MY FRIENDS “THUS FAR THE LORD HAS HELPED US.” NOW WHAT?

April 17, 2016

MY FRIENDS “THUS FAR THE LORD HAS HELPED US.” NOW WHAT?

My friends, our God has promised to work and act on behalf of His children who believe and endure, if we will only remove the foreign gods from among us and direct our hearts to the Lord and serve Him, and Him only. A narrative is told in Samuel 7, before Israel had a king, when God was there only ruler and judges were appointed by God to speak on His behalf.

Samuel was God’s appointed judge during this time, but the people had turned their backs on God and decided to do their own thing. Sounds like His children in the 21st century where Satan has us thinking we really don’t need God anymore because we have everything we have ever needed or wanted out of life. The Bible paints the Philistines as Israel’s main enemy during this time.

They were always in a state of perpetual war with Israel. But today, let’s take our focus back, three hundred years earlier when Israel first entered the “promise land” and God’s commissioned to Joshua was, “Be strong and courageous, for you will take the Israelite’s to the land I have promised them, and I will be with you.” Deut. 31:23 (NET) So if that is God’s promise, why does Israel have an enemy that is always in a state of perpetual war with them.

My friends, God knows His Children and He also knows us in Deut. 31:16-17 (NET) when Moses is about to die, God tells Moses “these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they are going. They will reject me and break my covenant that I have made with them…….and I will abandon them and hide my face from them.” So let’s make it personal today and ask, have we prostituted ourselves to the foreign gods of this land?

But God is a good God “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you return to the Lord with all your heart, and remove the foreign gods…….and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him only; He will rescue you from the hand of the Philistines.” And so Israel obeyed, and directed their hearts to the Lord.

Then Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. and the Philistines were defeated that day. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” My friends “Thus far the Lord has helped us” also but have we remove the foreign gods from among us and directed our hearts to the Lord and served Him” and Him only.

Today God is knocking at the doors of our heart, but we can only hear His voice and know His will for our life if we are “devoted to the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom.” Remember, we cannot serve two masters “either we will hate the one and love the other, or else we will be loyal to the one and despise the other.” Like 16:13 (NKJV)

My friends, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” So are we willing to remove our foreign gods and give God our all, meaning our time, talents, and money? And are we willing to be His disciple and take up our cross and follow him wherever He may lead? And are we willing to die to self and live our life totally in Christ? “In this world we have no continuing city, but we [should only seek the one to come, as we give God all the praise glory and honor that He deserves]….Heb. 13:14-15 (NKJV)”

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.