August 4, 2025 • 18 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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Episode Transcript
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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,
August the 4th.
I'm Mark.
I've got some great coffee.
I'm looking at my sermon outlinefrom yesterday.
I have a boatload of stuff fromDaily Bible Reading.
Man, stuff is happening in DailyBible Reading.
Miracles and all kinds of thingsare going on.
It is going on, so you need topour that cup of coffee.
(01:16):
Let's get ready.
Let's get set.
Let's go.
UNKNOWN (01:20):
Let's go.
SPEAKER_01 (01:21):
So, yesterday's sermon was on the plan of
salvation, God's part and yourpart.
And let me get some coffee here.
Yesterday...
Yesterday, I preached aboutsalvation.
Oh, that's great coffee,especially in this mug.
While I was at the Conway YouthLectures, I was given a mug that
says, I don't ride the crazytrain, I drive it.
And I'm not sure that's entirelytrue, but it's pretty hilarious
(01:41):
and I love it.
So yesterday, I did talk aboutthe plan of salvation.
And I think what I really lovedabout this sermon is it takes a
verse, Acts 16, 30 and 31, thatis sometimes used to try and
prop up faith only saves and theidea that you can be saved by
accepting Jesus into your heart.
And it shows how that doesn'treally work at all.
Faith is integral to salvationand it drives so much of it.
(02:01):
But James, for example, is very,very clear.
Faith alone will not save.
And that's why Paul had topreach to the Philippian jailer,
and that's why that preachingdid not end with him raising his
hand to signify he had acceptedJesus into his heart.
That story ends in the waters ofbaptism.
And I want to add here, as I'vehad some conversations with
various parents and so forth invarious places, do your children
(02:22):
know the five steps ofsalvation?
If your kids don't know those,you need to work on that, mom
and dad.
Your kids should know those fivesteps of salvation by heart so
that when they mature and growand become accountable, they
know exactly what they'resupposed to do and why they're
supposed to do it.
I try to repeat those steps atthe end of most every sermon so
they'll just be ingrained in allof us, especially kids.
(02:44):
But sometimes when the preachergoes to wrapping up, everybody
gets to rustling around andgrabbing stuff and putting
things away, and that maybe justgets lost.
Don't let that happen.
Don't let that happen.
Mom and dad, teach the steps ofsalvation.
Someday, someday, junior,someday, sister, you want to
hear, believe, repent, confess,and be baptized for the
(03:08):
remission of your sins.
Hope that helps you.
Let's think about daily Biblereading.
(03:30):
2 Kings 4, verses 1-17 This is adifficult section here to date.
This seems like it's acollection of Elisha's miracles,
not a chronological account.
One scholar noted that thiswould show the power of Jehovah
(03:52):
over debt, verses 1 to 7, death,verses 8 to 37, drought, 38 to
44, and then disease, chapter 5,1 to 27, and even difficulty in
chapter 6.
So this does seem to be sayingsome things about Elisha and
that he is fully vested with thepower of God.
In this provision for the widowin verses 1 I love that Elisha
(04:13):
jumps in immediately to helpher.
He is concerned about her.
He wants to assist her.
And one scholar noted that thiswoman gets more space in the
Bible than the reign of Omri in1 Kings 16, verses 23 to 28.
And that says something becauseOmri establishes a dynasty.
From a political standpoint,Omri is a very significant
ruler.
And from a biblical standpoint,the Bible hardly mentions him
(04:34):
because he's wicked.
He's an idolater.
And God says, yep, you're bad,and moves on to something else.
So then we want to talk aboutthe Shunammite son in verses 8
to 30.
And this is very similar to themiracle in 1 Kings 17, 17, where
Elijah raises the son of thewidow of Zarephath.
And we just really see a lot ofsimilarities here.
But of course, before we canraise the son, we have to get
(04:54):
the son here, which is ourreading for today.
I particularly like Gehazi inverse 14.
It just seems remarkable to mehow often men in the Bible miss
the fact that a woman not havingchildren is a huge deal.
And Elisha is all, hey, I'll doanything for you.
What can I do for you?
And she's not really willing tojump out there and say, this is
what I need.
And Gehazi, you just kind of seehim standing a little bit
(05:16):
behind.
Elisha kind of says quietly inElisha's ear, she doesn't have
any children.
And Elijah says, aha, we can fixthat.
