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Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
1 Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount– I'm fixed upon it–
mount of God's redeeming love.
2 Here I find my greatest treasure;
hither by thy help I've come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
bought me with his precious blood.
3 Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee:
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above
Ancient of Days
Verse 1
Though the nations rage
Kingdoms rise and fall
There is still one King
Reigning over all
So I will not fear
For this truth remains
That my God is the Ancient of Days
Verse 2
Though the dread of night
Overwhelms my soul
He is here with me
I am not alone
O His love is sure
And He knows my name
For my God is the Ancient of Days
Chorus
None above Him none before Him
All of time in His hands
For His throne it shall remain and ever stand
All the power all the glory
I will trust in His name
For my God is the Ancient of days
Verse 3
Though I may not see
What the future brings
I will watch and wait
For the Saviour king
Then my joy complete
Standing face to face
In the presence of the Ancient of Days
Chorus
None above Him none before Him
All of time in His hands
For His throne it shall remain and ever stand
All the power all the glory
I will trust in His name
For my God is the Ancient of days
For my God is the Ancient of Days
Grace
Verse 1
Your grace that leads this sinner home
From death to life forever
And sings the song of righteousness
By blood and not by merit
Verse 2
Your grace that reaches far and wide
To every tribe and nation
Has called my heart to enter in
The joy of Your salvation
Chorus
By grace I am redeemed
By grace I am restored
And now I freely walk
Into the arms of Christ my Lord
Verse 3
Your grace that I cannot explain
Not by my earthly wisdom
The prince of life without a stain
Was traded for this sinner
Chorus
By grace I am redeemed
By grace I am restored
And now I freely walk
Into the arms of Christ my Lord
Verse 4
Let praise rise up and overflow
My song resound forever
For grace will see me welcomed home
To walk beside my Saviour
Chorus
By grace I am redeemed
By grace I am restored
And now I freely walk
Into the arms of Christ my Lord
Instrument of Peace
Chorus
Lord make me an instrument of peace
An instrument of peace (2X)
Where is there hatred let me sow love
Where there is darkness let me sow light
For in the giving we shall receive
And in the dying we’re given life
Lord make me an instrument of peace
An instrument of peace (2X)
Where there is sorrow let me sow hope
Where there is doubt Lord, let me sow faith
Where is injury your pardon give
Your consolation to those in pain
Lord make me an instrument of peace
An instrument of peace (2X)
Living Hope
Verse 1
How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation I turned to heaven
And spoke Your name into the night
Then through the darkness Your loving-kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished the end is written
Jesus Christ my living hope
Verse 2
Who could imagine so great a mercy
What heart could fathom such boundless grace
The God of ages stepped down from glory
To wear my sin and bear my shame
The cross has spoken I am forgiven
The King of kings calls me His own
Beautiful Savior I’m Yours forever
Jesus Christ my living hope
Chorus
Hallelujah praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ my living hope
Verse 3
Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Jesus Yours is the victory
Chorus
Hallelujah praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ my living hope
Ebenezer CRC - October 19, 2025
Adam Veenstra
SCRIPTURE READING (AMBER)
SERMON INTRO SLIDE I invite you to turn to page 1169 in your Bibles in front of you. For our message today we are going to be reflecting on a vision that the prophet Jeremiah receives from God regarding the future of his people. It’s a vision of warning, but also of God’s assurance that he is with us through every difficult season.
We’ll be reading today from chapter 1, beginning at verse 11:
11 The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
“I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied.
12 The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”
13 The word of the Lord came to me again: “What do you see?”
“I see a boiling pot tilting away from the north,” I answered.
14 The Lord said to me, “From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. 15 I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,” declares the Lord.
“Their kings will come and set up their thrones
in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem;
they will come against all her surrounding walls
and against all the towns of Judah.
16
I will pronounce my judgments on my people
because of their wickedness in forsaking me,
in burning incense to other gods
and in worshiping what their hands have made.
