Episode 161: December 3, 2023 - Fireside Certainty

Eternity Church PodCast

A Sunday sermon by Pastor Brett Deal. Have you ever noticed how much life can become like a helium balloon? We look full and light from the outside, almost bursting at the seams, but it only takes the smallest piercing of the surface to deflate us. Depending on how we approach the season of Advent, it can either be a cherished time of expectancy or a pin that punctures our false sense of certainty. This week, I invite you to explore how uncomfortable it can feel to enter Advent and what we risk by exposing the helium in our spiritual life at Christmas. Find encouragement in Tish Harrison Warren's new book, Advent, where she writes: “When I feel the emptiness—the loneliness, meaninglessness, futility, and loss—present even in my very good life, I rush to fill it. Winds of emptiness echo in a hollow moment of my day, and I run to distraction. I stuff my waking moments with busyness, social media, words, work, and consumption. These can be cheap attempts at creating my own sense of fullness.” As strange as it sounds, I hope we would ask the Spirit of God to puncture our vain attempts at fullness this Advent. Friend, the truth is faith requires risk; it demands we give up our false sense of control. We understandably avoid this because we like to think we have control! With the loss of control comes the loss of certainty. Or so we think. But Luke would beg to differ. In his recounting of the Jesus’ arrival, he finds more certainty! As we settle in around the campfire, with the shepherds and sheep, the magi and camels, I pray we would accept the Spirit’s invitation to fill us with certainty and joy in all the places we make room to receive Christ the King. May he deflate us of empty air and fill us with expectancy!