The Battle in Bethlehem

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 December the 26th. I'm Mark, and I'm holding a really good cup of coffee from Costa Rica. My parents went to Costa Rica and brought home amazing coffee beans. I'm now trying to convince them to go to Kenya or maybe Sumatra other places that have amazing coffee. This is great coffee, and I've got some sermon stuff. I've got some daily Bible reading stuff. Yes, I know that we're off the schedule. Still have some daily Bible reading stuff and really excited about where we're going to 2023 at daily Bible reading. So I wanna talk about that a little bit with you wanna talk about what we did in the year with Paul reading schedule. But right now, let's talk about yesterday's sermon On December 25th, I preached from Revelation chapter 12, let's get this podcast started. Yesterday was December 25th, and I did in fact preach from the last book of the Bible. I was telling a preaching friend where I was going to preach from on Christmas Day, and I could see this look in his eyes that said, you're going to do what, but I, I, I liked it. I think it's a great place for us to consider and for us to think about the birth of Jesus and to give it the appropriate weight and gravity that it needs while seeing that it leads into and pushes into the cross. And all that goes with that. I guess the only thing that I want to add to that sermon is that that really does give you a primer for how to read apocalyptic literature. It's not meant to be meticulously diagrammed and intricately understood. Too often we're reading apocalyptic literature, whether that's Ezekiel and Daniel, or whether that's Matthew 24 or Luke 21 or the book of Revelation, reading it too slowly and we're whipping out our magnifying glass and we're getting way down in the details and we are missing the big picture. And that's what apocalyptic literature is really all about. The big picture and going with that is, sadly, the more, sometimes people can see something in every detail and add and subtract numbers or decide this color is symbolic. The more people make something out of everything, the more, oh, the rest of us sit back and say, wow, you, you really know the book of Revelation. You're, you're amazing. That's so profound. And the more someone says, no, no, no, let's just get the big picture. That's, oh, you're shallow. You're, you're just shallow. I, I I, I want to know exactly what all this stuff means. So I'm gonna go over here to this guy who is making something out of every claw on every paw as my good friend and shepherd here at West Side used to say, brother Ard sharp. That's not what apocalyptic literature is for. Don't get sucked into that. So the ideas that I gave at the outset of that sermon on how to read Revelation 12, they're really not just about Revelation 12. They actually, they're for the entire book of Revelation. They're, those things actually work and are and should be in play anytime we're reading that kind of material in the word of God. And we will read some of that material next year because as the elders announced yesterday, we're going to spend the year with God by drawing closer to him in the prophets. Let's talk about daily Bible reading. Let's talk daily about reading then for the last year of 20 last year. How about the last week of 2022? Let me just start by getting a shout out here to everybody who did the reading this year, whether you did all of it, whether you did some of it, if you participated in our year with Paul Reading Schedule. I'm just proud of you. I'm thankful for you, and I hope that you found it really, really meaningful. And I would especially give a word of encouragement to those who are outside the West Side family who followed us through Facebook and through the podcast and other mechanisms and means. I just appreciate you've heard from people all year long. It's been a lot and it's exciting that people at West Side are doing this, but it's exciting that you're doing it as well. And I really am excited for next year. I think we've shown that we can do this, that we can read difficult material, that we can focus and we can put together history and doctrinal material or teaching material and make sense out of all of that. And particularly that as we do that in a chronological fa kind of fashion, it can become very, very meaningful. Probably most importantly, we have seen that by working the same set of questions again and again, we have the ability to really start to understand the big idea, the emphasis, the themes, what God is trying to say here in a very big way. And that really is gonna be the key to what we do in 2023. We're gonna need to spend some time in the history sections of kings and Chronicles to make sure that we are getting that. In fact, we're actually beginning Deuteronomy as we see the covenant being made. And then from there, we're gonna go forward into that prophetic material, adjusted, as I said chronologically, so that we're not constantly having to reset our mind on who's the king and where are we and all of that. We'll, we'll put all that together in the right kind of fashion, but we're going to need to use those five questions to keep us thinking about God and not getting lost in the weeds and trying to sort out various pieces of the text and not drawing closer to the Lord. This year is about drawing closer to the Lord. 2022 was about understanding Paul and a great appreciation for Paul getting to know Paul this year in 20 this year, I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but in 2023, we want to get to know the Lord. We want to get to know God, we want to be closer to God. And the big keys to that will be those questions will be this podcast where I can give you background material and quickly get you up to speed in the reading that we're doing that week. For those who are in the West Side family, our zoom on Tuesday nights, it's gonna be a big, big help. I know sometimes people outside of West Side say, Hey, can I get it on that zoom? We really can't handle all the traffic. It would just, it would get very, very cumbersome. But if you're in the West Side family, it'd be wonderful, wonderful to see you on Tuesday night, zoom class. And then I will preach from time to time to help us be oriented and, and stay in the right place and and be sure that we're looking for the right kind of things. And I think all of that's gonna work together to make a section of the Bible that is for many of us, very much obscure and unknown, a really meaningful and powerful and important part of growing our walk with God. So having said that, about next year, how about this last week? What am I doing? I wanna maintain the habit of Bible reading. What am I doing this week? I'm gonna suggest that we close the year with Paul. I'm gonna suggest that we close the year with Paul by listening to Paul tell us about himself. And there's a couple of passages that we can read where Paul sketches his biography always in very theological terms, not dates, places and names. But this is what God was doing. This is who I am in the service of the Lord. This is why I am who I am. And those places are as follows. In Acts chapter 22, where Paul defends himself in the temple, in Acts chapter 24, Paul defends himself Before Felix Acts chapter 26, Paul defends himself before Agrippa. In Galatians the first chapter, Paul is telling the churches in Galatia that he established on the first missionary journey, who he is, and that he did not get his gospel from men. And I think that's an excellent read. And then of course, in Philippians three, Paul discusses with the Philippians the idea of giving up to be a servant. That's what Jesus did. And then he says, I want you to model Jesus. And then he says, I've done that so you can model me as I model Jesus. So on Monday, here it is. Here it is. Here it is. Monday, that's today. Read Acts 22. Tomorrow, read Acts 24 Wednesday, acts 26 Thursday, Galatians one Friday, Philippians three. And I'll see you next week, and we'll be starting a whole new reading schedule as we draw closer to the Lord by reading the prophets. Again, thanks for reading the Bible with me this year. Thanks for listening to the podcast. I hope you'll subscribe, follow, rate, review, and tell someone else about the podcast. This is the time people are thinking about. What am I gonna read? I should be reading my Bible. I ought to be reading my Bible. People are gonna be doing that. People are gonna be looking for a Bible reading schedule. You can help someone read the Bible better and understand it better, and draw closer to the Lord by recommending this podcast, giving them a Bible reading schedule. Help somebody come to know the Lord in 2023 through the word of God. So until next week, I hope your Friday is very, very blessed, and I hope that the Lord will 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,