SPEAKER_00: 0:01

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.

SPEAKER_01: 0:52

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for Monday, July the 7th. I'm Mark. I had my Bible open and notes from my sermon yesterday. All kinds of good things happening, even if it is the day after a long holiday weekend. Wow, tough to get started again. Probably need an extra cup of coffee. Mmm.

UNKNOWN: 1:11

Mmm.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12

Well, I just arrow pressed this and it is excellent. Ask me about the arrow press sometime if you want to know how to up your coffee game. It's a wonderful way of making a great cup of coffee. Even more important than that is the sermon yesterday and our daily Bible reading. And that's what I really want to talk about. So pour that cup of coffee. Let's get ready. Let's get set. Let's go. Yesterday's sermon was about spiritual snake oil and spiritual snake oil salesmen, false teachers, those who offer a fake gospel. I want to give you one more key. Yesterday's sermon had several key ideas to watch for. Let me just give you something else to be aware of and to be watching for. It's a really, really big giveaway that you are dealing with a snake oil salesman, and that's when it's always all about the teacher. A huge red flag is when the focus shifts from the message to the messenger. It's not, come hear the gospel. It's, come hear me. Their name is in the big lights. They can't talk enough about their books, their corches, their merchandise. Sell, sell, sell. They are the center of attention. Their every word gets a mic drop. And if you challenge their teaching, it's taken as a personal attack because they've made the message about themselves. We're not here... to glorify ourselves as preachers, teachers, shepherds, Bible class teachers. It's not about the messenger. It's always about the message. The focus needs to be on Jesus. Real gospel preaching lifts up Jesus. False teaching lifts up the teacher. One writer said, when it's all about the seller, it's not about the Savior. Watch for that. When the snake oil salesman is always talking about the salesman and not the Savior, you know who you're dealing with now. Hope that helps you so that you'll be aware and be ready to detect false religion and false doctrine. Let's think about our Bible reading and let's see somebody who didn't do a very good job of serving the Lord and weeding out false religion. Turn your Bible to 1 Kings. Our reading for Monday is 1 Kings 14, verses 21 to 31. And this is the kind of thing that we'll be reading all along in Kings. We'll get sort of a meanwhile back at the ranch kind of narrative. First, the author will talk to us about what's going on, say, in the north with the northern kingdom and the king who's king there and all the bad things they're doing there. And then, of course, you'll be wondering, well, what's going on in Judea during this time? And so then the narrative will shift south, and we'll talk about what's going on in that kingdom. I would give you this. There is a pattern to this. And I'm reading here from an excellent scholar. The narrator introduces a new format and style at this point that enables him to state the essence of the king's reign with an economy of words. The introduction and the conclusion of the account of each reign conform to a fixed pattern. There's only slight variation to it. Here's the information regularly given for the reigns of the kings of Judah. First, the date of the beginning of his reign, then his age at the beginning of his reign, thirdly, the length and place of his reign, fourth, the name of the queen mother, and then fifthly, a theological evaluation. Now, the pattern for Israelite kings, the kings of the north, is the same except that their ages and the names of their mothers are not usually given. But the reign of each king, both Judah and Israel, is normally concluded in this manner. There'll be a summary of the reign, there'll be a referral to the royal If you want to know more about that, then there's a notice of death and the place of burial and the successor is named. So just watch for that formula as we go along. And we see that right away in verse 21. Rehoboam, notice the mother is given. That's Naaman the Ammonite. Where'd she come from? She came from Solomon's marriage to foreign wives. And guess what? He acts like an Ammonite. Judah did, verse 22, what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Verse 23, they built for themselves high places. And verse 24, there was male cult prostitution in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. I talked two Sundays ago about how the modern nation of Israel is not evil. the Israel of the Bible, and that those promises to Israel to occupy that land were always conditional. Deuteronomy 28-32 makes that abundantly clear. And here we see them violating the covenant, so we are not surprised. They will be removed from the land. God removed those people from the land who acted that way. When you act like the Canaanites, that God kicked off the land, guess what? You're going to get kicked off the land. Verse 24 is setting up that very idea. And then, of course, in verse 25 says, Rebuke begins to happen. Shishak, king of Egypt, comes up. This is probably an Egyptian pharaoh known as Shishak I. He succeeded in reuniting the country. He founded the 22nd dynasty, and he did sweep through a ton of Israel and Judah. He lists 150 cities that he took on the wall of a partially ruined temple