Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

Born to Win
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Born to Win's Daily Radio Broadcast and Weekly Sermon. A production of Christian Educational Ministries.

  1. Jul 10

    The War Against Freedom

    What’s really going on in the world? And what is this War on Terror really about. When you get to the basics, what people call terrorism is actually a war against the spread of freedom. The war is being waged by the enemies of freedom. Their motive? They are mortally afraid. What are they afraid of? Well, freedom of course. They think we are the problem, and that’s why they struck the World Trade Center. They want us to stop the invasion of what they call western values into their world. But we can’t stop it. We aren’t the cause of it, merely the harbinger. We are no more the cause of freedom than the first robin on your lawn is the cause of spring. We aren’t the cause of Freedom—God is. And their own people are beginning to demand freedom and the enemies of freedom are deathly afraid. The criminals who are behind all the death and destruction in the name of Allah are afraid of liberty in the same way, and for the same reason, that the Jewish establishment feared Jesus. Here was a man who could step up to a man born blind and make him see; a man who could heal a withered arm, could heal a woman of a flow of blood that no one else could stop, could even bring back to life a man who had lain dead for four days; a gentle man, soft spoken, harmless. And the Jerusalem establishment wanted to kill him. Why?

  2. Jul 9

    Christian Origins #24 - Corinthians

    If there’s one thing that is clear when you study the New Testament with an eye to the origins of the Christian church, it is that the apostles were not princes of the church. Oh, there is reason to believe that they were loved and respected (at least some of the time), but not very many people were in awe of them. That kind of attitude came later when the clergy became distant and exalted from the ordinary people. One would think that the original apostles must have struck awe into people, but they were too close for that. They were ordinary men. When they cut themselves, they bled; they had a temper; they could get tired and irritable; and while they knew Jesus, they were not towering intellects. And not a few people thought they were just as good as Paul, or Peter, or any of the rest—maybe better. This attitude surfaced every once in a while, and it provoked an important section of 1 Corinthians. At the same time, it reveals a lot about the actual relationship between the apostle and the layman. Paul has made several points and now comes to the place where he gets a little sarcastic, as the Corinthians have been sitting in judgement of Paul and are pretty puffed up and proud of themselves. Now you are full, now you are rich, you have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you. For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; And labor, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure it: Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the trash of all things unto this day. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. 1 Corinthians 4:8–14 KJ2000

  3. Jul 8

    Christian Origins #23 - Corinthians

    If a man sets out to convince an audience of the truth of his message, why would he not give it his best shot? Wouldn’t you normally think a man would pull out all the stops—make every effort to persuade? Wouldn’t he use every rhetorical trick—every possible, honest means of persuading his audience? There is an old saying, He who is convinced against his will, is of the same mind still. Which of us has not gone along with something, when we weren’t entirely persuaded? In fact, to go along with something in our language implies a lack of persuasion. We go along because we don’t want to raise a stink. We go along because we can’t refute it at the moment. So a man might not over persuade his audience because he wants to be sure they really agree to his proposition. Something like this was in the Apostle Paul’s mind when he wrote to the Corinthians: For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:1–5 KJ2000I don’t want you to believe me, I want you to believe God. When you think of it, it makes perfect sense. How many religious cults have been built as a personality cult? Why was Paul making an issue of this? Because the Corinthians were choosing up sides based on the persons of leaders. The major parties were Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ. Paul is calling for some level of humility and trying to bring things into perspective.

  4. Jul 7

    Christian Origins #22 - Corinthians

    The last time the Christian church was perfectly joined together, of the same mind and of the same judgement was nearly 2,000 years ago on that Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on the church and they baptized 3,000 people in one day. From that time forward, it has been one fight after another. It would be no trick to maintain unity in the church if we just didn’t have any people in it. But there are people in the church and we do find a lot of things to disagree over. We can disagree over personalities, doctrines, policies, interpretations of scripture. Historically, some of these disagreements have led Christians to split giant churches and to even kill one another. This is a painful thing for a Christian to admit, but it is history so we might as well face up to it. It would be a mistake, though, to think that this mayhem is a result of the teachings of Jesus. There is a basic hostility in human nature, and when people become Christians, they do not automatically lay it aside. What on earth can be done about this innate human hostility that crops up so often in life, ranging from road rage to church rage? One thing that becomes progressively clear as you work your way through Paul’s letters is that this hostility is a function of the terrible self. And Christ asks a man to lay down the terrible self. The church is a social institution, and it brings all these selfish natures together and calls on us to lay down the self for the sake of others as Jesus did. This call is threatening to the terrible self, and it often responds to the threat with anger. The challenge in any church is to grow together by laying down our lives (and our terrible self) for one another. We have been talking about Christian origins on this series and we have come to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Surely one of the most obstreperous churches of the first century. Paul was in Ephesus on an extended stay when he got a letter from Corinth with a lot of questions, and a report on how things were going. So he sits down and writes the letter we call 1 Corinthians. Personally, I am glad the Corinthians didn’t get along, because we would not have this wonderful letter if they had.

