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, March 3rd. I'm Mark, and of course I've got some coffee, I've got sermon notes, I've got my Bible and I'm ready to talk about daily Bible reading in Samuel. I'm recovered from a huge couple of days at West Side , tremendous Sunday, great preaching conference last Thursday and Friday. All kinds of great things are going on as God works through his people at West Side . It's just a joy to be a part of that. And part of that is all of you folks who listen to this podcast and encourage me so much so everything is ready. Get some coffee. Yep . Let's get ready. Let's get set. Let's go. Yesterday I preached a lesson. I think that's tremendously helpful to people about remembering who we are based on how God sees us, what's God's perspective, what does God see when he looks at me? Sometimes we get very down on ourselves. We struggle with some of that. I hope yesterday's lesson helped you. I wanna build out a little bit more from that first point. In God's perspective, I'm a forgiven sinner and saint and I wanna make the application to how we pray for the forgiveness of our sins. Sometimes we'll say things like, Lord, we're so weak and we sin often, or we just sin all the time. We fail all the time. And and I understand some of that language comes because we're trying to express humility and, and there is a sense in which we fall far short of the standard of God's holiness. I understand about that and you should too. But when we understand about being a forgiven sinner, I think that helps us change our language in our praying. Paul says in Romans six in verse 11, so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin. Romans six 12. Therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Paul does not see Christians as constantly falling into sin, constantly struggling with sin and being beaten by sin. We're enslaved to sin. We can't do any better. We never do any better. That's not Paul's perspective. I don't think that's God's perspective. Yes, you and I will sin from time to time. You know that. And I know that we're not happy about it. It's gonna happen. It does happen. But when we are confessing our sins, what we want to do is talk about how we didn't want to do that. We're sorry that we did that. We want God's help to not do that anymore. And that we know that with God's help we can overcome because we are forgiven sinners and saints not held captive in sin any longer. Think about that. I hope that will help you in your praying even today. Now we're turning our Bibles over to the book of First Samuel. Let's do some Bible reading. It is Monday and our reading for Monday is First Samuel chapter 25, verses 23 to 44. This is the conclusion of the Naval Abigail David story. It was hard to leave this off on Thursday last week so that we could go to the Psalms on Friday. And now we're finishing that story. Let me deal with two difficulties and then I want to talk about the main text here. The main difficulty is the translation. Verse 29 shall be bound in the bundle of the living. The life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living. That's hard to translate and it's, there's not a lot of certainty about exactly what that means. It seems to be that God's care for David is like when someone puts their jewelry or their gold and a cloth and rolls it up and makes it into a bundle. The figure there is precious possessions and she's saying, David's life is precious in the life , uh, in the eyes of God. Kinda like how that fits with what we talked about yesterday. The other issue here is in verse 37, when naval dies, his heart died within him and he became a stone. We're not entirely certain what happened there. Maybe he was just stunned. Maybe it was the beginning of the end , you just, did he have a stroke? Did he have a heart attack? We can't really tell, but David takes that as God's judgment upon na ball . And what that really helps us see is the major emphasis in the text. Abigail's speech is just a masterpiece of wisdom and care. She averts David from doing something truly terrible and truly wrong, and she does it in the the very best way. She is just so wise. Verse 24, she says, really, it's all my fault, which of course is not true at all. And then verse 25, she says, Hey, Al is just a fool. That's what his name is, and he acts like his name. But her major emphasis then begins in verse 26 where she again and again will say to David, you can't take God's place. The Lord is restraining you. Verse 26, from saving with your own hand. Verse 28, your my Lord is fighting the battles of the Lord. This isn't God's battle, David, this is personal vengeance. This isn't the kind of thing that you do. And then verse 29, he'll take care of your enemies. He'll sling them out as from the hollow of a sling. Has Abigail heard about what David did with a sling to that Philistine giant? And then verse 31, she talks about taking vengeance for himself. All of this says to David, this is a mistake. Don't do this. It will harm you. It'll harm you in the future. When people hear about, oh, if you cross David, he just takes his whole army after you and does bad things, it makes David