that's near modern-day Luxor. His splendor did not last long. His kingdom did not last long. But here he comes and takes away the treasures of the house of the Lord. So if you've ever wondered, verse 22, Why in Raiders of the Lost Ark, probably the most famous movie about the Ark of the Covenant, why is the Ark being found in Egypt? There is some speculation. that this is when the Ark was taken to Egypt. So that movie may, in fact, be getting that right. Now, there is plenty of disagreement about that. And if you go pick up the parallel account in 2 Chronicles 12, there is actually some humbling being done here in Judah with this rebuke. I mean, think about what a blow this is. The temple itself is being sacked. That would say something to these people about where they are in their relationship to God. And so there is some humbling going on, 2 Chronicles 12, 1 to 12. But Rehoboam, the verdict on him is he did not do right. He did not seek after God. There is hostility, verse 30, some border skirmishes going on all the time. And then again, his mother's name is given. Think about that. Solomon's choices in marriage affect his children. Solomon's choices in leadership, he allowed those idols to come to Jerusalem. He built those temples for those foreign wives. That affects his legacy. Lots to think on there from Solomon because he's introduced idolatry into Judah, and it is growing like dandelions. It's taken root like weeds, and it will be hard to root that out. A reading for Monday, 1 Kings 14, 24. It is Tuesday, it is Tuesday, and today we're reading the entirety of 1 Kings 15. Our reading for Tuesday, 1 Kings chapter 15. We're going to get some Southern Kings here and then things will move to the North and we'll stay there for quite a while. So if you're tired of the jumping back and forth, hang in there in a moment. We'll just stick with the North for a good little bit. And I should say this, we do get Zoom tonight. Those of you who are part of the Westside Church family will be on Zoom tonight to pray together and read through this and talk about it. And there's plenty to talk about here. Our reading begins with the reign of Abijam. He's reigning in the south in verses 1 to 8. He's known as Abijah in Chronicles, and you can learn more about him in 2 Chronicles 13. It's worth jumping over there and reading some of that. His mother's name is different there. It may be because the queen mother carried over from Rehoboam and was not his real mother, so there may be some changes there in the genealogy. That's always a little bit difficult to track. In our reading today, verse 4 is probably the key verse. Once again, God is keeping his promises. even when Israel is not, or in this case Judah, is not being faithful unto God." Then we get the reign of Asa. I like Asa a lot. Verses 9 to 24, he seems to be doing what's right. He's not doing everything I would like him to do. Verse 14, the high places were not taken away, so he's not enforcing the worship of Jehovah God, but he himself worships God. He does what's right, and as much as I'm saying good things about him, then the very next thing that happens is Israel comes up against him. Verse 17, Basha king of Israel and builds Ramah. Ramah is only about four miles north of Jerusalem, and he's blocking the roads to the south. This seems like an economic blockade. And so Asa's panicking, and he doesn't consult God. In 2 Chronicles 16, there's discussion of this worth going to read. The prophet condemns Asa because he doesn't ask God. He just makes an alliance with Syria. That's not a great idea. Don't be doing that. Don't be doing that. And as I said, 2 Chronicles has more about Asa. Some of that's in 2 Chronicles 14. A couple of main events there. He has a great victory, and then there's some more reform. He really is a study in contrast. He turned to God against the first foe, but then he sought Syrian help with a lesser foe. It seems like sometimes he's very faithful, sometimes he's not nearly as faithful. Maybe we'll talk a little bit more about that tonight in Zoom and think about 1 Chronicles and how it helps us better understand about Asa. He does end up dying. He is, verse 23,"...diseased in his feet." And I should say this, there is a lot of suggestions about that. Sometimes, Sometimes feet can be a euphemism in the Bible for your sexual organs, and some have thought that this indicates some kind of venereal disease because he was sexually immoral. And the way that we know these kings act, I'm not sure there's any way I can tell you, oh, absolutely not. I would certainly hope not, but that may be on the table here. Then we get the reign of Nadab and the reign of Basha, beginning in verse 25. Nadab, now again, we're jumping to the north here, but it'll be a long stretch where we stay with the north. We won't hear from So Nadab is reigning there. He reigns two years, it says, but really it's only parts of two years. His whole reign is going to come out to be about a year. And then Basha shows up and he exterminates the royal family just as God prophesied. I think that's the huge key here. I'm not that focused on learning all these kings' names or remembering their moms' names, all that kind of business. What we want to keep our eye on is God does what God says. We want to have more faith and more trust in God. So we're reading through all this history, and sometimes we look at it and we think, this is just random stuff. Who even cares what Nadab did or, excuse me, what Basha did? Coffee.

