The Confrontation of Fear

Apr 26, 2023    Don Willeman

Transcript:

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

Fear wants to control us, so that we are unable to obey God and love others.

Therefore, fear must be confronted. The only way you can defeat fear is to fight it. You must push against it.

We all want safety and security. However, this is not a safe world. The truth is that God doesn’t promise safety in this world. As a matter of fact, Romans 8 suggests quite the opposite. It assures us that in this world we will have trouble, distress, persecution, famine, poverty, danger and violence (Romans 8:35).

Rather, God promises that IN all these awful things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. These trials work to make us like Jesus. In other words, in one sense God doesn’t promise us salvation in this life; He promises that this life will make us ready for our salvation (Romans 8:18-25). And so, it is precisely IN and THROUGH these trials that we experience the triumph of God’s love.

This shouldn’t surprise us. The football player doesn’t experience triumph on the sidelines. No! He experiences it on the field, getting banged up and banged around. Victory comes through the conflict, not apart from it. There is no victory if you don’t play the game.

But this requires risk. It requires you to put your faith onto the field and run with the ball. It is those who do that, who take the risk of obedience and act upon the promise of God, that feel the fullness of Christ’s triumph.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”
~ Romans 8:28-37 (NASB)