Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

Having a Heart for God - Checking Your Heart

March 27, 2023 Mark Roberts Season 3 Episode 13
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Having a Heart for God - Checking Your Heart
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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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 3:

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, March the 27th. I'm Mark. I've got my Bible open and I have some great coffee. I am still working that coffee from Onyx Coffee Roasters up in northwest Arkansas. When I was in the meeting up there, I was able to bring back some of that coffee and it is just really, really good. There is something incredible about locally roasted coffee. Everybody has different tasting coffee. I totally get it. And maybe you love Folgers or maybe you love Maxwell House. You ought to just try sometime going to a local roaster, get some coffee there, fresh coffee and give that a try. Whether you're dumping that into a Mr Coffee or whether you're dumping that into a French pr, it really doesn't matter. Fresher is better. And there's the coffee note for the day because I am loving me some coffee. And with that said, I'm gonna move directly to our Bible reading today. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm super excited about this podcast that we have this opportunity and we have this resource. Great day yesterday, 30th anniversary of Q and a. How great is that? 30 years of doing Q and a I I don't have all the answers, but I sure have heard an awful lot of the questions. And then we talked about uh, having a heart for God. That's such a great preaching theme. I'm gonna let that stand and let's just go right to the book of Micah because I have so much material on the book of Micah that will help us as we get started. In fact, I'm not sure that you can do a pro, a prophetic, I was gonna say a prophetic reading plan. A reading plan in the prophets is probably a better way of phrasing that. I'm not sure you can do that kind of reading plan without some sort of handout, some sort of introduction, something to say Who is this guy? Who's he talking to? Where is he talking? When's he talking? We need to talk about Micah. Let's get started. Monday's reading then is Micah one, the first seven verses Micah one, one to seven, the word of the Lord. Verse one. The Word of the Lord that came to Micah of Maura Sha in the days of Jonathan Aha and Hasakah kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. The book of Micah is going to be a great read for us, particularly coming out of Jose and Jonah where we really have seen that while God does have to bring judgment on his people from time to time, God does not want to do that. And that is a huge, huge contrast to the common view of God that he loves judging and smi and striking people to death. And again, the book of Micah is gonna be absolutely in concert with that. Micah's gonna help us see God better by painting a picture of judgment that has to come. But even as he preaches judgment, he preaches hope for a better future that will come because God does not abandon his people. Someone who said in Micah, we find God the reluctant judge that may be worth writing at the across the top of your Bible there. This is going to be a great read as we try to draw near to the Lord. So who are, what are we dealing with here, Jonathan? Aha, hezeki. Who are these guys? When are we talking? What's going on here? Micah is dated from 7 35 to about seven 15 bc That's 735 years before the birth of Jesus, give or take calendar gets wonky sometimes, but give or take, 7 35 is seven 15 bc. And notice since the Assyrians carry the northern kingdom away into captivity in 7 22, we are talking about a prophet who is prophesying, who's preaching the word of God during the time when the aserion show up and take the Israelites away into captivity and they, and they disappear. And so here he talks about they, they, when I say they disappear, it's not like they evaporated, they intermarry and lose their identity as Israelites in the foreign lands where they are resettled. So primarily he's gonna be talking to Judah Jha May has and has AIA arb verse one kings of Judah. But there will be some word about Samaria as well. But as you see in verse one, Samaria's not gone yet. 7 35 would put him somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 13 years. This side of the Samaritan destruction in as Sirian captivity. So in the middle of all the crazy that's going on in the northern kingdom. And we read some of that as we were reading in kings last week. And everybody's killing everybody and everybody's assassinating. Everybody in the middle of all that. Micah is faithfully preaching the word of God. And I wish we knew more about Micah, but we really don't know a lot about Micah. Maura chef is a country village in the South. He