UNKNOWN: 12:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:20

Coffee is the answer to nearly everything. Well, the reason this material is here is to help us see that God fulfills his word. Trust in God. God will do as he said. In 1 Kings 15, our reading for Tuesday emphasizes that. See you tonight on Zoom, Westsiders. Everybody else, I'll catch you on the podcast tomorrow. It is Wednesday. It is Wednesday, and our reading is 1 Kings chapter 16, verses 1 to 20. I know that you're excited as we continue our series on the judges tonight. Travis Walker from Odessa, Texas, will be with us. I met Travis when I was in a meeting with the Billy Hicks Road Congregation a year ago, two years ago, when I was with Travis. I was very impressed with him. He's very knowledgeable in the Word of God, and I'm sure he'll do a great job talking about Gideon. And that seems to be appropriate because Gideon Our reading today in 1 Kings 16, it just seems like it could come right out of the book of Judges. It's just wild and crazy. One scholar said this text has it all. Carousing and conspiracy, assassination and civil strife, everything that gives the evening news its reason for existence. The northern kingdom appears to be careening down the water slide of history, bashing along to its own self-destruction when suddenly it levels out. And that is what we will see today. Basha reigns in the first seven verses here. Jehu, the prophet, comes to him. We don't know anything about Jehu. He did serve God a long time. He'll show up about 50 years later, and he'll be talking to the Judean king, Jehoshaphat. And he comes to say, Everything here is going wrong, and God's going to bring judgment upon this house because of what's happening here. And so the emphasis is on the word of the Lord, verse 1, verse 7, verse 12, the word of the Lord. By the way, the ending expression at the end of verse 7, because he destroyed it, That's a very difficult expression. We're not sure exactly how that is to be taken or to be translated. And someone may ask here, why is Basha condemned for killing off the house of Jeroboam when this was God's will? And the answer to that is if he had done it because he wanted to do God's will, I think he would have gotten credit for that and been seen as a righteous man. He just did it out of personal ambition. He did it because it suited him, not because it was the right thing to do. So then Elah comes along, verse 8, He doesn't last very long at all. He ends up being assassinated. He's drunk, and he gets killed by an army officer, and so Zimri then destroys the house of Basha, verse 12, according to the word of the Lord. That's the emphasis. Talked about that yesterday. God's word comes to pass, and so here Zimri is, and he's the new king. He's a military man, and he reigns Seven days in Terza. Why seven days? Because that's how long it took the army to march over there and kill him. When they hear that Zimri has conspired and killed the king, verse 16, they set out against him under the direction of Omri. And when Zimri saw that he was going to lose this battle and couldn't hold off the army, that he could not sway the army to his side, he just burns his house down over himself and dies. So here's a suicide. Talk about things going downhill in a hurry because, verse 19, of his sins that he is Get the emphasis. Don't let these repetitive verses, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of Jeroboam. Got to think about this. Are you walking in the way of David? Are you walking in the way of Jeroboam? That's the question Kings is setting before us. Our reading for Wednesday, 1 Kings 16, verses 1-20. It is Thursday. It is Thursday and I'm home from being with a church in Granbury last night as part of their summer series. It's great to be home. Grab some coffee. Let's work on the word in 1 Kings chapter 16. Our reading for Thursday is 1 Kings 16, 21 to 34. This begins the dynasty of Omri. Verse 21 talks about Omri and how the people were divided into two parts. So as yesterday we were talking a little bit about how the nation is just careening down the water slide of history into just all kinds of anarchy and chaos. You got a guy who's reigning seven days, and he gets killed or kills himself, and now we have another. It's just craziness. Now we have a civil war going on, but Omri overcomes. His side wins, and he does. It takes four years to solidify the kingdom, verses 23 and 24, but he does bring stability to Israel. He is, from a secular perspective, standpoint, very successful. There's a stone called the Moabite stone that refers to him as the conqueror of Moab. He is very influential. In fact, there's some records that call Israel the house of Omri, and one of the big things that he does is stop the war with Judah in the south so that he can concentrate his military forces on the growing problem of Syria in the north. They are a rising power, and he needs to take care of that, and