What Young People Want to Know about Marriage

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? We 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 sixth. I'm mark and I have my Bible open. I have some notes from yesterday's sermon and I've got a Bible reading skid ready for this week. And of course I have a great cup of coffee going. This is some beautiful coffee, some hawala, that's a wonderful province in Mexico where they grow coffee. They have enough altitude there to grow coffee. And this came out of my Cemex. If you are interested in upping your coffee game, or maybe you're looking for a gift for a coffee lover in your life, the Chemex brewer is very easy to use. It's very forgiving and it looks really, really cool, and it makes great coffee. So I've got everything I need to get this podcast rolling. Let's get to it. We always start the podcast with a review of yesterday's preaching at Westside. And yesterday I brought a lesson for our young people, as they think about marriage in their future, and an effort to try to correct some of our cultural ways of thinking about marriage with scriptural, ways of thinking about marriage. And so I brought three ideas to the pulpit yesterday morning. First of all, the idea that God's way God's roles, God's rule book for marriage. If you will still work, I was preaching out of Ephesians chapter five. I know that causes a lot of flinching and a lot of discomfort. I don't know about this. And it does seem to me that sometimes there's just dismissing of that completely out of hand, without really investigating what God is saying, what that means, what that would look like in action. People just say, Hey, I'm, I'm not doing that. We we've moved past that. And that is a giant mistake that led me then to talk secondly, about this idea that everything that's wrong in my life is going to be fixed. If I can just find who I need to marry. And if I can just find prince charming or princess charming, everything is going to get great in my life. And I'll never have any depression or be down or be lonely or have frustrations, uh, particularly with sexual temptation. It's fixed just as soon as you can get married. And of course that's not true. That is a failure to understand the purposes of marriage. And particularly it's a failure to realize that the ultimate relationship is not marriage, but is found only in Christ. Jesus, thirdly, then we talked a little bit about getting married and should I just be afraid of marriage? And the response to that is coming out of Ephesians five. Again, marriage is amazing. Marriage is amazing. It's not the cure all for everything, and it's not going to solve every problem that you've ever had, but it is God's plan for a little bit of heaven here on this earth. And it is incredible when we respect God's ways and we do what God says. It is a wonderful, wonderful relationship. And I didn't say this yesterday, but I'll just say this here. It always distresses me to hear Christians, just rain on a newly engaged couples parade and new couple comes to church and she's got that big ring on her finger and she's glowing and showing that ring to everyone. And there's always somebody who says, well, you'd better enjoy it now because once you get married, he'll never pay attention to you like he's doing now. Or there's always guys getting around that groom to be and saying, oh, I see you're putting on the ball and chain. And, and I get it. I understand we're just joking, that kind of thing. But, but I think sometimes that maybe it's possible as Jesus says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and it may be that we're betraying our lack of faith in God's plan. That marriage is and can be amazing. And we just ought to do a better job than that. We just ought to do a better job than that. We ought to be encouraging. We ought to tell young people, if you follow God's way, if you follow God's plan, this could be an incredible relationship. It will be the joy of your life here upon this earth. And it can help you both get to heaven. We ought to be for marriage and we ought not be knocking marriage. So having said that, let me add one additional point to the things that I said yesterday. I'm going to work from Proverbs chapter 25 in verse 24. There Solomon says it is better to live in the corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a coral. Some life. This text reveals something that a lot of people don't want to admit. And that is that while marriage can be amazing and it should be amazing. Sometimes, sometimes it's not amazing. Sometimes marriages have problems and we need to be telling them people that, and we need to be telling ourselves that those of us who are married because in our world, particularly in movies and television, we really only see two kinds of marriages. We see perfect, wonderful, incredible relationships that are just flawless, or we see absolutely dysfunctional relationships where they're screaming at each other. They're fighting, they're divorcing and all of that. And what people are not seeing and not contemplating is marriages that are good and have some great things about them, but needs some work, need some help need to do some things to get the marriage back on a good footing. We need to be forthright about that. We need to be candid with our young people about that. Every marriage is going to have some problems because every marriage is composed of two human beings who can be sinful and selfish. And that of course will result in San. And that will result in tension and fighting and arguing and all that goes with that. So we ought to be honest and say, every marriage is going to have some problems along the way. And then here is the key. What we want to say is problems. Don't have to be fatal in a marriage problems can be fixed