And so the next thing you know,she has a child, verse 17, and
you have to know that child musthave been the absolute delight
of her eyes.
What a joy that is.
But in tomorrow's reading, wewill see sometimes joy can lead
(05:38):
to sorrow.
Is Elisha going to be able tohelp with that?
Our reading for Monday, 1 Kings.
Goodness, it's a Monday, isn'tit?
It's going to be Monday all daylong.
The only answer to that is morecoffee.
A reading from Monday, 2 Kings4, verses 1-17.
It is Tuesday.
It is Tuesday.
Our reading for today is 2 Kings4 verses 18 to 44.
(06:01):
And I should add, Westsiders,there's no Zoom call tonight.
There's no Zoom call tonightbecause the elders meet and I
will be meeting with them thisevening.
So no Zoom this evening.
Let's do our Bible reading.
Verse 18, when the child hadgrown, please underline that in
your Bible because it helps yousee that these events may not be
in order here.
There has been a change in time.
We had a child born in verse 17,verse 18.
(06:22):
Now he is a grown child.
And If you're looking at verse23 and wondering why she's
rushing so much, and I mean, sheis hoofing.
She is, verse 22, may I goquickly to the man of God?
The reason for that is simple.
In this culture, you bury almostimmediately.
Nobody wants a corpse in thehouse during the hot harvest
(06:43):
season.
This child will be buried almostimmediately unless something
happens.
And so she heads to the mountainof the man of God, verse 27,
which is Mount Carmel.
And this is a place where If youvisit the Bible lands, you get a
dose of you don't know what youdon't know because I did not
know where all of these places,Shunem and Mount Carmel and all
(07:04):
of that, how they relatedtogether.
When you're standing on MountCarmel, you can see across the
valley all the way to Shunem.
And so when the man of God sawher coming, verse 25, he would
have been able to see her cominga long ways away.
We don't know how he saw her andrecognized her like that.
Maybe she had a distinctive walkor she had a distinctive manner
of...
(07:24):
dressing, maybe she wore redhandkerchief.
We don't know about all of that,but he can see her coming from a
long ways away and knowssomething terrible has happened
for a woman to leave her work inthe middle of the day to come
see him.
Then we get the episode wherethe prophets are saved from the
deadly stew in verses 38 to 41.
I wonder if this famine, noticeverse 38, there was a famine in
(07:45):
the land.
Is that the judgment of God?
Famine lots of times is thejudgment of God.
And then in verses 42 to 44,many hungry people are fed, and
this This reminds us of whatJesus does.
I think Jesus does somethingvery, very similar in the
Gospels, and I think Jesus istrying to say, hey, pay
attention, pay attention.
The messenger of God is here.
(08:05):
At least see me as the messengerof God.
So it's not a difficult readingtoday, but it's an interesting
reading.
All kinds of things going on in2 Kings chapter 4.
Our reading for Tuesday, 2 Kingschapter 4, verses 18 to 44.
It is Wednesday, it isWednesday, and tonight Paul
Hammons will be with us atWestside to talk about Samson.
(08:27):
Don't cut your hair before youcome to church tonight.
Paul Hammons talking aboutSamson in our summer series on
the Judges.
Before we do that, we need to doour daily Bible reading, so it's
2 Kings chapter 5.
This divides neatly into twopieces.
1 to 14 is about Naaman, andthen 15 to 25, I'm sorry, 15 to
27 is about Gehazi.
(08:47):
It's good, and then it's really,really bad.
A couple of things to payattention to here.
First of all, Please be aware,verse 3, that the slave here is
not afraid to show her faith.
She's not in a good place.
She's a slave, but God stilluses her for a greater thing.
I think sometimes I end upcomplaining when what I need to
be doing is pointing people toJesus.
She does a great job of that.
(09:07):
We're not exactly sure wherethis fits in Elisha's timeline,
but I'm going to guess that theking in verse 6, he brought the
letter to the king of Israel,that's probably going to be
Jehoram.
And this is a huge amount ofmoney that is being offered here
Just incredible amounts ofmoney.
10 talents of silver and 6,000shekels of gold, 10 changes of
(09:28):
clothing.
This could be as much as 750pounds of gold and maybe even
750 pounds of silver and 200pounds of gold.
It's just a ton.
It's just a ton.
And I'm really disappointed thatJehoram has so quickly forgotten
the power of Elisha.
What's going on with that, verse7?