think about Saul and what Saul is doing. It helps David understand he can't take personal vengeance. And so he says, verse 33, you've saved me from avenging myself with my own hand. And then the thing comes full circle. Like I said in verse 39, when David says, blessed be the Lord who has aveed the insult. I can't do this. I'm gonna let God take care of this. What a powerful lesson and another step in the development of David's character as he becomes more of the man seeking after God's own heart. Our reading for Monday, first Samuel 25, 23 to 44. It is Tuesday. It is Tuesday. And today our reading is First Samuel 26. The entire chapter, first Samuel chapter 26 is the reading for Tuesday. There is no zoom tonight West siders because the elders meet on the first Tuesday of the month. Let's get into First Samuel chapter 26. There's going to be a little deja vu going on here. Someone's gonna say, didn't we just read this? And of course this chapter is the mirror image of chapter 24. But maybe what that says is we need a double dose of these lessons that this business here is important enough for the Holy Spirit to repeat it in scripture for us twice. So Saul's repentance wears off if there was much repentance there ever. And the next thing you know, he's chasing after David again. I do notice in verse four that David has sent out spies. So David isn't going to be surprised like he was before. He's getting smarter and he's getting stronger. So David and Abishai go down into the middle of Saul's army. Think about the kind of courage that we're talking about here. This is so impressive. Abishai says, this is it. We can kill Saul. Do it. Do it. You can kill Saul. And once again, David has character talked about this last Wednesday night. You never let circumstances override what God has told you to do. And so David says, verse 10, as the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him. Aha . David learned from Al , didn't he? Let's let God take care of these situations. I don't need to do that. Abishai, I won't do that. And then in God's providence, verse 12, there's a deep sleep from the Lord falling upon the army. So God is protecting David once again. The term for deep sleep is used in Genesis chapter two for the deep sleep that Adam was put under so that God could take a rib from his side, which becomes the woman Eve. So finally it all goes down again and David starts shouting and says, listen, verse 19, I'm not bad. I'm not evil. Verse 18, if it is from men, maybe be , may they be cursed before the Lord, but if it is from the Lord who stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. Now, what does David mean by that? I think what he is saying is if if , if you're imagining somehow you're doing God's will, then then I need to make an offering and I need to get right with God. And may the Lord accept that and be compassionate upon me. But the emphasis is on men, that men are the ones sa that are driving you to do this. Men are whispering in your ears and putting all kinds of conspiracy theories in your ear and driving paranoia. Don't let that happen. You Look, I could have killed you. I'm not who they tell you I am. And so Saul knows verse 21, that he has done wrong. And we get Saul's repentance here, although there's no tears and there's no speaking of David, she ascension to the throne. I wonder if Saul is getting a little more hardhearted. Probably the emphasis in the text though is verse 21. I have acted foolishly I am na ball . That's what this text is about. David learned from the Na ball episode verse 10, Saul is na ball verse 21. That's what's going on in our reading today. Our reading for Tuesday. First Samuel chapter 26. Welcome to Wednesday. Welcome to Wednesday. And today we read First Samuel chapter 27. You won't like this chapter. I don't either. It's a messy chapter. What I wanna tell you is that David is on this upward trend towards greater spirituality and seeking God's heart and that he's just getting better by the minute and more faithful and closer to God, and it's just incredible and amazing. And then verse one says, David said in his heart, now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. What happened to trusting in God? David, what happened to consulting with God before you do things? Nope . David doesn't have enough trust and he doesn't have a consultation with the Lord. He just moves to philistia. Now that will end the Saul threat and it does end the Saul threat verse four. But it just is going to put David in a very sticky situation. I really think what you're looking at here is a very real life account of what it was like to be David. And sometimes we put these kinds of Bible characters on a pedestal and we lionize them. They're incredible. They never make mistakes, they never do anything wrong. And that's why we're uncomfortable at First Samuel chapter 27. But the truth is life is messy and it's not always an upward trend towards better and better spirituality. Sometimes it's two steps forward and three steps back . And David is just fed up with the Saul thing and he nearly got killed and Saul is trying to chase him around and whatever he seems to do doesn't seem to make any