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, January the 26th. I'm Mark. I do have a great cup of coffee in a red mug with a big block o on it . It's gonna be a long time before I drink coffee out of anything else but this mug. 'cause I am still feeling that national championship from last week. Just wonderful, just wonderful. And even more wonderful than that is the beginning of the preaching theme for the year . Really love this idea. Love that you got to participate and select those verses and loved where we started yesterday in Luke 1428, all of that, an extra note from Luke 1428 and all kinds of stuff about King Saul. It's all happening on the podcast. So get ready, get set, let's go. So yesterday was the first in the 12 lesson series, the top questions that Jesus asked. And if you're not familiar because you're not a member at West Side , but you're still listening to the podcast, which we are awfully glad to have you on the podcast, then let me just fill you in a little bit of details. Jesus asked a ton of questions by some counts, hundreds of questions. And so what we did was we narrowed that down. Two elders and me took all of those questions, went through them carefully, tried to find the best questions, the most interesting questions, the most provocative questions, and we gave the congregation a ballot with about 29 questions on it and said, Hey, rate these, rank them one to 10, and then the ones that do the best, the ones that get the most votes, those are the questions that Mark is gonna deal with in the preaching theme this year. And so coming in at number 12 was the question, have you counted the cost from Luke 1428, for which of you desiring to build a tower? Does not first sit down and count the cost, whether or not he has enough to complete it. And I'm a big fan in preaching and not opening a bunch of doors and people just going off on tangents and getting lost and getting away from the main track of the sermon. I don't want to open a bunch of cans of worms and have worms climbing all over my pulpit. That's, that's always ugly and, and uh, that did not do well for Herod. So let me just say this, I think there's something to be, something to be said for maybe a nuance in the two illustrations that Jesus uses of counting the cost, the first of which is building a tower in the second of which is going to war. And some scholars have noted that in the first, in the first scenario, you have all the options I can build, I can not build, where am I gonna build, what am I gonna do? How big am I gonna build? Where do I wanna put in , all those kind of things. But in the second, in the second option, the situation is forced on the king. Now he doesn't have a choice. He has to make a decision about what he will do when a greater power invades his territory. So some have noted that maybe the point here that Jesus is making, maybe it's a subtle point, is that God is the greater power and we need to decide to sue for peace and make peace with God. Maybe that's an underlying note or something that as, as the audience had thought about that a little bit on the way home, maybe someone would've said, Hey, is Jesus talking about that God is invading and that we are not able to defeat God? And so what we need to do is ask for terms of peace. Verse 32. Maybe so, maybe so maybe that's just making too much of that parable. Maybe that's pushing the details a little bit too far. Like I said, in a sermon situation, you're trying to hold together some big main ideas and, and introducing a bunch of extra question marks. I'm , I'm a big fan of sermons being exclamation marks, not question marks. Probably probably asking a whole lot of extra questions and hey, maybe this, and what about that? And could it be this? That probably doesn't work real well on the flip it , but I think on the podcast you get a good opportunity here to think a little bit further to look at that text, just look at a little bit more, let that work on you a little bit and see what you think. Maybe Jesus is challenging us to realize God is the great king and we need to sue for terms of peace. However that works. You need to count the cost. You need to count the cost of serving Jesus Christ. That's where Jesus is in this great question. Have you counted the cost ? So the reading for Monday is one Samuel chapter 14, verses 24 to 52 we're rejoining the great battle victory that Jonathan wins by storming the Philistines, taking them completely unawares and catching them off guard. They panic, they're fleeing, and the Israelites follow up on that and they are just routing the Philistines. And then we get some more notes about that battle. And already this soul thing is going south on me in a big hurry. I don't like verse 24, Sal says, cursed be the man who eats food until his its enemy . Wow , I can't even start the day. How about some coffee? Let's see if we can get some coffee here. It's gonna be a two cup day, isn't it? Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I'm avenged on my enemies. What is this? My enemies thing, Saul, it's starting to get more and more about Saul all the time. And so there's this vow and it's a foolish vow. Some have wondered if maybe this is an attempt to merit the Lord's favor with some kind of gesture of self-denial. And he just, he ends up creating all kinds of problems. In fact, in verse 29, Jonathan says, my father has troubled the land and troubled is a very ominous word. It is used heavily in the story of Aiken. And Joshua seven, you are the one Joshua says, who's troubled Israel. And then in one kings 18, Elijah and Ahab meet up and Ahab says, Elijah, you are the problem. And Elijah says, no, you have troubled Israel. So this is a strong term, it carries a lot of freight with it in the Bible and really just seems like things aren't going well with sa verse 35. Here's another note. This is the first altar he built to the Lord. Really, really, you've been reigning a couple of years now. You're just now getting around to building altars. What's the deal with that? And so God does not answer solve verse 37. Why not? Because there's sin in the camp. And so then we get the casting of lots and we get the yur and thumb and and you're gonna ask, are people gonna write this down for q and a morning ? Don't do it. Because the answer is we don't know. We don't know exactly how yurman thumb worked . And there's a variety of different kinds of theories about what to do with the y and thumb . And the priest would shake out some these y and thumb stone. Some have said it was a yes no kind of thing. And and then you would shake out. And if this stone came out that meant no. And if this stone came out, said meant yes. And some have said that you had to get the same thing three times in a row to know for sure. And the answer is, we do not know how the priest used Y and thama . But God was willing to do that. He did do that. He used Y and thumb . And the next thing you know it Saul and Jonathan , and then Saul realizes Jonathan has violated the oath. And so Saul then says, you are gonna die. Verse 44, God do so to me and more also, you should surely die, Jonathan , that God do. So to me that's a, that's a promise, that's a self invoking curse. If I don't do this to you, may God do this to me. If I don't kill you, may God strike me dead. Is is what he's saying there. And the people just say, no, no. That's a dumb thing to do and we're not gonna let you do that May maybe there's something to be said here when people make rash vows, somebody's who's right thinking and and has got clear headedness. Sometimes somebody just like that needs to say, no, Saul , we're , we're not keeping that vow, that vow was foolish. We repent of that vow and we're not keeping that jha , I'm looking at you. You needed to not keep the rash vow. Don't keep stupid vows. So the people, they stop from pursuing the Philistines and and maybe the net result of this is the Philistine threat is gonna go on instead of being finally taken care of. And then 47 to 52 in a very characteristic summary of a king's reign. And I think the writer of Samuel is transitioning us, there will be a lot more about King Saul, but as far as the reign of King Saul, this is kind of the end of it. This is, this is how you end a king's reign. You say who he fought against and then you list his family and some of his commanders and then you move on to the next king. And you know what? That is exactly what we're doing. We are moving on to the next king and see you tomorrow, the reading for Monday. First Samuel 1424 to 52. Welcome to Tuesday. Today's reading is First Samuel the 15th chapter. We're gonna deal with what bothers us in one Samuel 15. And then I wanna talk about what bothers God in one Samuel 15. What bothers us in one Samuel 15 is that God says, go verse three and strike amek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both men , women , child and infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey. The idea of putting people to utterly to the sword is reprehensible to us. And we have a problem with that. I've talked about that a couple of times in the pulpit, in various apologetic sermons, and I've done some q and a stuff with that. I think the thing for us to remember here is that these na , these nations, they are being treated as a cancer in the land of Kenan . And that cancer has to be cut out let's they infect others with their sin. And I would add, we don't know, most people don't know a lot about the culture and the times and the way these nations acted, but if you do some research, you'll find out pretty quickly that they were a violent and perverse people. These are not , uh, happy campers and everything is just wonderful. And Saul and the Israel artery falls upon them and just mows them down. It's just terrible. Some of the idolatrous practices and the sacrifice of infants just , there's just some blood curdling things going on in these nations. Maybe the most important thing to say about all that is that God is God and that we are not, and God knows what he's doing and we , we need to trust in the Lord. We need to trust in the Lord. If that bothers you and you wanna talk more about that , um, send me a message. Go ahead , get ahold of me and I'll give you some references to some of the other things that I've done where I've treated that and at greater length , the thing that matters the most here in one Samuel 15 is what bothers God. And I wanna talk about this on