He seems to have no idea whatElisha can do, and that is
terrible.
(09:48):
Please pay attention then inverse 11.
Naaman was angry and went awayand said, Behold...
I thought he would surely comeout to me.
Come out to me is the importantexpression there.
Naaman was considered to be asuperior individual.
As a result, Naaman expected theinferior to come out to him.
(10:09):
So he gets all bent out of shapeand gets in a huff about all of
that.
And I think there's a lot to besaid here about how God does
things differently than manytimes we would expect.
Now, the ESV is very differentin verse 13.
His servants came near to himMost translations have, if he
had spoken a great word with thesense of being, if he had told
(10:31):
you some really difficult thing,wouldn't you be happy to do
that?
Instead, he told you arelatively easy thing, dip in
the Jordan River.
Hey, go do that.
It's all going to be good.
Maybe the ESV has it right.
It's a great word.
Hey, this is great news.
You can be healed.
Either way, there are sometranslation issues there.
And again, scoping out theHebrew, that's beyond the scope
of this podcast.
Yeah, that's beyond the scope ofmy abilities as well.
(10:53):
Notice here, he has to wash inthe Jordan seven times.
By the way, when Dean and I werein Israel, we were way far north
in Israel and got to see some ofthe rivers that Naaman would
have been talking about, andthey are cold and clear and
fast, and they're justwonderful.
And then, of course, we wentsouth and were around the Jordan
River, and it is chocolate milk.
(11:14):
It's just not very appetizing asfar as, hey, I'll take a swim in
that.
And so I get it.
I get why Naaman is all, if I'mdipped I got better water than
this at home, but that does notmean you don't obey God.
You need to do what God has toldyou to do.
So then Naaman asks for twomules worth of earth for 17, and
(11:37):
I'm not sure what to make aboutall of that.
Naaman is untaught.
Perhaps the soil here would be atangible reminder of who God
really is.
I'm not sure what to say aboutall of that.
He is bothered at least by theinconsistency of bowing to a
false god.
when he knows Israel's God isthe real, true God.
I do think this story is reallyimportant here in Kings because
it says that somebody outside ofIsrael understands who is God
(12:02):
when Elisha cannot get theIsraelites to have a clue who
God is.
It's just dreadful that Naamancan acknowledge God when Jehoram
will not do that.
A reading then for Wednesday, 2Kings chapter 5.
It's Thursday.
It is Thursday, and our readingtoday is 2 Kings chapter 6.
(12:23):
I want to say something here inverses 1 to 7 about this unusual
miracle with the axe head.
Elisha seems to have moreunusual miracles associated with
him than anybody else.
I preached about the bears lastweek.
Wow, there's just a lot ofthings going on around Elisha
that maybe don't seem...
normal and that we're notexactly sure how to handle or
what to do with, I would saythis about the floating ax head.
(12:45):
If nothing else, it sayssomething about how God is
concerned not just with bigthings like the Syrian army, but
he can be concerned about smallthings as well.
That seems to me to be veryencouraging in our prayer life.
So then we get the idea of thekings of Syria worrying about
how does...
How does somebody seem to knoweverything that we're doing, all
of our battle plans, before weeven do them?
(13:06):
And the reality is, of course,in verse 10, there are no
secrets before God.
God is sovereign.
God knows all things.
And I wonder here if Elishadidn't allow himself to be
trapped so that everybody mightknow God's glory.
And in fact, one of the mostbeautiful passages in all of the
Bible, verse 16, And Elishaprayed and said, Please open his
(13:27):
eyes that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes ofthe young man and he saw.
And behold, the mount was fullof horses and chariots of fire
all around Elisha.
Oh, indeed.
How often we need to just see.
that God is with us and that Godhas more than those who come
against us.
What a powerful idea that reallyis.
And that's just tremendouslyencouraging to me.
I hope it will be to you aswell.
(13:48):
So then Samaria is besieged,beginning in verse 24 on down
into chapter 7.
And there's a number of thingshere that seem to be really,
really troubling.
Let's just start with the factthat this woman in verse 28 is
not concerned at all that shehad to eat her son.
What she's really concernedabout is that she in the deal.
She's not freaking out and all,oh my, this terrible thing had
(14:12):
to happen.
Nope.
What she's really concernedabout is, I got cheated.
This just says something aboutwhere Israel is and what's
happened under Jehoram.
And of course, all of this isprophesied in Deuteronomy 28.