he does. take care of that. He also, as I said, conquers the Moabites to make sure that they're not going to be a problem on his flank. Mostly what Omri needs to be known for, I guess, walking in the ways of Jeroboam, verse 26, is that he has a famous son. His son is Ahab, and he begins to reign in verse 29. and he brings real stability to the empire. It's not really an empire at this point, to the kingdom, I guess. He reigned 22 years. Think about that in contrast to all of the short reigns, one year, two years, seven days that we have been seeing. Ahab settles things down, and he does everything In fact, there are a number of places in the Bible that say this is as bad as it could possibly get. He marries an idol worshiper, he worships Baal, he builds temples for Baal in the Asherah, and of course, this wife of his, Jezebel, she persecutes the prophets of God. And I think one of the keys here is to see that this is a jump. We're worshiping God under Jeroboam as a golden cow, but it's still the worship of Jehovah God, the God of Israel, the God who brought us out of Egypt. We're just worshiping the right God in the wrong way. But this is a change. Now we're not worshiping Jehovah. We are worshiping Baal. Think about that. Think about that. This is a wholesale apostasy, a complete sellout of true religion. And I want to emphasize, and we'll continue to emphasize as we move into chapter 17, that the theme of the text here is the word of the Lord. And the word of the Lord, verse 34, comes to pass when somebody builds Jericho. And the word of the Lord comes to pass, costing the builder here family members as he erects Jericho because... of the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua. Our reading for Thursday, 1 Kings 16, 21-34. Tomorrow, we're in the Psalms. It is Friday. It's Friday, and today we're reading Psalm 28. Psalm 28 helps us think about praying, particularly when we are in trouble. And I should say that this psalm seems to be related to Psalm 26 and 27 that go in front of it. Psalm 26 verse 1 has a cry for vindication. Psalm 27 verses 1, 2, and 3, which I preached on on Sunday in the 9 a.m., there's still trouble going on and there's still concerns. Now we come to Psalm 28 and David is still praying. It seems that these psalms are teaching us something about persisting in prayer. And while this psalm in some ways sounds very lamenty, a cry for deliverance and help, and it has some lament themes to it, it really seems to be more, especially verses six to nine, and it seems to be more an expression of confidence in God and his strength. So maybe there's a little bit of both in this psalm. I need you, Lord, to help me out. I trust in God that he will, in fact, help me out. The prayer is directed solely to the Lord, and the beginning and the end of the prayer opens and closes with the focus on God The holy sanctuary is the place where God's presence dwelt above the Ark of the Covenant. And there is the idea there of being in the pit. That's like verse 1. That's the one who is dead, who is silent, unable to call upon God. Remember, in the Old Testament, they don't have a fully developed idea about death and the afterlife and all that goes with all of that. Then there is this cry for fairness that seems to be the problem here, seems to be injustice that's going on beginning in verse 3. And the psalmist is clear. David is very clear. He's giving this problem over to God. God, this is what I would like you to do with this. God, I need you to deal with these people. This is what they deserve. But he doesn't take that for himself. He does not take it into his own hands. I'm going to trust that God will do something about that. And then in verses 6 and 7, God seems to have done something about that. There's a pivot here. There's a change in the tone of the psalm. The Lord has heard my pleas for mercy. The My heart is exalting because he's answered my prayers. And then the Psalm closes by saying, God will hear your prayers. And there is a note here of thanksgiving. The Lord hears the cries of his people. I think maybe we ought to just take a moment and read this Psalm with Psalm 26, 27, and then finish our reading for today with Psalm 28, the reading for Friday. And that way we'll see these Psalms all together. And I think doing that, may result in a much richer prayer life as we think about how David prayed, how confident David was in his praying, and how God answered his prayers. The reading for Friday is Psalm 28. That concludes the podcast for the week, men. I certainly do appreciate you listening to the podcast. Hope that you'll tell somebody else about it. And if you haven't, give us a rating or review because that'll help more people find this podcast. Thanks again for listening. I'm Mark Roberts, and I want to go to heaven, and I want you to come too. I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_00: 22:49

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.