You Can be a Digital Missionary

Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. 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.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for Monday, February the 21st happy president's day. And this is my daughter Sarah's birthday. Shout out to Sarah happy birthday to her. I do have my Bible open. I have some notes from yesterday's sermon and I've got a Bible reading schedule. I'm ready to bring all of this together around a great cup of coffee that I'm holding. And this really is a special podcast today based on what we talked about yesterday, because yesterday sermon was all about digital technology and putting that to use in the kingdom of God. That's what we're doing with this podcast. That's what we want to do more of. Let's talk about how to do that. Let's get started Yesterday. Sermon was titled you can be a digital missionary. I really, he wanted to challenge all of us to think more about going into all the world and preaching the gospel. No, that doesn't mean you need to get a passport and get a flight and pack your snake by kit. You can be a digital missionary where you're going into all the world through digital technology, especially through media, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, all of these provide the opportunity to make an impression to influence people for the kingdom of God. So talked about that. Step one need to be reminded that God doesn't necessarily plan for you to be a missionary in the sense of being a preacher and teacher, that is a very common misconception. Everybody ought to be doing that. James three actually says, everybody should not be doing that, but you can be an influencer one who is using social media to cause people to stop, to think, to consider, to way to ask and to be more interested in spiritual things. Do that. Step two, you're going to need to think like a missionary, that missionary mindset. How can I draw people to the gospel? What would I do in this culture, in this situation that might repel people from the gospel? I certainly don't wanna be doing any of those kinds of things. We see that very easily. When we're talking about missionaries in deepest or Africa or a missionary that goes to the far east, they wanna be very aware of the culture and the taboos, how to fit in what not to do. And yet, sometimes we jump on social media and we're sharing our political views, or we're sharing our views on a hot button issue. And we're doing that irrespective of the fact that that may be causing people to unfollow us or to turn us off or to not listen to us. Cuz we, they decide that we are not very sensitive to an issue that is very near and dear to their heart. We don't have that missionary mindset. We need to think like missionary. And then thirdly, we want to post strategically. We want to use social media to do more than talk about ourselves. Our lives, our grandchildren, our dog, our kids, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. What can I put on social media that will help somebody start to think about the kingdom of, so that's the lesson you can click on the show notes and listen to that sermon. If you're listening to this podcast, then you are definitely the kind of person who could be a digital missionary. If you are listening to this podcast and you don't have social media, you will find part of that sermon. I actually challenge people who don't have social media to think about getting it so they can do digital evangelism. Now then as an extra, I wanna give you some extra notes here. I just wanna share some things with you about using digital media that rusty Miller used in his 2019 youth lecture sermon. You can go online@justchristians.com. You can watch and listen to this entire sermon, but I, he had 10 commandments of social. Just gonna share some of these ideas with you very quickly right here. I think they're really, really helpful. Number one, you don't have to say everything on your mind. Proverbs 13, three, whoever guards, his mouth preserves his life. He who opens wide. His lips comes to ruin. Then secondly, I need to say, do I really have something to offer Proverbs 25 11 a word fitly spoken is like apples of golden is setting of silver. Now in the context of digital evangelism, I should have something to offer. I need to be saying something that's positive something. That's up building something that's directing people towards Jesus. Then rusty asked, thirdly, is this uplifting Proverbs 1528, the heart of the right ponders. How to a answer, the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. I want to lift people up. Social media is not the place for condemning for harsh judgements for putting people down. There's too much negativity in the world already that doesn't belong on your social media, uh, that doesn't belong on your social media page. And that's not gonna bring people to Jesus Christ fourthly. Then think before you post Romans 1217 talks about don't be involved in vengeance repay no one evil for evil. We're not in that game. We're not doing that. We're gonna think strategically we're thinking like a missionary. How can I influence people for the gospel? So that means fifthly. I'm not gonna respond in anger, no place for anger. Uh, Proverbs 4 23, keep your heart with all VI vigilance vigilance. That's hard to say for, from it flow the Springs of life. And then sometimes rest challenges us to think about just don't post at all. Just don't post at all. There's a time where we're just gonna say, I, I, I'm not getting involved in that. I don't want to be involved in that. There's no good way to address that. I'm not gonna be part of that. I'm I'm gonna make certain that I'm keeping my heart with all the vigilance here brand. I'm having a hard time with today. Maybe I need a little bit more coffee to get going. So then seventh don't post sin proverb, 5 22, the iniquities of the weed, ensnare him and he held fast and the chords of sin dies for lack of discipline. And because of his fol he's Lette, I'm just amazed to see Christians post something that is praising sin or maybe has profanity or gross and modesty on it. What are we doing there? How does somebody see that on my page? And then take me seriously as a missionary for the kingdom of God. Eighth rusty says don't feed the troll proverb 29 9. If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool of only rages and laughs and there is no quiet Facebook. Social media is no place for arguing. It doesn't work. It doesn't look good. It's not easy to track it. Convinces no one don't feed the trolls don't be answering and arguing. Number nine, don't be the one who stirs up trouble. We don't wanna be that guy. Romans troll 18, if it's possible. So far as it depends on you live peaceably with all. And then finally 10th never take a dispute with a brother to social media. Proverbs 18, 19, a brother offended is more on yielding than a strong city. Coring is like the bars of a castle. I am amazed sometimes to see church fusses, personality clashes being played out social media. I can't believe a sister taught my child this in class. I can't believe this happened in the auditorium class. Uh, the preacher said this that's so offensive to me. Wow. We are airing the church's dirty laundry in front of the world. How does that attract anybody to the kingdom of God? So I appreciate Russ lesson, like I said, look@justchristians.com. You can listen to that entire lesson, but those 10 commandments of posting on social media tremendously helpful. Again, it's all about having the missionary mindset. How can I draw people to the cross? It's not about me. It's not than really about west side. It's about Jesus. And I want to have the right kind of strategic posting. That's going to cause people to consider Jesus the Christ again, as I said yesterday, that doesn't mean I'm never gonna post pictures of my dog. I'm never gonna talk about coffee. I'm never gonna talk about my hobby or that my team won any of the kind of things that we just see all the time on social media. But it absolutely means even those kinds of posts are gonna be in a certain vein and in a certain way. And it does mean there will be another layer of posting. It's not always going to be about the weather. It's not always going to be about coffee. It's going to be about Jesus because I'm a missionary. I'm a digital missionary going into all the world with the gospel, trying to help men and women think about, learn about, ask about Jesus, the Christ and what it, it means to be a new Testament. Christian, a big part of new Testament. Christianity of course, is reading your Bible. Let's talk about our daily Bible reading for this week. This weekend daily Bible reading, we're reading first IANS chapter four and first IANS chapter five, two parts to first IANS four, three readings in first IANS five. So Monday's reading is first IANS four versus one to eight. Let's just set the stage for where we are in the Usonian epistle here. Verse one says first IANS four, one, finally. Then brothers Paul uses that to get their attention and to move to a new section. He really wants to talk here about how can we please God, what is God's will for our lives? What will the return of rice look like? And be like, as he deals with some of their questions, the epistle gets very, very practical here and there has been some confusion. Verse three, this is the will of God. Your sanctification that you abstain from sexual imorality sexual standards were very lax in the Roman and Greek world. It was not cons suited any kind of problem for a man to visit a temple prostitute. That was how you worship. That was just part of society. It was not considered to be any kind of weird or imoral activity. Here's a quotation from the fourth century, BC from a citizen of Athens. This is obviously a good bit before what Paul is writing here in first IANS chapter four, but it gives you a good look at the mindset of first century or in this case, fourth century people as they considered what the sexual relationship was all about. And I'm really glad to have the podcast because this is the kind of thing that I don't really have a good place to park this, or to get this to you. But this quote is tr tremendously telling the quote says, we keep mistress for pleasure concubines for our day to day bodily needs. But we have wives to produce legitimate children and serve as trustworthy guardians of our homes. That's where people are in the world, that Paul is evangelizing and he needs to get them some important information, some important ideas about what it is that they need to do about such a promiscuous world and culture that they live in. And the answer to that is that they need to be San verse three. Now I said, there's been some confusion about that because in verse six, Paul says, let no one transgres in wrong. His brother and some translations say defraud a brother. And that's caused people to wander off into the direction of financial dealings or business dealings. But the entire context here is not about money. The context here is about the sexual relationship and about treating that as something unique and special for marriage and for marriage alone. The idea then there in verse six is no one is to enrich themselves. The term. There is a very close term to the term covetousness. No one is to enrich himself at his brother's expense by taking his wife from him. The new Testament church would of necessity, especially because of persecution, be a close knit group. And it might be that somebody gets too close to someone and Paul warns them about that and says, that's wrong. And we're not going to do that. Don't defraud your brother, not a great transla. Don't wrong. Your brother, the ESV has by taking his wife, don't get out bounds. Sexually is the key idea in today's reading first four, one to eight tomorrow, we'll finish chapter four. I'll see you on Tuesday. Tuesday's reading is first IANS chapter four versus nine to 18. And this begins pretty simply concerning brotherly love verse nine. And that just shows us the priority of brotherly love. Paul has taught about this. You yourselves have been taught by God. He says to love one another so important that brothers, sisters in Christ share the right kind of love for each other, concern and care for each other. And then he continues verse 11. I want you to aspire to live quietly. Quiet. Here is a term that refers to not having ambition. It's not a term that has anything to do with sound or being soundless. It's it's not like when we say quiet, the baby is sleeping. It's about calmness. It's about humility here. It's about flying under the radar. Let's not do things that draw attention to ourselves. We're just going to be quiet. Citizens who mind their own affairs verse 11 says we work as we instructed you so that you may walk properly. Verse 12 before outsiders, outsiders do not set the agenda for the kingdom of God. But we are certainly aware that our actions have an effect on non-Christians and we don't want to do anything to push them away from coming to the knowledge of the truth, coming to see Jesus Christ as the Messiah. So those first couple of verses that's pretty easy stuff. Then we get to verse 13. And all of a sudden, now we're talking about the coming of the Lord and it does seem verse 13 leads with, we don't want you to be uninformed. It does seem that those brethren had some questions about Jesus' return and may have even a expected it at any time. And so we wonder if are there, are there some IANS who have quit their jobs? They're just hanging out because you know, Jesus is coming again. Any day is that working? We may see some more about that in second IANS. Now I'm not gonna stop here and say a lot about the rapture. The rapture violates so much in scripture. I don't think we need to have a big conversation about that. And I do think we need to learn to talk about what the Bible is teaching rather than always stopping and having to deal with false doctrine. This isn't what is being taught here. There's certainly a place for that. I get it. I want to be able to do that, but I want us to be able to talk about what's going on in the text. And Paul was certainly not thinking about pre-millennial doctrine taught in the late 1970s by Hal Lindsay and his bestselling books. That is not on his mind here. So let's talk about what is on Paul's mind. And that is that some of the IANS are concerned that if they die, they will miss the second coming that they have missed because they passed away before Jesus returned. In fact, there's some pagan literature that shows that pagans were pretty hopeless about life after death. There's a pagan gravestone that says simply I was not. I became, I am not. I care not. So there wasn't much hope of an afterlife there. And the folks in this LAN ANCA are concerned about that someone has died or is close to dying and some problems and questions Enue. And what Paul says about that is no one's missing the second coming of Jesus, that everybody will be there. The dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive. We will also be changed. We will meet Jesus. No one is going to miss the second coming notice. We will be caught up together. Verse 17 in the clouds. We have seen enough both in the gospels and in the year before, when we read in the prophets coming in the clouds, clouds, that's a judgment metaphor. That is something that's used in the prophets all the time to talk about the judgment of God. That's Dan annual seven. That's Matthew chapter 24. That's revelation 17. When you see clouds, that's not happy times. That's God coming in judgment. And so we arise. We will not have to fear that judgment. We arise together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Paul will have more to say about out the second coming in his second letter, but I think he's working hard here to tamp down some misunderstandings and their concern that somehow, because uncle Joe, that's probably not a very good vessel and I can name, but because aunt Susie passed away, she now has missed out on the coming of Jesus and all the good things that will happen for Christians. When the Lord returns to take his own home, to be with him tomorrow, we'll read in first in chapter five, I'll see you. Then it's Wednesday and we're starting first IANS chapter five today will read versus one to seven. This is a very famous passage. Verse two is the passage that we hear quoted all the time. You yourselves are fully aware. The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Of course we are not the first to have the kind of questions that IANS had about the coming of Jesus. There's lots of questions about that way back in Luke 21 and Matthew 24 and mark 13, the disciples are recorded there as having some questions where they get a little confused about the judgment that will fall on Jerusalem. And they kind of cross that into a discussion of Jesus's return. And that's led to even some confusion that last till this day, the Corinthians, they have questions about the resurrection. What's my resurrected body going to be like, and seems like some in Corinth were even doubting that there would be, or that there is such a thing as the resurrection, the questions here center on the return of Christ. And some, as I said earlier in the pod cast seem to be very stirred up about the idea of an imminent return of Christ. Maybe some have even quit work due to their anticipation of this return. That runs contrary to the work ethic. That was so strong in Felan IICA. And of course, that would cause people in the community to say, what is wrong with those folks? They're not even working. They're just lazy bums. They're just laying around all the time. That can't happen. Paul wants to be certain that that doesn't happen. So the day of the Lord verse two will come unannounced like a thief in the night. And of course, day of the Lord is an expression that's used again and again, in the prophets. It's kinda like that coming in. The clouds thing that we talked about yesterday day of the Lord aims five 18, Joel, two, one Joel, two 11, Isaiah 13, six, Jeremiah 30 verse seven as equal 30 verse one. The day of the Lord is the time when God comes in judgment against the wi against the wicked and time to set things right for the righteous. And we get that in the new Testament. We get day of Christ day of the Lord, Jesus Christ, or even that day, Paul says in act 1730 and 31, he's appointed a day in which he will judge. So the day of the Lord is a day of judgment. We don't wanna be in darkness about that. And we don't wanna be asleep. Verse six, people who sleep, sleep in the darkness. And that's a time. Darkness is a metaphor there for what's bad. What's evil of being ignorant of being mentally dull, wake up be of the day. And that leads him verse eight, to talk about faith, hope and love that triad, that Paul loves so much, but have, uh, gotta save that for tomorrow. That'll be our reading for tomorrow and I'll see you on Thursday. Welcome to Thursday. Today's reading is for our Smithsonians five versus eight to 16. And that does begin with Paul mentioning faith, love and hope, but he also mentions the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of salvation. I said a couple of weeks ago, I think that it's fun to watch Paul develop and grow some of these big ideas that such a central part of EPIs, that he writes later. Faith, hope and love. That's a biggie for Paul. And of course the armor of God, that will be huge in Ephesians. So it's neat to see some of these early ideas that later Paul will build on and make even more of what we are gonna get here is this idea of watchfulness and sober mindedness that has to work its way out, practically in our lives. And part of that of course, is that we recognize our leaders. That's verse 12. We want to have respect for our elders. We want to follow after them. We need to make certain that we are respecting their leadership as they work among a us because they are caring for us and they are intending. If you will. That's, uh, they are over you verse 12. He says, we are super, they are super intending our work and watching for our souls. I think these admonitions are pretty straightforward. They are the kind of thing though, that remind us that being a Christian change, how we live on a day to day basis, some of that is for our own benefit. We want to be the kind of people, verse 16, who are rejoicing and praying all the time. But some of that is what, yeah, it's for the benefit of the kingdom of God, because we want to be the sort of people who are living out the gospel in a way that attracts people to the gospel. Jesus changed my life for the better. That's an important idea. Isn't it. Tomorrow then we'll finish the first EPIs to the IANS. The first EPIs Paul wrote we'll finish chapter five. I'll see you tomorrow. Welcome to Friday. You made it through the week. Didn't you it's first IANS chapter five versus 17 to 28 that we're reading today. I will have that video posted on the church's Facebook page. If you want to read along with me, that's not a live reading that you can only take part in. When I actually do the reading, it's posted there all day, it'll be up all day. You can go watch it at your convenience. Verse 17 says pray without ceasing. I think I borrowed a little bit of that yesterday. And then I really like verse 19 and 20. Don't quench the spirit and don't despise prophecies. When we don't pay attention to the spirit given word, then we are snuffing. The Spirit's influence out in our lives. That would be true of the IANS. If they weren't paying attention to the prophets that were among them, Paul and Silas don't get to stay there as long as they want. You have to know that Paul is imparting some spiritual gifts. So there'll be some brethren there who can continue to guide them and help them. That would be, that would be the gift of prophecy. Prophecy is the ability to speak for God by divine inspiration. So Paul says don't be throwing water, cold water on what the spirit says in these prophets. Don't despise prophecies. And of course for you and me, if I'm not paying attention to the word of God, then I'm quenching this spirit. That's how I get the word today is through the written word, through the new Testament, through my Bible. And if I'm not paying attention to that, then I'm guilty. Now first IANS five 19, maybe that's coming because I'm despising the word of God. First IANS five and verse 20. Maybe I'm just not spending the time with it that I should or think about this. If during the day I remember something that the spirit said in his word, and I say, mm, you know, I'm not gonna listen to that. I'm gonna do what I wanna do. Anyway, what have I done? I've quenched the spirit. The spirit was exerting influence in my life through the word. And I didn't listen to that influence. I quenched it. I put it out. I doused it. So that's an important idea versus 19 and 20 let's hold onto that and make certain that we are not quenching the spirit. Then in verse 23, Paul uses that threefold view of man spirit, soul, and body may the God of peace himself sanctify. You completely may. Your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord. Jesus Christ. People have climbed into that passage and tried to make a big play upon this threefold division. The spirit is one thing. The soul's one thing then of course the body is the physical part of us, but that's very difficult to do. Paul is not consistent in his use of that. Sometimes he just talks about body and soul. Very, very difficult to make some big play about the three different parts of the human being. And I think what Paul means here is that I am praying that God will preserve all of you, the whole man, the spirit, the body, all, all that. You are reminds me of Jesus. Talking about the great commandment to love the Lord of all your heart, soul mind. And, and I've seen breakdowns of that where people have made different, uh, definitions of those particular four parts and what Jesus really means. There is all of you, all of you should love God. And I think that's what Paul is working for here. That God will sanctify all of you and keep all of you blameless. Finally, then I'll this verse 27. I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. Notice it went first person there. I, and that may show that Paul took the pin in hand. Paul does not always write his EPIs. He dictates them. We know from some other references. We'll talk about that as the year goes along that he has those who are his secretaries. So maybe here at the close of this letter, he said, Hey, gimme this. I'm gonna write a note myself. And by his own hand, he says, I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. And that does remind us that this letter was read aloud. And that's how new Testament Christians received the word of God initially. And maybe we ought to think a little bit I've I've mentioned this a couple of times. Maybe we ought to think a little bit about being involved in listening to the word, not just reading the word, let's hear the word. That's the way our brothers and rice and Theone and Nikka Theon brethren. That's how they receive that word initially. Well, there you go. That's our Bible reading for this week. Next week, we'll be in second thons and I look forward to working through second Thon with you. Hope your Friday is a good Friday. Appreciate so much. You listening to the podcast, hope that you'll subscribe, rate, follow, and especially let other people know about the podcast. We're getting more and more downloads. And that is exactly what we want. Be a digital missionary. Tell somebody about the podcast post about the podcast, encourage somebody to read their Bible and that this podcast can help them do just that. So until Monday morning, I hope your coffee today is delightful. I hope your Friday is blessed and makes a great start to your weekend. I hope to see you on Sunday and I hope the Lord will bless you today. All day. See you Monday morning.

Thanks for listening to the west side church of Christ podcast. Monday morning coffee with mark. For more information about west side, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat dot I that's upbeat with two PS, U P B E a T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with us. And we look to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday,