No, I want your life." That's what God asks for, Romans chapter 12, that you and I would offer ourselves a living sacrifice.

We don't need to offer lambs today because Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God that's taken away the sins of the world. It's by his blood, his death and resurrection that your sins and mine can be forgiven. He's the Lamb. We don't need any more lambs. But God does ask and does require you, that you would offer yourself and all that you are. Your talents, your treasures, your job, your kids, your money, your possessions, your thoughts, your ideas, your creativity, it all belongs to the Lord.

Maybe this is the year that you expand that part of you. Maybe this is the year where you recognize that the victory comes when you go to the Lord, when you turn to him. And in this event of victory, notice what Samuel does, which comes to the sum of our Bible study today. In verse 12, it says that Samuel took a stone. It was probably much bigger than this, but it says that Samuel took a stone and he set it up.

He sets the stone and calls its name Ebenezer. I bet all these years you thought Ebenezer's last name was Scrooge, didn't you? But it's actually a Bible name. The word Ebenezer means "stone of help" or "stone of assistance." And he calls the stone Ebenezer and he says, "Thus far the Lord has helped us." He wants everyone to know with the stone how important the faithfulness of God is. He doesn't want them to forget. It was something that came from his heart, something that he wanted to help the children of Israel.

Maybe he's thinking back to Joshua and he says, "That's a great idea." And he brings this stone and he says, "Look, this is the Lord's victory. It's not our victory. This is what the Lord has done. And by the way, not only did God give us the victory, but thus far, all the way to today, thus far, God has been our help." Thus far. The enemy pursues, but the victory belongs to the Lord. Notice in verse 13 it says the Philistines were subdued and didn't come anymore into the territory.

The hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. Thus far the Lord has helped us. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron to Gath. And Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. Look at the benefits. Thus far the Lord has helped us, and there's more, and there's more, and there's more. They don't have to deal with the Philistines as long as Samuel's in charge.

Not only that, they had land restored to them. This is very special language for a lot of us because there's another promise that I've held on to my entire Christian life. It's in Joel, and it basically says that God promises the nation of Israel to restore to them the years that the locust has eaten. I can't tell you how much that truth carried me through so many dark and difficult days. Days when I didn't even think I was a real Christian, when I didn't even know if I was going to make it.

Those early days were so challenging for me because I was so messed up in my mind and in my life and so many consequences of sin. But somebody gave me this verse that God does the work of restoration. He does the work of restoring and reconciling, and I held on to it. So much so that it became a goal in my life. I got saved in my early 20s, so I did the math and I was looking for the day.

I actually had it down because I got saved on a Wednesday night. It was a 7:00 service, so I probably got saved around 7:30 something. And then we've got to change the time for Denver and then we've got to have one second to it. Because at that time, that would mark the time that I had served God longer, one second longer, than I had served this world. And I counted all my baby years because I was rotten in the womb as well.

All those years, not only the years I knew what I was doing, but all of them. I counted all my years until I got saved. And then tragedy struck our family and the date hit during that time and I didn't even celebrate, didn't even know it. I forgot about it until I picked it up again. And I'm like, "It wasn't that important after all." And the Lord was going, "It's something I want to share something with you, Ed. The date isn't as important as me."

I've been doing this work of restoration all along. You don't need to mark it by a date or a second or a time because I've been restoring all along. I'm working in your life. It was such a beautiful revelation. When you hold on to these promises, I look at what's happening in the children of Israel. They turn to the Lord and what did he do? Restored. What did he do? Protect. What did he do? Help. What did he do? Give them strong leadership. So beautiful and so wonderful.

And how did they remember this going forward? It was a stone. A stone. Today in a few moments I'm going to invite you to come and pick up a stone because I want you to mark today, and you may have done this before, and that's okay, because I also brought some of these stones that I have from my office at home. This actually is the stone, and I write on them with Sharpies. I taught this Bible study right after the pandemic.

That's when the Lord gave it to me and right while in the new year after the pandemic, I wrote it down. I remember that was such a hard year. It was so challenging on so many different fronts, but thus far the Lord has helped us. And we got through it. And we made it. You see, when you think back you want to remember the worst, and that's how the world is. They get all political and remember the worst and remember the worst.

That's not God. God wants you to remember him. "I was with you. You made it through." "Oh, but Lord, it was so bad." Stop remembering the bad. Remember my faithfulness. And that's what this rock is. I remember the bad, but I remember God's faithfulness far more. And then I have other ones because we do this a lot. If you go to Israel with us, we'll take you to the Elah Valley, in the area where the battle between David and Goliath was.

And there's rocks everywhere. So I always tell the group, pick up at least a couple rocks. One you're going to throw, and just make sure you throw away from people. It's a little Bible study you're going to throw at your own Goliath because everybody's got an issue. This one is from 2017. I wrote it down. I also have a giant that I keep taking back to the Elah Valley. I have now for 13 years, so that's written on here.

I won't share that, but I have it here. Elah Valley, to remind me that he's able to take super small stones and deal with big giants in my life. And we all have big giants. So I've got these stones. This one's special. I didn't write anything on it because I remember it. In 2021, I took this Bible study around the country and was sharing it at other churches. And this is a stone I picked up.

In one of the churches they forgot to buy the rocks. I called ahead and I said, "Can you buy some rocks?" They probably didn't understand what I was doing. It's like, "Can you buy some rocks, put them on the stage?" And they didn't do it. And so I found out that morning, I'm like, "Bro, this is like a whole message. I need these rocks." So while all the stores are closed and I'm like, "Well, do you have rocks around the church?"

