Embedded Files
Mighty to Save
Verse 1
Ev’ryone needs compassion
A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Ev’ryone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Saviour
The hope of nations
Chorus
Saviour He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
Verse 2
So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Ev’rything I believe in
Now I surrender
Chorus
Saviour He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
Bridge
Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing
For the glory of the risen King Jesus
Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing For the glory of the risen King
Chorus
Saviour He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
What a Beautiful Name
Verse 1
You were the Word at the beginning
One with God the Lord Most High
Your hidden glory in creation
Now revealed in You our Christ
Chorus 1
What a beautiful Name it is
What a beautiful Name it is
The Name of Jesus Christ my King
What a beautiful Name it is
Nothing compares to this
What a beautiful Name it is
The Name of Jesus
Verse 2
You didn't want heaven without us
So Jesus You brought heaven down
My sin was great Your love was greater
What could separate us now
Chorus 2
What a wonderful Name it is
What a wonderful Name it is
The Name of Jesus Christ my King
What a wonderful Name it is
Nothing compares to this
What a wonderful Name it is
The Name of Jesus
What a wonderful Name it is
The Name of Jesus
Bridge
Death could not hold You
The veil tore before You
You silence the boast of sin and grave
The heavens are roaring
The praise of Your glory
For You are raised to life again
Bridge
You have no rival
You have no equal
Now and forever God You reign
Yours is the kingdom
Yours is the glory
Yours is the Name above all names
Chorus 3
What a powerful Name it is
What a powerful Name it is
The Name of Jesus Christ my King
What a powerful Name it is
Nothing can stand against
What a powerful Name it is
The Name of Jesus
Ending
What a powerful Name it is
The Name of Jesus
What a powerful Name it is
The Name of Jesus
New Doxology
Verse 1
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost
Verse 2
Let earth and heavenly saints proclaim
The pow'r and might of His great Name
Let us exalt on bended knee
Praise God the Holy Trinity
Chorus
Praise God praise God
Praise God Who saved my soul
Praise God praise God
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
Verse 3
Praise to the King His throne transcends
His crown and Kingdom never end
Now and throughout eternity
I'll praise the One Who died for me
Chorus
Praise God praise God
Praise God Who saved my soul
Praise God praise God
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
CHORUS FROM KING OF KINGS
Chorus
Praise the Father
Praise the Son
Praise the Spirit three in one
God of Glory Majesty
Praise forever to the King of kings
Father We Love You
Verse 1
Father, we love you
we worship, we adore you
Glorify your name in all the earth
glorify your name,
glorify your name,
glorify your name in all the earth
Verse 2
Jesus, we love you
we worship, we adore you
Glorify your name in all the earth
glorify your name,
glorify your name,
glorify your name in all the earth
Verse 3
Spirit, we love you
we worship, we adore you
Glorify your name in all the earth
glorify your name,
glorify your name,
glorify your name in all the earth
Ebenezer CRC - November 9, 2025
Adam Veenstra
SCRIPTURE READING (CHRIS D)
SERMON INTRO SLIDE I invite you to turn to page 1757 of the Bibles in front of you, to Romans 8, part of a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome. He writes to help them navigate the challenges they’re facing as followers of God.
Like so many of us, they were people who had been slaves to sin. They were trapped by their own unhealthy habits, but also by their hurts and fears, as they tried to navigate living in a broken world that didn’t seem to care.
Rome at that time was the capital of the empire, and was the centre of art and architecture. It had incredible theatres, palaces, and temples.
But like most communities, it also had significant social problems.
Because all of that culture didn’t do enough to support the population’s basic needs, and could instead be used to satisfy the worst of their desires.
It was a big place where people could easily find themselves lost, unsupported, and alone.
But in Romans 8, starting at verse 14, God speaks into that pain as a father speaks to his children:
“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption. And by him we cry ‘Abba, Father.’
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
MESSAGE
Part One - Context
SLIDE 1 The modern church of Trenton, or of North America as a whole, might look very differently from the church in Rome on the surface.
But we are actually the same in many ways.
We have social problems in our community, we sometimes satisfy the worst of our desires, and we can sometimes find ourselves lost, unsupported, and alone in a world that doesn’t seem to care.