You need to be sure that you'remarking that in your Bible.
But Moses had very graphicallydescribed what would happen if
(14:33):
Israel didn't follow God.
Deuteronomy 28, 52 to 57,Leviticus 26, 27, 28, and 29.
Those passages say, this is whatthe Lord will bring against you
if, in fact, if, in fact, youdon't follow the Lord.
And it's interesting to me,verse 32, that the elders are
now with Elisha, so I wonder ifthe king's failures are starting
(14:54):
to cost him.
Verse 32, I like what Elishasays.
You see how this son of amurderer has had to take off my
head?
That's...
That is the New AmericanStandard.
The ESV does not have the son ofthere, but clearly Elisha is
referencing how he is the son ofAhab.
This boy is turning out to be areal chip off the old block.
Our reading for Thursday, 2Kings chapter 6.
(15:20):
It is Friday, it is Friday, andas much interest as we have in
what's going on with that siegein Samaria, today we are in the
Psalms, always in the Psalms onFriday.
Psalm 54 is the reading fortoday.
This is a lament, a cry forhelp, and it is a very short
Psalm, so I would encourage youto go read 1 Samuel 23, verses
13 to 29.
(15:40):
That, according to the headinghere, is the background to the
Psalm.
That that reading will tell youthat the Ziphites betrayed David
to King Saul.
Even after he had helped them,they ratted him out.
So thanks a lot, Ziphites.
What a bunch of losers you are.
And the focus here, notice verse3, is the evil men.
(16:01):
Evil men have sold David out toKing Saul.
And he asked God, verse 1, tosave me by your name.
The name of God here means thecharacter of God, the power of
God, all that God is.
And this is the place to saysomething about calling upon
God's name.
That isn't about getting hisname spelled correctly.
Is it spelled with a Y?
Is it spelled with a J?
Did you shout it out loud?
(16:22):
No.
It's about knowing God'scharacter.
that God can deliver and save.
Then in verses 4 and 5, there isa shift here to confident trust.
And then I love verses 6 and 7.
This is praise.
And you'll see verse 7, he hasdelivered me from every trouble.
God has done this in the past.
I was praying for deliverance.
(16:43):
Apparently, either I have beendelivered or I trust that I will
be delivered.
And here's just a note,something to think on, I believe
that will help us as we end theweek in our Bible reading here.
I like how David faces needsrealistically I'm not sure where
we ever got the idea that strongfaith denies the seriousness of
a situation.
If my company exports all thejobs that we have overseas and
(17:05):
now I'm without severance, I'mnot going to act like anything
is wrong.
I'm just going to smile, youknow, because I trust God.
That's nonsense.
David trusts God.
He trusts God all the time.
Being a man after God's ownheart is about trusting in God.
But in times of real trouble, intimes of real trouble, David
says, I'm in real trouble.
This is a serious situation.
I need your help here.
(17:26):
And that's one of the thingsthat I love about the Psalms,
and it's one of the things thatI love about David.
David trusts in God, but thatnever keeps him from saying, I'm
confused.
I feel alone.
God, it's like you're not evenlistening to me.
David can do that in a reverentway without being blasphemous or
without accusing God in a rashway.
But David has no place forpretend piety that some people
(17:46):
seem to think that Christiansare supposed to exhibit today.
A reading for Friday, Psalm 54.
Thank you for listening, then.
That's the podcast for the week.
If the podcast is helping you,of course, tell somebody else
about it and leave us a ratingor review so that more people
will find it.
Until next week, then, whenwe'll open our Bibles together
again, I'm Mark Roberts.
(18:08):
I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come, too.
Can't wait to see you on Mondaywith a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (18:20):
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
(18:45):
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,
August the 4th.
I'm Mark.
I've got some great coffee.
I'm looking at my sermon outlinefrom yesterday.
I have a boatload of stuff fromDaily Bible Reading.
Man, stuff is happening in DailyBible Reading.
Miracles and all kinds of thingsare going on.
It is going on, so you need topour that cup of coffee.
(01:16):
Let's get ready.
Let's get set.
Let's go.
UNKNOWN (01:20):
Let's go.
SPEAKER_01 (01:21):
So, yesterday's sermon was on the plan of
salvation, God's part and yourpart.
And let me get some coffee here.
Yesterday...
Yesterday, I preached aboutsalvation.
Oh, that's great coffee,especially in this mug.