zoom at great length tonight, but I want you to notice in verse 24 that Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I have feared the people and obeyed their voice. One of the key words in first Samuel 15 is the word voice or hearing or listening. They're all in the same word, family. And if you work down through this chapter and watch for those words, listen voice, you'll see that this is about who you listen to. Who are you hearing and what do you listen to and how does that command you? So Samuel said to Saul, the Lord has sent me verse one to anoint you king over his people. So listen, see, there it is. Verse one to the words of the Lord. Unfortunately, Saul does not listen to the words of the Lord. He does what he wants to do. And in fact, I am concerned in verse 12 that Saul has set a monument up for himself. How about giving God the credit for this victory? This is truly, truly troublesome. And even more troublesome is verse 13 where soul says, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. He just seems to be able to rationalize and excuse anything and there is a ignorance of what God wants and how to obey God. That is very, very troubling. And Samuel said, what then ? Verse 14 is the bleeding of the sheep and the loing of the oxen that I hear. I'm not a big fan of original language and talking about the Hebrew and Greek a whole lot, as you well know. I think many times we get that way out of place and we miss the point of that. You can't prove it in the English, you can't prove it in the Greek . We need to be super careful about that. But one of the things that Hebrew does show us is the nuances. And sometimes it'll pick up a theme. So yesterday's reading the word troubled, Jonathan says, my father has troubled Israel. And that's the word that's used of Aiken , and that's the word that's used of Ahab here, the word voice. Listen, look at verse 14. What then is the bleeding of the sheep and the loing of the oxen in the Hebrew? That is the voice of the sheep, voice of the oxen. That theme goes on. What are you hearing? I hear something. I hear something, Saul, I hear the voice of the sheep, and I know that you have obeyed the voice of the people. That's where this is going. And in fact, in verse 17, Samuel purposely uses that little in your own eyes expression to remind Saul of how humble he was when things started. And he's lost that humility. He sees himself as important . He's building himself a monument. He does what he wants to do rather than what God has told him to do. And the centerpiece of all of this then is in verses 22 and 23, where the Lord wants him to do what's right, has the Lord is a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold , to obey is better than sacrifice. And to listen than the fat of rams, you need to do what God tells you to do. If you don't do that, that's rebellion. Verse 23, that's like the sin of divination. Presumption is as inequity and idolatry because you've rejected the word of the Lord. He's also rejected you from being king. This man cannot be the leader of God's people because he obeys the voice of the people instead of the voice of God. And as we work through the rest of that chapter, it just gets brutally difficult here because in verse 30, then finally Saul is able to say, I have sinned yet, honor me now before the elders are my people. Be embarrassing if you're rebuking me in front of people like this. So let's all pretend like everything is good. It takes Samuel to finally fulfill the word of the Lord. And he does kill a gag . Verse 32, there's a textual variant there, A gag came to him cheerfully. That's probably not cheerfully, that's probably a gag . Came to him in chains. And Samuel says, you are a terrible king. You've done terrible things and God has decreed your death. And Samuel executes him. And then verse 35, Samuel will not see salt again till the day of his death. But Samuel grieved oversaw, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Don't get lost here in in questioning God and so forth and so on. It is just clear from that passage that that Saul had every opportunity to be the king that the people needed and that God wanted him to be. And and verse uh , chapter 15, like chapter 13 has clearly solidified that Saul is never going to be that person. And so God is looking for the right king. Tomorrow we will find the right king. A reading for Tuesday for Samuel chapter 15. Welcome to Wednesday. Today's reading is First Samuel chapter 16. The entire chapter, Wednesday's reading is First Samuel chapter 16. And once again, we have a key word that will appear a couple of times in this chapter and that drives the major theme of the chapter. And that is the word looking or seeing in the ESV verse one says, how long will you grieve over Saul? This is the Lord talking to Samuel. I have rejected him from being king over Israel for I have provided for myself a king among his, among his sons. The term for provide here is the term I have seen. I have seen. So seeing and looking. Verse six, when he came, he looked on eab . And then verse seven, which of course is the key verse, don't look on appearance because the Lord looks not like men. Look, men look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. So