The Kingdom Perspective

Christ Redeemer Church
  • 4.8 (19)
  • CHRISTIANITY

The Kingdom Perspective is the official podcast of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. The podcast exists to disseminate the thought-provoking teaching of CRC to the wider public. If you like what you hear, please pass these on to your friends. Find out more about our church at our website: christredeemerchurch.org.

  1. 5D AGO

    Pornography, Then and Now

    Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   With all the changes in Western culture’s view on sex, we often miss the fact that there is nothing new under the sun. Many of the changes we see all about us are really not so “new”, but something quite old. Much of the contemporary sexual ethic is simply a return to pagan Rome.   This is clearly seen in the increasing acceptability and ubiquity of pornography. Pornography is not new. In ancient Rome, pornography was everywhere. It was mainstream. Pornographic art was prominently displayed, maybe especially in respectable upper-class households.   Over the past 70 years or so, as the prevalence of pornography has risen, many saw it as progress. It was believed that, for the first time in history, we were finally ridding ourselves of the regressive ethic of tradition and religion. What we failed to see is that this was not progress but regress. It was a return to Rome. We were not “back to the future”, but back to the past.   This push toward sensuality, just like in ancient Rome, drives us to see one another as mere objects to fulfill our sordid fantasies, instead of bearers of God’s holy image, to be cherished and honored. Sexual desire without limits trains our hearts to see one another as mere commodities to be used for selfish ends. This is not the biblical view of sex, and I don’t think it’s the sort of world we should want to live in.   Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” ~Galatians 5:16-24 (ESV) Additional Resources: https://www.ccef.org/resources?topic=sexual-purity&utm_source=CCEF&utm_campaign=7b95d926de-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_02_22_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-85c92eaebb-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=7b95d926de

    2 min

  2. MAR 4

    Media vs. our Maker

    Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   Historically, the Christian church has been very serious about the issue of teaching and training. To be a Christian is not something to be dabbled in but is more akin to being on a sports team, even a Division I college team, requiring significant amounts of conditioning, training, and team practice. If we want to live as Christians, then we must subject ourselves to Jesus’s conditioning program—that’s the function of the church. If you want to be formed as a Christian, this is going to require a process. This process is what is known as “catechesis”, from the Greek word for teaching/instruction.   Sadly, such a process of training has all but disappeared from the church. This does not mean that we are not being formed; it just means that we are not being formed in the gospel.    So, what are we being formed in? Well, we become formed by whatever we give our lives to, particularly to whatever we give our “free time”.   For example, studies suggest that the average American spends well over 6 hours a day on the television or internet. This is not unimportant to our spiritual formation. Who we become is a function of our habits. We make our habits, and then our habits make us.   As it stands, the average American is being formed by the entertainment industry and big tech companies. Imagine, though, if you spent 6 hours a day reading the Bible and praying. How would your life be different? Imagine if you spent 6 hours a day serving and seeking to encourage your fellow Christians? How would the church be different?   Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.   What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.” ~Romans 6:12-19 (ESV)   Further Resources: Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age by Samuel James

    2 min

  3. FEB 26

    Ezekiel: The Sin Under the Sin

    Transcript:Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!In the ninth chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet details God’s judgment against the remnant of Jerusalem. God’s judgment sweeps through the city slaughtering those who do not mourn over its sin. We learn something of how injustice overtakes a society by the way God describes the city. He says, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice.” So, we see that the problem is that “injustice” has become epidemic and endemic to the way society operates. It’s “full of injustice!” But why does injustice become so embedded in the fabric of society? Well, the next line gives us a clue. “For they [the city’s inhabitants] say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see.’” Now, note that carefully. The reason we tend towards evil and give up fighting against injustice (in ourselves and in our society) is because we already, deep in our souls, believe: 1) that God doesn’t care (He’s forsaken the land!), and/or 2) that there is no God watching over us to whom we must give an account (He doesn’t see!). You see, at the root of all sin, individual or corporate, is a deep disbelief in the God of Scripture. Evil is driven by a cynical hopelessness that says it makes no ultimate difference whether I do what’s right or what’s wrong.Have you fallen for the lie? Do you find those doubts echoing in your soul: Does God see? Does God even care? When you believe God’s given up, then you will too. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house. Then he said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out.” So they went out and struck in the city. And while they were striking, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face, and cried, “Ah, Lord God! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”Then he said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.’”~ Ezekiel 9:4-9 (ESV)

    2 min

  4. FEB 25

    Special Update on CRC Building Project from Pastor Don

    Transcript: Hey Friends and Supporters of Christ Redeemer Church! This is Pastor Don from Hanover, NH. Hope all is well with you!    Just a quick update on CRC’s building project… God is on the move here in New England. We’ve already cleared massive legal hurdles to become the first new church approved for a building in this Ivy-League town in over 60 years. Now, the only thing standing in the way from making our dream a reality is funding. And good news: We are less than $100k away from meeting a matching challenge which would put us in range for breaking ground this spring. But we need your help! Could you make a last-minute push for pledges and donations? Spread the word!    Anything we bring in over the match will significantly reduce our financing costs. This will give us elbow room to expand our ministry from this strategic Ivy-League community. It will allow us to train and send more people with global leadership capabilities.   The deadline of February 28th is fast approaching. Donate, pledge, and encourage others to do the same! For more info or to give, click on link in this post or visit christredeemerchurch.org/flourish."   Thank you so much for partnering with us!   Jesus said: “Upon this Rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell with not prevail against it.” ~Matthew 16:18