does seem to be stern and blunt and direct. He is very concerned about social justice. He is very devoted to the poor and the oppressed and he is brave. Just jump over to three eight, chapter three in verse eight. As for me, I am filled with power with the spirit of the Lord and with justice in Mike to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. I'm bringing an unpopular message, but I am bringing it. And that is who Micah is. Now in our history, we have not reached has a yet. King has Aki as we're doing our reading over in Kings and Chronicles. But remember, king has, AKI is a good king. He leads some reformation, he leads some restoration, and Micah may have played a hand in that. Micah may be a successful preacher. Now that would be a little bit different. Seems like nobody ever cared what Jose said or what Amos said. No, everybody's just throwing rocks at them. Jeremiah, he gets nowhere. Micah may very well have been effective in his preaching in bringing about Hezekiah's reforms. And this is a time when there's lots of spiritual decay and idolatry, there's lots of social justice and of course the Assyrian menace just looms over everything. Once again, we will go read that history, can't read everything at the same time, haven't figured out exactly how to do that in the Bible reading schedule yet. So we're gonna go read that history. But as Sirius shows up and just wipes Israel off the map and then they come way far south, remember, and they besiege Jerusalem. And until God acts decisively based on the prayers of heka, it looks like they're taking, they're taking everybody. They're gonna take Ju Jude away as well. So that's a huge part of what's going on. The emphasis in the book of Micah is the need to hear God's word. You need to hear the message of judgment and you need to hear the message of hope. There are some section markers here. Look at one, two, hear you peoples, all of you. And then in chapter three, verse one, as I said, hear you heads of Jacob and then six one, hear what the Lord says. Those are sermons, those are complete sermons that are marked off. Then in each section, each sermon has a note of judgment and then also ends on a note of hope. See how important it is to get your feet on the ground Before we just dive into Micah. Now you know where we are, who we're talking about, who we're talking to, and we even know where, yeah, where the invitation song is gonna be sung at the end of chapter two about verse 13. That's gonna be the time to stand and sing. So don't wrestle around in your seat before that. How about that? Let's read a little bit then of Micah one. Today's reading is Micah one, one to seven, very, very clear, behold the Lord. Verse three is coming out of his place. The mountains are gonna melt. Verse four, this is heavy duty, apocalyptic language, the coming of the Lord. That is not a good thing when you're involved in transgression. Verse five, when you're involved in all kinds of idolatry, I'm gonna make Samaria verse six, A heap in the entry in the open country, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour down her stones into the valley. The capital of Samaria built up on a hill just gonna be absolutely torn down and her carved images are gonna be beat to pieces and just burned. That's what conquerors do when they take you over in Old Testament days, your God's failed. They're not strong, they aren't strong enough to defend you. Our God's triumph. So your god's going the fire. They get melted down. Our gods are the winner. These idols, they're a failure. They're not gonna protect you. Northern Israel, Northern kingdom, they're not helping you. They're just gonna be destroyed. That's Micah one, one to seven. Write some of that maybe in your Bible to help you as you're working in Micah, maybe sometime in the future. But this is a prophet who seems to have had some success. And this is a prophet who's gonna speak a word of judgment and who's gonna say a lot about social in justice. See you tomorrow. We'll continue in Micah chapter one. It is Tuesday and it is time to read our Bible. We're reading in the book of Micah and we're gonna finish the first chapter of Micah today. We'll read Micah chapter one, verses eight to 16. And once again, you will be so pleased that you're listening to this podcast. It's gonna make sense of what really kind of sounds like a jumble to us. But what it features here is one of the favorite devices in the Hebrew language, which is puns and wordplay. And that's not always easily apparent when you're dealing with, when you're dealing with um, the English translation, but it's a big part of the original Hebrew. And scholars help us. I do not read Hebrew. It is a big part then when scholars read this for us and help us better understand exactly how the profit is using these clever wordplay to make the point. And so verses 10 to 15 sound like maybe a song, kind of a lament song. And here he