While I was at the Conway YouthLectures, I was given a mug that
says, I don't ride the crazytrain, I drive it.
And I'm not sure that's entirelytrue, but it's pretty hilarious
(01:41):
and I love it.
So yesterday, I did talk aboutthe plan of salvation.
And I think what I really lovedabout this sermon is it takes a
verse, Acts 16, 30 and 31, thatis sometimes used to try and
prop up faith only saves and theidea that you can be saved by
accepting Jesus into your heart.
And it shows how that doesn'treally work at all.
Faith is integral to salvationand it drives so much of it.
(02:01):
But James, for example, is very,very clear.
Faith alone will not save.
And that's why Paul had topreach to the Philippian jailer,
and that's why that preachingdid not end with him raising his
hand to signify he had acceptedJesus into his heart.
That story ends in the waters ofbaptism.
And I want to add here, as I'vehad some conversations with
various parents and so forth invarious places, do your children
(02:22):
know the five steps ofsalvation?
If your kids don't know those,you need to work on that, mom
and dad.
Your kids should know those fivesteps of salvation by heart so
that when they mature and growand become accountable, they
know exactly what they'resupposed to do and why they're
supposed to do it.
I try to repeat those steps atthe end of most every sermon so
they'll just be ingrained in allof us, especially kids.
(02:44):
But sometimes when the preachergoes to wrapping up, everybody
gets to rustling around andgrabbing stuff and putting
things away, and that maybe justgets lost.
Don't let that happen.
Don't let that happen.
Mom and dad, teach the steps ofsalvation.
Someday, someday, junior,someday, sister, you want to
hear, believe, repent, confess,and be baptized for the
(03:08):
remission of your sins.
Hope that helps you.
Let's think about daily Biblereading.
(03:30):
2 Kings 4, verses 1-17 This is adifficult section here to date.
This seems like it's acollection of Elisha's miracles,
not a chronological account.
One scholar noted that thiswould show the power of Jehovah
(03:52):
over debt, verses 1 to 7, death,verses 8 to 37, drought, 38 to
44, and then disease, chapter 5,1 to 27, and even difficulty in
chapter 6.
So this does seem to be sayingsome things about Elisha and
that he is fully vested with thepower of God.
In this provision for the widowin verses 1 I love that Elisha
(04:13):
jumps in immediately to helpher.
He is concerned about her.
He wants to assist her.
And one scholar noted that thiswoman gets more space in the
Bible than the reign of Omri in1 Kings 16, verses 23 to 28.
And that says something becauseOmri establishes a dynasty.
From a political standpoint,Omri is a very significant
ruler.
And from a biblical standpoint,the Bible hardly mentions him
(04:34):
because he's wicked.
He's an idolater.
And God says, yep, you're bad,and moves on to something else.
So then we want to talk aboutthe Shunammite son in verses 8
to 30.
And this is very similar to themiracle in 1 Kings 17, 17, where
Elijah raises the son of thewidow of Zarephath.
And we just really see a lot ofsimilarities here.
But of course, before we canraise the son, we have to get
(04:54):
the son here, which is ourreading for today.
I particularly like Gehazi inverse 14.
It just seems remarkable to mehow often men in the Bible miss
the fact that a woman not havingchildren is a huge deal.
And Elisha is all, hey, I'll doanything for you.
What can I do for you?
And she's not really willing tojump out there and say, this is
what I need.
And Gehazi, you just kind of seehim standing a little bit
(05:16):
behind.
Elisha kind of says quietly inElisha's ear, she doesn't have
any children.
And Elijah says, aha, we can fixthat.
And so the next thing you know,she has a child, verse 17, and
you have to know that child musthave been the absolute delight
of her eyes.
What a joy that is.
But in tomorrow's reading, wewill see sometimes joy can lead
(05:38):
to sorrow.
Is Elisha going to be able tohelp with that?
Our reading for Monday, 1 Kings.
Goodness, it's a Monday, isn'tit?
It's going to be Monday all daylong.
The only answer to that is morecoffee.
A reading from Monday, 2 Kings4, verses 1-17.
It is Tuesday.
It is Tuesday.
Our reading for today is 2 Kings4 verses 18 to 44.
(06:01):
And I should add, Westsiders,there's no Zoom call tonight.
There's no Zoom call tonightbecause the elders meet and I
will be meeting with them thisevening.
So no Zoom this evening.
