The Essentials, The good and Honest Heart - Conviction

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 from Monday December the 19th. I'm Mark. I have some extra notes from my sermon yesterday in the essential series. I've got daily Bible reading stuff ready and yes, I have a great cup of coffee, just arrow pressed some wonderful beans into my favorite, one of my favorite coffee mugs. It is magnificent, but I need to get started and I need to get started quickly because this is a super busy week with Christmas coming right up. I know everybody is frantically getting that last minute preparation stuff done, so let's get our Bible reading done. Let's talk about the sermon. Let's get some spiritual momentum, but let's get it in a hurry. Let's get started. Let me give you just one note about the sermon yesterday on conviction in the essential series. Just a little bit strange there to ha not have a definition of what you're talking about till the very end of the sermon I didn't really get to talk about this is why conviction isn't essential, because what I believe must change how I live. And we didn't really arrive at that until the end of the sermon. But now you're really at a place where you're thinking am is, is that me? Is that how I live? Am I a person that has allowed what I believe to change how I live? And so as I was doing some reading, as I'm looking and researching and thinking about conviction, I I was able to find this quote, are you a person of opinion or of conviction? Here are some ways to check yourself out. People of opinion can do a lot of good things, but they do not put God first in the practical realities of time, budget and relationships. They do not push themselves, they do not sacrifice. They play it safe. Keep a low profile and wait and see how things turn out. People of conviction already, no from the Bible, how things are going to turn out guided by the gospel North star in their nighttime sky. They go against the flow because their eyes are lifted all the way to the prize above which is Jesus and they use their influence to help others get there too. That's not original with me. I borrowed that quote off of the internet guy, done some writing about conviction. I think that's magnificent. Are you a person of opinion? Do a lot of good things but you're not gonna be thinking about God putting God first? Are you a person of conviction? Because you know from the Bible how things are gonna turn out. That's your north star that guides you. You got your eyes on the prize, Jesus. And everything you do is shaped by that conviction. What I believe changes how I live. Let's talk about daily Bible reading. This is the last week in our year with Paul reading schedule. The elders will announce on Sunday December the 25th, our reading schedule for next year. It's gonna be super exciting. I'm really pumped about it. But let's finish strong here in second Timothy three and four. But like I said, gonna kind of be quick here. Just give you a couple of notes. Get your Bible reading done. Get on about the other things that are going on this week, second Peter chapter three. We're reading today verses one to nine. You're gonna notice immediately verse one about the last days. Remember the last days is used in the New Testament to refer to the Messianic age. The time from Jesus is coming until judgment day. The final consummation of everything use that way in Acts two 17. Use that way in Hebrews one, two, it's not used to talk about some kind of time of tribulation that Daniel or Ezekiel or Revelation talks about and has all sorts of harbingers and signs of the end times. And we can look at this and know that this end, no, no, no, that's not what the last days means. It's certainly how it's used. Don't use it that way cuz the Bible doesn't use it that way. Notice verse four, lovers of pleasure LA rather than lovers of God need to think about that in our time that is so addicted to fun. And then finally verse eight, Janice and Jamborees, those are the two sorcerers who opposed Moses in the court of Pharaoh back in the Book of Exodus. That's two Timothy three, one to nine. See you tomorrow. We're gonna read one of the most famous verses in all the Bible. Hello and welcome to Tuesday. Today we're completing second Timothy of the third chapter. We're gonna read verses 10 to 17. Really like how Paul's instructions here to Timothy are just simple. He is to continue in what he has learned and he needs to teach that. That's the emphasis in second Timothy. And in our text today, you're gonna see that Paul talks about you learned some things from watching me. There is a call here. You have watched me, you've seen my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, verse 10, and there's a call here then to stand fast even if that means standing alone. However, as Paul talks about the persecution he's endured in verse 12, Paul does not say, you know, I'm the only one. Oh, miserable me. Look how much I've gone through. No, everybody is gonna be persecuted. Who stands for the Lord? Verse 12. Then beginning about verse 15, he begins to talk about how the scriptures are a powerful anchor against being swept away into the spirit of the age and particularly false doctrine. And we get verse 16, probably one of the most famous passages in all of the Bible because it gives us the origin of scripture, it comes from God and the purpose of scripture that it is able to equip us for every good