Eternity Church PodCast Eternity Church

An Easter Sunday sermon by Pastor Brett Deal.So much can happen in a week, and Holy Week is no exception. The joys of Palm Sunday seem to melt like snow with each passing day. The shouts of “Hosanna!” and exuberance of the crowds fade with every passing hour.By Thursday, the masses have drifted away, the exclamations have grown still. Jesus and his disciples ascend the stairs into the upper room, and in that sacred space, Christ’s suffering begins. Picture the moment as He washes the feet of James and John, Andrew and Matthew. Then Jesus washes the feet of Judas. Christ’s love is so great, despite knowing what is to come, He still takes up his betrayer’s feet and cleans them. At the table, Jesus gives thanks for the bread and the cup—broken and poured out symbols of his sacrifice—and shares them with Simon and Thomas, with Peter and Thaddeus. Jesus offers the bread and cup to Judas.In the upper room, Jesus takes the symbols of his suffering and prepares us for the Garden. He sets our eyes on his condemnation and the cross on the hill. In the upper room, lit by candlelight, we foresee the noon skies darkened on Friday as Jesus is crowned King and crucified.How can we not weep on the Sabbath as the dawn illuminates the tomb where His body is held? How can we breathe with the hollowness in our chests, the absolute devastation of our loss. Jesus the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah is dead. There, his body wrapped quickly, his skin torn and stained with blood, we have no access. He is beyond our reach to anoint his body for burial. Our grieving is arrested, and we are soul shattered.Where are the songs and shouts of Sunday last? Where are the palms waving and voices rejoicing? Why is the silence of the early dawn as we walk to the tomb so deafening? This Sunday we have the spices prepared to honor Him and all the ways He showed us the face of God.As we come closer to the tomb, who will roll away the stone…

A Sunday morning by Youth Group Members and Pastor Brett Deal.Imagine if you heard someone was raised from the dead. What would your reaction be? Would it change the way you see the things in your life that need healing?Sure, may you have heard bits and pieces of miracles: crippled limbs restored, blind eyes opened and deaf ears healed. Over the years you’ve heard here and there about a man’s daughter raised to life at her wake, or a window’s only son who was revived at his own funeral procession (Mark 5:21-43, Luke 7.11-17)! But this resurrection is different. The girl’s body was still at home, the man not yet buried. But this, this man named Lazarus was dead and entombed for four days before Jesus went to the grave and called to him.Not only did Jesus bring Lazarus back to life, He also made an astonishing claim: “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11.25)! With these words and with the living proof of Lazarus standing witness before a shocked world, word spread everywhere.As people gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, the annual festival recognizing the Exodus where God freed His people from bondage in Egypt, word broke out that Jesus was riding into the city on a donkey. In that simple act of humility, He signaled to all of Jerusalem He was the prophesied Messiah: “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9.9).How else would you respond?! You were already exhilarated to hear about the resurrection of Lazarus, now the Messiah Himself is riding into the city! Imagine the questions burning in their hearts: Is He bringing us peace and restoration now? Will He lead us into a new exodus, out from under the control of Rome? Will He save us now?!This is why they shout “Hosanna!” The people recognized their need for salvation. “Save us!” they cry! “Save us, like you did Lazarus! Be our resurrection and life!”Friend, this prayer is not locked in time and knows no age limit. This week, Palm Sunday, we gather to see Jesus the King! And as a special act of worship, our children and youth will be leading us to meet with Him (Matthew 19.14)! 

A Sunday sermon by Pastor Brett Deal.On Ash Wednesday we said, “Sometimes it helps to start in the middle.” Now in the blink of an eye, we find ourselves in the heart of Lent. Hours turned to days; days blurred into weeks. Where we may have started out with big plans to fast and pray, dedicating special times to step back and devote ourselves, we find time flowed through our hands like sand.In case you feel the stress and strain of the days gone too quickly by, hear those merciful words again: Sometimes it helps to start in the middle.Walking through these weeks, we’ve immersed ourselves in the songs of the Lord’s Servant found in Isaiah. We’ve rejoiced at His promised arrival. We’ve given thanks that He is the anointed One, beloved of God our Father who comes to restore us and redeem the nations. We’ve sought to draw near to Him amid His suffering, for we know He suffers for our sake. He has met us in the middle.In the center of our Lenten season, how would God our Father direct our response to Jesus as we read the words of Isaiah 61.1-3? Beloved, be rooted in Jesus’ sermon on the Mount, hearing His invitation to once again ask, seek, and knock (Matthew 7.7).Friend, take a few minutes. Still your heart. Fix your eyes on Jesus and ask for His Spirit. Breathe in slowly and feel His Spirit filling you anew. Indwelled by His Spirit, seek His just presence. In our broken world there are too many injustices to address in a day. Seek His Spirit to show you the wise action He has for you today (Matthew 6.33-34). Knock, remembering that Jesus said, “I am the Door,” and believe He is leading you where He is calling you to be (John 10.9).