And they said, "Yes," and I said, "Well, we'll find rocks around the church." And the church doesn't have any foundation anymore, but we got the rocks. And that's what this one is, cooperating with those guys. They were young guys that went out and did something for me, and they were able to find enough rocks around the property that everybody in the church was able to take them. So that's kind of special for everyone with those rocks.

I just have these memories of episodes in my life. And these are not all of them. They're set up in my office at home where I'm reminded of a singular truth. Even though they all have a story behind them, I'm reminded of a singular truth: thus far the Lord has helped me. And if God has been faithful in the past, then he will remain faithful today. And for some, we just need a visual reminder.

It's too bad that we need a visual reminder, but fine. It doesn't matter. Don't beat yourself up over it. I think of when we put pictures up on our walls. We don't put a thousand pictures up on a wall. And if you do, I'm sorry for mentioning you, but we don't put a thousand pictures. In my office I used to have a wall dedicated to maybe 40 pictures or so of different memories that I have. Really significant ones, very important ones.

When they redid the office and redid the walls, I was told I could only put a few. And so I looked before I came in. I have eight pictures on my wall that are right across from my desk. As I look over, and those were specifically, personally picked by me. Those are the ones I want to see. Those are the ones I want to be remembered. Of course my kids are up there. My oldest son is there on a special trip.

My kids are up there, and my grandson is up there, and my grandfather is also up there. And they just serve as reminders. I have a bunch of pictures on my phone that I could look at any time, but the ones I want to remember, those are the ones I put on the wall. Isn't that true for you? Those are the ones you want to remember. And now some of you are thinking, "Man, I think I should go home and change some of those pictures."

Yeah, you should. You should swap them out. Fresh new memories of what's important to you. And that's what God's saying to you today with rocks. Not with pictures but with rocks. Because he wants the memory to be internal. He wants you to take this memory stone and immediately go back to a place. Like those rocks when I'm mentioning them, many of them are attached to a visual memory.

I used to have a very good photographic memory. It's partial of what it used to be, but a lot of my memories are tied to visuals. I can see it. Sometimes when I'm teaching you might see me look up. I'm thinking, and I'm recalling a picture. It's helping me to understand that moment. And this is what God has for you. This may be something you add to the new year: greater remembrance.

By the way, for the children of Israel, there were two sets of rocks. One was in the middle of the Jordan, which I found fascinating. They put a stack of rocks in the middle of the Jordan. And I believe, and I add to it, the Bible doesn't say specifically, that if anybody ever wanted to go back across the Jordan away from the promised land, ever wanted to wander away—"I'm done with the promised land. I don't like this anymore. It's too much fighting, too hard. This is not what was promised. I'm going to go back."

They would have to go back through the Jordan River over the rocks. They would have to pass through those rocks some way. So really to go backwards, the children of Israel would have to go past the faithfulness of God. It couldn't be easy for them. They could swim, they could take a boat, whatever they would have to go past the faithfulness of God.

And some of you, you need to build a wall. Again, the rocks with your kids is one thing. Maybe you need to go down to Home Depot and just get a bag of rocks and set something up in your backyard. Something significant. Because you just have this way about you that you wander a lot. And you need to be reminded all the time, "If I wander again, I'm going past the faithfulness of God. Why would I do that? He's been so good to me."

And you might remember how hard it was and how difficult and God has been so faithful to me. Like you might need to build a wall that would be so difficult for you to climb over because the days are short and we don't need any more wandering around in our lives. We need to be laser-focused in these last days. When you acknowledge the work of God, it should always lead you to worship God. And we have these Ebenezer stones.

Ebenezer stones. These are not some cartoon character that was developed by a novel, as great as that story is. These stones, Ebenezer represents the faithfulness of God. And each one of you has said multiple times today that you can think of God's faithfulness in your life, how he's come through. And today I want to remind you that God's past faithfulness requires your present trust right now today.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor Ed Taylor on Abounding Grace, wrapping up our series called Greater. This final message in the series goes by the title of Greater Remembrance and can be heard again at aboundinggraceradio.com. Abounding Grace is available by podcast on most platforms, including oneplace.com. Listen and learn when it's most convenient—at the gym, in the car, or as you're getting ready in the morning. You can also get our app. It's available on all platforms. This is another way to hear Pastor Ed's teachings. Search for Ed Taylor in your favorite app store.

Well, each month we like to suggest a book that will encourage you in the Lord, and this month it's "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung. Maybe you've been on a search to find God's will and you're stuck or frustrated, waiting for clear and unmistakable direction. In this helpful book, you'll learn that God doesn't need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He's already revealed his plan for our lives: to love him, obey his word, and after that, to do what we like. He says no need for hocus pocus, no reason to be directionally challenged, just do something.

We'll send you a copy with our thanks for a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Please remember it is through your support that we're able to present this radio program on stations all across the nation. Thank you for standing with us. Call 877-30-GRACE and we can help you with the ordering details, or go to our online store at calvaryco.store.

We have new service times here at Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado. We meet together Saturdays at 6:00 p.m., Sundays at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:45 in the morning. For more information, call 877-30-GRACE or log in to calvaryco.church. Tomorrow on Abounding Grace, we'll get back to our study in Exodus. We left off in chapter 12 a couple of weeks ago. Hear all about the great Exodus on our next two programs.

This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You laid down your life that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me.

Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.