July 7, 2025 • 23 mins
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
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 alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think through itfurther and better work the
(00:24):
applications into our dailylives.
Mark will then look forward intothis week's Bible reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday, July
the 7th.
I'm Mark.
I had my Bible open and notesfrom my sermon yesterday.
All kinds of good thingshappening, even if it is the day
after a long holiday weekend.
Wow, tough to get started again.
Probably need an extra cup ofcoffee.
Mmm.
UNKNOWN (01:11):
Mmm.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Well, I just arrow pressed this and it is
excellent.
Ask me about the arrow presssometime if you want to know how
to up your coffee game.
It's a wonderful way of making agreat cup of coffee.
Even more important than that isthe sermon yesterday and our
daily Bible reading.
And that's what I really want totalk about.
So pour that cup of coffee.
Let's get ready.
Let's get set.
(01:33):
Let's go.
Yesterday's sermon was aboutspiritual 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 severalkey ideas to watch for.
Let me just give you somethingelse to be aware of and to be
(01:54):
watching for.
It's a really, really biggiveaway that you are dealing
with a snake oil salesman, andthat's when it's always all
about the teacher.
A huge red flag is when thefocus 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.
(02:15):
They can't talk enough abouttheir books, their corches,
their merchandise.
Sell, sell, sell.
They are the center ofattention.
Their every word gets a micdrop.
And if you challenge theirteaching, it's taken as a
personal attack because they'vemade the message about
themselves.
We're not here...
to glorify ourselves aspreachers, teachers, shepherds,
(02:39):
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 upJesus.
False teaching lifts up theteacher.
One writer said, when it's allabout the seller, it's not about
the Savior.
(02:59):
Watch for that.
When the snake oil salesman isalways talking about the
salesman and not the Savior, youknow who you're dealing with
now.
Hope that helps you so thatyou'll be aware and be ready to
detect false religion and falsedoctrine.
Let's think about our Biblereading and let's see somebody
(03:21):
who didn't do a very good job ofserving the Lord and weeding out
false religion.
Turn your Bible to 1 Kings.
(03:47):
Our reading for Monday is 1Kings 14, verses 21 to 31.
And this is the kind of thingthat we'll be reading all along
in Kings.
We'll get sort of a meanwhileback at the ranch kind of
narrative.
First, the author will talk tous about what's going on, say,
in the north with the northernkingdom and the king who's king
there and all the bad thingsthey're doing there.
(04:08):
And then, of course, you'll bewondering, well, what's going on
in Judea during this time?
And so then the narrative willshift south, and we'll talk
about what's going on in thatkingdom.
I would give you this.
There is a pattern to this.
And I'm reading here from anexcellent scholar.
The narrator introduces a newformat and style at this point
that enables him to state theessence of the king's reign with
(04:30):
an economy of words.
The introduction and theconclusion of the account of
each reign conform to a fixedpattern.
There's only slight variation toit.
Here's the information regularlygiven for the reigns of the
kings of Judah.
First, the date of the beginningof his reign, then his age at
the beginning of his reign,thirdly, the length and place of
his reign, fourth, the name ofthe queen mother, and then
(04:52):
fifthly, a theologicalevaluation.
Now, the pattern for Israelitekings, the kings of the north,
is the same except that theirages and the names of their
mothers are not usually given.
But the reign of each king, bothJudah and Israel, is normally
concluded in this manner.
There'll be a summary of thereign, there'll be a referral to
the royal If you want to knowmore about that, then there's a
(05:13):
notice of death and the place ofburial and the successor is
named.
So just watch for that formulaas we go along.
And we see that right away inverse 21.
Rehoboam, notice the mother isgiven.
That's Naaman the Ammonite.
Where'd she come from?
She came from Solomon's marriageto foreign wives.
And guess what?
He acts like an Ammonite.
(05:34):
Judah did, verse 22, what wasevil in the sight of the Lord.
Verse 23, they built forthemselves high places.
And verse 24, there was malecult prostitution in the land.
They did according to all theabominations of the nations that
the Lord drove out before thepeople of Israel.
I talked two Sundays ago abouthow the modern nation of Israel
is not evil.
the Israel of the Bible, andthat those promises to Israel to
(05:57):
occupy that land were alwaysconditional.
Deuteronomy 28-32 makes thatabundantly clear.
And here we see them violatingthe covenant, so we are not
surprised.
They will be removed from theland.
God removed those people fromthe land who acted that way.
When you act like theCanaanites, that God kicked off
the land, guess what?
You're going to get kicked offthe land.
Verse 24 is setting up that veryidea.
(06:19):
And then, of course, in verse 25says, Rebuke begins to happen.
Shishak, king of Egypt, comesup.
This is probably an Egyptianpharaoh known as Shishak I.
He succeeded in reuniting thecountry.
He founded the 22nd dynasty, andhe did sweep through a ton of
Israel and Judah.
He lists 150 cities that he tookon the wall of a partially
(06:41):
ruined temple that's nearmodern-day Luxor.
His splendor did not last long.
His kingdom did not last long.
But here he comes and takes awaythe treasures of the house of
the Lord.
So if you've ever wondered,verse 22, Why in Raiders of the
Lost Ark, probably the mostfamous movie about the Ark of
the Covenant, why is the Arkbeing found in Egypt?
There is some speculation.
(07:01):
that this is when the Ark wastaken to Egypt.
So that movie may, in fact, begetting that right.
Now, there is plenty ofdisagreement about that.
And if you go pick up theparallel account in 2 Chronicles
12, there is actually somehumbling being done here in
Judah with this rebuke.
I mean, think about what a blowthis is.
The temple itself is beingsacked.
(07:24):
That would say something tothese people about where they
are in their relationship toGod.
And so there is some humblinggoing on, 2 Chronicles 12, 1 to
12.
But Rehoboam, the verdict on himis he did not do right.
He did not seek after God.
There is hostility, verse 30,some border skirmishes going on
all the time.
(07:44):
And then again, his mother'sname is given.
Think about that.
Solomon's choices in marriageaffect his children.
Solomon's choices in leadership,he allowed those idols to come
to Jerusalem.
He built those temples for thoseforeign wives.
That affects his legacy.
Lots to think on there fromSolomon because he's introduced
(08:06):
idolatry into Judah, and it isgrowing like dandelions.
It's taken root like weeds, andit will be hard to root that
out.
A reading for Monday, 1 Kings14, 24.
It is Tuesday, it is Tuesday,and today we're reading the
entirety of 1 Kings 15.
(08:27):
Our reading for Tuesday, 1 Kingschapter 15.
We're going to get some SouthernKings here and then things will
move to the North and we'll staythere for quite a while.
So if you're tired of thejumping back and forth, hang in
there in a moment.
We'll just stick with the Northfor a good little bit.
And I should say this, we do getZoom tonight.
Those of you who are part of theWestside Church family will be
on Zoom tonight to pray togetherand read through this and talk
(08:48):
about it.
And there's plenty to talk abouthere.
Our reading begins with thereign of Abijam.
He's reigning in the south inverses 1 to 8.
He's known as Abijah inChronicles, and you can learn
more about him in 2 Chronicles13.
It's worth jumping over thereand reading some of that.
His mother's name is differentthere.
It may be because the queenmother carried over from
(09:08):
Rehoboam and was not his realmother, so there may be some
changes there in the genealogy.
That's always a little bitdifficult to track.
In our reading today, verse 4 isprobably the key verse.
Once again, God is keeping hispromises.
even when Israel is not, or inthis case Judah, is not being
faithful unto God." Then we getthe reign of Asa.
I like Asa a lot.
(09:29):
Verses 9 to 24, he seems to bedoing what's right.
He's not doing everything Iwould like him to do.
Verse 14, the high places werenot taken away, so he's not
enforcing the worship of JehovahGod, but he himself worships
God.
He does what's right, and asmuch as I'm saying good things
about him, then the very nextthing that happens is Israel
comes up against him.
(09:50):
Verse 17, Basha king of Israeland builds Ramah.
Ramah is only about four milesnorth of Jerusalem, and he's
blocking the roads to the south.
This seems like an economicblockade.
And so Asa's panicking, and hedoesn't consult God.
In 2 Chronicles 16, there'sdiscussion of this worth going
to read.
The prophet condemns Asa becausehe doesn't ask God.
(10:14):
He just makes an alliance withSyria.
That's not a great idea.
Don't be doing that.
Don't be doing that.
And as I said, 2 Chronicles hasmore about Asa.
Some of that's in 2 Chronicles14.
A couple of main events there.
He has a great victory, and thenthere's some more reform.
He really is a study incontrast.
He turned to God against thefirst foe, but then he sought
(10:36):
Syrian help with a lesser foe.
It seems like sometimes he'svery faithful, sometimes he's
not nearly as faithful.
Maybe we'll talk a little bitmore about that tonight in Zoom
and think about 1 Chronicles andhow it helps us better
understand about Asa.
He does end up dying.
He is, verse 23,"...diseased inhis feet." And I should say
this, there is a lot ofsuggestions about that.
(10:59):
Sometimes, Sometimes feet can bea euphemism in the Bible for
your sexual organs, and somehave thought that this indicates
some kind of venereal diseasebecause he was sexually immoral.
And the way that we know thesekings act, I'm not sure there's
any way I can tell you, oh,absolutely not.
I would certainly hope not, butthat may be on the table here.
(11:19):
Then we get the reign of Nadaband the reign of Basha,
beginning in verse 25.
Nadab, now again, we're jumpingto the north here, but it'll be
a long stretch where we staywith the north.
We won't hear from So Nadab isreigning there.
He reigns two years, it says,but really it's only parts of
(11:40):
two years.