through prayer and repentance and forgiveness and kindness problems. Don't have to be fatal. If we go into marriage with this idealized version of it in our mind, it's going to be perfect. In the first time he throws a wet towel on the floor. The first time she interrupts the football game with some discussion about her friends, then all of a sudden we're like, oh, what's happened this marriage. Isn't this incredible thing that I heard in a sermon it's supposed to be. No, your marriage can still be incredible. Go to work on your problems, care for each other, understand each other and love each other and don't give up, but don't quit on it and decide, well, it's just going to be a mediocre relationship. Do the things you need to do to make it better. Now about now, a lot of folks are starting to realize that what I preached yesterday for young people, yeah. That wasn't just for young people, was it that helps all of us rethink our marriage relationship in terms of the scripture, instead of letting our society and what our society is telling us about marriage dictate how we act and how we think and what we do in this most important of earthly relationships. We want to have the kind of marriage that God intended for us to have when he created marriage. And we can do that when we follow the word of God, As we start looking at daily Bible reading for this week, it may be time to go make a second cup of coffee because Matthew chapter 24 is certainly a tremendously challenging chapter, but I'm very glad to have this podcast and have the opportunity to give you some additional content that will help you as you work through this chapter and would just encourage you to make good use of this. Maybe listen each day segment and then pause your podcast app so that you can pick up again the next day. I know that's how Dina listens to the podcast. She listens as she's getting ready for work. And then does her Bible reading after she's heard these notes, and then she stops the podcast so that it's ready to go the next day. And that may be helpful as we're working through Matthew chapter 24, but we're going to start Monday here with just some overall notes that will help us as we work through all of it. Let's just start by keeping this connected to what we read last week in Matthew chapter 23. A great beginning here in Matthew, 24 is to need is a need to understand where we are in Jesus's life. This is at the end of a time of personal controversy, lots of debating with the religious leadership and then that withering blast at their complete failure. That is chapter 23. This is the close of Jesus's ministry. He has found hypocrisy and quietness in a nation that now rejects him. He has cleansed the temple. He has been tested by fake questions from the religious leadership. And so Jesus is just done. Judgment must come. Remember what is sad at the end of chapter 23, verses 37, 38 and 39 oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. The city that kills the prophets and stones, those who were sent to it, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen, gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing. See your house is left to you. Desolate. This is the key to understanding much of what the disciples are asking about in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus leaves the temple and then verse two, he says, this is all going to be destroyed. This is all going to be knocked down. What would the disciples be thinking about? What would they be asking about? So the first key in Matthew chapter 24 is for us to respect and understand where we are in Jesus life. The second key is verse 34. We want to make sure that we understand the time limitation that Jesus himself puts on this material in verse 34. He says, truly, truly I say unto you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. All these things, not some of these things, not some of these things will start to come to pass. Not these things will be fulfilled in 1948 when Israel becomes a nation. Again, Jesus, doesn't say any of that. He says, everything I'm talking about here is going to take place in the time of this generation. Our generation is roughly 40 years. And what Jesus clearly means and is clearly saying is that the people he is talking to namely his apostles, his disciples, you're going to see this stuff. You're going to see this happen. You need to be prepared for it. You need to know what to do about it, because it's going to happen in your lifetime. As long as we keep that in front of us, we will avoid speculative and foolish scenarios that make all kinds of things out of Matthew chapter 24, that Jesus did not intend for them to be. And yes, I do know that it says some things about the coming of the son of man. And we will talk about that. I'm okay. It's going to be okay. That's not going to mean that we're suddenly going to jump Matthew 24 out of its first century context out of it, setting out of the timeframe that Jesus gives in verse 34 and make something else out of it. Jesus says this is going to happen. You're going to see it happen. And if it didn't happen that way, that makes Jesus. Yeah. That makes Jesus into a liar. Not very comfortable with that particular conclusion. And I'm sure you aren't either. So let's get into Mondays reading. Monday's reading is verses one to 14. And the key verse here is verse three. As Jesus sat on the Mount of olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things be? And won't be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age. Now the king James version has into the world here. And that resulted of course, in a lot of people making this into a second coming passage, the end of all, things judgment day, the return of Christ and all the things that go with that. But really their question here is the