17 “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. 18 Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
MESSAGE
Part One - Context
SLIDE 1 This passage takes place during the reigns of the last five kings of Judah, from roughly 626 to 586 BC.
And it predicts the exile of God’s people from their land, following the breaking of their covenant with God, and their intense, repeated, disobedience.
But while prophecy can tell the future, it also tells the truth: it assures them that they will also ultimately be restored, and that God will always be with them.
SLIDE 2 Jeremiah has been called the “weeping prophet”, because of all the bad news that he has to deliver, and the lament and anguish that he expresses.
Here he is called to announce the destruction of the southern kingdom of Judah - it is the end of an era for God’s people.
The sense of doom is so palpable that Jeremiah was actually advised to stay single and childless, since there seemed to be so little hope for the next generation.
SLIDE 3 The great boiling pot from the north is the kingdom of Babylon, whose invasion is the consequence of Judah’s sin, separating themselves from God.
God’s people will continue to see seasons of separation, and of grief and of destruction.
It’s a vision of the future that cannot be ignored, that they will have to face.
But, bookending the vision of grief is a vision of fortitude, that God will always be with them, and will strengthen them.
SLIDE 4 The first vision Jeremiah receives here is simply of the branch of an almond tree.
It’s given only a couple of lines before the vision changes.
SLIDE 5 An almond tree is the first to bloom in the spring. It is the first to “wake up”.
And so the Hebrew words for “almond” and “waking up” for closely related, and the same as the word used here for watching.
Writer Heather Barr points out how almond trees are the pronouncement of spring and of new life - she calls them a waking fulfillment of a promise.
Before anything else can happen, God is watching, and God is present.
Scripture assures us that God has always been watching, beyond the stretches of time that we can fathom.
SLIDE 6 Genesis 1 tells us that he was there in the beginning, before anything else; it is he who created all that we know.
SLIDE 7 The book of John tells us that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
SLIDE 8 Revelation says that he is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
SLIDE 9 Before a vision that is difficult for Jeremiah to deliver - and difficult to face - there is a vision to ensure that God’s people know he is eternal. He is always with them.
No matter what God’s people go through, no matter what they endure, he is there.
He is present and awake before it’s even begun.
SLIDE 10 In the midst of any nightmare that God’s people could ever imagine, Scripture assures us that he who watches over his people never slumbers or sleeps - he is always awake first to our world.
That is the thread for God’s people throughout the Old Testament and into the New, that through every difficult season of exile and destruction and grief, he is still present, and he is still at work.
In this passage he assures them first that he is awake and watching over them, giving them all the strength that they need.
Part Two - Application/Mission
SLIDE 11 In all of our seasons of destruction, of exile, of grief, God strengthens us to face it.
He has made us a fortified city, iron pillars, and bronze walls to stand against the whole land.
We will bend - of course we will - but we cannot break.
We weather the storm because an almond branch has been extended to us: if it can survive the winter, so will we survive the winters of our lives.
SLIDE 12 there will be winters.
There will be grief and sorrow and sadness, and if you haven’t experienced that, I’m sorry to say that you will.
It is inevitable. Sin does not leave any of us unaffected. That is a promise of life.
But even greater is the promise that we are being cared for in the midst of it all.
SLIDE 13 Author and pastor Jeff Manion has called these times, “the land between”.
Between what we’ve had, and what is to come.
They can be fallow times - times of grief and wandering, but still times of growth in God’s presence.
When faced with a boiling pot, there’s still an almond branch.
There’s still the strength of God with us.
SLIDE 14 So author Katherine May calls this time “wintering” - seasons of rejection, illness, bereavement, or failure.
They are seasons that are usually involuntary, and often lonely and painful.
But inevitable, and important.
In nature winter begins and ends with brief snatches of time - the frost comes and goes, and the temperature goes up and down.
