They were a good people if not yet a great people. They were a good people, with much to be proud of. Over the years they had faced many obstacles and had overcome them. There had been dangerous moments, but they had weathered the storms and gone on. They were a good people if not yet a great people.
In their earlier years they had done incredible things. With very few resources, with no traditions behind them, with nothing more than a compelling dream and some gifted leadership they had established themselves in a new community. There were others already there in that community, others whose beliefs and values were different from theirs. But they were convinced that God, their God, wanted them in that place, and so they went in. There they established themselves, little by little, household by household. There they planted themselves just a few among many others, but on their way. They were indeed a good people. But they were not yet a great people.
As the years went by, these good people developed the habit of celebrating their history. Once a year they would get together for an anniversary celebration, and speak about the days that were past. They would remember those who had passed away, they would recall those funny things that had been said. They would remember, but of course they would remember very selectively. They would remember in public those grand occasions of the past when everything had gone well; they would make pretty speeches about how God had blessed them. But then they would also huddle in little groups and in whispered memories they would shake their heads over the outrageous things that someone had done. They were a good people, but were rather afraid by now that they would never become a great people.
You see, there were some cracks in the veneer. There were some trouble spots. Over the years several issues had cropped up.
For one thing, they often found themselves fighting one another. They argued among themselves over small things, petty things, when they could have been defeating the forces of sin around them. They discussed policy when they could have been sharing their faith. They debated each other rather than engaging the paganism around them.
One aspect of this brother-to-brother fight was that really there were two different cultures being blended here. There were two different peoples trying to act as one. Sure, in some ways they were the same: they held the same basic religious beliefs, they gave allegiance to the same Bible, they shared to a degree a common language. But the truth is that they were two different peoples culturally, and even while they were talking about the great ideal of getting along together and understanding one another, there were powerful forces, emotional forces, pulling them apart. They talked sometimes about being an integrated melting pot, but they weren’t. They should have talked about being a tossed salad, in which each ingredient contributes to the other. They may have been a good people in many ways, and the world saw them as unusual: but they were not yet a great people, not yet an insightful, reconciling people.
In this atmosphere some of them lost sight of what their mission was. Some of them got so caught up in the business of settling down, after such a long hard struggle, that they just forgot about what they were really supposed to do. Like a traveler on a long journey who just wants it to be over so that he can get some rest, a lot of these folk just wanted it to be convenient and comfortable. They just wanted something to be settled. They just wanted the journey and the struggle to be over.
Unless something changed, they would likely become a good-enough people … a good-enough people, satisfied with the place they had come to, never seeking to go on, never stretching for what was beyond their grasp.
Unless something changed, they would become merely a good-enough people, in the words of T. S. Eliot, “a decent people, their only monument the asphalt road and a thousand lost golf balls."
It was at that moment that they suffered a serious defeat. It was just at the time when they had settled for good enough rather than great that something happened to rock them back on their haunches and shake their confidence.
At the little town of Ebenezer, Israel met a stunning defeat at the hands of the Philistines. They were unprepared, they were weak, they did not believe much in themselves and even less in their God. And they were defeated. At the little town of Ebenezer, whose name, ironically, means "stone of help", Israel got no help. And, as if that were not enough, Israel sent for the Ark of the Covenant, for that mysterious box which symbolized the presence of their God. She went into battle with the heavy artillery, so to speak.
And again Israel was defeated. What unspeakable misery! Not only did Israel lose some thirty thousand soldiers, but also she lost the very Ark of the Covenant. Their sacred symbol was captured and in the hands of the enemy. Never had Israel felt so abandoned, never so lost and alone.
Never had she felt so very far from being the great people she might have become.
The text tells us that for some twenty years Israel simply lay dormant, sleeping, stunned. A good people but a defeated one. And a long, long way from being a great and victorious people. I’m sure that in that long, long period, many of the men and women of Israel thought the dream of greatness had died completely.
But a new day did come. A day came when the dream was reborn. The day came when they told the prophet Samuel that they were ready to try again. And Samuel gave them a formula for success. Samuel told them what they must do in order to be back on track to greatness and victory.
There are three ingredients in Samuel’s formula. In order for a people to become a great people there are three things they must do. Those three things are: repentance, prayer, and sacrifice. Repentance, prayer, and sacrifice.
There’s the element of repentance. Put away your idolatries and return to the Lord with all your heart. Direct your heart to the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you.
You see, repentance is turning away from idolatries. Repentance is turning away from materialism; that’s the essence of idolatry.
Repentance is turning away from materialism. Repentance is turning away from thinking that we are self-sufficient, turning away from supposing that our little brains hold the answer to every question and the solutions to every problem. Repentance is trust in the Lord alone.
Repentance means that we do not have to see every detail nailed down. We do not have to know where every dollar is coming from. We do not have to know what the future holds, because we do know who holds the future. We are in the hands of God, and that means we must repent of our pride-filled self-sufficiency. That means we have to repent of being so cautious, so careful. Repentance from materialism is the first ingredient in greatness.
