Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special Monday Morning Coffee podcast. On this podcast, our preacher, Mark Roberts, will help you get your week started right with a 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, June 23rd. I'm Mark, and I've got some notes from yesterday's sermon. I have a Bible reading schedule ready to go, and I do have a great cup of coffee. It's in a Tigger mug. I'm feeling Tigger-ish. This podcast, of course, is all about keeping the spiritual momentum from Sunday rolling right into the work week, and we'll do that by talking about that sermon yesterday, the question Jesus asked, and we'll be headed to 1 Kings, all kinds of things are happening. Pour that cup of coffee. Let's get ready. Let's get set. Let's go. Yesterday, I dealt with the question that finished seventh in the voting for questions Jesus asked. What a question. Verse 26 of Matthew 8, Jesus said to the disciples, why are you afraid, O you of little faith? Something I did not have time to get into in the sermon is why The simple truth that Jesus chose to sleep in the storm. I don't think that's an accident. I don't think Jesus is just careless or that he just dropped off. I think it's intentional because Jesus is not ignoring danger. I think he is modeling the kind of calm and peace that he wants his disciples and you and me to have. In fact, maybe the most powerful display of his authority in the whole story is not the calming of the sea, but that he calmly naps before. He calms the sea. Think about that. We panic, Jesus rests. We worry, Jesus sleeps. And again, that's not because he's out of touch, but because he's in control. He knows something we forget. No storm can undo the plan of God. So when you find yourself in the storm, the wind's blowing hard, maybe the goal is not just to get out of the storm, but to learn how to be calm in the storm because we are with the one who has it handled. Remember, Jesus doesn't always fix the storms first. Sometimes he asks us to trust him, even when the waves are still crashing. I hope that helps you as you think about Matthew 8 verse 26. Why are you afraid, O you of little faith? That's the seventh question in our series, The Questions Jesus Asked. Turn your Bible now to the book of 1 Kings. Let's talk about daily Bible reading for the week. Welcome to Monday's reading. Monday's reading is 1 Kings chapter 10 verses 14 to 29. We're resuming the story, the narrative from chapter 10 that began with the visit of the Queen of Sheba. Now verses 14 to 29 discuss the great wealth of Solomon. And if you watch how many times the word gold is used here, you'll get the point of this chapter. 666 talents of gold in verse 14 may be more than 20 tons. And it does seem that Solomon's empire is so located that he is controlling all the major trade routes, especially the trade coming off the Arabian Peninsula where a lot of gold was mined and where a lot of gold trafficked through there. So he's just building everything and it's just incredible and it's just amazing and his fame continues to spread. Maybe a couple of places here we get some notes of, hey Solomon, what exactly are you doing here? Verse 28, verse 26, both the horses and chariot thing, we've talked about that before. Even the accumulation of so much gold violates some of the things that the king was told to avoid in Deuteronomy chapter 17. I've pointed that out a lot. And in chapter 11, we'll talk a lot about Solomon's failure. So maybe I shouldn't say too much about that, except to say this. In verse 19, there's a textual variant. Verse 19, the throne had six steps. And if you are reading the English Standard Version from before the revision of 2011, it will say the back of the throne had a calf's head. Now, after 2011, they changed that to the throne had a round top, which indicates that as more finds are made in archaeology, more manuscripts are uncovered, the translators have more vocabulary, grammar, syntax to work with, and they can go back and say, hey, I'm not so sure about that. But it is certainly a possibility that the back of his throne had a calf's head on it, which would be very disconcerting. Is that a nod to Baal's religion? Baal is often in concert with cow or is that a nod to Egyptian religion? We've seen that before in Exodus 32 when they build a golden calf. One writer said if he had a calf's head on his throne, there may be some kind of symbol of idolatry being incorporated right into his throne. So that could be a little troublesome there. It's worth thinking about at least. Perhaps we should end on a good note. Jesus says in Matthew 6 and verse 29, Solomon on all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. So Jesus uses Solomon as the consummate example of the richest person, as rich as you could possibly be. And all of this comes