Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark. A spiritual boost to start the week.
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
When It's Time to Go Home
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special Monday Morning Coffee Podcast. On this podcast, our preacher, Mark Roberts, will help you get your week started right with a look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through each other and better work the applications into our daily life. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday morning coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_01:Good morning, good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for Monday, October the 6th. I'm Mark. I've got my Bible open to 1 Chronicles. I'm holding a great cup of coffee. This is, oh, this is a really good cup of coffee. This is some Guatemalan coffee that uh roasted up recently and made a pour over with this. And it's oh, it's just marvelous. And I am ready to talk with you about daily Bible reading, ready to talk to you more about yesterday's sermon. I hope that sermon was comforting and reassuring and helpful to you. Let's see if we can connect up that a little bit. Let's work on all that together. Get ready for daily Bible reading. Get ready for the week. Let's put it all together. Pour that cup of coffee, let's grow together. Yesterday's sermon in the 1040 was entitled When It's Time to Go Home. And this was all about senior saints as they think a lot about what it will mean to die. What is going to happen when I pass away? Let me just give you an extra thought here. If you didn't listen to that sermon, if you weren't with us yesterday, we'd really encourage you to listen to that. I would encourage you to share that with those, particularly with some silver in their hair. Young people don't think a lot about death. They probably need to think a lot more about death. The book of Ecclesiastes comes to mind here, but that really comes front of mind as we get closer to the finish line. Talked a little bit about that yesterday. Let me just add something here. I think one of the greatest gifts that you can give yourself and your loved ones is to make peace while you still can. Don't wait for the perfect time, the perfect mood till you have all the perfect words. If there is an old grudge, if there is an old hurt that's never been acknowledged, if you haven't said I love you and you've been meaning to do so, do it. Do it now. Do it today. Do it this morning. Write that letter, send that email, send that text, make that call, pray that prayer. Jesus actually tells us we have to do that if there's been some kind of sort of sin, some sort of hurtfulness. Matthew chapter 5, verses 23 and 24 cover that, but let me just add, sometimes, sometimes despite your best effort, peace isn't going to come. The other person may refuse to talk or refuse to forgive or refuse to meet with you. In those moments, you can still do what God calls you to do, which is to refuse bitterness and just give that over to the Lord. Romans chapter 12 and verse 8 says, if it is possible, as far as it depends upon you, live at peace with everyone. We're only responsible for the as far as it depends upon you part. So today, before the end of today, and before you reach your end, you do your part as far as it depends on you. Do the work of making peace. And if peace is refused, leave it with God and walk forward in complete freedom. That's a gift to your spirit, and it's a testimony of your faith to those who love you. And who knows? You may make peace in an unexpected way, and that will be a complete joy as well. Hope that helps you. Hope that helps you as we move forward into the week. Let's think now about daily Bible reading, and we are starting. I said I had my Bible open to Chronicles, but we're starting in Ezekiel. Let's talk about daily Bible reading. And the prophet here, it's important to remember that Ezekiel is in Babylon, he is in the Babylonian captivity with the people, and he is speaking to people who have just had every hope and dream that they ever had blasted off the earth. In previous messages, Ezekiel has said they lost their land due to their own sins, and in this chapter, he lays blame squarely on their bad leaders and their bad leadership. But more than just doom, Ezekiel now begins to talk about coming days, coming days when God will bless his people, when they will return to their homeland, and especially they will have better leadership. I think it's helpful here in the first ten verses to read that, even though that's not on today's reading, and just think about what good leadership is supposed to look like. Sometimes leadership today is confused for getting all the privileges. Everybody has to do what I say. It's kind of like being the king or the dictator. You clap, and people bring you your slippers in the morning newspaper. Nobody reads the newspaper anymore, never mind. They bring you your slippers and your coffee, preferably a Guatemalan coffee. Then in verses 11 to 24, God begins to talk about the coming true shepherd. And he says, I will search for my sheep and I will seek them out, verse 11. And he describes all these great things that this shepherd will do. Who is this shepherd? Notice verse 15, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord. When sheep lie down, that's a sign that they are contented, that they are safe, that they are well fed. Otherwise, they will not lie down. And there is a little bit of a figure change here in verse 17, because the false shepherds that have been addressed in verses 1 to 10, they actually are part of God's flock. They are part of the Jews who are in captivity in Babylon. So now we go sheep to sheep instead of sheep to shepherd. These were not only bad shepherds. Ezekiel says, or actually God says through Ezekiel, you are mean sheep. You're not nice sheep. And so there is an emphasis there on God's effort, God doing. I will rescue my flock, verse 22. In fact, if you underline all the I, I will feed, and I will do, and I will bring, and I will gather. If you underline all of that, you'll see quickly, this is about what God is doing. And he will do that, verse 23, through this Davidic figure, my servant David. He will be their shepherd. Now clearly that can't be David, because, because, because exactly, he's dead. David is dead. So just as in Malachi, there's a figurative application of Elijah. Elijah's long gone, Malachi 4-5 talks about the coming Elijah. This can't be David. No, who is this? This is Jesus. This is the Messiah. This is Jesus, the one true shepherd. And of course, in John chapter 10, Jesus will say, I am the good shepherd. What would Jewish hearers think about that? What would they hear when Jesus said that kind of thing? Then verses 25 to 31, there's discussion of the pasture that the sheep will return to. And this may be, this may be kind of a double fulfillment sort of thing. This may have some emphasis on the return from captivity, but looking forward to the blessings of the Messiah. Notice verses 23 and 24. That speaks of David being fulfilled by Christ. So now, verse 25, I'll make them a covenant of peace and banish the wild beasts from the land. Well, hey, verse 23 and 24, that isn't literal. That's not really David. David isn't coming back from the dead. So verse 25 doesn't have to be literal. Maybe in some ways it looks in both directions. You'll go home and I will bless you there, but the Messiah will come. He will bring real blessings, permanent blessings. Ezekiel 34, verses 11 to 31 is our reading for Monday. It is Tuesday. It is Tuesday. And today's reading is 1 Chronicles 17, 1 to 15. Sort of jumped the gun yesterday when I said, hey, let's go to 1 Chronicles 17. I was just excited about talking about it, especially because I spent a lot of time prepping that and looking at that in comparison with 2 Samuel 7. This is the covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7. And I'm glad that we're rereading this because it's the basis of so much that goes on, both in the New Testament, but especially in the prophets, so much of Israel and Judah's problems and difficulties, as prophets speak doom and judgment, so many times at the end of that, they'll come back around and say, better things are coming. We saw some of that yesterday in Ezekiel. There will be the one shepherd, the one shepherd, David, but of course it's not David, it's the Messiah. And that is all based on the covenant of 2 Samuel chapter 7, which is repeated here in 1 Chronicles chapter 17. And please remember, repetition means it's important. Repetition signals importance in the Bible. And there's a couple of differences, very slight differences in Chronicles and Samuel's account. Just a little bit different wording here and there. Sometimes when I'm preaching, for example, if I jump into the middle of a text and it says he said, sometimes I'll substitute the word Jesus there to make sure that everybody as we're reading along knows who the he is. It's not a change, I'm not changing the meaning. It's not like I said Abraham said. No, Jesus said this. I'm just subbing Jesus' name for the pronoun. And there's a little tweaking here and there. But I think mostly what you get here is this emphasis on the Davidic covenant being so special and powerful. There really is more of that in Chronicles than there is in Kings. And you see some of that here in 1 Chronicles 17, where the emphasis is more on Solomon, much more on Solomon, that he will carry forward this promise and this covenant. So for example, there is no mention, as there is in 2 Samuel 7, of when he sins and commits iniquity, I wow, that's hard to say. Coffee's the answer to that. When he sins or commits iniquity, then I will chasten him with a rod of iron. That is omitted in Chronicles. The chronicler doesn't want to talk about maybe Solomon messing up. That's not good. Chronicles is probably written after the return from Babylonian captivity, and it is talking about how to keep that from happening again, how to be back with God. We don't want to talk about iniquity. And maybe the most significant difference here in verse 14, I have, I will confirm him in the Chronicles account. That's not what it says in the Samuel account. That is not part of that. And then it says, My kingdom, I will confirm him in my house and my kingdom. Not his kingdom, my kingdom. In Chronicles, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of David are the same. They are one and the same. What a powerful observation. What an important point that really is. Let me give you a couple of other notes here about the text. This really emphasizes that David was a nobody. I took you when you were just a shepherd. You were out in the pasture, verse 7. You weren't a descendant of Saul. You weren't even the firstborn in your family. God says, I took you, and I don't need a temple. I've moved around for all of this time. David offers here, that's the context of what we're dealing with. I'm assuming you'll pick that up from reading that. David says, I'm going to build you a house. God says, Nope, don't need a house. I've never asked for a house. But David has so impressed God with his heart that God says, I will build you a royal dynasty, a lasting house, a house of David that will rule forever. Verse 14, your kingdom, now it's my kingdom, God says, will be established forever. His throne shall be established forever. This is the promise that the Messiah will come from the house of David, that the Messiah will rule on the throne of David. And as we push into the New Testament, that will be the dominant image that we are looking for and reading about over and over again. Our reading for Tuesday, 1 Chronicles 17, 1 to 15. I should add for Westsiders, the elders meet tonight, so there will not be a Zoom call. Now, sometimes that changes. The elders end up moving their meeting time or something breaks differently. Pay attention to the Facebook page, Westside Family. If we end up deciding to have a Zoom call, if we can do that, it'll be posted there. But at this time, probably not. Probably no Zoom call tonight. I'll see everybody on the podcast tomorrow. Like I said, the reading for Tuesday, 1 Chronicles 17, 1 to 15. It's Wednesday. Get on that camel. It is Wednesday. And our reading today is 1 Chronicles 17, verses 16 to 27. This breaks down into three pieces where first David humbles himself before the Lord, 1 Chronicles 17, verses 16 to 19. And then secondly, he exalts God, who's graciously chosen Israel as his people, verses 20, 21, and 22. And then he asks God to fulfill his promises by blessing his house forever, verses 23 through the end of the chapter. I think what we're looking at here as being significant and what this is all about is that this really talks about God seeking a people for himself. When God makes those promises to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, he promises that Abraham's descendants would be his people and he would be their God. Genesis chapter 17, verses 7 to 8. How many times have we read in the book of Exodus, I will be your God, I will take you as my people? God's always saying that through Moses. And now we just get that continued relationship. These are the people of God. God is dwelling with them, wants them to be his people. All of this just says God wants to be in relationship. This is a relationship text. And I guess if you're looking for application here, which we should always be looking for application, the emphasis in our Bible reading this year is to be a person after God's own heart, like David was. Then what you get a good look at here is what you do when God says no. Because David says, I'm building you a house, God. And Nathan even signs off on that. And then God says, No, no, don't do that. You can't do that, don't do that. Solomon will do that. How will David react to that? You can see David kind of a little red face, the prophet comes into the courtroom and into the throne room and says, uh, reverse course, one ain't 180 degrees. We're not doing that. You can't do that. That's a little embarrassing. Um, this would make me look good in front of everybody. Pagan kings build temples. What do you mean I'm not building this temple? But David doesn't act that way. What David does is emphasize God's power and might and sovereignty, that God is great, and he humbly submits to God's will, and he praises God for God's will and what God wants to do. This is what a person who's seeking God's heart will do when God says no to his prayers. He submits to the will of God. The reading then for Wednesday, 1 Chronicles 17, verses 16 to 27. Welcome to Thursday. Welcome to Thursday, and today we read the twelfth chapter of Zechariah. Zechariah is in the minor prophets. It is not one of those books of the Bible that we're reading in all of the time. I don't expect. Maybe you just jump into Zechariah all the time and just read a couple of passages over there just as your hobby, but it is a difficult book in many ways. And chapter 12 is no exception to that. There are two pieces to this, two scenes. There is this siege of Jerusalem, and then the Messiah returns to defeat the enemies of Israel. Of course, the question comes, what exactly is that pointing to? When exactly is that going to happen? What's exactly Zechariah talking about? What exactly is happening here? And it does seem like this is talking about some spiritual battles, much more than a physical sort of battle. There is a huge emphasis on the expression on that day, which appears 16 times in this particular text. And it seems like, and I think I'll quote from Brother Homer Haley here, that this chapter is about the holy and indestructible character of the new spiritual body, talking, of course, about the church. So there is a siege against Jerusalem. All the heathen powers, verse 3, gather against Jerusalem. Maybe that's spiritual Jerusalem, the church, but God fights for his people. I will strike every horse with panic, verse 4, on that day. And so God intervenes here. There's divine deliverance in verses 4 to 9. And it seems like verse 9, especially, on that day I'll seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. This seems like persecution, those that would dare to raise their hand against the people of God. Then in verse 10, and of course you've noticed here House of David several times already, in verse 10, there is a movement away from physical deliverance to spiritual deliverance, mourning and weeping. The Spirit moves to effect conviction by having Israel look upon the Messiah, and they will look on him whom they have pierced, verse 10. They shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child. That is directly quoted and applied to Jesus in John 19, 37. So there's a lot of, I don't know, and I'm unsure what about this and what about that. There's not any question about verse 10, because that's used by the Gospel of John, used by John the Apostle, to say that's pointing to Jesus. And there is a mention then in verse 11 about mourning as at the plain of Meghetto, and that's probably a reference to the mourning for Josiah. King Josiah, as we read, was killed in battle on the plain of Meghetto. He's trying to cut the Egyptians off and keep them from going to the big battle between the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and he dies there. And then verse 12, there's mourning, and this seems to be like the morning of the Day of Atonement. Everybody mourns individually. The Day of Atonement was a day for reflecting upon your sins. And so there's mourning for sin. Is that what we're looking at? Especially as you roll into chapter 13, which continues saying, on that day, verse 1, chapter 13, verse 1, there shall be a fountain open for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. There's new covenant terminology all through chapter 13 about the forgiveness of sin. And I think that's probably what sets chapter 12 as being not about a physical deliverance, a physical battle, really coming against the physical city of Jerusalem, but talking more about God's spiritual enemies who attack the new Jerusalem, who attack the church. Maybe that's the best place to seat Zechariah the 12th chapter. Hope that helps you. It is not an easy chapter by any means. Our reading for Thursday, Zechariah chapter 12. It's Friday. It is Friday. And today we're reading in the Psalm. Psalm chapter 11, the 11th Psalm, is our reading for today. This is a beautiful Psalm of Trust. It has some lament feel to it in some ways. I think there are three parts to it. There's the attitude of faith in verses 1, maybe the first part, 1A, I would say. Then there's a tax on faith versus 1B down to 3. And then there's adequacy through faith, verses 4 to 7. And what you get here is a lot of emphasis on the leaders. People are looking to leaders. People are looking at the leaders. If the leaders run away, then everybody just panics. So David is asking, how can I flee like a bird to the mountain? Oh, that will destroy everything. In fact, the foundations in verse 3, that could be the principles of decency and order in society. When those are lost, then of course society descends into chaos and anarchy. See today's news stories. But this may just be the leaders of the people. If the leaders are destroyed, then everybody suffers. Everybody's going to fall apart. All kinds of bad things will happen in society when the leaders don't lead. And we certainly have seen that in our reading in Kings this year. But I love then the big shift in verse 4. One scholar said, the feverish scenes of verses 1, 2, and 3 are dwarfed by the Lord, whose name here is emphatic and reiterated. God is sovereign. God is still on the throne. God will judge the wicked and the righteous. That is what the psalmist says. That's what David is pushing. And that does remind me of that excellent question I had about imprecations and imprecatory psalms. That's such a good question. So glad to get to treat that in Q ⁇ A morning. If you didn't, if you weren't there for QA, you need to go back and listen to that part of that sermon at least, because we will encounter sections in Psalms where the psalmist is saying, Go get them, God, crush them, smash them, get after them. And that can be a little troubling sometimes, but this is what it verse 5 exactly frames what we're talking about. God hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the wicked. When you live in a world where there's not clear understanding of eternity and judgment and hell, and that God will see to it that the wicked suffer eternally away from him and away from the glory of his presence. If you don't know all of that because you haven't read the New Testament, because the New Testament hasn't been written yet, then your natural instinct is to ask for judgment now. People in the Old Testament world lived in a now time frame. If we serve the Lord, it will rain. If we don't, it won't. If we serve the Lord, we're safe. If we don't, Babylonian invaders show up and burn everything down. And so David, probably writing here during the time that Saul is chasing him around in the wilderness, he is praying for immediate relief from wickedness. That's what verses five and six are all about. Don't forget verse seven. When God brings judgment, God's not wrong to do that. The Lord is righteous. And I love that last bit. The upright shall behold his face. This is a psalm of confidence, but it's not a psalm of self-confidence. It's a psalm of confidence in the Lord. Our reading for Friday, Psalm 11. That concludes the podcast for the week. You know what I will say next? You need to leave a rating and a review, you need to share it with other people, all of that stuff. Times 10. How about that? Certainly do appreciate you listening to the podcast. I love doing it, and not just because I get to drink great coffee while I'm doing it. I love getting to talk with you about the Word of God, maybe expand on some ideas Tuesday or a Thursday. We're not going to have opportunity to think about that a whole lot more. Mondays reading that kind of thing. I love doing the podcast, and I'm so appreciative of those of you who listen and who have sent me a note or said something to me about how much it means to you. It's just amazing what we can use technology for in the Lord's service. I'm Mark Roberts, and I want to go to heaven. I want you to come too. I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ podcast, Monday Morning Coffee with Mark. For more information about Westside, you can connect with us through our website, just Christians.com, and our Facebook page. Our music is from Upbeat.io. That's Upbeat with two Ps, U P P B E A T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others, and we look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday.