Dear Fellow Redeemed, may the peace of Christ rest upon you!

We are creatures of ease, aren’t we?   Our homes are full of all sorts of time-saving, work-saving devices.   Our garages have motorized cars, lawn mowers, weed eaters, and the like.   How long has it been since you went to a department store and had to use a stairway instead of an escalator?   How easy it is to confuse the ease of our physical lives with our spiritual walk to heaven.

The walk to heaven is no escalator-ride!   It’s a “walk” divided into many sections or steps of testing and trial.  We are subjected to many temptations from our spiritual enemies — Satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh.  To put it into the context of our text, we are talking about 

Next, the people of Israel showed that they recognized their own weakness and unworthiness by a long period of fasting.  Finally, along with these symbolic acts of penitence and humility, Israel confessed: “We have sinned against the Lord.” 
 
So we should react when we are faced with trials and temptations.  In 1981, a fellow Christian in our St. Louis congregation, was stricken with terminal cancer.  He was a 47-year-old lawyer who knew that his earthly life would be cut short on the way to heaven.   On one occasion when I visited with him he confessed that instead of asking himself “Why me?”  He asked himself, “Why not me?  I have sinned against the Lord no less than anyone else.  Why not me?”

So also, if you or I face physical afflictions let us say first of all, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  If you feel threatened by financial loss, don’t immediately blame the markets or the government.  Rather say from your hearts, “I have sinned against my Lord.”  If you have trouble in your marriage, don’t blame your spouse first.  Instead say, “I have sinned against the Lord.” 
In every trial and affliction, Satan, the world, and our own flesh are poised for battle to lead us into discontent, anger, despair, and unbelief.  If we are going to continue our faith’s walk to heaven, we need to realize that because of our own sins we are completely unprepared for combat!  Only then will we continue our faith’s course with 

What did Samuel do?  He offered a young lamb as a "whole burnt offering" to the Lord.  The burnt offering was symbolic of the surrender of the people to God and of His acceptance of them because of the offering.  How thankful we should be that this symbolic offering pointed to the REAL offering that is acceptable to God for sinners.
For when the "fullness of the time had come, God (the Father) sent" the sacrificial Lamb in the person of His own Son.  Through Christ's innocent sufferings and death we are made acceptable to the holy God.  This means that the prayers of distressed believers in Christ are heard at the throne of our almighty, Redeemer-God!
 
In Red Rock Park near Colorado Springs, Colorado, is a rock called "Balance Rock."   we saw it when we lived in Colorado many years ago.  It's quite a spectacle as it stands perfectly balanced on a larger rock.   "Balance Rock" looks as if it ought to fall in any direction.  But it doesn't!  Christians are like that.  There are so many ways to fall from the path to salvation.  We may fall because of temptations to faithless anxieties in time of physical danger.  We may fall off the path to heaven by indulging the sins of the flesh.  We may become cowards rather than endure persecution in confessing Christ's Word.   The most common way to fall from the path that leads to heaven is slow and subtle -- a forgetting and  despising of the Word of God that leads to unbelief.   Oh there are so many ways to fall!

But there aren't many ways to stand and continue the walk of faith!  Some put their trust in their doctors.  Some trust that their vote on November 5th will take away their financial worries.  Some  try to stand in the face of life's trials by seeking relief in material things and pleasures.  Some try to stand on their own self-righteous feet when they have sinned.  Rather than seek the Lord's mercy, they run away from Him, or try to bribe Him by their works!
Yet, like "Balance Rock"  in Colorado Springs, there is only one way for the Christian to stand in time of trouble and be acceptable to his God in heaven.   We must keep on crying out to our God that He may save us and cause us to stand on Christ, "the Solid Rock”  through Whom our humble prayers are accepted!

After the victory, Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, along the route which the enemy had fled.   Samuel called the stone “Ebenzer” or “stone of help,” for he said:  “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”  Samuel set up a stone of memorial and thanksgiving to serve as a reminder and source of encouragement and faith in the Lord for future generations. 

You and I also, dear Friends, need to remember the Lord’s deliverance of us in each and every trial and hardship.  We need to remember Him with humble thanksgiving, setting up an “Ebenezer” stone in our own hearts.  In this way our hope and confidence increases in our future trials and testings.  Examine the lives of your father — Job, Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, and Paul?  Consider how their faith was strengthened as they confessed their sins, prayed for deliverance, and were given victory again and again.  With each trial the Lord brought them safely through, these Christians set up an “Ebenezer” memorial in their hearts.  They noted with thanksgiving that the Lord, their stone of help, had been with them.

So the Lord has helped each of us along life’s way to heaven,  as pressures from without and fears from within have tugged and scratched at us, threatening to pull us off faith’s ladder to heaven.  With what carefree abandon and joyful freedom we may look around us in the midst of troubles in this life!   
It IS IMPORTANT however where we look!   When Peter  tried to walk across the Sea of Galilee at Jesus’ invitation, he did well until he took his eyes off Jesus.  Looking downward and sideways he became afraid and he began to sink.  Samuel reminds us to 

“LOOK UP” to our God in heaven from our knees. 
“LOOK BACK” to our great Ebenezer — our Lord Jesus Christ Who was set in place by our heavenly Father to become much more than a memorial stone!   He actually became the ROCK of our salvation.   “LOOK BACK” to the place and spiritual condition you first came from.  See and celebrate how far your merciful and faithful God has brought you on your way to heaven!  

And then “LOOK BEYOND” with confidence in your Savior’s continued undeserved goodness in your life.  He has surely said in His Word to His believing children, Hebrews 13:5-6: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”   So that we may boldly say: ‘the Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear.’”
After repeated confession of sins, and believing prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, after all the earthly battles are over, after all the hardships of the desert journey, after all the enemies are conquered — even Death itself — then finally, in company with the joyful choirs of all the redeemed in heaven, we will praise our faithful Redeemer Forever!  Lord, grant this to each of us through Your mercy!  Amen.