end of the age. And I think we need to remember here, the apostles didn't fully understand that Jesus was going. So why would they be asking about his second coming? I'm going to share with you a passage written from a non inspire. That's important. This is not in your Bible. This is a non inspired book called second Baruch in that book was written to try to answer the questions that arose from the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 80 70, the very event that Jesus is describing and talking about here, I believe in Matthew chapter 24, listen to this passage and it will just help you understand how the Jews, how the apostles they're Jewish would be thinking about Jesus saying the temple of God is going to be completely destroyed. What would they be thinking? What would enter their mind? Here's this passage from second Ruth chapter three verses four to eight. But one thing I asked the, oh Lord, what is to happen after this for if thou destroys my city and delivers up by land to those who hate us, how will the name of Israel again, be remembered? How will anyone proclaim the praise to whom will, what is in the law? Be explained is the universe to return to its original state and the world to revert to primeval. Silence is the human race to be destroyed and mankind to be blotted out. That's how the Jews tried to cope with those were the questions that Jews were asking after the temple was destroyed. Is this the end of the world? Is this the end of the age? So that's, what's going on in verse three. And the answer that Jesus gives to their question is that in fact, the temple will be destroyed. It is not the end of the world world, the second coming capital T capital S capital C, but it is certainly going to be the end of the Jewish age. And Jesus begins to talk about tribulations and wars and all the things that are going to go with the destruction of Jerusalem with the revolt that began in AB 67 and was culminated finally when Jerusalem and the temple were burned by the Roman soldiers in a D 70. And of course there's a lot of figurative language here as Jesus talks about tribulation and about lawlessness and false profits. That's the kind of thing that we hear regularly in the old Testament. So much of this, we're trying to connect in our daily Bible, reading to the old Testament. So much of this as the language of Isaiah and Jeremiah and his EQL, that apocalyptic visionary kind of language. And we're going to get more of that as we move into Tuesday's reading, I think last week, I kind of bored those lines and ran Monday and Tuesday together. So this is the end of Monday's chapter. Let's get set then for tomorrow's reading Tuesday, we will read further in Matthew chapter 24. So Tuesday's reading is Matthew chapter 24 verses 15 to 35. And this is really the heart of Jesus's all of it discourse. And this is really the heart of the material about the destruction of Jerusalem. So when you see verse 15, the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet, Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains of the abomination of desolation is something so horrible. It's just unthinkable. We can't even begin to imagine this terrible thing happening. It's used in Daniel of the desecration of the temple during the time between Malakai and Matthew, when a Syrian king entered the most holy place, think about that. You can't have anybody, but the high priest ever go in there, he did, he violated the most holy place. And then he offered a pig on the altar, defiling it for all time. It was just horrible. And the Jews were just appalled beyond belief. And so Matthew actually, Jesus uses that language. Matthew records it for us to talk about something really horrible happening something unimaginably awful Luke's parallel account, Luke 2120 talks about the armies of Rome here. So there's no doubt about what's being discussed. And there is very good tradition that when Jerusalem was surrounded by the Roman armies, the Christians remembering the words of Jesus saw what was about to happen and bail out. They left the city and missed all the misery and destruction that followed you. CBS talks about that. He's a historian about how the Christians fled Jerusalem and go went down into the desert area down at Palla and Josephus record some things about how horrible this was. The multitudes were gotten together in an assembly, and everyone was indignation at these men seizing upon the sanctuary and Anna Naya stood in the midst of them and casting his eyes frequently at the temple and having a flood of tears in his eyes. He said, certainly it had been good for me to die before I had seen the house of God full of so many abominations. So this was a terrible time for the Jews, an unimaginably difficult time for them as the temple is destroyed. And the city of God used destroyed judgment falls upon it. And so there is great tribulation verse 21. And of course, if these kinds of things are some kind of somehow forecasting, some sort of a second coming and into the world, sort of thing that then why is Jesus doing any of this kind of thing? There's no warning is going to help anybody. When the world comes to an Angie, says, verse 20, pray that your flight may not be in winter. It doesn't make any difference if Jesus returns in December or in July, that's not going to have any effect upon any of us as, as we, uh, see the Lord return that that has no bearing in any way. This is about an event that they will see. They need to prepare for at a time when they will need to get out of the city of Jerusalem to be spared this awful judgment of God. Now, part of our reading today is verses 29, 30 and 31 immediately. After the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. And the stars will fall from heaven. And the powers of the heavens will