Unassigned Sermons 1996–2000

The First Day of the Week?

April 17, 1999 • Ronald L. Dart

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The Lamb That Was Slain

March 2, 1996

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Wisdom, Losing Ground?

June 7, 1997 • Ronald L. Dart

The Special Prosecutor

February 13, 1999 • Ronald L. Dart

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Passover Service 1997

April 20, 1997 • Ronald L. Dart

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The Seventh Rest

May 25, 1996 • Ronald L. Dart

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Prayer: What Does God Require?

June 1, 1996 • Ronald L. Dart

Prayer is in a way something of a mystery. How can a mere man talk to God and be heard? If you’ve read much of your Bible, read about God, and realize his greatness, his power, the fact that he would even so much as be interested in what I had to say is amazing. Not only is he interested in what I have to say, but in what *all of us* have to say, and the Bible leads us to believe that God is able to hear and respond *personally* to every one of the perhaps millions of people whose voice may be calling out to him at any hour of the day or the night. It’s staggering to consider it. It’s very clear that God expects us to pray, that he commands us to pray. It’s also obvious that God hears our prayers, and that our prayers make a difference in what happens. I expect every one of you, at one time or another, have had an answer to prayer. The problem you have is all those prayers of which you’re not so sure. These are the ones that sometimes trouble us. Believing in God, believing the Bible, and committing your life as you have to Jesus Christ, you would think that prayer would come naturally—that man would pray as easily as breathing. But it is not so, and I wonder if the reason for it is that we really *don’t believe*. Maybe we are like the man who came to Jesus for the healing of his son; when Jesus said, “If you believe, he can be healed”, and the man in desperation said, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” I think I understand that man. I really do. For I believe in Jesus, I believe in his words, I believe in the Father and pray to him, and I believe he can answer prayer. What I need is help with my *unbelief*. Jesus addressed this question fairly early on with his disciples and with the people who came to listen to him, in the most basic of Christian instructions: the Sermon on the Mount… [Image credits, if any, may be found by visiting the "View Online" link below.]

The Last Ten Words

February 5, 2000 • Ronald L. Dart

Do you know the last ten words of the Old Testament? Here they are: “http://...lest I come and smite the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4:6) The Hebrew word for "curse" is *cherem*, which means "a doomed object; abstractly: extermination, utter destruction". The reason I am calling it to your attention is because it lays out starkly what the stakes are in this game we are playing. The only people I know who are making much of an effort to get us to think about this are the movie-makers. Crises make good drama, and the extermination of all life on the planet is the ultimate crisis. But Malachi is not talking about a movie. Neither was Jesus when he said, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. ... For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." There are three important things that come to me from these passages. One is the very real possibility of utter destruction in the future. Two: the very real fact that destruction can be avoided. Three: It is obvious that God must take a hand if we are to avoid it. The world is becoming a very confusing place. Churches are changing before our eyes in ways we never imagined possible. The old ecumenism seems woefully out of date as we watch developments in Christian communities. Doctrines of an eternity in hell that used to scare people in the ancient world don't really work anymore, so preachers are having to reconsider. I don't think we have seen anything yet. The result of all this is a kind of confusion, and the most common response to confusion is inaction. When you don't know what to do, it is not entirely irrational to do nothing. It may not be irrational, but it *can* be fatal. And that is the warning of Malachi and Jesus. Utter destruction is in our future. Unless... And it is the "unless" that I want you to think about today. [Image credits, if any, may be found by visiting the "View Online" link above.]

It Begins with Devotion

March 14, 1998 • Ronald L. Dart

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In All Points

February 19, 2000 • Ronald L. Dart

I'm grateful, in an odd sort of way, to the Corinthian church. Those poor people; if they hadn't been so troublesome, there are all kinds of things that we would not know. It's because of their trouble, their confusion, their getting it wrong, that the apostle Paul sat down and wrote First Corinthians. And in First Corinthians he spoke to them about the Passover. It's not entirely clear whether he wrote it going in, or just after the Passover, but it was very much on his mind. And in First Corinthians 11, verse 23, he makes this interesting statement: “I have received of the Lord that which I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ After the same manner, also, he took the cup when he had supped saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in my blood, this do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” There were a lot of ways that Paul could have referenced this particular occasion this evening. He could have said, for example, “it was on the 14th day of the first month at even”, and it would cleared up a number of questions for many of us. But he didn't; he called it “the same night in which he was betrayed”. I don't know why Paul chose that expression. I can't tell you why he put it that way, but what I can tell you is what it evokes in me personally...

Reunion

October 21, 2000 • Ronald L. Dart

The Investment

October 14, 2000 • Ronald L. Dart

For My Eyes Have Seen Your Salvation

October 13, 2000 • Ronald L. Dart

The Twenty-First Elder

April 27, 1996 • Ronald L. Dart

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The Forgiveness of Kings

March 7, 1998 • Ronald L. Dart