Monday Morning Coffee Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello, and welcome to the West Side Church's special Monday morning coffee highcast. On this high channel, our preacher, Mark Roberts, will help you get your week started right with a look back at yesterday's service so that we can think of and better work the applications into our daily life. He may have some extra bonus to us from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee and 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 the week of July 19th through the 26th. It's Monday, July the 20th, and we're coming off a great weekend of youth lectures, the best weekend of the year. We'll be posting those here and they'll download automatically. If you subscribe to the podcast, you'll get to listen to those lessons. Really some fine preaching this weekend. And this is the beginning of Silver Chair. The Narnia Club meets uh every summer in my home, and a bunch of young people get together. We read one of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. This year it's the Silver Chair. So I've got a bunch on my plate, and a bunch of exciting things have happened and are happening, and we get a chance to look back, we get a chance to look forward. You know what to do. Grab that coffee, grab your Bible. It's time. Let's grow together.

Sermon Notes

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Yesterday I talked about how important today is. In the life of young people, sometimes it's easy to decide. This isn't really important, especially religion, that kind of thing. That will matter later when I'm an adult. But right now, I'm gonna do my own thing, live my own life, et cetera, et cetera. But the Bible is very heavy on now, today, serving the Lord now. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 13, to exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Verse 15, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. I think it says that sort of thing, and I'm focusing there on verse 15, hardening your heart, because you can't say everything in a sermon, can't cover everything, but this is another reason why today matters. The longer we remain away from God, the easier it is to remain away from God because sin hardens us. But even more than just those negative reasons, the reality is most of life is made up of small decisions. Yes, there will be some big decisions. You're gonna sit down with pad and paper, you draw those columns, the pluses and the minuses, the pros and the cons, you pray a lot, you talk to people and get their counsel, memorable decisions. Do we go? Do we not go? Deciding a major, for example, saying yes to a marriage proposal, but but most of that is not daily life. Most of life is simple small decisions like will I read my Bible today? Will I get up and go to church this morning? Will I pray? Will I say no to that temptation? Will I show kindness to that person who's being mean to me and doesn't deserve my kindness? Guess what? All those little choices stitch together to make up our life. They become our life. Our decisions, the little ones that we hardly notice, become who we are, they become our character and our habits and what we like. They compose our life. They compose us. And that's why today matters. Because today you're taking another step toward who you are. Let's take that step toward Jesus Christ and following Him. And a good way to do that is to do some daily Bible reading. Grab your Bible, let's turn our attention to daily Bible reading and being like the teacher.