be shaken, then will appear in heaven, the sign of the son of man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This is of course the passage that causes people to move this material to the end of all, things the end of time in the second coming, because it talks about the coming of the son of man. And the reason people do that is because they haven't read the old Testament and they're not familiar with Isaiah. And ZKO, they're not familiar with this kind of figurative language that describes God's wrath being poured out on a nation or upon a city. And they're not ready to see that what Jesus is doing here is so old Pesta Mindy in its flavor, Jesus is just connecting to those old Testament, apocalyptic prophets, and the way that they, uh, the way that they couch their language in these visions and judgment signs. So when Jesus says he's coming, that does not necessarily indicate if you're familiar with the old Testament, a final judgment coming the passage. I usually reference here. And many of you, I'm sure we'll have this marked in your Bible because we've been through Matthew. We've been through Luke, we've been through mark 13, and we've talked about this particular olive it discourse. And we've talked about how to make the right use of it. The passage I use here, usually, as I say in 19 one where there's a description there of God coming in judgment on Egypt and talks about coming in the clouds and Jesus uses the same kind of language here, the coming in the clouds and, and that language, I guess I should say this, maybe it's not so horrible that people jump that to the second coming because all of these other comings in judgment, and that that's what this is. This is God coming to judge a nation or coming to judge a city. And that's used repeatedly Isaiah 13 as equal 32 Amos chapter eight, the stars falling, the heavens being darken, the earth being shook. All of that apocalyptic language is used to describe judgment. And all of those judgments are just little judgments that give us a taste of what the final judgment will be like. They are demonstrations you, if you will, of God's wrath against sin and against wrongdoing and against nations that will not acknowledge him and serve him. And so all of those are very much like the final judgment and they give us a little taste of that and help us appreciate that. But of course, Isaiah 19 one, talking about God, coming in the clouds and judgment, that's not the end of all. Things that was a judgment. A localized judgment is judgment on Egypt. And this judgment in Matthew chapter 24 is not the end of everything. No, it can't be the end of everything. Verse 34 says that everybody's going to see this judgment in that generation. And of course the end of everything didn't occur in the first century. We're we're, we're still here. So Jesus, isn't talking about a final, final judgment. The second coming, like I said, capital T capital S capital C. He's talking about a localized judgment, all of these people. And, uh, I, I think maybe helpful to us is to think about this in terms of what they are hearing, not what we hear after so many years of TV, preachers and books being put out in our friends, talking about the rapture and the coming of Jesus and a thousand year reign and Israel and tanks and nuclear war and missiles. No, what they're hearing really sounds like Daniel chapter seven, in fact, one scholar wrote, this is so good on the podcast like this. I can share this kind of material with you and help you with with daily Bible reading probably way too much for me to get into a Wednesday night Bible talk, or try to shove into a few things that I would say Sunday after the sermon to try to help with this difficult passage. One scholar says about verse 30. This sounds on the surface to modern readers, like a clear reference to the second coming of Jesus. But the language would most likely be understood by a first century reader, as an allusion to Daniel seven in Daniel 7 13, 1 like a son of man stands in contrast to the first four beast who emerged from the sea. And those four beasts represent four kingdoms who stand in opposition to Israel, culminating it a little horn of the fourth beast who wages war against the saints and defeats them Daniel 7 21. However, the one like the son of man who represents the saints of the most high verse 13 verse 22 verse 27, he finds favor with the ancient of days verses 22 in verses 26. And he is vindicated ultimately by giving authority and dominion over all the nations. So it should be noted that the coming of the son of man in Daniel seven is not to earth, but rather it's a coming before the throne of God, where he is vindicated and where the saints of the most high are given victory over their enemies. This highlights the theme of then the cation through judge met. So that's not just something I made up. That is something that is well situated. When we think of the first century context, we think about the question the disciples ask in verse three, we think about where they are in their thinking. We tie that into the language of the old Testament and what we get out of that, particularly again, coming out of Matthew chapter 23 is that Jesus is certainly not talking about the end of all things. He's talking about the end of the Jewish dispensation. He's talking about the end of the Jewish system. He's talking about the end of the Jewish religion, all of which is centered in that temple. He's talking about what's going to happen to the generation that rejected him and nailed him to the cross. Would we be a little surprised if after God had judged battle on and none of, uh, and Egypt and Sodom and Gomorrah, if there wasn't some kind of judgment against the city against the people who murdered them, Messiah Jesus is saying that kind of judgment is going