    2 min

  5. FEB 24

    Making Your Way in the World Today…Without God

    Transcript:   Hello this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   According to the Bible, ultimate reality is love. The source of all that exists is the eternal love relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The God we learn from Jesus is a God who from all eternity is Triune—Father, Son and Holy Spirit living in eternal self-giving love without any hint of self-centeredness. There is no envy or insecurity on the part of any member of the Trinity, but all exist in a deep sense of personhood without being threatened by the personhood of the other. In the being of God, we have clear boundaries of personhood but no walls. Each person losing themselves into the life of the other without ever losing their individual sense of personhood. Now, such a vision is mind-boggling to us because it is so foreign to our sense of self and our experience of relationship. But why?   Why do we so struggle with such a deep sense of personal insecurity and relational dysfunction? Here's the reason why: the Bible calls it “sin.” My friends, sin is not just the little, bad things we do. But it's this: it's trying to find life in ourselves, apart from the love of God—apart from the Trinity. We are seeking to make a life for ourselves apart from our Creator. Therefore, we are driven to prove and defend ourselves instead of trusting in God. We are driven to make an air brushed image of ourselves and then construct walls to defend and protect that image. And these things keep us from true love connection with God and one another.   And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” ~ 1 John 4:7-12 (ESV)

    2 min

  6. FEB 19

    Jesus’s Radical Love

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.The gospel is good news for sinners. This is both its attraction and its irritation. If I think of myself as a pretty good guy who only needs a little self-improvement here or there, then I am going to be offended at the notion that the Son of God had to die on a bloody cross to take away my sin. I can accept the notion of Jesus as my self-help guru. However, I cannot stomach the notion that my sin is so bad it caused the suffering and death of God Himself. I am going to chafe at the idea that, as Jesus put it, I “must be born again” and I must “deny [my] self and take up the cross daily”. Why does a person who is basically good need to take such drastic measures?However, if, on the other hand, Jesus is the savior of the helpless sinners (Romans 5:6)—if sin is so pervasive and overpowering that “without Him [I] can do nothing” (John 15)—then the suffering and death of the Son of God on the cross for me is going to be the best and sweetest news I’ve ever heard.Listen to the beautiful words of author, poet and hip-hop artist Jackie Hill Perry:“Jesus had the guilty in mind when He hung high and stretched out wide.... He, bare-bodied and face set on joy, became as a slaughtered lamb underneath the wrath of God... Didn't He know that wrath was mine? It even had my name on it. But He knew... Without asking my permission, a good God had come to my rescue.” Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”~ Romans 5:6-11 (NASB)References: Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been by Jackie Hill Perry (B&H Books: 2018).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 or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit www.christredeemerchurch.org.

    2 min

  7. FEB 17

    When in Rome…Do as the Christians Do

    Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   There is no question that we live in a time of tremendous change in society’s views on sex, gender, and marriage. For many, this is heralded as progress. For others it is troubling and confusing. Either way, we often forget that there is nothing new under the sun. Many of the changes we see all about us are really not so “new”, but something quite old. Much of the contemporary sexual ethic is simply a return to pagan Rome. Christianity was born during the Roman Empire, and early Christians had to navigate all the varied sexual and gender expressions of it.   In this context, the early Christians distinguished themselves on a few key fronts:   First, their tender care of women and children. In Rome, women and children were generally not protected but seen as products to be used and abused for sexual pleasure. This was especially true of the slave class, which comprised nearly 20% of the inhabitants.   Second, Christians were distinguished by – what their pagan neighbors saw as – their strict sexual ethic. Christians were maligned as prudes in a society obsessed with using and abusing others. Christians followed the teaching of Holy Scripture and reserved sex for a loving marital relationship between a husband and wife.   Third, and perhaps most importantly, they were distinguished by the grace they extended to those exploited by Rome’s sexual confusion and callousness. The church was a place of refuge and restoration, not a place of shame and ostracization.   Now, in that ancient context, the church was disparaged and persecuted for these values. But the community they created caused it to thrive. Today’s church would be wise to aspire to that same example.   Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” ~1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 (ESV)   Some sources to consider: The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History by Rodney Stark (Princeton University Press 2020).   The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbably Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire by Alan Kreider (Baker Academic 2016).   Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home by Glenn S. Sunshine (Zondervan 2009).

    2 min

  8. 12/31/2025

    Graduating from the Gospel?

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.Over the past hundred years or so, Christians in the West have tended to view the Christian life as steps in a process. Like a manufacturing process, Christians are “developed” step-by-step.Now, there are some aspects of this paradigm that can be helpful, as it recognizes the fact that living the Christian life is indeed a process. It is a “walk” that involves living our lives day-by-day before the face of God. However, it fails in at least one critical point. It usually places believing the gospel as merely the first step in that process. So, for example, it goes something like this… The first step is to believe the gospel.The second step is to understand the basics of the Christian life.The third step is to follow Jesus as a disciple.The fourth step is to… etc., etc.Now, here’s the problem. This way of thinking puts believing Jesus as merely the first step. However, that’s not how the Bible speaks of it. Believing the gospel is an ongoing aspect of living the Christian life. Believing in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection informs and transforms every moment of my life. The gospel is not just the first step, but the interpretive grid and power for every step.As Zambian pastor Conrad Mbewe puts it: “Christians never graduate from the gospel.” ~Conrad Mbewe, pastor in Lusaka, ZambiaThe moment we get beyond the gospel is the moment we get beyond Jesus. And a Christianity without Christ’s saving and sanctifying work is no Christianity at all.Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”~ 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (ESV)

    2 min
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4.8
out of 5
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About

The Kingdom Perspective is the official podcast of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. The podcast exists to disseminate the thought-provoking teaching of CRC to the wider public. If you like what you hear, please pass these on to your friends. Find out more about our church at our website: christredeemerchurch.org.

Information

  • Creator
    Christ Redeemer Church
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    384
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Christ Redeemer Church

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