Let's do our Bible reading.
Verse 18, when the child hadgrown, please underline that in
your Bible because it helps yousee that these events may not be
in order here.
There has been a change in time.
We had a child born in verse 17,verse 18.
(06:22):
Now he is a grown child.
And If you're looking at verse23 and wondering why she's
rushing so much, and I mean, sheis hoofing.
She is, verse 22, may I goquickly to the man of God?
The reason for that is simple.
In this culture, you bury almostimmediately.
Nobody wants a corpse in thehouse during the hot harvest
(06:43):
season.
This child will be buried almostimmediately unless something
happens.
And so she heads to the mountainof the man of God, verse 27,
which is Mount Carmel.
And this is a place where If youvisit the Bible lands, you get a
dose of you don't know what youdon't know because I did not
know where all of these places,Shunem and Mount Carmel and all
(07:04):
of that, how they relatedtogether.
When you're standing on MountCarmel, you can see across the
valley all the way to Shunem.
And so when the man of God sawher coming, verse 25, he would
have been able to see her cominga long ways away.
We don't know how he saw her andrecognized her like that.
Maybe she had a distinctive walkor she had a distinctive manner
of...
(07:24):
dressing, maybe she wore redhandkerchief.
We don't know about all of that,but he can see her coming from a
long ways away and knowssomething terrible has happened
for a woman to leave her work inthe middle of the day to come
see him.
Then we get the episode wherethe prophets are saved from the
deadly stew in verses 38 to 41.
I wonder if this famine, noticeverse 38, there was a famine in
(07:45):
the land.
Is that the judgment of God?
Famine lots of times is thejudgment of God.
And then in verses 42 to 44,many hungry people are fed, and
this This reminds us of whatJesus does.
I think Jesus does somethingvery, very similar in the
Gospels, and I think Jesus istrying to say, hey, pay
attention, pay attention.
The messenger of God is here.
(08:05):
At least see me as the messengerof God.
So it's not a difficult readingtoday, but it's an interesting
reading.
All kinds of things going on in2 Kings chapter 4.
Our reading for Tuesday, 2 Kingschapter 4, verses 18 to 44.
It is Wednesday, it isWednesday, and tonight Paul
Hammons will be with us atWestside to talk about Samson.
(08:27):
Don't cut your hair before youcome to church tonight.
Paul Hammons talking aboutSamson in our summer series on
the Judges.
Before we do that, we need to doour daily Bible reading, so it's
2 Kings chapter 5.
This divides neatly into twopieces.
1 to 14 is about Naaman, andthen 15 to 25, I'm sorry, 15 to
27 is about Gehazi.
(08:47):
It's good, and then it's really,really bad.
A couple of things to payattention to here.
First of all, Please be aware,verse 3, that the slave here is
not afraid to show her faith.
She's not in a good place.
She's a slave, but God stilluses her for a greater thing.
I think sometimes I end upcomplaining when what I need to
be doing is pointing people toJesus.
She does a great job of that.
(09:07):
We're not exactly sure wherethis fits in Elisha's timeline,
but I'm going to guess that theking in verse 6, he brought the
letter to the king of Israel,that's probably going to be
Jehoram.
And this is a huge amount ofmoney that is being offered here
Just incredible amounts ofmoney.
10 talents of silver and 6,000shekels of gold, 10 changes of
(09:28):
clothing.
This could be as much as 750pounds of gold and maybe even
750 pounds of silver and 200pounds of gold.
It's just a ton.
It's just a ton.
And I'm really disappointed thatJehoram has so quickly forgotten
the power of Elisha.
What's going on with that, verse7?
He seems to have no idea whatElisha can do, and that is
terrible.
(09:48):
Please pay attention then inverse 11.
Naaman was angry and went awayand said, Behold...
I thought he would surely comeout to me.
Come out to me is the importantexpression there.
Naaman was considered to be asuperior individual.
As a result, Naaman expected theinferior to come out to him.
(10:09):
So he gets all bent out of shapeand gets in a huff about all of
that.
And I think there's a lot to besaid here about how God does
things differently than manytimes we would expect.
Now, the ESV is very differentin verse 13.
His servants came near to himMost translations have, if he
had spoken a great word with thesense of being, if he had told
(10:31):
you some really difficult thing,wouldn't you be happy to do
that?
Instead, he told you arelatively easy thing, dip in
the Jordan River.
Hey, go do that.