begins, Micah begins to link some things together. So tell it not in Gath reminds us when David lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan Israel's first king and the heir apparent to the throne. And he says, I don't want to hear that down there in Ga. The Philistines are rejoicing. And then he says, what about Beth Afra? Or that's difficult, or maybe Beth Ofra, which is uh, depending on your translation, how the rest of that in verse 10 will be translated, roll in the dust will Beth Afra means house of dust. Hey, you people who live in the house of dust, roll in the dust. And then verse 11, Schaffer means beauty town. So beauty town, you're gonna be naked and shamed. Zan means going forth. Hey, you people in going fourth town don't come out lamentation then a Beth Aal Beth means house. Beth Azel is the house of taking away. You're gonna be, you're gonna be taken away. Then verse 12, the inhabitants of Mero, the inhabitants of Mero, they are the bitter people and they're waiting anxiously. Mero is bitter. They're waiting anxiously for good, for disasters come upon them. So you can see these word plays laish. Verse 13 sounds like steeds or horses HARs the steeds to the chariot's inhabits of laish steed town. And then verse 14 talks about parting gifts. And that is not lovely parting gifts for being on the prices right today, but that is tribute. They are defeated and they have to pay. So judgment's going to come. Micah uses incredible word pictures to bring that judgment to life, to make that real for the people of God. See you tomorrow. On Wednesday we begin Micah chapter two. It is hump day. Yes, that's right. Get on your camel because today is Wednesday and we are reading Micah chapter two, verse one to eight. Maybe you are wondering, Hey, where's the social injustice and oppression stuff? I heard Micah was all about that. Welcome to today's reading. This is full of the condemnation of land Barrons who are evil and are seizing land. They have no right to, in fact, they do this at dawn verse one. They don't even, they don't even wait at night and try to do it under cover of darkness. They're just brazen. And watch how this works. Verse three, therefore, thus says the Lord, I'm against you and what I'm gonna do, verse four is the punishment will fit the crime. That is a very common theme in God's judgment. What you do comes back around on you. Where is it? Into verse four, to an apostate. He allots our fields. We took land. Our land gets taken. The punishment for being land thieves is our land is stolen and given to someone else. And in fact, verse five, you'll have done to cast the line by lot in the assembly when they redivide the land. We come home from captivity and we're deciding who gets what land. You won't be there, you won't be there. And then in verses six and seven, Micah quotes the false prophets of these greedy oppressors, these wicked listeners. They don't want to accept this message of doom. So they say, stop your preaching, stop your preaching. We don't want to hear that kind of thing. And maybe verse seven could be translated as the E S V has, should this be said on house of Jacob, has the Lord grown impatience? Should you be saying those kind of things? Different translations have different take on verse seven, but Micah says, this is the word of the Lord and you are going to know the punishment of God as a result. Lately, verse eight, my people have risen up as an enemy. You stripped the rich road from those who passed by trustingly with no thought of war. That's a difficult verse in the Hebrew, but the idea again is of taking and stealing social oppression, injustice, the rich getting richer off the backs of the poor. What a needed note that is for us today. It's very, very easy for us to decide that God is not interested in the affairs of men. What's going on? We just need to go to church. That's all God cares about. God cares about our love for him. That's the heart for God portion, the vertical part of our relationship. You can't see me, but my hand is going up and down, up and down. But what's the second commandment? Love your neighbor as yourself. That's the horizontal part of our relationship with God. My hand is going side to side. Now you can't see that on a podcast, but I can't talk without my hands side to side because how I treat my fellow man who's made in the image of God is in fact directly related to my relationship with God himself. I have to treat my fellow man. Right? Micah's bringing that message in Micah chapter two, and we'll get more of that tomorrow on Thursday. See, tomorrow it is Thursday. And once again, we are reading in the book of Micah. Micah, chapter two verses nine to 13 is our reading for today. Let's get right to it and think about this message of hope. Remember these messages in Micah all begin with the word here and then they end. There's a lot of judgment and then they end with a message of hope. And we get that