to occur. And that's what Tuesday's reading is really all about. So Wednesdays reading is going to be Matthew chapter 24 verses 36 to 51. And this is just more signs and more warnings about being alert. Watch what's going to happen so that you will take appropriate action. When the Roman army is calm, there's been a ton of discussion about verse 36 about Jesus not knowing something, but Jesus did give up things to come here. We don't understand everything about that. Philippians chapter two talks about that as he came in the form of a man, evidently Jesus entrusted some things to the father and did not choose to know when all of these things would happen. I don't really understand why Jesus was so willing to come to this earth and take on the form of a servant and take on human flesh and be a man. I don't understand how he can be fully man and fully divine, all of that's way beyond my pay grade. I don't need to understand all of that. I just need to believe what the Bible says about all of that. So while I don't get everything about that, I'm not going to stumble here in verse 37 and just fall apart because something's happening here beyond what humans can really grasp. So verses 36 to 51, take us to the conclusion of all of this. And again, just watch how much of this is about being aware of what's happening so that you will be able to be ready when this terrible judgment falls. And I would say this while I don't believe this is the second coming passage, and I've been pretty clear about that. I do think there's an application to the second coming for you and for me, and maybe that's where we are as we come to the conclusion of Matthew chapter 24 in our reading, I don't have to watch for Roman armies encompassing Jerusalem and burning the temple. That event has already occurred. What's the next judgment that's going to occur in my timeline? What should I be watching for well for you? And for me, that is the end of all things in the second coming. So I can make some application of that to the final return of Jesus and be alert and be aware and be serving the Lord. As I await the final coming of Jesus, I have seen Jesus has coming in judgment and how terrible that was, how much worse it will be when Jesus returns to judge the entire world for its wickedness. I certainly want to be found in him. I certainly want to be ready when that judgment does finally come. I need to watch and wait, which takes us to chapter 25 in our readings for Thursday and Friday, where Jesus is saying, you need to be prepared when the Lord comes in judgment. Wow. So I really am to the bottom of my cup of coffee here. I probably ought to go make another cup of coffee as we get ready for these last two days of Bible reading Thursday and Friday, chapter 24 closes on the note of watchfulness. And that theme continues in chapter 25. And I really think that these two parables, the parable of the 10 virgins and the parable of the talents help us and would help the first century readers as well to think about we don't just sit on our hands and do nothing while we wait for the Lord to come in judgment on Jerusalem, or while we wait for the Lord to return and judge the entire world, we need to be busy about the King's business. That's what these parables really push. So let's get into Thursdays reading. Thursday's reading is Matthew chapter 25 verses one to 13. And this is the parable of the 10 virgins. The key for our understanding of this parable is to appreciate how marriage has worked in Jesus's day. Marriages were largely arranged by parents and the time of the wedding would be arranged long in advance. So the time would come then for the bridegroom to come to the bride's house and claim his bride, the bride groom, and some close friends would leave his home and go in a procession through the streets, usually after nightfall and they would get the bride and then bring her back home to his house. And the key to all of that is nobody exactly knew when he's going to arrive and get the bride. And certainly nobody knew when the bride and the bridegroom, then we're going to make their way, this kind of festival procession this parade through the town, through the village, back to his house. And of course, nobody knew the time because nobody's wearing a watch. Nobody's looking at a smartphone that is synchronized to cell towers down to the split. Second, nobody's setting an alarm when all this is going to arrive. When you say things like I'll be there at sunset. Well, when exactly is that, and so there would be a delay and everybody know there was going to be a delay he's going to come at about this time. And the key to that then is you just have to be ready. You just gotta be ready. It was considered to be a tremendous insult, not to be ready to greet the bride. When Ryder said, since the groom was the Supreme really honored guest, not to welcome him when he did come was a serious breach of manners. So Jesus talks about the importance of being ready and uses this cultural event to say, you need to be prepared for this coming. Whether that would be the coming that Jesus has just talked about in Matthew chapter 24, coming in judgment, or whether for you and me, that's the second coming. We want to be ready. And maybe the thing to notice here is that these girls who are waiting really aren't all that different. You can't look at them and tell, oh, she's ready and she's not ready. They're really not different in equipment. Some people don't have a better lamp than others. These would be a little pan, a little saucer, which one end of that saucer is pinched so that it can hold a whack and you fill it with oil. Now everybody's got the same kind of lamp. They all have the same knowledge. Nobody has inside knowledge. Nobody's wearing a watch and knows exactly when they're going to