Even if we have relatively happy, healthy lives, we all have something, or someone, that has caused us hurt.
We have all had our share of suffering.
In 2025 we talk a lot about healing our inner child.
And what a little kid needs when they’re hurt is for their Dad to come and make everything better.
I don’t think that changes as we get older.
What we read in this passage is a heavenly father making everything better.
SLIDE 2 In the cultural context of our passage, the father was the head of the household, and was meant to provide stability and support for everyone under his roof.
His job was to provide for their practical needs.
But his job was also to provide leadership, and identity; give shape and security to his children’s lives.
Because they would be known as his.
His life, his occupation, and his character, would shape the stories and destinies of his children.
For better or for worse.
Unfortunately, that inner child didn’t always get what they needed from their Dad.
And the result is sometimes still feeling lost, unsupported, and alone, without someone to help shape your life and your story in a healthy way.
SLIDE 3 That’s why this passage is so important.
That’s why the role of God as Father in our lives is so important.
Because this isn’t something that everyone sees modelled in their earthly life, and why it can be a hard concept for so many people.
When we hear the phrase “God the Father”, it’s meant to be a concept we can understand, that we can equate to our human experience.
Except that that experience has been so tainted by sin.
So maybe your father hasn’t been much of a Dad.
Maybe that relationship is cold, or strained; maybe it doesn’t exist, or doesn’t exist in the way it should.
And so acknowledging God as a “father”, in the fullness of that word, takes work. Takes faith.
No human relationship is perfect. No human relationship can ever provide perfect security.
But in faith we put our trust in God’s relationship to us, which is meant to be the perfect model, not the imitation, of our human relationships.
God positions himself as a Father who will never hurt us, even unintentionally.
He has gone to desperate lengths so that we will not be lost, unsupported ,or alone.
He gave of himself so that we would not have to live in fear.
He loves us in the ways we most need to be loved.
I want you to take a minute to think of the best father you know.
Maybe it’s yours. Maybe it’s a friend’s that you grew up knowing.
SLIDE 4 Depending on your age maybe it’s Michael Landon or Bandit Heeler.
Whoever he is, think about how much he loves his kids. Think about how hard he fights for them.
All of that is still only just a taste of what God feels and does for us.
SLIDE 5 Writer and speak Brennan Manning has said that “if you took all the love of all the best mothers and fathers who have lived in the course of human history, all their goodness, kindness, patience, fidelity, wisdom, tenderness, strength, and love and united all those qualities in a single person, that person’s love would [still] only be a faint shadow of the furious love and mercy in the heart of God the Father addressed to you and me in this [single] moment.”
SLIDE 6 Fathers in fiction might never let us down. But neither does our Father in faith.
When God fathers us, we share in all the privileges of Christ as co-heirs.
As his kids.
Whose stories and destinies are shaped by having his name and his image.
SLIDE 7 In a recent podcast, actor Aaron Lazar, who has been living with ALS for almost four years, asked his two teenage sons, “What does my love feel like?”
SLIDE 8 What a question.
Imagine trying to answer that, if you’re someone who even can.
What does a Father’s love feel like?
What does it actually feel like to be loved?
How does that affect your day, how does that change you?
SLIDE 9 I hope you know.
Even if you can’t articulate it, I hope you know what it feels like.
Because you - YOU - have received a spirit of adoption, and the Holy Spirit itself longs for our spirits to testify - to believe and claim - that we are God’s children.
That we are loved by him.
SLIDE 10 It was tempting to show the video again from a few weeks ago, the one about the little kid and the oil.
So many of you commented on the layers of it, and how if you haven’t experienced love and grace from the people you’re meant to in your human relationships, how could you expect to get it from anywhere else?
But the title of the video is telling: “Stronger Stuff”.
The stuff God offers - the love and grace we get from him - is stronger.
It is all-encompassing and unconditional.
It is unlike anything you’d have ever experienced.
SLIDE 11 And that is why “by him we cry ‘Abba, Father.’”
We have an intimacy with our God closer and greater than anything we could imagine.
The night before I started working on this sermon I was at a friend’s house, and we were just sitting in the living room watching TV together. After a little while I looked over and saw that his 8 year-old son had curled up in this ball right up against him. He just kind of melted into his Dad.
