Conquering Our Greatest Fear

What this episode covers

Easter 2026 Blank Outline Easter 2026 Completed Outline I Corinthians 15 I’d say we were blessed, right? But that’s not going to happen. So, so glad you’re here. And I have to be honest with you; I have a specific goal in mind for today. I love what 1st John 5:11 through 13 says. This is what John the Apostle wrote. This is the testimony, God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. So, my goal for us today is that every person here, anybody watching on livestream, will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that heaven is yours, that your sins are forgiven, and that you can face today whatever trials you’re facing because Christ is in your heart and in your life. So that’s, that’s the goal. And so, we’re going to talk about fear today, conquering our greatest fear. So, let’s talk about fear. And I think our fears change as we, as we get older. You know, when, when we’re young and you parents with young children have had this experience that you put your kids to bed at night and all of a sudden, you hear some footsteps and they’re running into your room because they’re afraid. They’re afraid of the dark. And so, they want to climb into bed with mom and dad because they’re fearful of the dark. As we get a little older, our fears change. When you become a teenager, the greatest fear is not fitting in. And so, your peer group, peer pressure becomes the number one driving force in the decisions you make because you want to fit in with everybody else. There’s a new acrostic today, if you’re familiar with F-O-M-O, fear of missing out, and I’m going to miss out on fun. I have to tell you, when I was ready to go to college, I knew I wanted to go to a Christian college. I was 17 years old and I’ve been exposed to all these Christian colleges. My older brother had gone to Cedarville University in Southern Ohio. There was Cornerstone University. My dad served on the board there for 40 years in Grand Rapids. Taylor University. So here was my plan. I’m like, you know what, I’m going to go to a different Christian college every year, you know, so I don’t want to miss out on any fun. So, I’ll start out at Cedarville, then I’ll transfer to Cornerstone, then I’ll go to Taylor, and then somebody said, that’s not the way it works. So okay, okay. But I didn’t want to miss out on any fun. Fears. How about fear of rejection? Confession time. I ended up at Cedarville University. I never really dated in high school. We kind of hung out in groups, and so here I am, a freshman in high school. I’d never asked a girl out on a date in my life, and I was so afraid of rejection. So, here’s what I did. I talked to my roommate, Joe, and I said, hey, kind of thinking of asking this girl out. Her name, sorry, dear, her name’s Marlene. It was Marlene, and I said, but would you like talk to her and just say, I’m thinking of asking her out, and then if she says yes, then come back and let me know, and then I’ll ask her out. Let’s take the rejection factor out of it. Oh, fear of rejection, and as we get older, we get into a new job, and the fear, like, do I have what it takes to do this new job? Then we have children, and that brings a whole other set of fears in our life, and then they get a driver’s license for our kids, and that brings a whole new level of fear. As we get older, then fear of aging, but survey after survey says that Americans’ greatest fear is the fear of death. It’s called thanatophobia. Thanatos is the Greek word for death, so it’s the fear of death. Hebrews 9:27 tells us a sobering truth this morning, and the author of Hebrews says, for it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment. So, the fact of the matter is, unless Jesus comes back in our lifetime, w

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