His whole reign is going to comeout to be about a year.
And then Basha shows up and heexterminates the royal family
just as God prophesied.
I think that's the huge keyhere.
I'm not that focused on learningall these kings' names or
remembering their moms' names,all that kind of business.
What we want to keep our eye onis God does what God says.
(12:04):
We want to have more faith andmore trust in God.
So we're reading through allthis history, and sometimes we
look at it and we think, this isjust random stuff.
Who even cares what Nadab didor, 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 materialis 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 forTuesday emphasizes that.
See you tonight on Zoom,Westsiders.
Everybody else, I'll catch youon the podcast tomorrow.
(12:42):
It is Wednesday.
It is Wednesday, and our readingis 1 Kings chapter 16, verses 1
to 20.
I know that you're excited as wecontinue our series on the
judges tonight.
Travis Walker from Odessa,Texas, will be with us.
I met Travis when I was in ameeting with the Billy Hicks
Road Congregation a year ago,two years ago, when I was with
Travis.
I was very impressed with him.
(13:02):
He's very knowledgeable in theWord of God, and I'm sure he'll
do a great job talking aboutGideon.
And that seems to be appropriatebecause Gideon Our reading today
in 1 Kings 16, it just seemslike it could come right out of
the book of Judges.
It's just wild and crazy.
One scholar said this text hasit all.
Carousing and conspiracy,assassination and civil strife,
(13:23):
everything that gives theevening news its reason for
existence.
The northern kingdom appears tobe careening down the water
slide of history, bashing alongto its own self-destruction when
suddenly it levels out.
And that is what we will seetoday.
Basha reigns in the first sevenverses here.
(13:46):
Jehu, the prophet, comes to him.
We don't know anything aboutJehu.
He did serve God a long time.
He'll show up about 50 yearslater, and he'll be talking to
the Judean king, Jehoshaphat.
And he comes to say, Everythinghere is going wrong, and God's
going to bring judgment uponthis house because of what's
happening here.
And so the emphasis is on theword of the Lord, verse 1, verse
(14:09):
7, verse 12, the word of theLord.
By the way, the endingexpression at the end of verse
7, because he destroyed it,That's a very difficult
expression.
We're not sure exactly how thatis to be taken or to be
translated.
And someone may ask here, why isBasha condemned for killing off
the house of Jeroboam when thiswas God's will?
And the answer to that is if hehad done it because he wanted to
(14:32):
do God's will, I think he wouldhave gotten credit for that and
been seen as a righteous man.
He just did it out of personalambition.
He did it because it suited him,not because it was the right
thing to do.
So then Elah comes along, verse8, He doesn't last very long at
all.
He ends up being assassinated.
He's drunk, and he gets killedby an army officer, and so Zimri
(14:54):
then destroys the house ofBasha, verse 12, according to
the word of the Lord.
That's the emphasis.
Talked about that yesterday.
God's word comes to pass, and sohere Zimri is, and he's the new
king.
He's a military man, and hereigns Seven days in Terza.
Why seven days?
Because that's how long it tookthe army to march over there and
(15:15):
kill him.
When they hear that Zimri hasconspired and killed the king,
verse 16, they set out againsthim under the direction of Omri.
And when Zimri saw that he wasgoing to lose this battle and
couldn't hold off the army, thathe could not sway the army to
his side, he just burns hishouse down over himself and
dies.
So here's a suicide.
Talk about things going downhillin a hurry because, verse 19, of
(15:39):
his sins that he is Get theemphasis.
Don't let these repetitiveverses, doing evil in the sight
of the Lord, walking in the wayof Jeroboam.
Got to think about this.
Are you walking in the way ofDavid?
Are you walking in the way ofJeroboam?
That's the question Kings issetting before us.
Our reading for Wednesday, 1Kings 16, verses 1-20.
(16:02):
It is Thursday.
It is Thursday and I'm home frombeing with a church in Granbury
last night as part of theirsummer series.
It's great to be home.
Grab some coffee.
Let's work on the word in 1Kings chapter 16.
Our reading for Thursday is 1Kings 16, 21 to 34.
This begins the dynasty of Omri.
Verse 21 talks about Omri andhow the people were divided into
(16:26):
two parts.
So as yesterday we were talkinga little bit about how the
nation is just careening downthe water slide of history into
just all kinds of anarchy andchaos.
You got a guy who's reigningseven days, and he gets killed
or kills himself, and now wehave another.
It's just craziness.
Now we have a civil war goingon, but Omri overcomes.
(16:46):
His side wins, and he does.
It takes four years to solidifythe kingdom, verses 23 and 24,
but he does bring stability toIsrael.
He is, from a secularperspective, standpoint, very
successful.
There's a stone called theMoabite stone that refers to him
as the conqueror of Moab.
(17:07):
He is very influential.
In fact, there's some recordsthat call Israel the house of
Omri, and one of the big thingsthat he does is stop the war
with Judah in the south so thathe can concentrate his military
forces on the growing problem ofSyria in the north.