A Sunday sermon by Pastor Brett Deal.Of all the Servant Songs found in Isaiah, the fourth is the best known. In it we begin with the triumphant voice of God pointing our eyes towards His Servant, and we end rejoicing in His glory. But this isn’t why most of us know this song found in Isaiah 52.13-53.12. We know this prophetic hymn because of what it sings to us in the middle.In the heart of Isaiah’s song, we find God’s Servant, not in victory or revered, but as a man of suffering familiar with pain. What began in loud voice and rejoicing and ends in celebration encloses the reality of agony and affliction.In the heart of Isaiah’s song, we find God’s Servant who was pierced for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquity. In these short verses we find a Savior who personally knows our most profound pain and deepest despair.How do we understand this? How do we take this truth to heart?K.J. Ramsey once wrote, “Suffering is not a detour or a delay but the place where Love finds us. Suffering is a place where what feels like absence is actually a safe haven where the truest love is formed.”This week, as we press on through Lent, hear the heart of Jesus singing over you. Yes, He is victorious! Yes, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But also, yes, He is God’s Suffering Servant who takes our pain and bears our suffering. If you are walking through the middle of a difficult time, be embraced in the safe haven of Christ’s love.

A Sunday service by Pastor Brett Deal.When I was in middle school, my older brother had just started university. A friend of his loaned him a couple CDs and encouraged him to give them a listen. I’m not sure if he ever did, but I know I did. At that age, I was always looking for new music.Do you remember being like that? When life felt like the dawn, light casting out in every direction across a new horizon. Life itself encouraged us to explore and discover. Growing up on an island off the coast of Africa, I knew of only four distinct types of music. There was the strong Congolese rumba that infused the worship in our church and set my feet dancing. Then there were the R&B soundtracks local bars played outside my window that lulled me to sleep. And at home there was my parents' music: Dad’s country music and Mom’s southern gospel. Those were the four corners of my musical world.Then I learned there were other kinds of music! That day I set out like a sonic Stanley in search of my own melodic Livingstone.One of the CDs loaned to my brother was Stevie Ray Vaughn’s The Sky is Crying. I was floored. Literally, no sooner had I pushed play and the music started, I had to sit down. I sat there in a daze as I was moved up and down his guitar’s frets by that one-of-a-kind blues man.This is how hearing the tracks of Isaiah’s Servant Songs should make us feel. It’s the album we’ve been waiting to drop. It’s the new music we’ve been waiting to hear.We’ve heard the Law of Moses. We’ve been introduced to the histories of the ancients. But wanting to go deeper, we turned our ears toward Isaiah seeking to explore the prophets and discover God’s newest revelation. This quest has led us to the Servant of God, and this changes everything!In Isaiah 42, the prophet introduced us to the Servant of God; now on the second track we hear Him sing! His song is full of themes and imagery, of calling and purpose, of suffering and strength. His song reveals to us a hope beyond our wildest imagination, a light for all people dawning and of salvation that reaches to the farthest reaches of our spinning earth.Take a minute. Listen to the song of Isaiah 49.1-6. Hear it with fresh ears and a renewed passion to see Jesus with clear eyes.

A Sunday sermon by Pastor Brett Deal.Sometimes it helps to start in the middle. You don’t have to be a lasagna-obsessed cat to hate Mondays. Come to think of it, Tuesdays can be pretty rough too. Beginnings can be difficult to get going. It’s like New Years. Future firsts of January sparkle like diamonds against the past year’s midnight, but then the alarm goes off for work on January 2, and that ten pounds isn’t going to lose itself.Perhaps that is one thankful reason Lent doesn’t start with a Sunday mass or an early Monday morning alarm. It starts in the middle of a Wednesday. It seems counter-intuitive in the best possible way. Lent doesn’t begin on the first of the new year, but later, as we trudge slowly and hopefully from the bitter cold of winter toward the refreshing coolness of Spring.The forty days of Lent don’t have to frustrate us like new year’s resolutions or feel like a dour and needless imposition on our time. Each day leading toward the cross can be a single step, a special moment of self-examination that leads us that much closer to God. Ash Wednesday reminds us of our constant need to acknowledge and confess our fallen humanity, to repent of the past and entrust ourselves to God’s loving mercy. And from that beginning, we take our first steps daily toward Jesus and the cross.May this Lenten season be a sincere journey toward the cross, from the ashen form it takes on our foreheads to the redemptive reformation it makes in our hearts. May we see Jesus more clearly as we sing the Servant songs found in Isaiah (starting this Sunday in Isaiah 42.1-4) and draw nearer to His death and resurrection.Friend, Monday is past, and Tuesday went with it. So, embrace the beauty of a new beginning in the middle. Midnight is past, and the dawn went with it. Join us as we gather midweek at noon to receive those anchoring words: You are dust, and to dust you will return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.