because, verse 23, he excelled in riches and wisdom, which, verse 24, God put into his mind. This is all about the Lord. All about God making a promise to Solomon and keeping his promise in a superabundant kind of way. Tomorrow, we'll begin to see things fall apart for Solomon. But for today, it's splendor, wealth, and greatness. Our reading for Monday, 1 Kings chapter 10, verses 14 to 29. It's Tuesday. It is Tuesday and our reading today is 1 Kings chapter 11 verses 1 to 25 and maybe the best news on a day when we're reading some disappointing text is that tonight Westside, we have the Zoom call. We've been out a couple of weeks with me being gone at Vacation Bible School. It's great to be back on the Zoom. Look forward to seeing you tonight at 7 in the Zoom call. 1 Kings 11, 1-25 details for us the fall of Solomon. And it is a cautionary tale, to say the least. We don't think of ourselves as being as wealthy as Solomon, but if you can imagine what most people from a third world country would say if they toured your home, maybe this would read a little bit differently. And I should say this, This is a text about old people. We do an awful lot of stuff for young people, and we should, and I'm all for it. But in the Bible, there's really not that many young people who fade out and fall away, especially in Kings. You know when people fall away from the Lord? When they've got silver in their hair. That's when Solomon falls away, and we'll see several other kings who duplicate his mistake. It is, of course, all about women. It is all about women. And I would have you notice that even though Solomon is old, and it is women who turn away his heart as the text makes abundantly clear about 50 different times, Solomon is still held accountable for that. These marriages, of course, are a violation of the law. Deuteronomy 17 tells the king not to do this. Solomon does it anyway. And I am certain that many of these marriages had to do with political alliances, and we've seen some of that with Egypt already. But his heart is turned away. I think Solomon is involved. I think Solomon loves these women more than he loves the Lord. He does not love the Lord with all of his heart. In Sunday's sermon in the 9 a.m., I talked about, do you love Jesus? And how do you know You love Jesus. Go back and listen to that sermon, or if you did not hear it the first time, this is about loving the Lord. And so God keeps his promises, and part of the promise in 2 Samuel 7 is that when a descendant of David commits iniquity, God would chasten him. God would discipline him but not reject him, and that is exactly what we see from here on in. And in fact, verse 14 is a great illustration of the kind of history that we're going to read from now on. It says that the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. He was of the royal house in Edom. We don't even know everything that Hadad the Edomite did, but this shows us that the book of Kings will give us God's verdict, God's vantage point on the history going on. I'd like to know more about Solomon's trade alliances or his military policies or what happened to all these chariots. Why weren't they able to deal with this situation? None of that matters. None of that matters. What we need to know in the Bible is what God thought about this and that is what we're getting and that's what we'll get all through Kings and as we read along in Chronicles as well. What did God think? What is God doing? Those are the kind of questions that we need to be asking when we're reading our Bible. So tonight, Westsiders, we'll have the Zoom call and we'll talk more about Solomon and this terrible mistake or this series of mistakes that he made and what we can learn from it. For everyone else, I'll see you tomorrow on the podcast. Our reading for Tuesday 1 Kings chapter 11, verses 1 to 25. It's hump day. It is Wednesday. And on Wednesday, we're going to read in 1 Kings chapter 11. But before we do that, let's hear from our speaker tonight as our summer series in the Judges continues. Let's listen to Gavin Williams tell us about his sermon this evening while I drink some coffee. Gavin, talk to us about the sermon tonight.

Hi, I'm Gavin Williams from Little Rock, Arkansas. Together, we're going to talk about Judges 3 and the story of Ehud. In some ways, Ehud's story is one of the high points of the entire book of Judges. Not that that says much. In the midst of all this chaos and sin and idolatry, we have Ehud. Who seems a lot more like an action movie star than a leader of God's people in the traditional sense. So what I really want to dig into together is what is God trying to tell us with this crazy story? What can we learn about our God through all of the blood and guts? And what can we learn about us as his people? I'm really looking forward to studying it with you together.