message of hope today, probably ready for some of that. Chapter two verse nine begins with, again, driving out all kinds of judgment. The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses and the young children, you take away my splendor forever. Wow. Social oppression. There's really horrible running over people. There's no place of rest. And in fact, there's not even good preaching. Verse 11, look at the verse 11, bad preachers. Oh, we just get any preacher who'll just sign off on anything that people want. And then there's a huge shift. I will surely assemble all of you. Verse 12, I will gather the ReMed of Israel. I will set them together like sheep in a fold. So the message ends with the promise that Israel will have a special shepherd king and he will gather his sheep. And then verse 13, details how that release occurs in stages. The shepherd king goes up and opens the breach and then the people are able to pass out through the gate and then the king goes before them leading them. It's probably a reference to the return from Babylonian captivity, but in light of some of the other messages that Micah will bring about this shepherd king. If you want to, you could look ahead a little bit to chapter five in verse two. It's hard not to look at chapter two verses 12 and 13 and not think about the Messiah, the ultimate shepherd king, Jesus Christ. Hope that helps you in your reading Thursday. See you tomorrow, Friday into the week. We're almost there. See you tomorrow. It is Friday and today we're reading Micah chapter three, the first five verses, hope you're ready to roll into the weekend. Hope that your week has been good. Hope you got to watch some hoops last night and that your bracket is not a complete disaster like mine. Most certainly is. Get some coffee. Let's work on Micah three, one to five. Micah three, one to five helps us here because again, the emphasis is on all kinds of social injustice portrayed here as cannibalism. Wow, that is a strong metaphor. That is a strong figure of speech here where people are being eaten. Verse two verse three, eat the flesh of my people. Don't think that's literal. Think they're just destroying the poor. Oppressing people who have no one to stand up for them who don't have the resources and wealth to be part of the aristocracy. They cry to the Lord, he will not answer them. That's of reference to the people who are destroying others around them. God will hide his face from them at that time because they have made their deeds evil. Remember the Serian threat looms large. This is not a time when you want God to shut his ears to your prayers. Micah's trying to wake these people up and then verse five, thus says the Lord. That's a strong introduction, not me. It's not me who's saying this. Micah tells them it's God who says this. God has something to say about these bad preachers. False preachers who cry, peace when they have it good, but lots of people are still starving. Look out for false preachers. Micah says, what a great emphasis in our day and age. We need preaching and teaching that begins with thus says the Lord. There's you an application as you're working on. How does this help me draw closer to the Lord? Don't be drawn in by someone who says what you want to hear. Who tells you all is well because hey, you've got it. Good. He's got it good. So hey, it must all be good. No, we need to look around and see who do I need to help? I've been blessed. How can I be a blessing? Micah's trying to wake these people up? There'll be more of that on Monday verse six. It'll be night into you without vision and darkness to you, without divination. You are not getting a message from God. You are getting the word from the Lord when you're a false teacher. Micah says, but he has the true word from God. Micah three verse eight, one of my favorite verses in his entire book, I love Micah. He's just courageous and he's helping us to draw closer to the Lord. Thanks for reading the Bible with me. I appreciate so much you being part of this podcast and I hope this podcast is helping you understand the book of Micah and as a result, make good application in your life. And like I said, draw closer to the Lord. So if you like the podcast, I certainly hope that you're sharing it with others that you have subscribed or followed and that you're rating it. Those ratings are really important. I know that's kind of a hassle to do. We're like, I'm not gonna do that. Please do that. When the ratings get good, the podcast algorithms start showing that to more and more people. Again, thanks for listening. I hope your coffee today is delightful and your Friday's just wonderful hope. The Lord will be with you today all day. I will see you on Monday with with a cup of coffee.

Speaker 1:

Speaker 1: 27:44 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,

Intro
Monday Micah 1:1-7
Tuesday Micah 1:8-16
Wednesday Micah 2:1-8
Thursday Micah 2:9-13
Friday Micah 3:1-5