come. And in fact, everybody goes to sleep. It's not that some people were able to stay awake. Maybe they had coffee. Maybe they had the mini morning coffee, Blackish. Nope. Everybody goes to sleep. They, the only difference here is that one group is ready and the other group is not. And that is what's going to happen. Jesus says when he returns in judgment in Matthew chapter 24 judgment on Jerusalem, and would you just returns in final judgment for you? And for me, that's the parable of the virgins. And maybe the final thing I would say about that is you can't borrow readiness because the people around you already doesn't help you. If you aren't ready. Then on Friday, we'll read the parable of the talents. And this is the parable, Matthew chapter 25 verses 14 to 30. This is our reading for Friday. And this is the parable that really emphasizes that during the long delay, we don't do nothing. We don't just sit around doing nothing. You need to be busy doing the will of the father. And so here's this journey verse 14. And he leaves these talents really hard to know how much a talent is here, because a talent could be a talent of gold. It could be a talent of silver. It could be a talent of copper, really hard to know exactly how much money we're talking about, but it does seem to be a large sum of money. Some scholars, uh, would say that the best approach here is to try to derive how much a talent would be worth in spending power. And one scholar says that the talent would be worth about 6,000 Dinair I, and since the dinero was a day's wage for the common worker, that that means this talent is about, yeah, it's about 20 years worth of wages. So what's 20 years worth of your wages worth. What, how much money is that? So you were talking about a lot of money here, but unfortunately in verse 25, 1 of these guys decides he's just going to bury his talent in the ground and do nothing with it. And he seems almost to blame the master for that. If I had made any profit, you just take it and I'd be in real trouble if I had lost money because you're such a fierce master. So I just buried it and didn't do anything with it. And the master says that's a complete and utter fail. You should be using that money, kind of a play on words here. He doesn't mean a talent in the sense of like the ability to teach or the ability to lead singing. That's not a talent, talent, like America's got talent, it's money, but the master says you should have been using my money to make more money. And it may be in the same way. Then we would say, we should use our talents, our abilities in the kingdom for the Kings service. That's what we need to be doing in this interim. During the time of this delay, I would really emphasize to you verse 21. Well done. Good and faithful servant. That's what we're looking for. That's what we want to hear. And maybe a great thing about this is in no place in the, in the parable, does the master say to the guy with the two talents, Hey, you didn't have as much money as that five talent guy. You should have done as much as he did. No, no, the five-talent guy, he makes five more good for him. The two talent guy, he only makes two more, but you know what good for him. You don't have to have all the talent that somebody else has in the kingdom. Don't be envious of other talents, uh, using that kind of in, in both ways, making that play on words, there, just do what you can in the kingdom and you will hear well done. Good and faithful servants. Sometimes I think about what it would be like, what it will be like to hear Jesus say that well done. Good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master brothers and sisters in Christ. That is what we are living for. That is what we long for. And that's what we need to be busy working towards that. We might please our master and enter into his joy. What a bless it, busted moment. That will certainly be. And that's what Jesus sets before us as part of the parable of the talents. Well, one last swallow in this cup of coffee, there it is. That's it, that's it for the Monday morning coffee podcast as well. I don't have extra thoughts for you today. If I don't tidy this up and end it, it's going to be the Monday afternoon or maybe the Tuesday morning coffee podcasts, lots of notes this week as we're working with a difficult chapter. And I hope that that'll be helpful to you in your daily liberating. And I hope the thoughts about the sermon will continue to help you in your marriage. And if you have a young person in your house, as you are encouraging them to think biblically about their prospects and their future in marriage, I do appreciate so much you listening. We are gaining some listeners each week and we're very, very excited to have new listeners. If you are liking the Monday morning coffee podcast, we would love for you to follow subscribe rate and give a review on iTunes or whatever app you're listening to. That really helps us as it causes the algorithms and all the things that go on behind the scenes to rise that raise that podcast up and more people see it and get a chance to listen to it. When they're looking for suggested shows to listen to maybe the best thing to do is you just encourage a friend, Hey, you gotta listen to this. This is going to help you in your daily vibrating. This is going to help you make good use of the sermon material that's going on at Westside. So until next time, may your coffee be delightful. May your Monday be short and may the Lord be with you today all day. I'll see you next week.

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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, justchristians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from uppbeat.io. That's upbeat with two P's UPPBEAT 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.