Born To Win Podcast - With Ronald L. Dart

The holy days in Israel were prophetic, illustrating God's plan through annual cycles that reflected his work and intentions. Although the people of Old Testament times might not have fully grasped their significance, these holy days carry profound meaning for Christians today.One of these, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost and was a time to thank God for the bounty received. It required the firstfruits of the harvest to be offered to God before the harvest could be enjoyed. This act symbolized the beginning of a seven-week period of work, culminating in Pentecost. Although we may have distanced ourselves from these agricultural roots, Pentecost remains a festival of thanksgiving for the harvest.The seven weeks leading up to Pentecost represent the Messiah's work—from his acceptance by God as the first of the firstfruits until his return and the establishment of his kingdom. This period was marked by labor, punctuated by rest, symbolized by the seven Sabbaths leading up to Pentecost.In this prophetic scheme, th

This weekend marks one of the most important occasions in the history of the Christian Church. It is the day of Pentecost, and you may not know that it is actually a lot older than the church. Considering what happened on that day, I am surprised that there are so many Christians who know so little about it and what it signifies. Consider one statement from the Book of Acts to explain what I mean:And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they [the disciples of Jesus] were all with one accord in one place.Acts 2:1 KJVNow, that the disciples were there observing the festival is beyond dispute. They were all Israelites, they had observed this festival all their lives, and there was absolutely nothing in all the teachings of Jesus up to this point to suggest any change in that practice.In fact, there were three pilgrimage festivals—that is, feasts where they were expected to come to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple. They were Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. So they were there. (Jesu

One week from tomorrow is Pentecost, otherwise known as the Feast of Firstfruits. Traditionally, we have said that Pentecost pictures the receiving of the Holy Spirit. It's not hard to figure out why, because on that first Pentecost of the church (a day often called the birthday of the New Testament church) the Holy Spirit was poured out in incredible power.The description of those events in Acts 2 is enough, even 2,000 years later, to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck and marvel at what that might have been like. There was a great noise like a tornado that filled the room, and fire descended—shimmering sheets of fire through the ceiling and across the top of the room, then a tongue that descended upon each of those present. That must have been incredible, and one can only imagine. I don't think they expected it; I can't imagine they did. There's not a hint that they had a clue as to what was going to take place on that day. We've talked a lot about that over the years, and of course, the natura

I had a call recently from a lady who was very complimentary of one of my programs. It seemed what she appreciated most was my honesty with the scriptures. Now, I was flattered by that, but I couldn’t help wondering if honesty with the scriptures was all that unusual. I don’t want to sit in judgment of anyone, but if there is any cause to be less than honest with the Bible, it probably grows out of church or denominational affiliation.I don’t intend any criticism of any church membership or affiliation, but when a church publishes a creed—a statement of beliefs, a doctrinal statement—there is a serious need to defend that creed. And since these creeds are not word-for-word from the Bible, there is almost certainly going to be a problem with some passages of scripture that, at first blush, don’t seem to fit. They may not fit at second blush either, and there may be no small amount of explaining to do which some unsophisticated soul may declare to be less than honest with the

When the last words of the Ten Commandments had rolled down Mount Sinai, and the last echoes had faded away amid the hills and valleys, the people standing at the foot of the mountain were a total wreck. They were shattered. The earth had moved beneath their feet, the mountain had smoked, the air had been split by lightning and peals of thunder, and the words—preceded by an ear-splitting trumpet blast—were strong enough to move your chest.And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they moved, and stood far off. And they said unto Moses, Speak you with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.Exodus 20:18–19 KJ2000You and I probably think that we would really like God to speak to us. I would like him to tell me, Ron, here’s what I want you to do. But, you know, I’m just not sure that I would survive the experience.

