Embedded Files
Psalm 126
Our mouths they were filled, filled with laughter
Our tongues they were loosed, loosed with joy
Restore us, O Lord
Restore us, O Lord
Although we are weeping
Lord, help us keep sowing
The seeds of Your Kingdom
For the day You will reap them
Your sheaves we will carry
Lord, please do not tarry
All those who sow weeping will go out with songs of joy
The nations will say, "He has done great things!"
The nations will sing songs of joy
Restore us, O Lord
Restore us, O Lord
Although we are weeping
Lord, help us keep sowing
The seeds of Your Kingdom
For the day You will reap them
Your sheaves we will carry
Lord, please do not tarry
All those who sow weeping will go out with songs of joy
All those who sow weeping will go out with songs of joy
All Creature of Our God and King
Verse 1
All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
O praise Him alleluia
Thou burning sun with golden beam
Thou silver moon with softer gleam
O praise Him O praise Him
Alleluia alleluia alleluia
Verse 2
Thou rushing wind that art so strong
Ye clouds that sail in Heav'n along
O praise Him alleluia
Thou rising moon in praise rejoice
Ye lights of evening find a voice
O praise Him O praise Him
Alleluia alleluia alleluia
Verse 3
Let all things their Creator bless
And worship Him in humbleness
O praise Him alleluia
Praise praise the Father praise the Son
And praise the Spirit three in One
O praise Him O praise Him
Alleluia alleluia alleluia
I Stand Amazed
Verse 1
I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me
A sinner condemned unclean
Chorus
How marvelous how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me
Verse 2
He took my sins and my sorrows
He made them His very own
(And) He bore the burden to Calvary
And suffered and died alone
Chorus
How marvelous how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me
Verse 3
And with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see
It will be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me
Chorus
How marvelous how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me
Chorus
How marvelous how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me
Yet Not I
Verse 1
What gift of grace is Jesus my redeemer
There is no more for heaven now to give
He is my joy my righteousness and freedom
My steadfast love my deep and boundless peace
To this I hold my hope is only Jesus
For my life is wholly bound to his
Oh how strange and divine I can sing all is mine
Yet not I but through Christ in me
Verse 2
The night is dark but I am not forsaken
For by my side the Saviour he will stay
I labour on in weakness and rejoicing
For in my need his power is displayed
To this I hold my Shepherd will defend me
Through the deepest valley he will lead
Oh the night has been won and I shall overcome
Yet not I but through Christ in me
Verse 3
No fate I dread I know I am forgiven
The future sure the price it has been paid
For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon
And he was raised to overthrow the grave
To this I hold my sin has been defeated
Jesus now and ever is my plea
Oh the chains are released I can sing I am free
Yet not I but through Christ in me
Verse 4
With every breath I long to follow Jesus
For he has said that he will bring me home
And day by day I know he will renew me
Until I stand with joy before the throne
To this I hold my hope is only Jesus
All the glory evermore to him
When the race is complete still my lips shall repeat
Yet not I but through Christ in me
Ending
When the race is complete still my lips shall repeat
Yet not I but through Christ in me
Yet not I but through Christ in me
SONG OF RESPONSE
Chorus
Make us God-revealers, patient healers
Moving into shadow places, carrying the light
Make us in Your likeness, in Your brightness
Let the morning break in through us
Spirit, give us light
Verse 1
Each day with the sunrise, You remind us
We're fashioned and formed by your hands
We bear the image of your likeness
In every change, You remain
You are the same
Chorus
Make us God-revealers, patient healers
Moving into shadow places, carrying the light
Make us in Your likeness, in Your brightness
Let the morning break in through us
Spirit, give us light
Verse 2
We lay down our limits and our striving
We give from a strength that is not our own
We draw from a river, ever rising
Let us rest in joy and hope
Let it overflow
Chorus
Make us God-revealers, patient healers
Moving into shadow places, carrying the light
Make us in Your likeness, in Your brightness
Let the morning break in through us
Spirit, give us light
Tag
Make us in Your likeness, in Your brightness
Let the morning break in through us
Spirit, give us light
Psalm 126
Our mouths they were filled, filled with laughter
Our tongues they were loosed, loosed with joy
Restore us, O Lord
Restore us, O Lord
Although we are weeping
Lord, help us keep sowing
The seeds of Your Kingdom
For the day You will reap them
Your sheaves we will carry
Lord, please do not tarry
All those who sow weeping will go out with songs of joy
The nations will say, "He has done great things!"
