What is the real problem about fearing man?
What’s the big deal with fearing man? What’s the problem with trying to impress one another? The desire for peer approval, that dopamine hit we get when we impress others, that desire to be admired — what’s the problem with it all? Well, on Monday we looked at 1 Peter 3:15. There we saw the commission that we honor Christ or revere Christ in our hearts. It’s a text about fearing God. And it brought to mind a sermon Pastor John preached 42 years back in the fall of 1980. I wanted to share a clip from that old sermon today. Here’s 34-year-old Pastor John to explain this connection between revering to Christ and dying to the approval of others. What is this reverencing the Lord Christ in our hearts? What’s this amazing thing that has the power to turn the fear of men into hope and the power to always give us a reason for the hope that is in us that we can speak to others? Now, to answer that question in accord with the immediate context, what we need to do — instead of importing our...