Thank you, Gavin. I'm excited to hear his sermon this evening. I think this series on the judges, particularly as it has coincided with our and been part of our Vacation Bible School, has really, really been good. Now let's think about our Bible reading for today, and in fact, I think there's a little judgesness. Is that a word, judgesness? I think there's a little bit of that in our Bible reading. We're reading 1 Kings 11, 26 to 43, and we're resuming here the story of God bringing adversaries in trouble to the house of Solomon because Solomon has forsaken God. His heart is not holy for the Lord. And while verse 26 introduces Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and doesn't say God raised up Jeroboam, it It just sounds like the time of the judges, doesn't it? And it is clear that this is what God is doing. I mentioned verse 27, the milo, the mellow before. This is the terraces that were built to fill in the valley between the old city of David and this new palace area that Solomon has constructed over some 20 years. And while the wording is not precise in verses 29 and 30, it seems to be Ahijah's cloak, not Jeroboam's cloak, but It actually could read either way. No matter how you look at that, we are reminded of Saul. And Saul had his cloak torn in 1 Samuel 15 verse 27 by Samuel when he lost the kingdom. So there's a little harking back again to Saul here, which comes right at the tail end of the judges. And then verse 38, Jeroboam, you need to do what's right and great things can happen. And of course, Jeroboam won't do what's right and he will not do what verse 38 instructs him to do. And it's hard to miss the messianic tone of verse 39, not forever. All of this in my Bible. At least not all of it. I shouldn't say that. But a ton of this in my Bible is in purple because I underline in purple things that remind me of the Genesis 12 promises to Abraham or the 2 Samuel promises to David. And so verse 32, verse 34, verse 36, verse 38, verse 39, all of that is straight out of 2 Samuel chapter 7 and reminds us God keeps his word. We get one more note, verse 41. About, yes, about Solomon's wisdom. And maybe if we're still thinking about Saul, I didn't want to think about Saul. I don't want to think about Saul. But doesn't verse 40 sound like Saul? God is against me, so you know what I'll do? Instead of obeying God, I will just kill the person God is going to replace me with or replace my son with. Verse 40 is Solomon acting like Saul. That's not wise. That's just foolish. our reading for Wednesday, 1 Kings 11, verses 26-43. Welcome to Thursday. Welcome to Thursday, and today we read the division in the kingdom. What a sad day this really is. It's 1 Kings that we're reading in 1 Kings 12, verses 1 to 15. That will be our reading for today. I would say a couple of things here as the kingdom is torn apart that we want to keep our eye on. First and foremost, watch the prophets. Watch the prophets. There's really a change here in the role of the prophets. During the time of King David, prophets are royal counselors, and they're on the king's side. There are his friends. Think about Nathan comes and helps David. Think about other prophets who advise David spiritually. Now prophets will be adversaries to the king as they call him to repentance. I would also say this. It will be hard to keep all of these kings separate. We'll end up with a king in the north and a king in the south, and all of their names start with J, and it just sometimes gets impossible. I keep a running tab across the top of my Bible as to who is king where to try to make sure that I get it all sorted out. Probably the most important thing to say here is to ask why the story is in the text. What is God doing here? What is God saying here? How does it relate to the overall promises of what God has said he will do with his people and for his people? And as we open 1 Kings 12 and we see the kingdom tearing itself apart, we really shouldn't be surprised by that. I've taken pains as we've read along in 2 Samuel, for example, to point that there were deep divisions. There really were deep divisions between Judah and the northern kingdom already. Judah recognizes David as king seven years before the rest of the nation comes around to that and there is plenty of problems after Absalom's rebellion and then Sheba's rebellion. I would guess that the fact that Rehoboam verse 1 goes to Shechem some 40 miles north of Jerusalem would indicate some understanding of how critical the times are and how bad the situation is. Rehoboam's willingness