looking is a huge key here in this whole idea. And maybe then when we end up choosing David. And the next thing you know it says about David is that David verse 12 was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. By the way. There's all kinds of translation issues there with beautiful eyes and all the things that go with all of that. But it is clear that, that David was not some homely looking , awful disfigured, terrible looking boy. No, he's, he's handsome. But that may cause you to say, well, hey, I, I I I thought the Lord doesn't look on the outward appearance. But but please remember, please remember, David doesn't look right. He does not look right. He is not like Saul. Saul had the look tall, handsome, he looked like people wanted their leader to look. But David doesn't look anything like that. Yes, yes, he is handsome. He is handsome, but he's too young. He's so young. Daddy didn't even call him for the prophet to, to possibly choose him. He's too young and he's off with the sheep. What, what do you think he looked like when he came into the house? He's been out in the field, he's keeping sheep. What do you think he smelled like? This isn't the guy. There's no chance this guy can be the next king. Oh yeah, he can be the next king. And the spirit of the Lord came upon him. In verse 13, David is anointed. This is the first time, by the way, that his name appears in the book of Samuel and he receives the spirit. It is clear that the spirit is operating to equip a man to do God's work. A prophet, for example, to speak for God or as a king needs to, to lead God's people. They are anointed. This happened to Saul. God empowered him. And we ought to remember that there is no completed Bible in one Samuel 16. If David wants to do the will of God, he can't sit down and have a Bible study. So the Spirit equips him in a unique way, maybe, maybe in a different way than you and I because we have the spirit's ultimate tool, the scriptures. But the Spirit equips him. And I think it's important to note here that the David does not constantly talk about the spirit or claim to be spirit led at every juncture or always being. He's not always saying, you know, the Spirit laid this on my heart, or I just had this feeling that that's not how David operates. Here is somebody who definitely has the spirit of God, the Bible says so yet, yeah, he doesn't act like a lot of people who claim to have the spirit today. I I I, I think that's worth considering. I wonder, is David even conscious of this? Is, is he aware of the empowering spirit of God? The key then of course is that the spirit departs from Saul verse 14, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. People will have questions about that. What does that mean? And and I think the , the short answer to that, which is what you get on a podcast is there are things that God allows. And sometimes in the Bible it will say specifically, the devil did this. And sometimes it will say, you know, God did that. Because what that means is that God allowed the devil, for example, to take on job , to take job's, family, and to take away job's, possessions, or hear that God allowed a harmful spirit to come to Saul . I wish I knew more about this harmful spirit. It's, it's an odd deal. I don't think I know of any other place in scripture where a harmful spirit can be calmed with music. But it , that seems to be the case here. Not sure I understand about all of that, but verse 15, verses 13, 14, and 15 are really the hinge verses in for Samuel. From here on the story is about David, not about Saul. That's where we're going. It's going to be about David. And so David ends up in the court and there's going to be a slew of questions about that. Wow , this is one Samuel 16 is like q and a morning just on overload because David comes to the court. And then if you're familiar in one Samuel 17, which we're about to read, when David shows up to beat up on Goliath kings Saul is like, who is this guy? Well, hey, he's been in your court and there are some chronological issues here. Maybe this material's just out of order chronologically, it's giving a summation of some things that happened here. The Tugen has a very different take on some of this, some of the material in chapter 17 in the SubT . Some of that material is not part of that translation. We're we're just not sure. Maybe Saul had many people in the court and couldn't keep up with everyone that's going on there. All the things that are happening there, we don't know about all of that. Lemme just leave you with this last passage to think about as we consider Saul and we consider this harmful spirit coming upon him. The verse that I want you to think about is in the New Testament. I hate to take you outta Samuel, but just leave a marker there and just go read with me over in Second Thessalonians. In Second Thessalonians, if we ever have a preaching theme, the scariest verses in the Bible, I'm, I'm not certain that this verse isn't gonna win because Second Thessalonians chapter two says this in Second Thessalonians chapter two, talking about the lying activity of Satan and Second Thessalonians two in verse 10, there'll be wicked deception, second Thessalonians two 