The Ebenezer Stone

“Thus Far the Lord Has Helped Us"

Scripture: 1 Samuel 7:1-13

Welcome! Tonight we're going to look at a strange-sounding word — Ebenezer. You may have heard it in an old hymn: “Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I'm come." Most of us sing past it without knowing what it means. But for men in recovery, this stone might be one of the most powerful images in all of Scripture.

The Story

Israel had been getting hammered. The Philistines had defeated them, captured the Ark of the Covenant, and Israel had spent twenty years in spiritual drift; chasing other gods, going through the motions, living defeated lives.

Sound familiar? That's the life of a man controlled by his desires. Twenty years of drift. Twenty years of the same loop.

Then Samuel calls them together at Mizpah and says something simple but radical: If you're returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods. Direct your hearts to Him. Serve Him only. (v. 3)

The people respond. They fast. They confess: “We have sinned against the Lord."

And right at that moment of repentance — the Philistines hear they've gathered and march out to attack. The enemy always shows up the moment you decide to get serious about freedom. Every man here knows that. The day you put down the bottle, the pipe, the screen, the affair — that's the day the assault comes hardest.

But this time something is different. Israel cries out. Samuel offers a sacrifice. And God thunders against the Philistines, throwing them into confusion. Israel wins.

Then comes the verse we're built around tonight:

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, 'Till now the LORD has helped us.'" — 1 Samuel 7:12

Eben means stone. Ezer means help. Stone of help.

What the Stone Means

Samuel didn't raise this stone after the victory was complete. He raised it in the middle of the journey. "Till now the Lord has helped us." The battle with the Philistines wasn't over for good. There would be more fights. But Samuel marked this spot to say: Don't forget what God did here.

Three things the Ebenezer does for us:

1. It remembers. Our addiction thrives on forgetting. We forget the consequences. We forget the prayers we prayed in the bathroom at 3 a.m. We forget how God showed up. The Ebenezer says: Remember.

2. It testifies. That stone wasn't just for Samuel. Anyone walking by would ask, "What's that stone?" And someone would tell the story. Our sobriety, our healing, is meant to be visible. Not so people praise us — so people see what God can do.

3. It anchors. When the next battle comes — and it will — the stone reminds us we didn't get here on willpower. Hither by Thy help I'm come.

The Real Stone of Help

Here's where I want every man in this room to lock in.

That stone Samuel raised was a sign pointing to a greater Stone. Centuries later, Peter writes:

"As you come to Him, a living Stone, rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious… you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house." — 1 Peter 2:4-5

Jesus is our Ebenezer. He is the Stone of Help.

Gentlemen, we did not just have a habit problem. We had a heart problem. The Bible calls it sin, and sin isn't only the things we did when we were using. Sin is the deeper condition that drove us to use. We were born into it. We were slaves to it. Romans 6 says we were slaves to sin, and the wages of sin is death, not just physical death, but separation from God forever.

No amount of white-knuckling fixes that. No 30 days, no 30 years of sobriety pays that debt.

So God did what we couldn't. He sent His Son Jesus to live the life we couldn't live and die the death we deserved to die. On the cross, Jesus took the full weight of our addiction, our betrayals, our pride, our rage, our shame. He was buried. And on the third day, He rose from the dead — proof that the debt was paid and death was defeated.

And here's the part that changes everything for a man in recovery:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." — 2 Corinthians 5:17

You are not your addiction. If you are in Christ, the man who used is dead. Crucified with Him. And the man sitting in this chair tonight is a new creation — not a patched-up old one, a new one.

"We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." — Romans 6:6

You are no longer controlled by your desires. The cravings may still come. The triggers may still fire. But they are not your master anymore. Christ is. The desires that used to drive you off the cliff have been dethroned.

This isn't positive thinking. This isn't a slogan on a wall. This is the gospel — the good news that a crucified and risen Savior actually breaks the chains.

The way you receive this is simple: turn from your sin (repent), and trust in Jesus. Not Jesus plus your sobriety streak. Not Jesus plus your good behavior. Just Jesus.

Application

If Christ is your Stone of Help, then start marking the stones in your own life.

Some questions to take home, or to share right now:

• What's one specific moment where you can honestly say, "Till now the Lord has helped me"? Name it. Speak it out loud this week.

• What "foreign gods" is the Lord asking you to put away — not just the substance, but the lesser things you've been running to? Comfort? Approval? Control? Lust? Rage?

• Who in your life needs to walk past your stone and ask, "What's that?" Whose recovery, whose marriage, whose son might be saved because you told the story?

• Are you trusting Christ as your Stone of Help — or are you still trying to be your own?

Closing Prayer

Father, we are men who have forgotten too many times. Today we raise our Ebenezer. Till now You have helped us. Every day we are sober, every breath we take in freedom it is Your hand, not ours. Thank You for Jesus, the true Stone of Help, rejected for us, broken for us, raised for us. We are new creations. The old man is dead. We are no longer slaves to our desires. Build us up as living stones in Your house. In Jesus' name, Amen.