Of all the Ten Commandments, there’s one that can be called the “Peace of Mind Commandment”, or if you prefer, the “Mental Health Commandment”. It is the Tenth Commandment, “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbors” (Exodus 20:17).At the bottom of the scale, “We are not to covet our neighbor’s ass.” That says it all, doesn’t it? What is there to want or covet about a donkey? Would you covet the pretty ones? You know, if you see one jackass then you have seen them all. So why covet those things?You know covetousness, all by itself, would seem to be a harmless fault. It wouldn't seem like a very big deal, merely to sit and wish you had something that you don't have, it doesn’t seem to amount to much. But in another way, it’s a sickness, and perhaps from this sickness much of the violation of

The very foundation of our legal system is truth. If people can come into court, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and then lie through their teeth, justice flies right out the window. No one can get judgment. No one can get justice. It's over! The Old Testament system was a little different from ours, but it was based on the same principle. Actually, I think in some ways it was a better system than we have.Leviticus 5, verse 1 says this:If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify, regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible.Now, in our court system, we have to go out and find the witnesses. We have to bring them into court. We have to swear them in and question them. And they have all sorts of ways, it seems like, to avoid getting into court and being held there, to have to answer these questions. It is at that moment of swearing, in court, you get them there, you make them stand up, raise their righ

The last six of the Ten Commandments are said to be summarized by the statement You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And that’s well enough, but I want to take another look at them from the community standpoint. Now we come to commandment number eight. And as I was preparing for this program, for some reason, it really struck me how important these laws are to society.The Fifth Commandment is the one that establishes and maintains family ties. It is a fundamental need of any society that families take care of their own. It’s the fragmentation of the family that leaves people sleeping on grates in the wintertime in the cities. The Sixth Commandment establishes a right to life. Thou shalt not kill, says God, and that includes manslaughter and any other unlawful or immoral destruction of human life. Any society that diminishes the right to life has set itself on the road to the trash heap of history. The Seventh Commandment establishes the sanctity of marriage and who has the rights to somebody

The days between Passover and Pentecost were heady days for the first disciples. Jesus had been raised from the dead after they thought he was gone forever. They were joyful beyond belief. Down through the generations all sorts of people have tried to duplicate that excitement of the Pentecost. The problem is it's all been artificial, contrived, manipulated. But man-made excitement is temporary, and when the excitement is gone it may leave depression behind as a legacy. What the disciples were feeling during this period of time was certainly nothing like man-made excitement. They had a joy that I don't think we quite can understand. They also had a challenge before them of enormous proportions.I want to come today to four ideas that we need to take a look at, instead of just looking for some sort of excitement. They form a neat acronym: C.O.P.E.. These ideas, frankly, can transform your life and can also turn your church around in its tracks, if you just understand what is meant by these four words.(Apologies

When Israel settled into the promised land, they enjoyed a time of freedom like few people have ever enjoyed in the history of the world. But I don’t think very many people understand or appreciate the foundation of that freedom and what it took to maintain it.It wasn’t just a matter of God handing them everything on a silver platter. They had to fight for the land, to fight for their freedom, and to work like the devil for their prosperity.But none of that would have worked without the foundation of freedom. Israel was given a law, and a system of worship designed to maintain that law, to implant the law in their national memory, and to shape the national conscience. Moses, in one of his speeches, made some statements on this point that I think are worth remembering. We’ll find them in Deuteronomy, chapter 4.

Did God create sexually-transmitted diseases as a trap for man? Is it a kind of punishment to man for having too much fun? Is that the whole idea—that God created man, and then in a mischievous moment, He said, Let’s put some venereal diseases in the population so that if men sin, we can get them? I don’t think so. That doesn’t sound like the God you read about in the Bible.I think STDs are an example of what can happen when viral and bacteriological strains are given an indefinite life in which to mutate and change. I’m not an expert in this area at all, but your body is teaming with bacteria, right now. Try not to panic, most of them are harmless and some of them are even good for you. When we have sex with another person, we trade some bacteria with our partner every time and bacteria mutate in the lifetime of a man or a woman and they may change a bit, but the strains we exchange between one man and one woman won’t survive us. We will never hurt another human being beca

