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 each other and better work the applications into our daily life. 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.

DFW Aries experimenting with a little hint of fall, emphasis little. Hope your weekend was wonderful, but more importantly, I hope you had a super start on the first day of the week. I hope you had a great start to the week. We had a great day yesterday at Westside. I want to share some additional thoughts from the sermon yesterday. I want to talk about our Bible reading as we're in the New Testament and the Old Testament this week. How about that? All of that wrapped up in a great cup of coffee. I'm drinking some Guatemalan today, and it is so smooth. Just wonderful. So grab your coffee. Let's grow together. Let me say an additional word or two about the sermon yesterday in the 1040. Yesterday I continued the preaching theme for the year, questions Jesus asked, and the question came out of Luke 13, 18, what is the kingdom of heaven like? Now, I have to say this, this has really been heavy on my heart over the last several days, and I believe preaching about the essence of the kingdom yesterday in those two parables from Luke 13 really opens the door to help us see that the gospel and politics can't mix, won't mix, and must not be mixed. One scholar said, God's kingdom is established through means other than the coercive power and intrigue usually associated with the establishment of a new order, and his dominion purposely seeks out persons who do not represent the socially powerful and privileged. Yet more and more today, I am seeing political discussion cloaked in the garb of Christianity and seeing Christianity being used as a political force. I hear talk of Christian nationalism or making America a Christian nation. Pray tell, what is that? Where did Jesus ever say anything about making people be Christian, overturning society to force people to kneel to Christian morality? Indeed, the other day I opened my Facebook feed and I got an ad in the middle of my feed for Christian jewelry, and the item front and center was a pendant with the cross, and the cross had been painted with the stars and stripes of the United States flag. The flag and the cross merged together. We must do better than that. While I love this country, and I know you do too, and while I am thankful for the freedoms and benefits it provides, and I know you are too, Christianity is not about fixing America, and it is not about bringing men and women into the kingdom through legislation. Romans 13 particularly makes clear that the government has a role, it is God ordained, but that chapter also makes clear that the church is not the government, and the government is not the church, and we need to keep those very separate. God isn't a republican, God isn't running for election, and Christians need to remember that. The parables in Luke 13 are not the kingdom of God is like a political action committee. Jesus did not say, I'm calling you to revolution, we will overthrow the government, and we will install one that is much more moral than Caesar and that Roman sin ever were. Instead, Jesus says, the kingdom is like a mustard seed, it's like leaven. It starts small, it works quietly, but it is unstoppable in men's and women's hearts. Let's remember what the kingdom of heaven is truly like. And we're helped with that in our daily Bible reading this week. Grab your Bible. Let's find Acts chapter 1 in our Bibles and read Acts chapter 1, verses 15 to 26. Our reading from Monday, Acts 1, 15 to 26. What we have here is Peter back in a leadership role despite his terrible failure, the three denials. But what I really like here is all of this section, 15 to 26, is about replacing Judas Iscariot, is that Peter uses scriptural authority for what he is doing. And that scriptural authority comes out of the Psalms, verse 16, brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled. And what Peter's doing here is he is connecting to the Old Testament. It's so important to see Jesus as the prophesied Messiah. Jesus is not a stopgap measure, he's not something new out of the blue, he is the fulfillment, the consummation of everything that the Old Testament was pointing to. So what David speaks of here, or what Peter speaks of here, is that the things that David talked about in his own life, the adversity that he underwent, or the crowning by God, all those things are prophetically applicable to Jesus. They fit David, but in the highest way, they can really only fit Jesus. And in our reading today, the enemies of David, therefore, are also what? Yes, they're the enemies of Jesus. So in verse 16, he says the scripture had to be fulfilled, and then he talks about the end of Judas as a parenthetical expression, verses 18 to 19. That's not part of Peter's speech. And then he says, verse 20, it's written in the book of Psalms. This is Psalm 69, 25, and Psalm 108, and we'll read those on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. So I'll say more about those at that time. But what this is about, and by the way, Psalm 69 is quoted all the time in the New Testament. John 15, 25, John 2, 17, Romans 15, 3, Romans 11, 9, and 10, Psalm 69 heavily used in the New Testament. And this is just par for the course. The New Testament church, the apostles, preachers, and teachers, took the Old Testament and said, look, this is talking about Jesus in the best way, in the highest way. This really is about Jesus. And I think it's important to notice that if we were handling this kind of thing, maybe someone would just stand up and say, hey, we need a guy to replace Judas. But instead, what happens is there's a heavy connection to the Old Testament, and there's praying. Verse 24, and they prayed. So working out of the scriptures, standing on the scriptures, what does the Bible say? And then let's pray about it. We get some qualifications here, which means nobody today could ever be an apostle because you have to be an eyewitness. And we get two guys put forward, Justice and Matthias. We don't know anything about them, and we don't know anything about them after this either. But the apostleship is reconstituted at 12, and it comes because Judas is seen as being prophetically talked about in the Psalms. And tomorrow we'll read the first of those Psalms, Psalm 69. Our reading Monday is Acts chapter 1, verses 15 to 26. It's Tuesday. It is Tuesday, and today we're reading the 69th Psalm. I love this Psalm. It's a wonderful psalm. We'll get to talk about this tonight in the Zoom call, and I'm looking forward to that already. Zoom has really, it's really become kind of a thing. So many people are coming to the Zoom call on Tuesday night, and we're just learning together and praying together, reading together. It's really been a joy. This psalm is a lament psalm. That's where we always begin with psalms. What kind of psalm is it? A cry to God for deliverance. That's what a lament is. Save me, O God. Psalm 69, verse 1. Wow, you might as well just turn on the flashing neon sign. Lament, lament, lament. This is a lament. And the metaphor here is drowning. I'm going under. I need your help, Lord. And we may go looking for some place in David's life to identify specifically when he felt this way. And I think there are many times that David could have felt this way. It's not significant or important that we identify the exact historical moment that David is writing Psalm 69 about. What's important is to see why David is writing Psalm 69. And I think that's in verse 7. For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. This is not just I'm suffering, I'm suffering because I'm righteous. I'm suffering because I want to do what is right. And the Psalm really has two stanzas, verses 1 to 13, and then verses 14 to 30. And there's a repetition here. If you look at the second stanza, verse 14, deliver me from sinking in the mire, let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. That's a repetition of what's being said in verses one and two. I sink in deep mire, verse two. I've come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me. So the complaint is being renewed right there. And as I said yesterday, this psalm is quoted a lot in the New Testament. And for example, verse 9, for zeal for your houses consume me, is quoted and applied to Jesus in John chapter 2, when he cleanses the temple. So there's lots of the use of this psalm in the New Testament, but particularly I call attention to verse 21 here. They gave me poison for food. For my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink. That's a reference to Jesus on the cross. And verse 25, may their camp be a desolation. Notice in yesterday's reading, Peter slightly tweaks that may his camp be a desolation, his habitation, his place is what Peter is saying there. His place. We have to replace him because his place is empty. So this is very much the righteous sufferer. I'm trying to do what's right. And I guess I should say a word here about this section in verse 22 down to verse 28, the section where Judas appears or prophetically appears, because this is, yes, this is an imprecation. And that gives people really a tough time sometimes. I thought we were supposed to love your enemies. And what is this calling down this curse of God upon them business? I dealt with that some in QA, and you can go back and listen to that. I think that would be helpful to you. I would just remind you that in poetry there's a lot of exaggeration. Maybe I think about the coach who says to the team in the locker room before they go out for the football game, he says, you know, we're going to go out there, we're going to massacre them. It's going to be a bloodbath. Well, he isn't talking about literally murdering the other team. He's just using heavy, big, emphatic language to say we've got to get after him. We need to win this ball game. My daughters, Becca and Sarah, say all my illustrations involve either sports or dogs, and they only say that because that is true. Now, in this imprecation, I think you are looking at big poetic exaggeration. Remember, don't try to dismiss this by saying this is Old Testament. In the New Testament, we have to love our enemies. There's lots about loving your enemies in the Old Testament. That will never fly. Or David could pray this, we cannot. We're looking at being like David. I think the big key to imprecation is the turning over of enemies to God. God, if this situation doesn't change, we want you to bring judgment on these evildoers. And here's the judgment we think they need, painted in the largest sort of language. Maybe the best part of this Psalm is the end, verses 29 to 36, where there's an expression of confidence. I know God will save. I know God will act. I know God will help and do in the situation. More on this tonight in the Zoom call. Westsiders, I'll see you this evening. If you're not a Westsider, I'll see you on the podcast tomorrow. Our reading for Tuesday, Psalm 69. It is Wednesday. It's Wednesday. And today we're reading the 108th Psalm. Let me just be fully transparent here. I'm kind of thinking maybe, maybe we have a typo. I think the psalm maybe for today should have been Psalm 109. Psalm 109, verse 8 says, May his days be few, may another take his office. That's the quotation that we saw in Acts chapter 1 on Monday that applies to Judas. So maybe we got a little typo here. Bible reading schedules are very difficult to put together. There's so much logistics and working out dates and all those kinds of things. So much grace to be given here if there's a little bit of a mistake. I'll just work with the 108th Psalm. I like