A Weak Faith in the Face of Fear

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A Weak Faith in the Face of Fear

Kingdom Perspective

November 30, 2020 • Don Willeman

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

Your faith in Christ is ultimately more determinative than your fears.

Just because you are terrified when you ride in an airplane, doesn’t mean that you’ll fail to get to your destination. Your fear has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on your objective safety or the certainty of your arrival. Your safety and the certainty of your arrival are totally dependent upon the competence of the pilot and the sturdiness of the aircraft. It is not your courage or faith that will land you safely at Boston Logan or LAX, but the pilot.

So it is with our faith in Christ. You may be overwhelmed with all kinds of fear and terror, and you may think “How can I ever be saved? I am such a fearful and pathetic Christian. How will I ever become the stalwart faithful Christian I’m called to be?” Well, the question is not how fearful you are. Even the best Christian is regularly plagued with all kinds of fears. Nor is the question how strong is my faith? Even the strongest in faith can be plagued by doubt. The question is, what is your faith in? Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ? Have you placed your life in Him?

You see, it doesn’t matter how absolutely terrified you may be on an airplane. Your faith and confidence in the plane may be ever so small compared to your overwhelming sense of fear. Yet, your fear will not in any way prohibit you from arriving safely at your final destination. Why? Because you are on the plane. You’ve submitted yourself to the safe keeping of the pilot.

My friend, if you’ve entered the vessel of Jesus Christ, then you can be confident, in spite of fear or failing that you will land safely in heaven, completely conformed to the image of Christ.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit….

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

~ Romans 8:1-4, 28-30 (ESV)

Invitation to CRC Christmas Eve

December 24, 2020 • Don Willeman

Hello! I’m Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church, and I want to let you know about something very exciting coming up for you on Christmas Eve at the downtown Lebanon Green. The pandemic has been a challenge for all of us, and we desperately need two things: Community and Hope. Isolation and despair are serious problems. Normally, we’d be gathering to celebrate the holidays. But COVID is making congregating indoors very difficult! But, at CRC we believe that God is charge, and that times of challenge are times of opportunity. So, in lieu of our normal indoor Christmas Eve services, we are planning something very special—an outdoor Candlelight Christmas Eve Service on the Lebanon Green. This will be a socially-distanced, mask-required event, following all the recommended health protocols. We will gather, sing and celebrate not only our shared community, but also the hope of Christmas—that God sent His only Son into our world darkness, in order that He might give us the light of His love. So, make plans for you and your family to join us on Christmas Eve, December 24th at 4:30pm. And please invite your friends and neighbors. All are welcome! And don’t forget to click on the link below for more important details. I look forward to seeing you! And on behalf of our congregation: Merry Christmas!

Our Debt. His Riches.

December 18, 2020 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. The Bible tells us that because of sin, we have a debt that none of us can repay. In our sin we have offended an infinite God, and so we have an infinite debt to overcome. This means that the only hope we could possibly have is for an infinite being to step in and satisfy that debt. But, this is exactly what God did for us in Christ Jesus. In Christ we have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sin”, that is to say we have been bought out of our debt through His life lavishly given to us and for us (Ephesians 1:7). In Christ’s great love for us, He has assumed every penny of our great debt. Allow me to illustrate it this way, imagine you are a young woman from a poor family. As a matter of fact, you are in deep debt, a debt so deep that it would be impossible ever to overcome. But one day, out of the blue, a very wealthy man shows up at your door and offers to marry you. You are suspicious at first, even though you’ve known about this man from afar, as he is something of a celebrity. You’ve even dreamed of someday marrying him. But, of course, this is crazy, because of who you are. He doesn’t know you, and besides, you have nothing to bring to the table, but your poverty. But, alas, this crazy dream does come true. And the moment you both say, “I do”, legally all his wealth becomes yours and all your poverty becomes his. And because of His great wealth, you suddenly find yourself not only loved, but financially secure beyond your wildest imagination. So it is with our sin. God’s righteousness has swallowed up our debt of justice through our surprise bridegroom Jesus Christ. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” ~ Ephesians 1:7-10 (ESV) Thank you for listening to and supporting The Kingdom Perspective! The Kingdom Perspective is a ministry of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. To hear more episodes you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To donate click here or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit http://www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Shame and Personal Growth

December 17, 2020 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Fear has the power to constrain. Bad fear, that is fear not rooted in the fear of God, will constrain you from growing as a person. It will stunt your emotional, spiritual and relational development. Actually, depending on the nature of the fear, it may even stunt other aspects of your development. For example, some studies suggest that an obsessive fear of allergens, such as avoiding peanuts, can actually leave you more susceptible to developing a peanut allergy. Succumbing to shame will stunt your personal growth. In order to overcome our fear of shame, we have to face it. The only way to overcome shame is to carefully walk into it and through it—to face the vulnerability of shame. But how can we do that, when our fear of shame so cripples us? The popular academic sociologist Brené Brown has made a career out of addressing this troublesome issue of shame. She says: “Shame cannot survive being spoken. It cannot tolerate having words wrapped around it. What it craves is secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you stay quiet, you stay in a lot of self-judgment.” This is precisely why God comes to us in the gospel, the “good word”. God does not keep quiet in the face of our shame. He speaks to us tenderly, but truthfully. In Christ God confronts our shame by placing it on Himself on the cross for all to see, and thus condemning it to the grave. He wraps our shame in the Good Word of His Son Jesus Christ. Listen to prophet Isaiah: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief [Yet] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. …and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3, 4 and 5) “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away” our sin and shame (John 1:29)! Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” ~ Genesis 2:18-25 (ESV) Thank you for listening to and supporting The Kingdom Perspective! The Kingdom Perspective is a ministry of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. To hear more episodes you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To donate click here or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit http://www.christredeemerchurch.org.