Monday 1st Corinthians 6

SPEAKER_01 4:22

It is Monday, and our reading today is 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6 is the reading for Monday. Do you have your coffee ready? Let's work on that. Oh, some great things happen with coffee, isn't that just so? 1 Corinthians 6 has two pieces to it. 1 to 11 talks about lawsuits and going to court. And then beginning in verse 12, there's discussion of sexual immorality. Please remember, coming out of chapter 5, what we read on Friday, there's the discussion there about judging and that the Corinthians are judging the wrong things and not judging the right things. So now we're going to get a little bit more about this judging business. And a lot of that judging going on in chapter 5 was about a failure to take care of sexually immoral man among the congregation. There should have been judgment against him. God's judgment was certainly against him. So this just flows right out of chapter 5. And it seems like, in a real way, somebody in Corinth is fussing with somebody and they're taking it to the civil courts. And Paul just can't even imagine that. How can the brethren at Corinth fail to judge this immoral person in chapter 5? And then they take their disputes in front of the pagans. This is craziness. Paul says, in some sense, that we will judge the world. Verse 2, we don't know everything about that. We reign with Christ. We'll judge with Christ apparently. And verse 3, we will judge angels. And I don't know if that means we judge all the angels or just evil angels. I don't know everything about that. Don't want to speculate. We'll just accept that as being true. We'll figure that out when the Lord wants us to know more, I suspect. In verse 5, then it's very, very clear that he's trying to take them down a peg. They think they're so wise. We talked about that so much last week. So look at verse 5. You just think you're something and you're just not. And so we'd rather accept wrong than to have the church be slandered in pagan courts. We should know that the unrighteous here are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. It's a very clear, very clear condemnation of all homosexuality that's happening here in 9, 10, and 11. In verse 11, that is baptism. That is baptism, you were washed. That's baptism. And of course, all these sins really revolve around idolatry, which was so prevalent in Corinth. Now, I should say here, I don't believe this forbids every time, all times, Christians can never go to law. I I don't think that's I don't think that's where Paul is here. What he's trying to say is that we try to work it out first. For example, a woman might sue for divorce in court, even if her husband is a Christian. And Paul did use legal means when it was necessary. He'd play that Roman citizenship card if it would help him keep from being beaten. But the point in question here is not can a Christian ever, ever go to court? No, the question here is can't we settle this among ourselves first? And then we get to chapter twelve verse twelve. Wow, let's see if we can get loaded here with a little bit of coffee to get some clear clarity in our thinking. In verse 12, through the end of the chapter, it looks like somebody's making a defense of fornication. Somebody is saying the body is made for fornication, the body's made for the for sexual immorality. It's like eating, it's no big deal. Um, you eat and you don't think anything of it. Now look at verse 13, and I go to the temple prostitutes and I am involved in sexual immorality with them, and I don't think anything of it. Now, Paul does not mean when he says verse 12, all things are lawful, that everything in anything is lawful. Clearly that's not the case. Paul would be contradicting himself in about a dozen different other passages that he wrote. But as he talks about matters of Christian liberty here, he's talking about the realm of matters that are indifferent to the Lord. And in that realm, there are things that we can do. But we need to be asking ourselves, is this helpful? Is this helping me get closer to the Lord? Will I become enslaved by this? And sexual immorality is not going to be like that. It's not going to fit that. It's not going to work like that. So thinking that God will destroy the body, just like he's going to destroy the stomach. So it doesn't matter what I do in the body, that's just wrong, will be raised up. And we are raised up, verse 14, we are united with Christ in verse 15. So we cannot use what is Christ in immorality. And there is a sense, verse 18, in which a sexually immoral person sins against his own body. I don't know everything about that, but there is a union that is created there, and that makes that sin different in some ways than other sins. And it's especially unthinkable because, verse 19, we have the Holy Spirit within us. And Paul doesn't give all the details about all that. And of course, there's always somebody who's ready to supply all the details about all of that. We don't know everything about everything. Sometimes we just need to accept what the text says and not go beyond the text. First Corinthians chapter six, our reading for Monday.