difference. And so he decides he's heading to the Philistines and he's gonna solve this problem himself. Now, some have noted that David was in Philistia before and nearly got killed in chapter 21. So how does it work better this time? And I think the answer to that is that David is there, verse two with 600 men, and he places himself at Ash's service and they would be glad to have him. This is quite the army. The Philistines would be delighted for someone to show up with his own personal army and put that at their disposal, particularly if they heard that David was on the outs with Saul. So David now is living in Ziklag that's gonna explain how Ziklag becomes an Israelite city and David begins to raid and that's an uncomfortable kind of thing. Is that right for David to do that? People have tried to justify this in various kinds of ways, but in short, I think the answer here is it is not right for David to do this kind of thing. This isn't God ordered battles and this isn't against the enemies of Israel. This is a decision that may come back to haunt David. Hold that thought. But when we get to the end of verse 12, the end of the chapter in verse 12, what we have is David is playing both sides of the fence. The Philistines thinks think that he is raiding Judah. Judah would be pleased that he's raiding their enemies. And in any case, it sounds like David is completely loyal to the Philistines and it seems like it solved all of the problems with Saul trying to kill him. And life is good. Is it? Is it the very first verses of chapter 28 in our reading tomorrow? Tell us life is not good. Life is going to be complicated. See you tomorrow on Wednesday. Our reading is one Samuel chapter 27. Welcome to Thursday. And today we read one Samuel chapter 28. And if you didn't like yesterday's reading in one Samuel chapter 27, buckle up. This is even worse. It is much worse. This is where Saul hits absolute rock bottom. This is just as bad as it can possibly be. And I talked about the first two verses yesterday that sets up the problems that David is about to have. What this is really about his Saul consulting the medium of indoor, she is a medium. She is not a witch. When I was a kid, I heard about the witch of indoor and that made me think about the woman with the hook, nose and award on the end and the black pointy hat in a cauldron. And that's not what she is. She's a medium. She is a person who can consult the dead like a sorcerer. That's what she's all about. She is involved in the occult and it's not cute and it's not a joke. This is somebody who's attempting to access a power outside of God to appeal to something or someone besides God for help and counsel. And understanding this is absolutely forbidden by the law as Saul indicates. He clearly knows she is doing wrong. She is an evil person. And the fact that Saul goes to her says everything you need to know about where Saul is in his life, but there is no one else for Saul to turn to verse six, Saul hasn't been listening to God, so God isn't talking to Saul. What all of this calls to mind is that Saul killed all of God's priests. And so he doesn't have anyone to use the ephod. For him at least, certainly no priest would show up for him. He did eliminate the mediums in the land. And that would be a time when Saul was doing what was right. So he has no rum or thumb and he certainly doesn't have Samuel, he doesn't have any prophets. He has shown that he has no use for God's word. So God isn't talking to him. What a, Hey, there's a powerful lesson right there. There's a powerful lesson right there. If you aren't interested in what God has to say, why would God talk with you? The lesson from Saul is very powerful here, and we need to make good application of that. So he wants to hear from Samuel, and maybe the question would be, what does he, what does he want? What ? What's he asking for here? And someone says, well, he's trying to find out about the future. I'm not so sure about that. I'm wondering if he's looking for God's blessing in the battle that is to come. Maybe he's looking for the blessing of another God like Baal. Maybe he's gone that far, but he does. Verse 10. Use the Lord's name to swear that he will break God's law. Oh my what? A complete mess. And then of course the woman says, I , I can't do this. And they work it out. And she says, okay, I'm gonna try. And then kabang verse 12, when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice and said, you are Saul. Why have you deceived me? So there's a lot of questions about this. Why and how does Samuel's appearance reveal to the medium that Saul is the customer? And the answer to that is we don't know. There's not a lot of specifics about what she did or what she said or how she conjured, if that's the right word, Samuel up maybe because the Bible doesn't want us doing that and trying that. Of course, the bigger question is, is this really Samuel and did she really do it? And that is a controversial question. And the early church fathers consistently ruled against it being real. They said it was a demon or it was a trick. And lots of people have agreed with that. I'm gonna say this, I don't think the Bible is warning