work. Verse 17 and that expression, equipped for every good work that means able to meet all demands. Well, one more quick note here, let me break out for you what the scripture can do. Verse 16, teaching is what is right. Rep proof, what is wrong? Correction, how to get right training, how to stay right. That's a pretty good breakout, isn't it? I like that a lot. That's why we're reading the Bible. That's what the Bible does for us. It's useful because it came from God. See you tomorrow. On Wednesday we begin the last chapter of second Timothy. It is hump day. It's Wednesday and we're reading second Timothy chapter four. Please remember this chapter contains some of the very last words, spoken or written by the apostle Paul. They are the last that have survived. Paul is writing here within weeks and perhaps even days of his own martyrdom. Those notes come from one of my favorite writers about the book of Timothy John r w Sta. In this last section, second Timothy four, one to five as our reading today, there is a very solemn tone here because Paul is well aware of where he is in his timeline and he is just pushing, being prepared. Verse two, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. In season and out of season means opportune or inopportune. Be ready to preach and teach what you have learned from me when people want to hear it and even when people don't want to hear it. I think the idea is out of season times are coming, there will be times when the gospel is not popular. Wow, do we need to wake up to that? We have lived in an unusual time in world history when a lot of the culture, a lot of society echoed Christian values, I'm using that term fairly loosely and you can't see the air quotes echoed Christian values in many, many ways. And now we're seeing outright hostility and anger towards Christian values and a lot of Christians are just losing their minds. Stop it. We knew that was going to come. Paul told us that was going to come. So instead of turning away from the truth, that's a deliberate choice being made in verse four. What you need to do, verse five is be sober minded, endure the suffering and do the work of an evangelist. I'll give you a quick note here. The word evangelist appears only here in an Ephesians four 11 in Acts 2118. Everybody has a definition for what the evangelist is supposed to be doing. And the New Testament never defines what the work of an evangelist is. So be careful when you decide, oh, this is what the evangelist is supposed to do. The New Testament talks about that work and gives us two examples, gives us one example of that and then also talks about it again in Ephesians four. But it never does give a job description that makes my life kind of interesting. Sometimes everybody has a job description for the preacher except the New Testament. Wow, that's kind of, uh, yeah, like I said, that's kind of interesting. See you tomorrow, second Timothy four, six to 12 on the agenda for Thursday. See you then. Hello and welcome to Thursday. Today we read second Timothy chapter four, verse six to 12, some of the most poignant words that Paul will ever pan as he talks about being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. The time of my departure is a term for soldiers breaking camp or a ship weighing anchor before it's about to sail. That's powerful, isn't it? Paul then says that he has the crown of righteousness ready for him. That's not a king's crown. That is the victor's crown. That is that laurel wreath that when you win the race, you win in the Olympics. The victor was crowned like that. I am the victor. And then in verse nine, Paul says to Timothy, I need you to come see me. Come as soon as you can. That does not weigh against that. Paul expects to be executed shortly. Whatever Paul is thinking about, Paul expects there's going to be enough time for this letter to get to Timothy and for him to get there. So maybe he's not gonna be executed in the next five minutes, but, but it's clearly soon to happen. He is weighing anchor and he needs Timothy to come see him because a lot of people have deserted him. Primarily Paul is concerned about Demus who loves this present world. A note or two about that, the word for love here is the word agape. That can be shocking to people because oftentimes we hear that agape is a special form of Christian Love. It's putting the other person first as highest form of love. There's different words for love in Greek and agape is the highest form of love. That's actually not true at all. And we should stop saying that. The emphasis here or the point here is in verse nine, all those who, I'm sorry, verse eight. All those who have loved his appearing. That is the same word. Demus doesn't love the appearing of the Lord. He loves this present world. That is the word play that's being set up. And if you want something out of the Greek, that's what you ought to notice right there. Then finally, verse 12, Tuus I have sent to Ephesus. There's actually a tense expression there. Um, tense meaning the tense of the verb. It can be what's called an EPIs of Tori Aris, which is way above my pay grade, but it means I am sending so tikis could actually be carrying second Timothy to Timothy. He is frequently Paul's trusted coworker and messenger who carries the mail? Ephesians 6 21, Colossians four seven, TIS three 17. Uh, three 12. Tiki is a very close coworker of Paul who doesn't get a lot of attention because I