They had this physical ease and comfort with one another - an intimacy - that I don’t think you get unless you also have an emotional one.
And I also think that’s an emotional intimacy and connection we’d all love to have.
How that intimacy is enabled is something we’ll touch on in the next two sermons of this series.
But we see it loudly declared in this passage.
To the Roman church, using the word Abba was monumental.
Because it doesn’t just mean “father”.
Probably translated it is more basic, more raw; it is like switching from saying “Yes sir” to “I love you Dad”.
It meant that they could now approach the throne of the infinite, powerful, transcendent and majestic creator and King of the universe and open their hearts to him.
Because his heart is open to them.
Believers would have traditionally tried to avoid using God’s name, or they would have included it with blessing so as to not profane it.
They were used to a more formal way of addressing God, as had been passed down to them from previous generations.
But sometimes formalities, however respectfully intended, can create a distance.
And now the early church is bearing witness to the intimacy of Jesus’ relationship with the Father, and being invited to share that intimacy.
A new kind of fatherhood, and a new kind of relationship.
Christ himself introduces this intimacy with God when he teaches his disciples to pray.
SLIDE 12 In Matthew 6, he starts this sample prayer with “Our Father”.
And there’s no explanation for addressing him that way in the surrounding verses - he just repeatedly refers to God as “your Father”.
He almost takes for granted that this is how we should think about and express our relationship to God.
And in the centuries since, having heard and said it so often, do we take those words for granted?
SLIDE 13 Or do we truly believe that we are addressing our Father, in the fullness of what that means?
Do we truly believe that we are addressing our Abba?
There is incredible power and meaning in naming the relationship in this way.
It’s meant to name this incredibly intimate body of belonging.
That you are a part of him. You are his!
That no matter what else is going on in life, no matter how hurt or lost you might feel, you have someone who loves you, who thinks the world of you, more than you could ever even imagine.
You bear his name and you bear his image. You are his.
It’s been said that our families - including our fathers - are our past, present, and future.
That everything we do, and every way that we interact with the world around us, is connected to the person who raised us. However they raised us.
We bear the imprint, and the image, of our families.
SLIDE 14 And God’s children, we bear the image of our Father.
We were made in the image of our Father.
Everything we do, and every way that we interact with the world around us, is meant to be connected to him.
So that no matter what else is going on in life, no matter how hurt or lost you might feel, you can know that you have someone who loves you, who thinks the world of you.
And so that when the world looks at you, they see the image of your Father.
So that as you reach out to the world, it will see you reaching up to him.
SLIDE 15 One of my favourite Christmas songs is “Hark! The Herald Angels Songs”.
We’ll be singing it Christmas Day, because I don’t make many musical demands as a pastor, but this is one of them.
Because it’s not just that it’s my favourite, it’s that it’s one of the most meaningful to me, and because of one line.
SLIDE 16 In the final verse, we sing that Christ has been “born to raise the lost on earth.”
Based on the context of the other lines, it probably means being raised out of our sin and given second birth into a new life in Christ.
But what if we thought about that as being raised in the way you might raise a child?
What could it mean for us if God is raising us as his sons and daughters?
If he is fathering us?
SLIDE 17 Our faith forms, and it grows stronger, and can be seen by the world around us, when we realize that we bear the image of the father who raised us.
The one who takes the time to love and care for us.
If that image of being raised up by a parent, by a father, has been tainted by your own parents’ mistakes, I’m sorry. I am really sorry. If it’s something that you need to talk about, my contact info, and the contact info for free counselling through CAP, is in the bulletin.
I just hope you can know you’re not alone in that experience.
And I hope you know that God desires to father you in the best possible way.
In the way that you most need, and should have had.
SLIDE 18 At some point in the Advent and Christmas season we will also hear the words of Isaiah 9, which refers to the triune God as the “Everlasting Father”.
In the context of God our Father, this is redundant.
Because there need be no question that the love, grace, support, and embrace of your heavenly Father is everlasting.
There is no beginning to it, and there will be no end to it.
No matter what.
SLIDE 19 There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SLIDE 20 The Father has lavished great love on us, that we might be called children of God. For that is what we are!
It’s not what we appear to be, it’s not what we hope to be someday, it is what we ARE.
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