to meet them on their turf says he knows his kingdom is in trouble. And I would note with you verse 4 that the complaint is we're overtaxed and we're overworked, but that nobody says anything about the poor spiritual conditions of the day. Why are there idol temples in the capital city? Why didn't your father serve God with a whole heart? Nobody seems to be talking about that. And Along the way, nobody talks about all the good things that Solomon did either, that the kingdom had prospered and known a great deal of economic prosperity. And what's really missing here, of course, is that nobody is seeking God. Nobody talks about what does God want us to do, what would be God's will here, how can we serve God. Nobody seems interested in that at all. all. And there is this business of the younger advisors. We don't know exactly how young they are. Sometimes we maybe imagine Rehoboam is 16, and he's got a bunch of 15, 16, 18-year-olds around him, and they're all just foolish party animals, and they give him bad advice. Rehoboam actually is 41 when he becomes king, 1 Kings 14 verse 21. So they are young, but they're certainly not 12 years old in any sense of the word. Probably the thing to notice here is that God's word comes to pass. Verse 15, The king didn't listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord, that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Sholonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. God is at work. That's the key idea in our reading today. Our reading for Thursday, 1 Kings 12, 1-15. It is Friday, end of the week. It's Friday. Psalm 26 is the psalm that's before us. We're always reading psalms on Friday. Psalm 26. This is a psalm where David asked God to examine him. I love this psalm a lot. It is beautiful. I mark in my Bible in green, beautiful text, and verse 11 is all green. That's a lovely, lovely verse. And maybe as much as I'm saying this is a psalm about an examination, I'm not ready for you to ask me questions about it because the question that is always asked about psalms is, what kind of psalm is this? And I'm not entirely sure. I think in some ways it is a lament. Verse 9 sounds kind of lamenty, if that is a word. Other scholars think that it is possibly a psalm that is a prayer from a sick man, but there doesn't seem to be anything necessarily about sickness. Some have thought it is a psalm of innocence. Others have thought that it was something that was said by worshipers as they came into the tabernacle or into the temple. I'm coming before God, here I am. I want to worship you and I am right with you. Seek my heart. Look at me. Examine me and you'll see that I'm a true worshiper. I do love the idea of being examined by God, of coming before the Lord and saying, test me, try me. see who I am, prove me, O Lord, verse 2, and try me because I walk in my integrity. That's verse 1 and then verse 11. David knows who he is and what he's doing and that he can be found right before God and upon that basis he has relationship with God. Don't get lost here and think that this is self-righteousness. David is very aware that he is a sinner and that he has sins in his past. There's none of that here. But integrity is the key The idea not of being sinless. I'm afraid so many times people think Christianity is about being sinless. No, it's not. It's about being forgiven, but it's also about trying to please God. And that's what Psalm 26 is all about. Lord, I'm trying to please you. I'm doing the best I can to walk with integrity. That means wholeness, sincerity, not faultlessness. The NIV has blameless, and that's a total mistake. That's a terrible translation. It's just the idea. that I'm doing the best I can, God, to serve and honor you, and I'm asking you to bless me because I'm in relationship with you. Maybe Psalm 26 is the answer to foxhole praying, the famous idea that I'm in a jam and so I'm going to ask God to bail me out. Do you have any relationship with God? Are you walking in integrity? Are you caring about God? Do you care about the Lord and about His ways? That's what Psalm 26 is all about, and it provides the base is for prayer, if it's a lament, by saying God wants to be in relationship with us, and we need to be in relationship with Him if we're going to pray to Him. That is Psalm 26. Our reading for Friday, the 26th Psalm. 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, justchristians.com, and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat.io. That's upbeat with two Ps, 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.