The defendant is 20 years old, but he looks more like 16. He is wearing blue jeans and a sweater and his hair is neatly cut. He looks for all the world like he should have books under his arm and be headed to class, but the district attorney says, He’s a cold-blooded killer. It seems he held up a convenience store late one night. The clerk offered no resistance, gave him all the money in the cash register, and had his hands up. But as he scooped up the money and stuffed it into his pockets, this thief calmly raised his pistol and shot the clerk squarely between the eyes—just to leave no witnesses. Now, the district attorney wants you, the jury, to find him guilty and sentence him to death.How do you feel about that? Mind you now, he’s guilty. There’s no doubt whatsoever, much less a reasonable doubt. We have pictures of him on a security camera. Clearly he’s the guy who shot the clerk. We even have more evidence than that. Some of you would sentenced him to death in a heartbeat.

You may have heard of the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments have to do with man’s relationship with God. The last six commandments have to do with man’s relationship with man, and the first commandment in that series (and it should be the first commandment in that series) is this: Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord has given you. Honor your father and your mother. Now this is a concept that is not that well understood. Honor your father and your mother is not merely a prescription for living a long life. It’s a prescription for an enduring society.Let me read this to you again and think carefully about what it is saying: Honor your father and your mother. This is spoken from Mount Sinai, with the sound rolling down the mountainside for the whole nation of Israel to hear. God says to all of them, Honor your father and your mother, that your days, as a people, may be long in the land which the Lord your God is going to give yo

If you could have lived during the time of Christ, would you have wanted to be close to him? Would you have wanted to be with him? I think it's fair to say that, by the time of the 40 days between Christ's resurrection and ascension, his disciples were close to Jesus. After all they had been through, and the experiences they had shared, they had come to the point were they were quite close. Those three-and-a-half years of Jesus' ministry probably were not particularly easy times. Would you have wanted to be one of those people? If so, why?Hello everyone and welcome to the Christian Educational Ministries Weekend Bible Study. It is good to be with you and we thank you for being there and allowing us to make this weekly service possible.Over the past few weeks, we've followed Ron Dart in taking a closer look at the Passover, the resurrection of Christ, and the beginning of the countdown to the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. As we find commanded in Leviticus 23:From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought t

The Sermon on the Mount is easily the best known of all Jesus’ discourses, probably because every beginning preacher is encouraged by his mentor to speak about that sermon. So even if you don’t read the Bible very much, you still would have heard, Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.The sermon is a memorable work, with the poetic beatitudes leading the way. Each of these could be the subject for a much longer exposition. Blessed are the meek, for example, would make a strong theme for a full sermon. But early on in Jesus’ discourse that day, there is a statement that challenges the very structure of some Christian doctrine. Jesus said plainly that we are not to think something which a surprising number of Christians think anyway. Here it is, in Jesus’ own words:Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the le

If you were to take a survey among Christian people you would find that most of them believe in the Ten Commandments. After all, the Ten Commandments are the basis of all morality and the basis for the worship of God. Why is it, then, that the vast majority of Christian people outright ignore one of those commandments? No I don’t mean Thou shalt not commit adultery. Christian people sin, but they know adultery is wrong. It is not so much that they’re ignoring the commandment, they are simply breaking it, and in many cases they will repent later of breaking it. I am talking about a commandment that is ignored altogether—that is violated without even a sense of guilt. Now, which commandment might that be?You’ll find the Ten Commandments in the 20th chapter of Exodus and you’ll find this commandment beginning in verse eight:Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you sha

When you were a kid, did anyone ever make fun of your name? Chances are pretty good they did. Sometimes it was funny. Sometimes it hurt. Of course, it hurts to be made fun of if your nose is too big, your ears look like someone left the doors open on a Chevy pickup. But there is something about your name that makes it a special target. Your name is who you are. And after you have lived on this earth for a while, your name is you. When someone uses your name, you and you alone are the sum total what they are talking about. You are the meaning of your name.So when God says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Perhaps we should take it seriously. God’s name is not a playground joke. I hadn’t noticed until Dr. Laura Schlesinger pointed it out in her book on the Ten Commandments, but of all the Ten Commandments, giving God a bad name is the only one with a threat of immediate punishment.I expect t