They are a rising power, and heneeds to take care of that, and
he does.
(17:27):
take care of that.
He also, as I said, conquers theMoabites to make sure that
they're not going to be aproblem on his flank.
Mostly what Omri needs to beknown for, I guess, walking in
the ways of Jeroboam, verse 26,is that he has a famous son.
His son is Ahab, and he beginsto reign in verse 29.
and he brings real stability tothe empire.
(17:50):
It's not really an empire atthis point, to the kingdom, I
guess.
He reigned 22 years.
Think about that in contrast toall of the short reigns, one
year, two years, seven days thatwe have been seeing.
Ahab settles things down, and hedoes everything In fact, there
are a number of places in theBible that say this is as bad as
(18:14):
it could possibly get.
He marries an idol worshiper, heworships Baal, he builds temples
for Baal in the Asherah, and ofcourse, this wife of his,
Jezebel, she persecutes theprophets of God.
And I think one of the keys hereis to see that this is a jump.
We're worshiping God underJeroboam as a golden cow, but
(18:36):
it's still the worship ofJehovah God, the God of Israel,
the God who brought us out ofEgypt.
We're just worshiping the rightGod in the wrong way.
But this is a change.
Now we're not worshipingJehovah.
We are worshiping Baal.
Think about that.
Think about that.
This is a wholesale apostasy, acomplete sellout of true
(18:59):
religion.
And I want to emphasize, andwe'll continue to emphasize as
we move into chapter 17, thatthe theme of the text here is
the word of the Lord.
And the word of the Lord, verse34, comes to pass when somebody
builds Jericho.
And the word of the Lord comesto pass, costing the builder
here family members as he erectsJericho because...
(19:22):
of the word of the Lord spokenby Joshua.
Our reading for Thursday, 1Kings 16, 21-34.
Tomorrow, we're in the Psalms.
It is Friday.
It's Friday, and today we'rereading Psalm 28.
Psalm 28 helps us think aboutpraying, particularly when we
(19:42):
are in trouble.
And I should say that this psalmseems to be related to Psalm 26
and 27 that go in front of it.
Psalm 26 verse 1 has a cry forvindication.
Psalm 27 verses 1, 2, and 3,which I preached on on Sunday in
the 9 a.m., there's stilltrouble going on and there's
still concerns.
Now we come to Psalm 28 andDavid is still praying.
(20:04):
It seems that these psalms areteaching us something about
persisting in prayer.
And while this psalm in someways sounds very lamenty, a cry
for deliverance and help, and ithas some lament themes to it, it
really seems to be more,especially verses six to nine,
and it seems to be more anexpression of confidence in God
and his strength.
So maybe there's a little bit ofboth in this psalm.
(20:25):
I need you, Lord, to help meout.
I trust in God that he will, infact, help me out.
The prayer is directed solely tothe Lord, and the beginning and
the end of the prayer opens andcloses with the focus on God The
holy sanctuary is the placewhere God's presence dwelt above
the Ark of the Covenant.
(20:46):
And there is the idea there ofbeing in the pit.
That's like verse 1.
That's the one who is dead, whois silent, unable to call upon
God.
Remember, in the Old Testament,they don't have a fully
developed idea about death andthe afterlife and all that goes
with all of that.
Then there is this cry forfairness that seems to be the
problem here, seems to beinjustice that's going on
(21:07):
beginning in verse 3.
And the psalmist is clear.
David is very clear.
He's giving this problem over toGod.
God, this is what I would likeyou to do with this.
God, I need you to deal withthese people.
This is what they deserve.
But he doesn't take that forhimself.
He does not take it into his ownhands.
I'm going to trust that God willdo something about that.
And then in verses 6 and 7, Godseems to have done something
(21:30):
about that.
There's a pivot here.
There's a change in the tone ofthe psalm.
The Lord has heard my pleas formercy.
The My heart is exalting becausehe's answered my prayers.
And then the Psalm closes bysaying, God will hear your
prayers.
And there is a note here ofthanksgiving.
The Lord hears the cries of hispeople.
(21:51):
I think maybe we ought to justtake a moment and read this
Psalm with Psalm 26, 27, andthen finish our reading for
today with Psalm 28, the readingfor Friday.
And that way we'll see thesePsalms all together.
And I think doing that, mayresult in a much richer prayer
life as we think about how Davidprayed, how confident David was
(22:13):
in his praying, and how Godanswered his prayers.
The reading for Friday is Psalm28.
That concludes the podcast forthe week, men.
I certainly do appreciate youlistening to the podcast.
Hope that you'll tell somebodyelse about it.
And if you haven't, give us arating or review because that'll
help more people find thispodcast.
(22:34):
Thanks again for listening.
I'm Mark Roberts, and I want togo to heaven, and I want you to
come too.
I'll see you on Monday with acup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (22:49):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, 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
(23:14):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again, with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
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 alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think through itfurther and better work the
(00:24):
applications into our dailylives.
Mark will then look forward intothis week's Bible reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday, July
the 7th.
I'm Mark.
I had my Bible open and notesfrom my sermon yesterday.
All kinds of good thingshappening, even if it is the day
after a long holiday weekend.
Wow, tough to get started again.
Probably need an extra cup ofcoffee.
Mmm.
UNKNOWN (01:11):
Mmm.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Well, I just arrow pressed this and it is
excellent.
Ask me about the arrow presssometime if you want to know how
to up your coffee game.
It's a wonderful way of making agreat cup of coffee.
Even more important than that isthe sermon yesterday and our
daily Bible reading.
And that's what I really want totalk about.
So pour that cup of coffee.
Let's get ready.
Let's get set.
(01:33):
Let's go.
Yesterday's sermon was aboutspiritual 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 severalkey ideas to watch for.
Let me just give you somethingelse to be aware of and to be
(01:54):
watching for.
It's a really, really biggiveaway that you are dealing
with a snake oil salesman, andthat's when it's always all
about the teacher.
A huge red flag is when thefocus 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.
(02:15):
They can't talk enough abouttheir books, their corches,
their merchandise.
Sell, sell, sell.
They are the center ofattention.
Their every word gets a micdrop.
And if you challenge theirteaching, it's taken as a
personal attack because they'vemade the message about
themselves.
We're not here...
to glorify ourselves aspreachers, teachers, shepherds,
(02:39):
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 upJesus.
False teaching lifts up theteacher.
One writer said, when it's allabout the seller, it's not about
the Savior.
(02:59):
Watch for that.
When the snake oil salesman isalways talking about the
salesman and not the Savior, youknow who you're dealing with
now.
Hope that helps you so thatyou'll be aware and be ready to
detect false religion and falsedoctrine.
Let's think about our Biblereading and let's see somebody
(03:21):
who didn't do a very good job ofserving the Lord and weeding out
false religion.
Turn your Bible to 1 Kings.
(03:47):
Our reading for Monday is 1Kings 14, verses 21 to 31.
And this is the kind of thingthat we'll be reading all along
in Kings.
We'll get sort of a meanwhileback at the ranch kind of
narrative.
First, the author will talk tous about what's going on, say,
in the north with the northernkingdom and the king who's king
there and all the bad thingsthey're doing there.
(04:08):
And then, of course, you'll bewondering, well, what's going on
in Judea during this time?
And so then the narrative willshift south, and we'll talk
about what's going on in thatkingdom.
I would give you this.
There is a pattern to this.
And I'm reading here from anexcellent scholar.
The narrator introduces a newformat and style at this point
that enables him to state theessence of the king's reign with
(04:30):
an economy of words.
The introduction and theconclusion of the account of
each reign conform to a fixedpattern.
There's only slight variation toit.
Here's the information regularlygiven for the reigns of the
kings of Judah.
First, the date of the beginningof his reign, then his age at
the beginning of his reign,thirdly, the length and place of
his reign, fourth, the name ofthe queen mother, and then
(04:52):
fifthly, a theologicalevaluation.
Now, the pattern for Israelitekings, the kings of the north,
is the same except that theirages and the names of their
mothers are not usually given.
But the reign of each king, bothJudah and Israel, is normally
concluded in this manner.
There'll be a summary of thereign, there'll be a referral to
the royal If you want to knowmore about that, then there's a
(05:13):
notice of death and the place ofburial and the successor is
named.
So just watch for that formulaas we go along.
And we see that right away inverse 21.
Rehoboam, notice the mother isgiven.
That's Naaman the Ammonite.
Where'd she come from?
She came from Solomon's marriageto foreign wives.
And guess what?
He acts like an Ammonite.
(05:34):
Judah did, verse 22, what wasevil in the sight of the Lord.
Verse 23, they built forthemselves high places.
And verse 24, there was malecult prostitution in the land.
They did according to all theabominations of the nations that
the Lord drove out before thepeople of Israel.
I talked two Sundays ago abouthow the modern nation of Israel
is not evil.
the Israel of the Bible, andthat those promises to Israel to
(05:57):
occupy that land were alwaysconditional.
Deuteronomy 28-32 makes thatabundantly clear.
And here we see them violatingthe covenant, so we are not
surprised.
They will be removed from theland.
God removed those people fromthe land who acted that way.
When you act like theCanaanites, that God kicked off
the land, guess what?
You're going to get kicked offthe land.
Verse 24 is setting up that veryidea.
(06:19):
And then, of course, in verse 25says, Rebuke begins to happen.
Shishak, king of Egypt, comesup.
This is probably an Egyptianpharaoh known as Shishak I.
He succeeded in reuniting thecountry.
He founded the 22nd dynasty, andhe did sweep through a ton of
Israel and Judah.
He lists 150 cities that he tookon the wall of a partially
(06:41):
ruined temple that's nearmodern-day Luxor.
His splendor did not last long.
His kingdom did not last long.
But here he comes and takes awaythe treasures of the house of
the Lord.
So if you've ever wondered,verse 22, Why in Raiders of the
Lost Ark, probably the mostfamous movie about the Ark of
the Covenant, why is the Arkbeing found in Egypt?
There is some speculation.
(07:01):
that this is when the Ark wastaken to Egypt.
So that movie may, in fact, begetting that right.
Now, there is plenty ofdisagreement about that.
And if you go pick up theparallel account in 2 Chronicles
12, there is actually somehumbling being done here in
Judah with this rebuke.
I mean, think about what a blowthis is.
The temple itself is beingsacked.
(07:24):
That would say something tothese people about where they
are in their relationship toGod.
And so there is some humblinggoing on, 2 Chronicles 12, 1 to
12.
But Rehoboam, the verdict on himis he did not do right.
He did not seek after God.
There is hostility, verse 30,some border skirmishes going on
all the time.
(07:44):
And then again, his mother'sname is given.
Think about that.
Solomon's choices in marriageaffect his children.
Solomon's choices in leadership,he allowed those idols to come
to Jerusalem.
He built those temples for thoseforeign wives.
That affects his legacy.
Lots to think on there fromSolomon because he's introduced
(08:06):
idolatry into Judah, and it isgrowing like dandelions.
It's taken root like weeds, andit will be hard to root that
out.
A reading for Monday, 1 Kings14, 24.
It is Tuesday, it is Tuesday,and today we're reading the
entirety of 1 Kings 15.
(08:27):
Our reading for Tuesday, 1 Kingschapter 15.
We're going to get some SouthernKings here and then things will
move to the North and we'll staythere for quite a while.
So if you're tired of thejumping back and forth, hang in
there in a moment.
We'll just stick with the Northfor a good little bit.
And I should say this, we do getZoom tonight.
Those of you who are part of theWestside Church family will be
on Zoom tonight to pray togetherand read through this and talk
(08:48):
about it.
And there's plenty to talk abouthere.
Our reading begins with thereign of Abijam.
He's reigning in the south inverses 1 to 8.
He's known as Abijah inChronicles, and you can learn
more about him in 2 Chronicles13.
It's worth jumping over thereand reading some of that.
His mother's name is differentthere.
It may be because the queenmother carried over from
(09:08):
Rehoboam and was not his realmother, so there may be some
changes there in the genealogy.
That's always a little bitdifficult to track.
In our reading today, verse 4 isprobably the key verse.
Once again, God is keeping hispromises.
even when Israel is not, or inthis case Judah, is not being
faithful unto God." Then we getthe reign of Asa.
I like Asa a lot.
(09:29):
Verses 9 to 24, he seems to bedoing what's right.
He's not doing everything Iwould like him to do.
Verse 14, the high places werenot taken away, so he's not
enforcing the worship of JehovahGod, but he himself worships
God.
He does what's right, and asmuch as I'm saying good things
about him, then the very nextthing that happens is Israel
comes up against him.
(09:50):
Verse 17, Basha king of Israeland builds Ramah.
Ramah is only about four milesnorth of Jerusalem, and he's
blocking the roads to the south.
This seems like an economicblockade.
And so Asa's panicking, and hedoesn't consult God.
In 2 Chronicles 16, there'sdiscussion of this worth going
to read.
The prophet condemns Asa becausehe doesn't ask God.
(10:14):
He just makes an alliance withSyria.
That's not a great idea.
Don't be doing that.
Don't be doing that.
And as I said, 2 Chronicles hasmore about Asa.
Some of that's in 2 Chronicles14.
A couple of main events there.
He has a great victory, and thenthere's some more reform.
He really is a study incontrast.
He turned to God against thefirst foe, but then he sought
(10:36):
Syrian help with a lesser foe.
It seems like sometimes he'svery faithful, sometimes he's
not nearly as faithful.
Maybe we'll talk a little bitmore about that tonight in Zoom
and think about 1 Chronicles andhow it helps us better
understand about Asa.
He does end up dying.
He is, verse 23,"...diseased inhis feet." And I should say
this, there is a lot ofsuggestions about that.
(10:59):
Sometimes, Sometimes feet can bea euphemism in the Bible for
your sexual organs, and somehave thought that this indicates
some kind of venereal diseasebecause he was sexually immoral.
And the way that we know thesekings act, I'm not sure there's
any way I can tell you, oh,absolutely not.
I would certainly hope not, butthat may be on the table here.
(11:19):
Then we get the reign of Nadaband the reign of Basha,
beginning in verse 25.
Nadab, now again, we're jumpingto the north here, but it'll be
a long stretch where we staywith the north.
We won't hear from So Nadab isreigning there.
He reigns two years, it says,but really it's only parts of
(11:40):
two years.
His whole reign is going to comeout to be about a year.
And then Basha shows up and heexterminates the royal family
just as God prophesied.
I think that's the huge keyhere.
I'm not that focused on learningall these kings' names or
remembering their moms' names,all that kind of business.
What we want to keep our eye onis God does what God says.
(12:04):
We want to have more faith andmore trust in God.
So we're reading through allthis history, and sometimes we
look at it and we think, this isjust random stuff.
Who even cares what Nadab didor, 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 materialis 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 forTuesday emphasizes that.
See you tonight on Zoom,Westsiders.
Everybody else, I'll catch youon the podcast tomorrow.
(12:42):
It is Wednesday.
It is Wednesday, and our readingis 1 Kings chapter 16, verses 1
to 20.
I know that you're excited as wecontinue our series on the
judges tonight.
Travis Walker from Odessa,Texas, will be with us.
I met Travis when I was in ameeting with the Billy Hicks
Road Congregation a year ago,two years ago, when I was with
Travis.
I was very impressed with him.
(13:02):
He's very knowledgeable in theWord of God, and I'm sure he'll
do a great job talking aboutGideon.
And that seems to be appropriatebecause Gideon Our reading today
in 1 Kings 16, it just seemslike it could come right out of
the book of Judges.
It's just wild and crazy.
One scholar said this text hasit all.
Carousing and conspiracy,assassination and civil strife,
(13:23):
everything that gives theevening news its reason for
existence.
The northern kingdom appears tobe careening down the water
slide of history, bashing alongto its own self-destruction when
suddenly it levels out.
And that is what we will seetoday.
Basha reigns in the first sevenverses here.
(13:46):
Jehu, the prophet, comes to him.
We don't know anything aboutJehu.
He did serve God a long time.
He'll show up about 50 yearslater, and he'll be talking to
the Judean king, Jehoshaphat.
And he comes to say, Everythinghere is going wrong, and God's
going to bring judgment uponthis house because of what's
happening here.
And so the emphasis is on theword of the Lord, verse 1, verse
(14:09):
7, verse 12, the word of theLord.
By the way, the endingexpression at the end of verse
7, because he destroyed it,That's a very difficult
expression.
We're not sure exactly how thatis to be taken or to be
translated.
And someone may ask here, why isBasha condemned for killing off
the house of Jeroboam when thiswas God's will?
And the answer to that is if hehad done it because he wanted to
(14:32):
do God's will, I think he wouldhave gotten credit for that and
been seen as a righteous man.
He just did it out of personalambition.
He did it because it suited him,not because it was the right
thing to do.
So then Elah comes along, verse8, He doesn't last very long at
all.
He ends up being assassinated.
He's drunk, and he gets killedby an army officer, and so Zimri
(14:54):
then destroys the house ofBasha, verse 12, according to
the word of the Lord.
That's the emphasis.
Talked about that yesterday.
God's word comes to pass, and sohere Zimri is, and he's the new
king.
He's a military man, and hereigns Seven days in Terza.
Why seven days?
Because that's how long it tookthe army to march over there and
(15:15):
kill him.
When they hear that Zimri hasconspired and killed the king,
verse 16, they set out againsthim under the direction of Omri.
And when Zimri saw that he wasgoing to lose this battle and
couldn't hold off the army, thathe could not sway the army to
his side, he just burns hishouse down over himself and
dies.
So here's a suicide.
Talk about things going downhillin a hurry because, verse 19, of
(15:39):
his sins that he is Get theemphasis.
Don't let these repetitiveverses, doing evil in the sight
of the Lord, walking in the wayof Jeroboam.
Got to think about this.
Are you walking in the way ofDavid?
Are you walking in the way ofJeroboam?
That's the question Kings issetting before us.
Our reading for Wednesday, 1Kings 16, verses 1-20.
(16:02):
It is Thursday.
It is Thursday and I'm home frombeing with a church in Granbury
last night as part of theirsummer series.
It's great to be home.
Grab some coffee.
Let's work on the word in 1Kings chapter 16.
Our reading for Thursday is 1Kings 16, 21 to 34.
This begins the dynasty of Omri.
Verse 21 talks about Omri andhow the people were divided into
(16:26):
two parts.
So as yesterday we were talkinga little bit about how the
nation is just careening downthe water slide of history into
just all kinds of anarchy andchaos.
You got a guy who's reigningseven days, and he gets killed
or kills himself, and now wehave another.
It's just craziness.
Now we have a civil war goingon, but Omri overcomes.
(16:46):
His side wins, and he does.
It takes four years to solidifythe kingdom, verses 23 and 24,
but he does bring stability toIsrael.
He is, from a secularperspective, standpoint, very
successful.
There's a stone called theMoabite stone that refers to him
as the conqueror of Moab.
(17:07):
He is very influential.
In fact, there's some recordsthat call Israel the house of
Omri, and one of the big thingsthat he does is stop the war
with Judah in the south so thathe can concentrate his military
forces on the growing problem ofSyria in the north.
They are a rising power, and heneeds to take care of that, and
he does.
(17:27):
take care of that.
He also, as I said, conquers theMoabites to make sure that
they're not going to be aproblem on his flank.
Mostly what Omri needs to beknown for, I guess, walking in
the ways of Jeroboam, verse 26,is that he has a famous son.
His son is Ahab, and he beginsto reign in verse 29.
and he brings real stability tothe empire.
(17:50):
It's not really an empire atthis point, to the kingdom, I
guess.
He reigned 22 years.
Think about that in contrast toall of the short reigns, one
year, two years, seven days thatwe have been seeing.
Ahab settles things down, and hedoes everything In fact, there
are a number of places in theBible that say this is as bad as
(18:14):
it could possibly get.
He marries an idol worshiper, heworships Baal, he builds temples
for Baal in the Asherah, and ofcourse, this wife of his,
Jezebel, she persecutes theprophets of God.
And I think one of the keys hereis to see that this is a jump.
We're worshiping God underJeroboam as a golden cow, but
(18:36):
it's still the worship ofJehovah God, the God of Israel,
the God who brought us out ofEgypt.
We're just worshiping the rightGod in the wrong way.
But this is a change.
Now we're not worshipingJehovah.
We are worshiping Baal.
Think about that.
Think about that.
This is a wholesale apostasy, acomplete sellout of true
(18:59):
religion.
And I want to emphasize, andwe'll continue to emphasize as
we move into chapter 17, thatthe theme of the text here is
the word of the Lord.
And the word of the Lord, verse34, comes to pass when somebody
builds Jericho.
And the word of the Lord comesto pass, costing the builder
here family members as he erectsJericho because...
(19:22):
of the word of the Lord spokenby Joshua.
Our reading for Thursday, 1Kings 16, 21-34.
Tomorrow, we're in the Psalms.
It is Friday.
It's Friday, and today we'rereading Psalm 28.
Psalm 28 helps us think aboutpraying, particularly when we
(19:42):
are in trouble.
And I should say that this psalmseems to be related to Psalm 26
and 27 that go in front of it.
Psalm 26 verse 1 has a cry forvindication.
Psalm 27 verses 1, 2, and 3,which I preached on on Sunday in
the 9 a.m., there's stilltrouble going on and there's
still concerns.
Now we come to Psalm 28 andDavid is still praying.
(20:04):
It seems that these psalms areteaching us something about
persisting in prayer.
And while this psalm in someways sounds very lamenty, a cry
for deliverance and help, and ithas some lament themes to it, it
really seems to be more,especially verses six to nine,
and it seems to be more anexpression of confidence in God
and his strength.
So maybe there's a little bit ofboth in this psalm.
(20:25):
I need you, Lord, to help meout.
I trust in God that he will, infact, help me out.
The prayer is directed solely tothe Lord, and the beginning and
the end of the prayer opens andcloses with the focus on God The
holy sanctuary is the placewhere God's presence dwelt above
the Ark of the Covenant.
(20:46):
And there is the idea there ofbeing in the pit.
That's like verse 1.
That's the one who is dead, whois silent, unable to call upon
God.
Remember, in the Old Testament,they don't have a fully
developed idea about death andthe afterlife and all that goes
with all of that.
Then there is this cry forfairness that seems to be the
problem here, seems to beinjustice that's going on
(21:07):
beginning in verse 3.
And the psalmist is clear.
David is very clear.
He's giving this problem over toGod.
God, this is what I would likeyou to do with this.
God, I need you to deal withthese people.
This is what they deserve.
But he doesn't take that forhimself.
He does not take it into his ownhands.
I'm going to trust that God willdo something about that.
And then in verses 6 and 7, Godseems to have done something
(21:30):
about that.
There's a pivot here.
There's a change in the tone ofthe psalm.
The Lord has heard my pleas formercy.
The My heart is exalting becausehe's answered my prayers.
And then the Psalm closes bysaying, God will hear your
prayers.
And there is a note here ofthanksgiving.
The Lord hears the cries of hispeople.
(21:51):
I think maybe we ought to justtake a moment and read this
Psalm with Psalm 26, 27, andthen finish our reading for
today with Psalm 28, the readingfor Friday.
And that way we'll see thesePsalms all together.
And I think doing that, mayresult in a much richer prayer
life as we think about how Davidprayed, how confident David was
(22:13):
in his praying, and how Godanswered his prayers.
The reading for Friday is Psalm28.
That concludes the podcast forthe week, men.
I certainly do appreciate youlistening to the podcast.
Hope that you'll tell somebodyelse about it.
And if you haven't, give us arating or review because that'll
help more people find thispodcast.
(22:34):
Thanks again for listening.
I'm Mark Roberts, and I want togo to heaven, and I want you to
come too.
I'll see you on Monday with acup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (22:49):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, 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
(23:14):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again, with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
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