us to stay away from the occult because it has no power and it's just foolishness. I think the Bible takes exactly the opposite tack, that the powers of darkness are real and we need to stay away from them. So I know of no reason not to read this at face value. She did it. It is Samuel and someone's gonna say, how does she know it's Samuel? And of course it's, he's wearing a name tag. Why is this so hard? So Samuel says, why then do you ask me since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? Verse 16, that sums up Saul's reign. He's fighting against God and God is defeating him every step of the way. And the key word in all of that may be in verse is verse 14. I jumped past that. He's wrapped in a robe. And that certainly makes us think of the robe that Saul grabbed when Samuel condemned him by God's command in one Samuel 15 and told him the kingdom had been torn from his hand. He grabs Samuel's robe and tears it. I wonder if that robe here in chapter 28 has a tear in it, and Samuel uses the divine name Jehovah or Yahweh over and over again while Saul just uses the name God. And you can see Jehovah or Yahweh in your Bible, it's rendered as Lord in small caps. And maybe that says something about Saul's faith and where he is and how far he is from God. And so it's just a disaster. Maybe a lesson here about learning the future. Saul gets told the future, it's not a happy future and there isn't anything he can do about it. And so the woman says, you need to eat Verse 22. And maybe she's just a good southern woman who solves all problems with a big meal. I, I don't know, maybe more than anything the text is pointing. I I say that about solving things in being a southern woman would firmly tongue, firmly in cheek there. Maybe what that really reminds us is that in the Bible, who you eat with matters and Saul is willing to eat with this evil medium. What a miserable, terrible moment. This is in King Saul's reign. He really has hit bottom. And again, to go back to one Samuel 15, Samuel says there this kind of rebellion why you've disobeyed God, it it , it's like divination and sorcery and consulting medium Saul. That's what you've done. And now here at the end of his life, that's where he is. He's so far from God. He actually is consulting a medium. Saul. Oh , what a disaster. Verse 25, he eats his last meal, the last meal for a man who cannot be king of Israel very much longer. A reading for Thursday for Samuel Chapter 28. Welcome to Friday. Welcome to Friday. Today we are in the Psalms of course, and we are reading Psalm 12. The 12 Psalm is about talk. It's about speech. There's two pieces to it, verses one to five is the evil speech of the wicked. And then verses six to eight are the sure speech of God. This is an individual lament. It is a cry for help. It is given in the heading to David. And I think in many ways the nature of what happens in Psalm 12 is too general for me to pin it down to one specific time in David's life. Yet, because it talks so much about flattering lips and the tongue that makes great boast, and those who say we're going to prevail and we are gonna overcome, it's hard for me not to think about what, what David said to Saul in one Samuel 26, in verse 19 when he said, are men inciting you to do this? Is that what David's thinking about when he writes Psalm 12, evil men and their evil speech, the things that they say against him, they plunder the poor and they, they just tear people down and do all kinds of terrible sorts of things. There's flattery and deceit and boasting and threats and even rebellion. Our lips are our own. We do what we wanna do. Nobody can stop us. The transition then is in verse five. It's the hinge in the Psalm. It's the turning point here. God arises because as I mentioned, the poor are plundered and the needy gro , I will now arise. God says, I've seen enough of this. I will do something about it. And in contrast to their terrible words, the words of the Lord, verse six are pure words, God's words, pure and absolutely established. And so God says, I'm going to keep you in safety. And God means what? He says, the words of the Lord are valuable because they are so certain. God always does what he says every time, all the time. Verse seven. Now the Psalm doesn't end with they lived , have happily ever after verse eight. But instead, there are problems in this world, but I'm facing them with confidence because of what God says, because of God's word, because of God's promises. That's Psalm 12. That's our reading for Friday. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast this week. Of course, if it's helping you, please tell someone about it and do leave us a rating or review. So more people will get an opportunity to see the podcast. They're scrolling, they're looking in their podcast app. And bang, there it is. 'cause lots of people are saying this is helpful. You can help more people find the podcast by leave a rating or review. So until next week when we'll open our Bibles together again, I'm Mark Roberts and I wanna go to heaven and I want you to come too . I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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