10 for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure and unrighteousness. That's Saul. That is Saul. And we know that is Saul from what happened in one Samuel 15. And now we're watching that play out in King Saul's life. The spirit of the Lord for Samuel 1614 departed from Saul and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. He failed God in chapter 13, miserable stupid oath in chapter 14, disobeyed God flagrantly horribly in chapter 15. And now since he doesn't want to listen to God, he doesn't want to serve God. God has left Saul, Saul left God. Now God has left Saul and we have a new king in the making. That man is David a man after God's own heart. Our reading then for Wednesday is First Samuel chapter 16. It is Thursday. And today our reading is the first half of one Samuel chapter 17. We're reading one Samuel chapter 17 verses one to 23. And of course, this is the famous David and Goliath story. I wanna say a couple things may be kind of off, off the usual track about the story of David and Goliath. First and foremost, that's a terrible name for this. It's really not the story of David and Goliath. In fact, Goliath's name only appears twice in the text in verse four and in verse 23. Other than that, he's just the Philistine. He's not that important. This is the story of David and Saul. That's what matters here. Think about the context. Think about what we've been talking about. What have we been reading about? It's been about Saul, about God rejecting Saul, God finding a new man. What can that new man do? How is he different than Saul? Why is God choosing David instead of Saul? First Samuel chapter 17 answers all of those questions, checks all of those boxes. So you wanna pay attention here to what Saul is doing and how different David is, than Saul. Don't, don't worry about the Philistine , he's just a big, tall bully. David will take care of him. It is a powerful place to visit , uh, the valley of Eila there in verse two. I've been there tremendous blessing. Dean and I got to go there. It's a very wide, broad flat valley, and there's hills on each end of it kind of makes a natural stadium. And it is a , it's a spine tingling place to stand. There's still a brook there. And just pretty incredible to think of the events that occurred there so long ago. The other thing that I wanna say is in evangelical circles, in denominational circles, several, several years ago, it got really popular to say everything in the Bible is about Jesus. And you have to make everything about Jesus. And so David and Goliath, for example, which was a prime example of this kind of new move in preaching and this new sophisticated approach, David and Goliath isn't about encouraging us to be faithful. It's saying that we are the cowardly Israelites. We're with Saul. Jesus is David. Jesus is saving us. And so this was the new emphasis on Christ-centered preaching. And and I got a little pushback every now and then from people who had drunk a little bit from some of these denominational books and heard some of these denominational writers, oh, you , you're missing it. It's all about Jesus. Well, what , what are you gonna say about that? Well, of course the Bible is all about Jesus, how , who could argue with that? But is this story specifically told to say that Jesus is our savior and that there's nothing here in this story to say when we face giant obstacles, when we face all kinds of temptations, when we face threats to our faith, instead of being fearful and cowardly, we can copy David's approach and be like, David, that that's outrageous. Romans 15 four tells us explicitly and specifically that the Bible, which in Romans 15 four, that is really looking at the Old Testament scriptures, that the things written a four time were written for our instruction. That through the endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. The Bible encourages us. And in Hebrews chapter 11, all of those people who exercised faith, they are not said to be weak. And oh, that's really a story about Jesus. No, we are encouraged to imitate their faith. And there are plenty of illustrations of exactly that. In one Corinthians chapter 10, Paul uses the Israelites and he doesn't say that's actually a story of Jesus. No. He, he talks about the Israelites and is drawing some moral lessons from their failures. So we can draw lessons from these great heroes in the Bible and learn from them. Don't let somebody tell you. And , and that approach got really obnoxious and the people who were pushing it really had that , I'm so much better than you kind of thing . Oh, you, you rabble down there. You think you can learn something about David so you don't see, please stop with all of that. It's again, the Bible is all about Jesus. I I knew about that. But it also is teaching us how to follow Jesus. And what we're seeing in one Samuel 17 is that David is faithful. And this is what that looks like. This is what it looks like to be a man after God's own heart. Goliath is, in fact, he is a monster. His armor would weigh verse five, probably 120 pounds, which think about how big a guy this man is when he can easily walk and fight in armor weighing 125 pounds. The head of his spear, verse seven, would weigh 