The nations will sing songs of joy
Restore us, O Lord
Restore us, O Lord
Although we are weeping
Lord, help us keep sowing
The seeds of Your Kingdom
For the day You will reap them
Your sheaves we will carry
Lord, please do not tarry
All those who sow weeping will go out with songs of joy
All those who sow weeping will go out with songs of joy
Adam Veenstra
Ebenezer CRC
October 25, 2026
SCRIPTURE READING (Kian)
SERMON INTRO SLIDE I invite you to turn to page 1882 of the Bibles in front of you. For our message on reaching out, we’re going to read from James chapter 2. I invite you to follow along with me, starting at verse 14:
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
MESSAGE
Part One
SLIDE 1 Last week we commented that all of life - every thought, word, and deed, every moment - is an act of worship.
It means that one part of our mission statement can’t exist without the other, that reaching out is then intrinsically tied to reaching up, and really is an act of our worship.
We talk a LOT about reaching out here at Ebenezer.
And I know that to some of you it seems to get a bit more emphasis than reaching up.
But I think it’s in part because of that strong tie between the two.
And because in this time and place - in the Quinte region in 2026 - the needs of our neighbours, both here in church and throughout our community, are just becoming increasingly clear, and harder and harder to ignore or explain away.
So today’s message, again, may not cover a lot of new ground, but will hopefully keep this part of our mission on our hearts and minds.
Because as we read in this passage, it has been an important part of the Christian church from its inception.
The book of James is a letter written by James for God’s people who have found themselves scattered away from Jerusalem and the geographic center of their religion.
They are making a new way in the world, in a new season of life and ministry and relating to God and fellow believers.
Similar to what we said a few weeks ago they’re trying to marry their Jewish heritage with the relatively new concept of Christ’s holy priesthood.
SLIDE 2 So there is a new way of thinking about faith and deeds.
And it may seem inconsistent. We know and believe, especially in the Reformed tradition, that we are saved by faith, and not by our deeds.
Yet here, James says that these deeds are fundamental to who we are as followers of Jesus.
SLIDE 3 Earlier in the New Testament, Paul’s letter to the Galatians points out that the only thing that ultimately matter is faith working through love.
So faith at work in the deeds of God’s people demonstrate his love in powerful and practical ways.
Deeds are an overflow of what God has done in the hearts and lives of his people, transforming them, so that every thought, word, and deed - every moment - is their faith at work.
SLIDE 4 James points to the story of Rahab, who ran a special kind of hotel in the book of Joshua.
Which I don’t think James points out as a personal judgement by saying “even Rahab”, but just a reflection of how the world may have seen her - such a world might never expect someone with her profession to also have a strong faith.
But she hid Israelite spies in the roof of that hotel, putting at risk her life and the life of everyone else on the premises, all because she was striving to follow the will of God and do what’s right.
SLIDE 5 The story of Abraham in the book of Genesis is even more extreme, as he very actively put his son Isaac’s life at risk in an act of sacrifice, because he was striving to follow the will of God and do what’s right.
These are imperfect people who were willing to put their money where their mouth is! To have deeds that don’t prove their faith, but demonstrate it.
SLIDE 6 Their faith becomes a powerful witness because it is a part of how they naturally live.
They are showing their faith BY their deeds.