this Psalm. It is a little song that has a that has a little secret to it. And we'll talk about that secret here and see if that will help us some. It is a lament. If you'll look at verse 6, the prayer there that your beloved ones may be delivered. Going into battle here seems like maybe there's some difficulties, and the prayer is for deliverance. And I think I would summarize this up: praise from the confident. David prays God. It expresses confidence in God's great love, first five verses, and then David prays for God's help in battle, verses six to nine, and then says in verses 10, 11, 12, and 13, I have great confidence that with God we will gain the victory. And the difficulty here in Psalm 108, sometimes we don't know the difficulty that David is in. Talked about that yesterday, but this is probably some kind of difficulty with the Edomites. And I say that because Psalm 108 is not an original Psalm. It is a combination of Psalm 57, verses 7 to 11. That's where verses 1 to 5 come from. And then verses 6 to 11 come from Psalm 60, from Psalm 60, verses 5 to 12. And Psalm 60 has a heading that relates it to 2 Samuel 8, a time when the Edomites rose up and challenged Israel. That's a good thing to make a note of in your Bible so that you have those notes there. You're reading through the Psalms and you see those things and you know, hey, this is about the Edomites, and here's how we know it is about the Edomites, because this is a combo song. This is a psalm from two other psalms being put together in that way. So I love the expression, verse one, my heart is steadfast. And I should say in verse two, awake, oh harp and lyre. Sometimes we are uncomfortable with instrumental music being mentioned in the Psalms. Don't be uncomfortable about that. Don't be any more uncomfortable with that than you are with animal sacrifices. That's part of the Old Testament. It's part of the Old Testament way of worshiping. It was ordained of God. It was ordered by God and authorized by God. The Old Testament and people who want to jump up and say something about Old Testament instrumental music, they're actually making our argument for us. It is authorized and commanded by the Lord. And so if it was to be done as part of New Testament worship, we would expect it to be authorized and commanded by the Lord. God clearly knows what instrumental music is. It's all over the Old Testament. It's nowhere in the New Testament. So then, verse 6 as I said, David is praying for God's help in the battle. And the keynote of the Psalm is, I need your help. I need your help. And there's a reliance here upon the promises of God. Verse 7, God has spoken, God has promised. We're trusting in what God says. And then there is this wonderful expression of confidence with God. We will gain the victory, verses 10 through 13. Our reading then for Wednesday, as best I can tell at least, is Psalm 108. Psalm 108 is the reading for Wednesday. It is Thursday. Let's do this. It's Thursday, and we're reading Acts chapter 2, verses 22 to 36. This is such an important reading because we are reading the very first gospel sermon. And the heart of that gospel sermon is working right out of the Old Testament. Three particular texts, Joel chapter 2, Psalm 16, and Psalm 110, they form the scriptural basis for Peter's sermon. I like that a lot. We ought to preach from the Bible like Peter did right here. And so the sermon begins. I'm going to back up a little bit. We begin our reading in verse 22, but I want to start in verse 17. You can't just parachute into the middle of a sermon. Verse 17, these last days it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. This is the quotation from John, I'm sorry, from Joel chapter 2. Please remember the last days, everybody seems to think that's some short period of time immediately before the second coming. All kinds of crazy things are breaking loose and world chaos and wars and on and on and on. That's never what it means in Scripture. It's never used that way at all. In the Bible, the last days, 2 Timothy 3.1, 2 Peter 3.3, Hebrews 1.2, is the last period of history. It's the Christian era. The Jewish era, the Jewish period, the Mosaical covenant is tailing off, and the Christian era is beginning. And all flesh in the Old Testament, well, in the Old Testament, just a few have the Spirit. A few people are empowered by the Spirit of God to do special things. I'm thinking about Samson. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon him all the time and gives him supernatural strength. But now Joel says, in the time of the Messiah, everyone will have the opportunity to partake of the Spirit. And then verses 19 and 20 use some very heavy apocalyptic language to describe cataclysmic judgment. And this will be deliverance or it will be judgment, depending upon which side you're on. So the sermon very quickly gets to the idea of which side are which side are you on? Which side do you want to be on? Verse 21, it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you don't want to get womped, you better get on God's side. You better call on the name of the Lord. And so our reading today, beginning in verse 22, begins to answer the question Well, who is the Lord and how do I call on him? And the answer, Peter says, is the Lord is Jesus of Nazareth, verse 22. He's been attested by mighty works, wonders, and signs. And he's the one, verse 25, that David spoke of in Psalm 16. He's the one that David talked about that would not stay dead. Verse 27, you will not abandon my soul to Hades. Hades here is the realm of the dead. Some folks have tried to make a lot out of the different words used in the Bible, Hades, Sheol, all kinds of different wording for the place of the dead, and this means hell, and this means the place of waiting before stop. It doesn't mean any of that. It just means this is where the dead go. And David cannot, Peter says, have meant in Psalm 16, me, because he is dead. He's not mostly dead, he's all the way dead, and he stayed dead, but Jesus didn't. Jesus rose from the dead, so he's the only one that can really fit Psalm 16. And so he begins to move forward. Verse 29, I say to you with confidence, David is dead and buried. But he was a prophet, verse 30, and so he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, verse 31, and the resurrection of the Christ to a place of exaltation at the right hand of God, verse 33. Please notice the expression right hand. It's what ties these two psalms together. Verse 25. And now being exalted. Psalm 110, verse 1, probably the most important psalm in the Bible. It's quoted so heavily in the New Testament and spoken of Jesus as both priest and king. Psalm 110, at the right hand. Sit at my right hand, verse 34. And so then, of course, the whole thing comes down to how do how do we call? He is the Lord. I don't want to be against God. I don't want to be judged. How can I possibly be saved in this situation? How do I call upon the Lord? Verse 36, let all the house of Israel know for certain God has made him both Lord in Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Verse 37, they said, brothers, what shall we do? How do you call on the name of the Lord? Verse 38, you repent, and you're baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. What a powerful sermon this is. And it makes use of two great psalms, Psalm 16 and Psalm 110. Tomorrow we read that 16th Psalm. Our reading for Thursday, Acts chapter 2, verses 22 to 36. It's Friday. It is Friday, and today we read Psalm 16. Our reading for Friday is the 16th Psalm. This is a psalm of trust, and I think what stands out about this psalm, of course, is the material beginning in verse 8, which Peter quotes in the sermon in Acts chapter 2. Let's take a look at the overall psalm, though, before we deal with verses 8, 9, and 10. This is a psalm that really says, I take refuge in God. Watch how every verse in the first half of the psalm speaks of a single-mindedness. I need you, God, I want to be your person. I want, don't want to be with evildoers, I trust you. There's some difficult Hebrew in verse 2, uncertain here. You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you or no good beside you. That's hard to translate there. And you may wonder who are the excellent ones in verse 3? That's probably the saints, the godly people. Some translations have glorious ones there. It's probably just the folks who are serving the Lord. And then in verse 4, there are people who are doing wrong. They pour out drink offerings of blood that may be human sacrifice, and the psalmist won't even say their name. I won't talk about those people. I don't want to be with those people. I'm not like those people. For me, he then says, the lines, verse six, have fallen in excellent places. This is a land survey. I have a beautiful inheritance. Because of God's work here in the land of promise, I have received great land. And then he begins to talk about blessing the Lord and trusting in God and how good it is to have God as my God. And so verse 8, 9, 10, 11 really bring that home with the idea of the total person, verse 9, my heart is glad, my whole being, verse 9, my flesh. Everything about me rejoices because God makes me secure. And Peter quotes verses 9 and 10 there at Pentecost, the next chapter 2 as we talked about, but it's very clear, this cannot fit David. There's no way verse 10 works with any human being. Somebody has to fulfill that, that's much more than David, and that's the Messiah. Only the Messiah has truly not known corruption. But I do like the idea of strong faith here, that even death will not end the psalmist relationship with God. This is one of the psalms that does contain a hint of the afterlife. There are places like that in the Old Testament. And then verse 11, you make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is the fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Let me just say, I've taken shots at this before, and I'll take another shot at it now. That idea that it's either holiness or happiness. God does not want you to be happy. He wants you to be holy. I see that posted on Facebook all the time. It makes me want to pull my hair out. You make me know to know fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. God blesses us with joy and yes, happiness in this life. It's the only real way to be happy. There are sinful pleasures. That's not the way to be truly happy, truly joyful, or to know meaning and purpose. If you want to be happy, then yes, you need to be holy. That's the path to real happiness, David says, and we need to hold on to that. You don't have to be miserable because you are a Christian. Hey, I get it. Sometimes Christians are miserable because they're getting persecuted. I understand about that. You understand about that. But genuine joy, genuine happiness, real fulfillment in life, all of that comes where? It comes from God's right hand. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. That's the reading then for Friday, Psalm 16. And that wraps up the podcast for the week. Thank you for listening. Really excited about Sunday, starting a new series and an important series. Look forward to seeing you on Sunday morning at the West Side Church of Christ. If this podcast is a blessing to you, please tell others about it and leave a rating and review so more people will be encouraged by the Word of God. It is a joy to open the scriptures with you each day. It makes me happy, and I think it does you too. I'm Mark Roberts, and I want to go to heaven, and I want you to come too. 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-P-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.