guess he doesn't have an epistle written to him, but just kinda hold on to Tiki. That ought to be something we get out of this year with Paul. Paul was surrounded by a number of important people. Demis is one of them and he fails utterly here, but Timothy Titus Tiki, those guys mattered to Paul. See you tomorrow. We're gonna finish the year with Paul Reading schedule. Welcome to Friday, you made it to the end of the week and you made it to the end of the year with Paul Reading schedule. Congratulations, what a year it has been. It has just been incredible for me to put together Paul's historical life and story from Acts with his epistles in order. You've been a great encouragement to me. So many people have talked to me about the schedule this year. I have loved it, loved it, loved it, and I hope that you have as well. Verse 13 in our reading then today says that we need that cloak that I left with Corpus Atz. That makes me wonder if Paul was like me. Always cold. I go everywhere with a coat. It's ridiculous. I'm going to the movies with Dina in July and we're both carrying jackets cuz they're gonna have the air conditioning cranked down and we're gonna freeze to death during this movie. Maybe Paul was like that too. Also, the books and above all the parchments, we wish we knew more about exactly what's going on there is that Roman citizenship papers. Is that a copy of the Old Testament? Is that sayings of Jesus Parchment is a writing material that was more expensive than papyrus it. You could reuse it. It was more durable. It was made from the skins of animals, and some people think that this is a codex. A codex is different than a scroll. A scroll of course rolls. A codex is a book in its Christians who really popularize the form codex over scrolls because they wanted to reference things in the Bible, and a codex is easier to use than a scroll. Got a big old scroll of the Old Testament. You wanna roll over to Zaria, it's gonna take you a month. A codex makes flipping to Zaria or second Timothy a whole lot faster. We don't know who Alexander the metal worker is. He's been linked to a number of people. Verse 14 could be First Timothy chapter one. Just, just wish we knew more about who Alexander was. Obviously that's not super significant or the Holy Spirit would tell us. Verse 16, Paul says, nobody's with me and we wonder about that. What about Luke? What about Tuus? Maybe that means that they hadn't arrived in Rome when he had that first defense. And then of course as we're concluding, verse 19, there they are. There's Priscilla Aquila again, so important in Paul's life. Maybe one of the things that we're taking away from this year with Paul reading schedule, schedule is how important people are to Paul. He is not the lone ranger. He needs people. He's not afraid to say that. A RAAs in verse 20 is named as being with Timothy. That's a link back to Acts 1922. And also there was a city official in Roman 1623 named Rato. Kinda looks like that's gotta be the same kind of person here. And usually when Paul sins a greeting like that, that means those people are with him. And so he's sending a greeting to Timothy that maybe he knows those people and so forth. So then he concludes the Lord, be with your spirit, grace, be with you. Those are the last words of Paul. We don't have a complete timeline about what happened after he put the pen down in second Timothy 4 22, but it does seem that shortly thereafter Paul was executed for his faith. I wonder, I know you wonder, did Timothy get there? Did Timothy arrive in time to see his mentor and great friend one more time, pray together, encourage one another even as Paul paid the ultimate price for being a follower of Jesus Christ? What an outstanding example he is. I hope this reading schedule has helped you to appreciate Paul more. I have always appreciated him as the writer of the New Testament, but I appreciate Paul the Man more as a result of reading and spending a year with Paul. Thanks so much for being part of this. Well, that concludes the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for this week. Yes, there will be a podcast next week. I'll have some ideas from the sermon on December the 25th, and then I'm gonna talk a little bit about what we can read because there's no readings in the reading schedule. You probably have noticed this. There's not week 52 in the reading schedule. What should I read next week? And we may even talk a little bit about what the elders set forward for 2023, what we'll be reading next year. That's exciting. Appreciate you listening to the podcast. Rate, subscribe, follow, tell somebody about it, give us a review. Help somebody else find this podcast, particularly as we're moving into a new year and people are gonna be thinking about Bible. Oh, I need to read my Bible. Wow, my goal for 2023. Read the Bible through, talk to people about Bible reading. Give them a tool that will help them stay with Bible reading and understand what they are reading. That's this podcast. I hope you'll share it with somebody else. So until Monday, may your coffee be delightful. May your Friday be wonderful. May the Lord be with you today, all day. I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

Thanks for listening to the Westside 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.is that's upbeat with two P'S UPP, 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 company coffee, of course, on next Monday,