SLIDE 7 In the Reformed tradition, we believe together that the good we do arises out of faith; it conforms to God’s law, and is done for his glory.
It is a natural consequence of reverent belief in him.
SLIDE 8 In fact, the entire third part of one of our most-used statements of faith is called “gratitude” - all our thoughts, words, and actions are a result of our recognition of God’s grace.
We do our deeds because of his.
SLIDE 9 When James writes in verse 14 “Can such faith save them?”, you could almost add some sarcastic quotation marks around that faith, because the implication is that it’s not really a complete faith at all.
Because even the demons believe! But we wouldn’t call them followers of Christ.
So what demonstrates that we’re different?
SLIDE 10 Even Martin Luther, the man responsible in part for the development of the Protestant church, and who didn’t always have a great relationship with the book of James, conceded that yes people are justified by faith alone, but not by a faith that IS alone.
Simply having faith is not the end of the road. It is not the whole story.
We currently have two groups preparing to make public profession of faith.
But that public profession is neither a singular culmination or a singular beginning of their faith - it is the acknowledgement that these individuals are living out the mission of Christ in daily life.
Making public profession of faith alone would not be enough.
SLIDE 11 Because as James says, “what good is it?” to have that faith when we see our neighbours lost, alone, or hurting?
SLIDE 12 James himself is a fascinating figure in the Bible.
Because most scholars agree that this is the same James who is the younger brother of Jesus.
SLIDE 13 Having Jesus as your big brother must have been one of the most incredible and confusing things ever.
Imagine your big bro - the guy you’re supposed to look up to learn from and lean on and idolize - is someone who kind of walks away from your family to do this ministry thing that will make millions of other people look up to and learn from and lean on and idolize him.
Confusing might be an understatement.
SLIDE 14 And we know from the book of John that Jesus’ younger siblings had some skepticism and questions about the path his life was taking, and about his true identity as the Messiah. It makes sense.
SLIDE 15 But decades later, one of those siblings has risen to prominence in the church in Jerusalem, and is now helping all those millions of people in their relationship to his big brother.
That’s pretty fantastic.
Part Two
SLIDE 16 James and his siblings, like all of us today, have this absolute treasure of knowing the transforming love of God.
But it’s not something we can keep to ourselves.
James didn’t keep it to himself: he didn’t write this letter for his own benefit, but for the benefit of a world in need.
SLIDE 17 Last week we closed our service with the words “peace that passes all of our understanding”, as a blessing we receive from God himself.
And I often think about how well that phrase captures the Christian life.
That despite all the - stuff - we go through, we have this peace that defies logic and reason and rationality.
This intangible thing that is the most precious we could have in any situation.
An assurance that everything will somehow, someday, be alright.
There’s no one in the world who wouldn’t want that.
No one in the world who wouldn’t want the assurance that actually no, you are not alone.
But that yes, you are loved.
That’s part of why we reach out!
Because it is a central tenet of Christianity.
SLIDE 18 Author and pastor John Mark Cormer, who we heard about last week, writes in his newest book (which is GREAT, by the way) that two main pillars of the Christian life are discipleship and community, and that they are completely intertwined.
That whatever we learn and discover as followers of Jesus is meant to be shared in community: together in love, by reaching out.
It’s something modelled by Jesus himself!
He went into the desert and pray and to fast, and to learn along the way.
But for a purpose!
It was for the benefit of God’s people - to prepare himself to best reach out and serve them.
SLIDE 19 We also have a long tradition of discipleship in our denomination, and in our Ebenezer church family - decades of Sunday School and Gems and Cadets and youth and small groups and VBS and Christian schools…but all of that is for a purpose!
Not because it’s always just been the right thing to do, or just to create better people who feel good about God inside, but to develop disciples who share that good.
SLIDE 20 It can’t ever be just for our own sakes - that kind of faith without deeds is useless.
Because suppose then a brother or sister is in need - what good is that faith if it’s not accompanied by deeds to help them?
SLIDE 21 In the opening of her book Encampment, about a portion of the unhoused community around her church in Toronto, Anglican priest Maggie Helwig describes a neighbour who confronts her about the identity of an unhoused man who keeps coming into their yard.
So Maggie suggested that they just ask him themselves - y’know, a normal human interaction that the pastor doesn’t need to be a part of!
But the woman’s response is that “he takes drugs!”
So Maggie patiently points out the obvious, that they can still ask him who he is.
And the neighbour storms off.
Obviously, depending on your own history and comfort levels and boundaries, sometimes specific opportunities for you to reach out might not be wise.
But often we can see in our world that there is a flat-out refusal to engage with our neighbours.
Either it’s someone else’s problem, or just not something people care to do.
SLIDE 22 That’s why for a church to make reaching out such a prominent part of its mission is actually pretty special, pretty counter-cultural, almost revolutionary.
Just like Jesus himself always was.
Just like he has called us to be.
And in fact, he explicitly linked reaching up and reaching out, right in Scripture:
SLIDE 23 He said that the greatest commandment is to love God, but that they second, to love our neighbour, is like it.
SLIDE 24 He said that we are to go and make disciples of all nations.
SLIDE 25 He said that whatever we do for someone that society deems to be the least, we have actually done for him.
SLIDE 26 Like we’ve said, it won’t be long before Christmas, when we’ll be talking and singing about bringing offerings to a newborn baby.
Well that baby is all grown up and living in heaven - there’s no gift we could bring that he couldn’t already have.
But there are a lot of other babies in the world right now who need our help.
We can best serve him by serving them.
SLIDE 27 Reaching out IS reaching up.
It’s not good enough for us to come to church and then go about our lives.
I don’t think we’d be content with that, either!
By being created in the image of God, the Holy Spirit is alive and at work in our hearts, and so when we see a world that is lost and hurting, we can’t help but want to instinctively reach out and do something about it!
It’s not proving our faith to each other or anyone else, but demonstrating the power of Christ at work.
I think it’s an instinct this church has.
It’s impossible to reflect on reaching out without touching on the Gems theme verse, which I think we do every time we have a message like this.
Every Gem and Calvinette has been asked, “What does the Lord require of you…”
The fact that Gems, and Cadets, and any other program here, really, exists at all is evidence of faith and deeds, and of reaching out: you couldn’t populate a program without reaching out, and extending an invitation.
It requires seeing a kid who might benefit from hanging out with some friends and mentors, and learning about Christ’s love for them, and reaching out to show that need can be fulfilled!
We’ve talked before about the communal nature of life in the Old and New Testaments, and how if they weren’t consistently reaching out to one another, people would be left behind.
And I think that’s still true today, but our society is just set up differently, and so it’s too easy for people to fall through the cracks.
We know by now that reaching out is not one-size-fits-all.
So God bless the larger churches with comprehensive discipleship programs and strategies.
But if I can be bold enough to offer some pushback, I think churches in smaller communities like ours understand that those aren’t always effective.
Because we can see countless different needs in our community.
The Gospel truth remains consistent, but it will be received differently, because it will be needed differently, if you’re unhoused, or newly single, or grieving, or abused, or hungry, or if you’re a kid or you’re middle-aged.
We prepare ourselves to meet people where they live, in their unique situations.
To reach out with the message of God’s grace, the message of the coming and coming again of Christ, in a way that will impact them personally, drawing them closer to Christ and his people.
Conclusion
There’s an irony or at least a Catch-22 between reaching out and the next part of our mission statement - we’re supposed to be together in love to reach out, but in order to be together in love, we have to reach out!
SLIDE 28 So next week we are going to wrap up this series by talking about being together in love.
And then we’re going to demonstrate that by sharing a meal together, and talking more intentionally about how we want to be doing all of these things in the future.
We know that the Holy Spirit has great plans for us, and we trust that God will be with us as we go.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse