The Kingdom Perspective

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Is fear good or bad? Well, that just depends on the context. The question is not so much whether we fear, but what drives our fears; and whether any given fear is appropriate to its object. A person that is deathly afraid of being struck by lightning, so much so that he hides out in his ba...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. It has been my observation that the moment anyone begins to speak of sin and our deep, pervasive rebellion against God, the average American begins to tune out. Why? Well, I think in part at least it’s because it seems harsh. And, if there is anything in this world we don’t need any more o...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. We sometimes have a thin and petty understanding of sin. But sin is anything but thin and petty. The 5th century Christian leader Augustine (354-430) along with the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) used a Latin phrase to explain the profoundly problematic nature of sin. They c...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. One of the most difficult things in life is having an accurate self-assessment. Knowing who you are…and who you are not is foundational to everything in your life. However, achieving this is very difficult. The reason it’s so difficult is we tend to have a high view of ourselves. We play a...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. The Framers of our constitution and country knew that they were proposing something that was quite unique in the history of the world. They were proposing a free Republic where people would not be ruled by the whims of a king or the dictates of a pope but by the will of the people. It was...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. The kind of community that the New Testament calls us to is radically different than what you may find in the world. Non-Christians create all sorts of different communities where people feel welcomed and at home, and many times it’s really quite wonderful. But such community is based on a...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. The Christian knows that this world will never be perfected until Jesus returns. Nonetheless, we do believe that the church should have a positive/redemptive effect on society in the here-and-now. But how exactly are we to do this? Well, we do this by being the church—by demonstrating a ne...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. In one very profound sense Christians do not live for this world. And, because of that, in a very profound sense that’s the best possible thing for this world. What do I mean? Think of it this way. What causes all the injustice and fighting in this world? In large part it is driven by thos...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. We are easily tempted to both judge others and live under the judgment of others. This dynamic is toxic both to us and to our relationships with one another. However, in the gospel, we are called to live under God’s assessment of us, and not set ourselves or others up as the judge. The the...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. In times of great political division, our thinking tends to become what some sociologists have dubbed “apocalyptic”. We begin to believe that what takes place at this moment—in the next election, during the next session of Congress or the next ruling from the Supreme Court—is going to dete...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Truth is absolutely critical to any functioning society. Once lies become the public and political norm, then the society becomes a game of thrones. It is power bloc vs. power bloc. Cynicism rules. Truth is DOA. So, what is the answer? Well, the answer cannot be more power—merely be more h...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Living in a pluralistic society is not foreign to the New Testament. The Church was born in such a context. And so, it is not surprising then when the Bible gives us instruction for how to live as followers of Christ in such a context. What are we to do when our values and beliefs are so m...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Cornel West is one of the more interesting public intellectuals of the present moment. Though some of us may not like his politics, you’ve got to be an admirer of his gracious tenacity. Even Sean Hannity of Fox News loves having him on his program! In the cultural conflicts of the present...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. How exactly does the Gospel make us into the kind of people that seek the good of our neighbors instead of the narrowness of our own interests? Why is it that the Gospel drives us to be considerate of our unbelieving neighbors, even when they might not be considerate of our values and beli...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Titus was young pastor that the Apostle Paul had stationed on the First century island of Crete. Crete was a place of many challenges because of the unsavoriness of its public life. The people of Crete were known for their self-indulgence, arrogance and deception. Paul cites one of the Cre...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), the 40th president of the United States, was an optimist. His news conferences and even political debates were seasoned with jokes and levity refreshing in the world of Washington. Even his political opponents were compelled to appreciate his positive public enga...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Cornel West is well-known for his outspoken views on politics, race and economics. Politically and otherwise, he is left-leaning, to put it mildly. He is not a fan of Western capitalism and has severe critiques of the history of racism in the West and its lingering effects. Whether you agr...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. After Jesus and His apostles, arguably, St. Augustine was the intellectual and theological giant of the first thousand years of the church. Augustine was converted to Christ in the late 300s, within just a few years of Rome becoming officially Christian. Then, like now, there was much misu...

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 ma...

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, t...

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 dev...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Fear is very powerful and controlling. Bad fear, that is fear not rooted in the fear of God, will constrain you and keep you from growing as a person. It will stunt your spiritual, emotional and relational development. Now, one of the most powerful controlling emotions is that of shame, an...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. The problem with the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it brings us both the worst news we could ever receive and the best. First the bad news. The apostle Paul sums it up this way: We are dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1). By “dead” he does not mean that we are inactive. No. Rather, in the con...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Your sin is no match for the riches of God’s grace. Where sin abounds, grace super-abounds! You may be overwhelmed by the seriousness of your sin and the debt you owe God’s justice. You may be filled with shame at the spiritual and moral crimes you’ve committed. You may be embarrassed for...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. One of the marks of a church ought to be “loving hospitality.” Listen to what Paul says in his letter to the Romans. In chapter 12 he is beginning to lay out how the gospel of Jesus transforms the way we live. What does it look like when Jesus gets a hold of one’s life? He says: Let love b...