For greatness and victory a people need prayer. Especially do they need their leader’s prayer. It was very important to the people to know that their leader was a man of prayer. They trusted Samuel because they could depend on his prayer relationship to God. The people said to Samuel, "Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, and pray that he may save us."
There are all kinds of leaders. There are many different leadership styles. Some people think of leadership as the up front kind of person who will say, "I know what’s best for you; now just keep quiet and follow." Other leaders tend to wait for the followers and then come running breathlessly, "Wait for me, I’m your leader!"
But the leaders you should trust are those who will take the trouble to think and plan and pray. The leaders you should trust are not interested in building monuments for themselves nor in merely keeping you happy. The leaders you should trust are those are in touch with the Lord.
Some of you have said to me, "Pastor, we need a clear mandate from you. We need for you just to stand there and say, ’Do it. Build it. I have a word from the Lord. Build it.’" You want leadership.
But surely you can understand that I have to speak with integrity. I cannot in good conscience tell you to give for this building just because it is my vision, my dream. But I have been saying and will continue to say that as the Spirit of God has given ongoing insight not to me alone but to a group of us, I have become more and more convinced and more and more at peace with what we are trying to do.
The vision for this work comes out of a continuing, growing, prayer-filled listening to the Spirit of the Lord. I can do nothing else but ask you to trust that.
Now, so two of the ingredients in a people recovering from defeat and moving on to greatness are, first, repentance from materialism, from the go-it-alone posture; and, second, following a prayerful and dedicated leadership.
But then we come to the third ingredient. And this is the tough one. This is where things get costly. The third ingredient in recovering from defeat and moving on to victory and greatness is sacrifice.
Samuel took a lamb and offered it as an offering, as a sacrifice, and as Samuel was in the very act of making this sacrifice, the enemy approached, but the Lord thundered with a mighty voice and sent them into confusion. And Israel knew victory that day. Why? Because of repentance, prayer, and then sacrifice.
Today is a day which calls for us as the people of God to make a sacrifice. If we want to be a great church, I see no other way but for us to follow through with sacrifice.
We must decide, each one of us, that our personal priorities need to be brought into line with the priorities of our church. That is a sacrifice, but it has to be done if there is to be greatness.
We must decide, each one of us, that the task of rebuilding this house of God is more important than our own convenience, more than just a project to keep us busy. It is worthy of our best energies, our best dollars. I simply know no other way to say it. This work is something we have to do; we have to do it not just because the boiler is down; we have to do it not just because there are so many needs in our building. We have to do it not only because there are opportunities for growth and for outreach and for ministry that we will lose if we do not do it. All of these things are important, but there is one other factor.
And that is that we must make these sacrifices together for our own spiritual health. We’ve got to go all the way with God. We have to take this risk and follow this vision in order to be what God wants us to be. Plain and simple, we have to make some sacrifices in order to be spiritually healthy.
Your church is asking that each one you set aside some significant funds over the next three years in order that we can remodel and rebuild. We are asking that today, by banquet time tonight, you determine-what you will sacrifice in order to achieve victory and greatness.
Some of us will need to sacrifice the priorities by which we spend our money. It will mean for some that that new car you’ve wanted will be put off for a while. It will mean that that addition to the house will be delayed. It will mean fewer new clothes, fewer restaurant and movie trips, fewer pleasure purchases. Maybe it will mean a vacation spent in your own backyard instead of in some exotic spot. I don’t know. You must decide. But decide to sacrifice.
For some, sacrifice might mean taking an extra job or borrowing against the equity in the house. I can see children and youth sacrificing by sharing their allowances or finding jobs to do. I can see older people writing the church into their wills. This is our moment, this is our day, to do something positive. This is our day to sacrifice.
What will happen then? Can we look forward to victory? "The Lord thundered that day against the Philistines, and threw them into confusion; and they were routed before Israel".
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up and named it Ebenezer, for he said, "Hitherto has the Lord helped us." Ebenezer, the marker of their victory! The stone of help: “Hitherto … thus far. Has the Lord helped us.”
You see, when a people have a victory, what do they do? They set up a stone as a monument to the help of God.
When a people finally moves from good-enough to great, what do they do? They erect stones in praise of the help of God.
We’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord. Takoma Park Baptist Church has been led by the Spirit through three and seventy years. We’ve had occasion to repent. We’re learning to pray. We’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord, trusting in His holy word. Now it is time to raise here on this corner our stones of help: stones and steel, wood and concrete, testimony to the help of our God.
We’ve suffered some defeats in those three and seventy years. There have been some embarrassing moments to go along with the great ones. There have been some times when our very existence seemed threatened. But we’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord, trusting in His holy word, and we can’t turn around now. Because "hitherto has the Lord helped us."
Ebenezer. Ebenezer. The stone of help. Repentance, prayer, sacrifice. Hitherto has the Lord helped us. We’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord, trusting in His holy word, He’s never failed us yet. Oh, can’t turn around; we’ve come this far by faith.