15 pounds. So he's carrying a spear that weighs 15 pounds. He can chuck that thing, he can throw that thing. And what is gonna happen to David if he throws that thing right through the center of David's chest? This man is terrifying. He is some nine feet tall and nobody wants to take him on . And of course, that is what the passage is about. Saul verse 11, heard the words of the fiddle team , and he's dismayed and greatly afraid. Saul is tall. Saul is tall. Remember that? That's why the Bible tells us that Saul is the one guy who ought to say, I can deal with this. I can take this guy on. Everybody's looking to Saul. He's supposed to be the king who delivers them from the hand of the Philistines. Saul ought to pray. He ought to seek the Lord. He ought to march out there and he ought to kill this guy. Can you imagine for even a moment if Saul says, I need to be faithful to God. Get Samuel up here. Samuel comes, he says, Saul says to Samuel, I've, I've just failed and it's, I need to repent. I need to return to God. I need to lead God's people. Samuel, pray for me and seek God. Will God give me the victory? Saul would've gone out there and wiped the floor with this guy. But of course, for 40 days, this goes on verse 16, and Saul does nothing. What does his leadership look like after 40 days of hiding David arrives and David here at the fateful moment by God's providence. What's God doing here? God is giving David a stage so that he can step forward at the very moment that Saul is shrinking backwards. Pretty hard to stop reading in verse 23. I'm not , not sure I'm gonna do that. I may get me some more coffee here and finish this chapter, but tomorrow we move over like we always do on Friday to the book of Psalms. Thursday's reading, first Samuel 17, one to 23. Welcome to Friday. We made it through another week, and it is Psalm six that we are reading on Friday. Friday's reading is the sixth Psalm. There is so much in this six Psalm to really, really like, and I think in many ways this is, this is kind of symbolic of how much of the Psalms works. In the Psalms, men talk to God. It's not so much a revelation of God to man. It's us bringing our needs and our problems and our concerns and our praise and our thanksgiving before the, before the throne of God. And there, there is a great illustration of that in Psalm six, because what we get in Psalm six is a confused psalmist. I'm being chasten by the Lord, and I'm not sure why my soul is greatly troubled. Verse three, I'm trying to be faithful to God, but things aren't going the way I thought they ought to go. And maybe this is another great place to see the inspiration of scriptures. Nobody would write their own so-called Bible their own so-called Holy Book. And in the middle of it have one of its biggest heroes say, God, I don't understand what's going on. I feel kinda like I'm being mistreated here. That is not, that is not how people would write this. But the Bible is honest. And the Bible tells us that there were times in David's life when he was uncertain. And this is a lament Psalm. It's a cry for deliverance. And it breaks down into a couple of parts. There's a prayer for the favor of God in verses one to three. And you definitely get the concern and the confusion. My bones are troubled. I'm languishing. Verse two, I feel like I'm being rebuked and chastened . I don't understand what's happening. So then there's the prayer for deliverance verses 4, 5, 6, and seven. Note that David knows that he's being rebuked and chastened, verse four, but he does not turn away from God. He is turning to God. And we get a very old Testament view of death in verse five. Death silences a man you , you can't do anything after death. And of course, in the New Testament, we learn an awful lot more about death. But in the Old Testament, that's a very common viewpoint. Once you're dead, you , you go to the realm of the dead where you cannot praise God anymore . And so that kind of silences you. And then verses eight, nine, and 10 proclaimed victory. Something has changed here . Maybe a word came a victory or deliverance or the psalmist went to worship, but he's triumphant again. Notice verse eight, depart from me all you work as of evil. Yeah, that's, that's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven. And in verse 23, Jesus says , echoing the Psalm there. So this is a Psalm that deals with confusion and ends in victory, and that reminds us that even when we don't understand everything that God is doing, we don't turn away from God. We turn to the Lord as he will surely answer us. Hope that's helpful to you from Psalm six. Our reading for Friday is Psalm six. Well, thank you then for listening. That's the podcast for the week. If it's helping you, of course, tell other people about the podcast and leave it a rating and review. Until next week, then, when we'll open our Bibles together. Again, I'm Mark Roberts and I wanna go to heaven. I want you to come to 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 Westside, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page, our music is from upbeat.io. That's upbeat with two P'S U-P-P-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 cup of coffee. Of course, on next Monday.