  5. Jul 6

    Christian Origins #21 - Acts

    It is astonishing, when you think about it, how much hatred can be generated by religious beliefs. From the earliest times, Jews persecuted Christians; and when Christians came to power, they persecuted Jews. It is almost as though the closeness of religious belief is a measure of the heat of the hostility, for Jews have persecuted other Jews and Christians have persecuted other Christians. There is a lot of blood on the hands of a lot of very religious people. And none of it would be there if they truly followed their religion. Why do they do it? Because they perceive the other religion as a threat—purely and simply. It is almost funny when you think about it. A lot of persecution by religious people comes about because they think they are defending God—as if God needed our help and could not defend himself. Such an occasion arose when Paul had been in Corinth for about a year and half. He had been astonishingly successful there—especially considering his moderate success everywhere else. God had appeared to him in a vision and told him to speak boldly, Because I have much people in this city. And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made an attack with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat, Saying, This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked crime, O you Jews, reason would that I should bear with you: But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look you to it; for I will be no judge of such matters. And he drove them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things. Acts 18:12–17 KJ2000

  6. Jul 4

    The Foundation of Freedom

    When Israel settled into the Promised Land at first, they enjoyed a time of freedom the likes of which no people had ever enjoyed up until that time. The bad news is, no one since that time has enjoyed that level of freedom again. I don’t think very many people understand the basis of that freedom and what it took to maintain the freedom that Israel enjoyed in those few years. It wasn’t merely a matter of God handing them everything on a silver platter: You’re my people; you just do the right thing, and I’ll take care of everything else. That’s not really the way it was. They had to fight for the land, they had to fight for their freedom, and they had to work like the devil for their prosperity. Now, if you are a Bible reader, and you’ve really given this much of a thought in the light of your experience of your life, you’re going to understand and know that’s true. God just doesn’t rain it on you. He doesn’t just hand it to you on a silver platter. He doesn’t wait on you hand and foot. What God does is open doors for you, but you still got to do the fighting, you still got to do the work. None of the things that they had in those early years of freedom would have worked without the foundation of freedom. Moses gave a speech that I want to come to. Israel was given a Law and a system of worship designed to maintain the Law, to implant it in their national memory, to shape the national conscience. (And there is such a thing as a national conscience.) Here’s what Moses had to say in Deuteronomy, chapter 4…

  7. Jul 3

    American Prophets

    When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed[.] You recognize those words, of course. I wish every American child had them committed to memory because they are among the most important words ever committed to writing by the pen of man. This is the opening of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. The thinking behind this document is at the core of the most fundamental liberties of man. And while many of the men who signed this document were slave owners, these same men set in motion the wheels that would bring an end to slavery in the civilized world. The Declaration was, in the main, the words of Thomas Jefferson, but the leadership of all the existing states signed it, and it honestly reflected their values and beliefs. Perhaps the most stunning idea put forward in this Declaration is that men—all men—are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. I say stunning, but that’s only in the light of modern politics. To the men who signed this Declaration it was obvious, it was a self-evident fact that men were created and were endowed with rights by their Creator. In other words, they believed in God and they considered God to be the guarantor of the liberties man, including Life, and Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. For these men to speak of God as Creator was as natural as breathing, for they were all believers. One of the most interesting things about them, though, was they were not much inclined to sectarian religion. Perhaps there had been too much suffered at the hands of a state church for them to feel comfortable in any way with an established church, or maybe with any particular church at all. But the belief in God, now that was another matter. In the minds of the men, far and away the majority of those who signed this Declaration, the belief in God was beyond question.

  8. Jul 2

    Christian Origins #20 - Thessalonians

    Everyone knows the end of the world is coming. The only questions left are when and how. Scientists tell us that in 3 to 4 billion years our sun will blow up and turn our planet into a cinder, so there really is an end to all this. It doesn’t matter to us whether it 3 billion or 3 million, our end is a lot sooner than that. Even the Bible tells us there is going to be an end to this world, this system. It suggests that if God doesn’t stop us, we will end up destroying ourselves. But it speaks of time called the Day of the Lord, when Christ will return and God’s wrath will descend on disobedient man. There are little snippets here and there in the New Testament about this time and what it means for mankind. Paul had just written to the Thessalonian Christians about the resurrection and he adds this little passage: But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that are drunk are drunk in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do. 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11 KJ2000Now, put yourselves in the place of these new Christians. They are gentiles in the main. They have what Paul told them about Jesus in a short three weeks to go on, plus the Old Testament prophets that could be read in the synagogue. There is no way they thought the return of Christ was 2,000 years into the future. They thought, from what Paul said, that it was imminent—it could happen any day now. This conception apparently led to some unfortunate behavior which Paul has to address in his second letter.

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Born to Win's Daily Radio Broadcast and Weekly Sermon. A production of Christian Educational Ministries.

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