Tuesday 1st Corinthians 7

SPEAKER_01 9:21

It is Tuesday. It is Tuesday. And tonight we will have a Zoom Bible study, Westsiders. Tuesday's reading is 1 Corinthians 7, 7th chapter of 1 Corinthians for today. It's a very long chapter. Try to hold my comments so that the podcast doesn't last for three weeks. But the big key here is to see that Paul is writing to answer the questions they are asking. Verse 1. It is obvious that some are struggling with wrong ideas about marriage, about the sexual relationship, and about celibacy. We've seen in chapters 5 and 6 some people are not restraining their sexuality. Now some are doubting if any sexual relationship could be right. And it's very important to see that Paul doesn't write to establish every rule on every possible marriage, divorce, and remarriage situation. And people come to Matthew chapter 19, they come to 1 Corinthians 7, and they try to read into that something about everything, and it just ends up making a mess. So it doesn't mean we don't harmonize the passages, but it certainly does mean that 1 Corinthians 7 isn't dealing with everything. For example, there is no mention here of divorce for sexual immorality, something that Jesus mentions explicitly in Matthew the 19th chapter. Paul's concern is about the marriage relationship. Is it right to marry? If you're already married, can you stay married? And that begins then the first seven verses where he's talking about husbands and wives. The idea of touch there certainly is the sexual relationship. Those are not wrong. We need to be involved in that in marriage. That's the right place for that. That's important for both the husband and the wife. And if they're going to set that aside for a period of time, verse five, that needs to be by mutual decision. Then Paul has some instructions to unmarried widows, verses eight and nine. Don't get confused here. It's not, can anybody marry? The question is not blanket permission. Anybody who says, hey, I'm unmarried. I can verse eight and nine, I get I get to marry. No, no. The point here is marriage versus celibacy. And this comment is very similar, I think, to some of the things that Jesus will say. Not everybody's able to control themselves. Some people need to get married. And then there are instructions here to people who are already married, verses 10 and 11. And the basic command is don't depart. Don't depart. If you do depart, verse 11, the choices are two: celibacy or reconciliation. And I will add here that there are people who try to break the Greek words down and decide that Epheme is a technical term for divorce and charizo is a technical term for separation, and these mean something different. And as is often the case when people are talking about the Greek, they don't know what they're talking about. They're making an artificial distinction that the text won't bear. And don't do that. Don't let's not try to read United States legal terminology from the 21st century into the Bible. Then, of course, there's the part of 1 Corinthians 7 that gets so much attention, and that's the business about mixed marriages. Verse 12, where Paul says, I say not the Lord, doesn't mean this is uninspired teaching. He's an apostle. He's just saying that the Lord didn't speak directly to mixed marriages. And the instructions are fairly clear. The believer is not to depart from the unbeliever, verses 12 and 13. Marriage to an unbeliever and the children from an unbeliever, marriage, mixed marriage relationship, those are legitimate kids, verses 14, verse 14. And then if the unbeliever decides to depart, verses 15 and 16, let him. You'll just have to let him go. That's the basic framework here. And what gets so much interest is, of course, this idea of you are verse 15, you are not under bondage. Or as the ESV has, you're not enslaved. And there is considerable controversy about particularly what Paul means there. I don't think he means the marriage bond. I think he probably is talking about your Christianity and the obligation to try to bring your spouse to Christ. You're married to an unbeliever, that unbeliever now very unhappy with the Christian lifestyle. And so they're going to leave. Maybe I should give up Christianity for a period of time, try to hold the marriage together. Paul says, don't do that. And it is important here in the context to see that what Paul's dealing with here is two unbelievers, and one of them became a Christian and the other did not. I think you really are straining the context here if you willfully marry an unbeliever. And everybody knows from the get-go, he's an unbeliever and I'm a Christian, and we enter into this marriage, and then we have all kinds of problems because I'm a believer and he's an unbeliever. What you got yourself into that. You got yourself into that. This is a different circumstance here where somebody marries an unbeliever, they're two unbelievers, they're two pagans, they're happily living a pagan life and doing all the pagan things. Then one of them becomes a Christian, and now there's a disruption in the marriage. Just need to think about that. Just need to think about that. If the passage authorizes divorce and remarriage on the part of a saint married to a non-saint, then are we ready to say that the Christian can commit adultery, which causes the unbelieving husband to depart and oh, and now she can remarry? That's outrageous. And people have tried to use the passage in that kind of way. People ask, what about remarrying? Remarriage is not in the verse. There's not anything in there about that. We'll have to go to other passages to have to make some conclusions about that. Then in verses 17 to 24, Paul gives some general instructions. Live contentedly in the life that you are in. And once again, we see Paul very much wants Christians to fly under the radar. We're not social revolutionaries, we're not political activists. Just keep your head down, be a good citizen, and don't call attention to yourself. In verse 25, then, he begins instructions for probably the virgins here in verse 25 are betrothed. The ESV renders it that way. And that's not that I think they're right, but that can be rendered other ways. But I think he is talking here about young betrothed women and their fiancés and what's going on with that. And Paul clearly is not saying that marriage is sinful. Look at verse 28. Paul is not pro-celibacy in any sort of way. He is aware, verse 29, that may be persecution that's coming on. This could be a tough time to be married. And one writer said, for Paul, the believer should never plant his roots firmly in the soil of this passing world and its relationships. And I have thought about that. I have thought about that. I would like to think that I have the courage to die for Christ. But if somebody held a sword to my wife's throat, that's wow, that's terrible. That would, and I would like to think that I could do the right thing in that situation too, and that Dina would want me to do the right thing. But that is a terrible burden to bear. And Paul may be saying, You may not want to be making those kinds of attachments in life right now. This is not the time for that. Finally, I'll deal with one more thing. What about these widows, verse 39 and 40? There, a wife is bound to her husband. If her husband dies, verse 39, she's free to be married only in the Lord. Only in the Lord there does not mean she has to marry a Christian. It does not say marry one who is in the Lord. In the Lord here means to be mindful of God and his will. And Paul uses it in that way, for example, in Ephesians 6, verse 1. That's a short tour through 1 Corinthians 7. We can talk more about that tonight in the Zoom call with Ciders and work with that more. There's no way in a podcast that you can deal with everything and talk about everything. Like I said, the episode would last into next week. Paul shifts gears in our reading tomorrow, but the reading for Tuesday, 1 Corinthians 7.

Wednesday 1st Corinthians 8

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Welcome to Wednesday. Welcome to Wednesday. And it is 1 Corinthians chapter 8 that is our reading for today. 1 Corinthians 8 is the reading for Wednesday. If you look at verse 1, and also if you'll look further there in verse 4, you'll observe that this is about a certain kind of food, a certain kind of eating, and that is meat that's been offered to an idol. The animal would be offered, and sometimes only a very small part of the animal would be consumed on the idol altar. The rest was given to the priest and the worshiper. And priest, of course, couldn't eat all the meat that they would receive in a day. So meat markets were set up right next to the temple. In fact, some temples even had a dining hall where you could go in there and get a steak, get some meat, and you could eat. And so the problem that Corinthian brethren would be facing, those problems should be obvious to us. Is that meat unholy, contaminated spiritually? Did the pagan God affect it? What are people going to think if I'm eating that meat? Can I go into that idol temple and the dining hall there and eat? Can I eat in a pagan's home if he's serving me that kind of food? Paul will deal with all of these questions, shows how practical Christianity can be. Eight, nine, and ten. Chapters eight, nine, and ten are about this issue. And it's important, look at verse one. Knowledge is great, but knowledge alone is not the cure for everything. And sometimes knowledge just puffs us up and causes problems because all decisions are not made just on the basis of the facts. We need to operate out of love. Look at verse 2. We need to love our neighbor. We need to know that he matters as well. Otherwise, verse 2 and 3, we're not really loving the Lord. We're not really what God wants us to be. Now, Paul understands the reality of paganism. I like verse 5, so-called gods in heaven. That's a passage in some other translations has caused some upset, but so-called gods. He knows that those people think that they are gods. They aren't gods, but they are so-called gods. And as much as we understand that, verse six, some don't, verse seven. Some brethren haven't completely climbed out of all of the pagan rites and rituals. Some brethren are still tangled up in some of that and they're trying to get all of that sorted out. And so we have to be aware of that. Because eating, verse eight, is not a big deal. It doesn't matter to God. It doesn't help our standing with the Lord. It's a matter of indifference. God doesn't care what you eat, as long as you're doing what's right. Whether you eat that meat or don't eat that meat, Paul says doesn't have anything to do with your standing before the Lord. It's a liberty, verse 9. And in fact, Paul uses the idea of rights and freedom here more than almost anywhere else in the New Testament. And it serves to link together chapters eight and chapter nine. So you just need to be careful, verse 10. You go to that dining hall. What if a brother sees you eating there? Oh, well, okay, I didn't realize Christians can still partake in idolatry. I guess I'll go up to the idol temple and be involved in sexual immorality with the temple prostitutes. Oh no, can't do that. Oh, I oh, I can eat that meat. I saw Brother Strong eating that meat. I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna eat some meat. And then that brother is eating the meat and he's drawn back into the idol rituals and all the things that go with that worship, the sizzle, the smell, the smoke, all of that. Next thing you know, he's caught up in sin. Paul says, we can't do that, and that's what 1 Corinthians 8 is all about. The reading for Thursday, no, the reading for, wow, more coffee. I need coffee. The reading for Wednesday, 1 Corinthians 8. It's Thursday.

Thursday 1st Corinthians 9

SPEAKER_01 20:48

It is Thursday. We're reading 1 Corinthians 9. The most important part of this is that we keep it in context. Chapter 8, eating meat sacrificed to idols, giving up your liberty, giving up your rights. Chapter 10, very specific instructions about what to do in various situations where you're called to eat meat or someone is serving meat. So 1 Corinthians 9 is still about this meat business and especially the idea of giving up your rights. And what 1 Corinthians 9 is about is Paul says, I'm doing what I'm asking you to do. I have rights, I've given those rights up. I am doing exactly what I'm telling you that you need to do. And he begins by establishing his right to be paid to preach. And it is clear that some are dismissing Paul's apostleship because he does not live like one of these philosophers, living high on the hog, so to speak, the wealthy lifestyle of a great leader and teacher. Look at verse 6. Is it only Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from working? People look down on Paul because he supported himself by himself in the preaching of the gospel. But Paul says he does that so that no one would think he's preaching for money. Would think that he's preaching for money. However, something is really out of proportion here. If you get spiritual treasure, then what are material treasures worth in comparison? Think about the value of the one who taught you the gospel. How big is the check you need to write to cover that? There is no check, is there? Spiritual things are of eternal value. So Paul certainly has the right to ask to be supported, but he gave that right up. Paul gave that right up. And beginning in verse 15, Paul makes some changes in the language. He goes to singular pronouns to refer just to himself. And he just keeps working how he's given up his liberties. He never compromises the content of the gospel, but he's always ready to meet people right where they are if the truth is not at stake. These are powerful principles of evangelism and teach us that we don't want to put up all kinds of artificial hoops to, oh, you got to jump through these hoops if you're going to be a Christian. We never do that. We want to meet people where they are. And then I love how Paul concludes here. Look at verse 24. Paul clearly is concerned that you can lose your salvation. And one commentator, I have to share this with you, noted that some interpreters, some interpreters, thumb interpreters, some interpreters don't have coffee. Some interpreters cannot believe Paul is teaching that believers could fail to obtain the prize. But then he observes, this commentator observes, that usually they come to this conclusion because of their prior theological commitments, not because of what the text itself says. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And so Paul then says, it's outrageous for me to lose my salvation, verse 27, when I'm the one that preached the gospel to start with. So I'm doing everything I can to help others obtain the prize, but I need to obtain the prize as well, which leads into what he'll say tomorrow in chapter 10 about being careful in the use of your liberties, or you might lose the prize. But the reading for Thursday is 1 Corinthians 9. It's

Friday 1st Corinthians 10

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Friday. It is Friday, and today we read the 10th chapter of 1 Corinthians. The reading for Friday is 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Please make sure you underline in your Bible the word for. If you're looking at an ESV, maybe you have the word moreover. That's a connective to what's going on in chapter 9. Said yesterday, chapter 9 sits in between 8 and 10. It's part of this discussion. Now Paul completes that discussion with some very practical points. This is a wonderful, wonderful chapter to learn some practical things about temptation and about how we handle Christian liberty. So Paul then talks a little bit about the Israelites and how they had many spiritual advantages, the same kind of advantages that the Christians in Corinth have. And yet, having all those spiritual advantages did not mean that they could participate in idolatry, that they could not sin, that they could not fall. With most of them, verse 5, God was not well pleased. These things, verse 6, took place as an example for us, so that we won't duplicate their mistake. And I'm going to quickly add here, maybe as a preaching note, several years ago it got real popular. An evangelical wrote a book about Jesus in the Old Testament. And his point was that the Old Testament is to point us to Jesus, and it's not a place where we go and moralize. We learn little lessons. And he cited some egregious examples when somebody takes the story of Dave and Goliath and then talks about how to whip your giants today. And I get it, I think some of that can be out of place, and sometimes the lessons that are learned aren't any different than what you would learn at a positive mental attitude seminar. But notice here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul is definitely teaching a lesson based on the example of the Israelites. So this idea that we can't ever do that in the Old Testament, the Old Testament is always about Jesus. One time I preached a lesson about David and Goliath and learning from David about temptation and about having more faith in God. And I got a nasty gram from a guy saying, you know, we can't be David. Jesus is David. No, no, a thousand times. No. We can learn these lessons. And Paul says these things help us learn these lessons. And so verse 12 says, Don't get, don't get high on your horse here and think that you can't fall. And then verse 13, God will help you so that you're not overwhelmed. But if you go looking for sin, you're going to be out of luck and you're going to be in a lot of trouble. Therefore, verse 14, you need to flee from idolatry. That's the best answer to idolatry, is just get away from it. And Paul says, you ought to be able to figure that out. Show some sense. Show some sense. Sometimes the best argument that we need to make is you just need to show some sense and figure this out. And so he then develops the idea about the Lord's Supper. And there's only two parts to the Lord's Supper here: bread and cup, not three. Bread, fruit of the vine, and the one cup. One cup, brethren, want there to be three elements necessary for the Lord's Supper, a single cup that everyone shares in. Then what's in that cup, the fruit of the vine and unleavened bread. Nope, just two elements, fruit of the vine and the bread here. And Paul, as he works along, says, Remember, I'm not contradicting myself, verse 19. I told you idols aren't anything. I'm not trying to contradict myself, but we should not provoke the Lord to jealousy, verse 22, by being involved in idolatry. And then he returns to the principle that he began with in verse 23, all things are lawful, all things in the realm of indifference, all the things that God has not legislated on, but not everything's going to help us. So we want to use our liberty carefully because, verse 31, the glory of God is the goal, not pleasing ourselves. And chapter 11, verse 1 really goes with chapter 10. This is a wretched chapter division right here that really goes with chapter 10 and tells us that we should follow the example of the apostles even today. So 8, 9, and 10 all go together to help us better understand how to use liberty and to not cause a brother to stumble to be involved in sin. The reading for Friday, 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Thank you so much then for listening. Hope the podcast is helping you with your daily Bible reading and to put into play, put into action the things that we talk about in the sermon on Sunday. It is my joy to have this opportunity to work with you and to talk with you about the Word of God. I'm Mark Roberts. I want to go to heaven. I want you to come too. I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

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, just Christians.com, and our Facebook page. Our music is from Upbeat.io. That's Upbeat with two Ps, U 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.