There’s never one day that we can definitively say “now it is winter”, “now winter is over.”
Our own winters never begin and end definitively.
In the seven years that I have been here, I have conducted forty-five funerals from the Ebenezer family.
There have been separations and divorces, estrangements among friends and family, unemployment, a pandemic, and denominational issues.
There have been winters. And at no point could we ever definitively say “now it has begun” or “now it is over.”
It can creep up on us, like some scattered snowflakes before a storm, and can linger on, like a late season frost.
But May points out that nature never fights winter - it is a natural part of the cycle that it must face.
It is inevitable that we have dark, cold months in our lives that we cannot ignore.
SLIDE 15 She writes that winter - and the accompanying sadness - is a skill, and that “we often have to learn the clarity of its call. That is wintering. It is the active acceptance of sadness. It is the practice of allowing ourselves to feel it as a need. It is the courage to stare down the worst parts of our experience, and to commit to healing them the best we can.”
We can stare down the worst because we know that in Christ, even in the darkest of winters the sunlight is just around the corner, and it is always shining behind the clouds.
Because he has promised to be with us.
He has made us a fortified city and an iron pillar.
SLIDE 16 In Holland there is a site called Camp Westerbork, which was a transitional camp for Jewish people during the Dutch occupation of World War II.
If you follow a road near the entrance you’ll go past some modern office buildings until you reach a footpath that leads to a quiet clearing in the woods.
The kind of clearing where it’s never completely light, even on the brightest, hottest days.
SLIDE 17 There they have nine metal markers, in memory of individuals who were killed on the site.
It’s a reminder of the brutal reality of sin in our world.
A reminder of winter.
And yet what people of faith know is that in the midst of the world’s brutality and ugliness, in the midst our winters, God makes us an iron pillar.
Somehow, his power and strength endures.
He is still with us.
And what these individuals stood up for - goodness and freedom and equality - still stands strong.
The cause is picked up by the next generations, and fortified by God himself until the day when we are promised there will be no more mourning or crying or pain, for the old way of things has gone.
SLIDE 18 Our own winters, our lands between, our own seasons of grief and hardship might not seem as dramatic as cultural exile and genocide.
But so often we dismiss our pain by comparing it to something worse, when that comparison is unnecessary in the first place.
It’s important to keep perspective, but there will always be someone worse off than you - that doesn’t mean your pain doesn’t count.
SLIDE 19 It was Vincent Van Gogh who painted this picture of almond branches.
He is a man who famously suffered through difficult seasons - he had several psychotic episodes and delusions, and had an ill regard for his own health.
When he was only my age he died of a self-inflicted wound.
He wintered. He often lived in the land between.
We can’t ignore this part of his story any more than he could.
Because winter is real, grief is real.
But so is spring. And so is grace.
SLIDE 20 Before the first snow falls, before the pot boils over, we are promised that God is watching and will strengthen us.
That his life ended the way it did does not mean that his life was a complete tragedy.
It was a moment of weakness in a season of winter.
And yet, we trust that God was with him, even in those final moments.
It requires tremendous faith to believe that.
But it’s the only way to get through it.
Conclusion
SLIDE 21 We probably won’t always feel made of iron.
The winters of our lives can be long and hard.
We will bend. There are times we might feel broken.
There are times when the vision of how God is at work might not seem clear.
But twenty-twenty vision isn’t perfect vision; it’s just enough clarity to be able to go forward.
This vision doesn’t give God’s people all the specifics - it gives them the assurance that he is with them so they can move forward.
It acknowledges reality, and gives them hope for something more.
Not just that God will be with them, but that he always has been. And is, right now.
Our hope is a hope for someday, but it is also living and active in our lives, here and now.
So we are going to close today by praising a God who is with us in our winters, and sets us free for spring.
And as we go, I invite you to rise and hear again these words from Romans 8 as his closing blessing for us today:
People of God, know that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Amen.
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