It's all going to be good.
Maybe the ESV has it right.
It's a great word.
Hey, this is great news.
You can be healed.
Either way, there are sometranslation issues there.
And again, scoping out theHebrew, that's beyond the scope
of this podcast.
Yeah, that's beyond the scope ofmy abilities as well.
(10:53):
Notice here, he has to wash inthe Jordan seven times.
By the way, when Dean and I werein Israel, we were way far north
in Israel and got to see some ofthe rivers that Naaman would
have been talking about, andthey are cold and clear and
fast, and they're justwonderful.
And then, of course, we wentsouth and were around the Jordan
River, and it is chocolate milk.
(11:14):
It's just not very appetizing asfar as, hey, I'll take a swim in
that.
And so I get it.
I get why Naaman is all, if I'mdipped I got better water than
this at home, but that does notmean you don't obey God.
You need to do what God has toldyou to do.
So then Naaman asks for twomules worth of earth for 17, and
(11:37):
I'm not sure what to make aboutall of that.
Naaman is untaught.
Perhaps the soil here would be atangible reminder of who God
really is.
I'm not sure what to say aboutall of that.
He is bothered at least by theinconsistency of bowing to a
false god.
when he knows Israel's God isthe real, true God.
I do think this story is reallyimportant here in Kings because
it says that somebody outside ofIsrael understands who is God
(12:02):
when Elisha cannot get theIsraelites to have a clue who
God is.
It's just dreadful that Naamancan acknowledge God when Jehoram
will not do that.
A reading then for Wednesday, 2Kings chapter 5.
It's Thursday.
It is Thursday, and our readingtoday is 2 Kings chapter 6.
(12:23):
I want to say something here inverses 1 to 7 about this unusual
miracle with the axe head.
Elisha seems to have moreunusual miracles associated with
him than anybody else.
I preached about the bears lastweek.
Wow, there's just a lot ofthings going on around Elisha
that maybe don't seem...
normal and that we're notexactly sure how to handle or
what to do with, I would saythis about the floating ax head.
(12:45):
If nothing else, it sayssomething about how God is
concerned not just with bigthings like the Syrian army, but
he can be concerned about smallthings as well.
That seems to me to be veryencouraging in our prayer life.
So then we get the idea of thekings of Syria worrying about
how does...
How does somebody seem to knoweverything that we're doing, all
of our battle plans, before weeven do them?
(13:06):
And the reality is, of course,in verse 10, there are no
secrets before God.
God is sovereign.
God knows all things.
And I wonder here if Elishadidn't allow himself to be
trapped so that everybody mightknow God's glory.
And in fact, one of the mostbeautiful passages in all of the
Bible, verse 16, And Elishaprayed and said, Please open his
(13:27):
eyes that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes ofthe young man and he saw.
And behold, the mount was fullof horses and chariots of fire
all around Elisha.
Oh, indeed.
How often we need to just see.
that God is with us and that Godhas more than those who come
against us.
What a powerful idea that reallyis.
And that's just tremendouslyencouraging to me.
I hope it will be to you aswell.
(13:48):
So then Samaria is besieged,beginning in verse 24 on down
into chapter 7.
And there's a number of thingshere that seem to be really,
really troubling.
Let's just start with the factthat this woman in verse 28 is
not concerned at all that shehad to eat her son.
What she's really concernedabout is that she in the deal.
She's not freaking out and all,oh my, this terrible thing had
(14:12):
to happen.
Nope.
What she's really concernedabout is, I got cheated.
This just says something aboutwhere Israel is and what's
happened under Jehoram.
And of course, all of this isprophesied in Deuteronomy 28.
You need to be sure that you'remarking that in your Bible.
But Moses had very graphicallydescribed what would happen if
(14:33):
Israel didn't follow God.
Deuteronomy 28, 52 to 57,Leviticus 26, 27, 28, and 29.
Those passages say, this is whatthe Lord will bring against you
if, in fact, if, in fact, youdon't follow the Lord.
And it's interesting to me,verse 32, that the elders are
now with Elisha, so I wonder ifthe king's failures are starting
(14:54):
to cost him.
Verse 32, I like what Elishasays.
You see how this son of amurderer has had to take off my
head?
That's...
That is the New AmericanStandard.
The ESV does not have the son ofthere, but clearly Elisha is
referencing how he is the son ofAhab.
This boy is turning out to be areal chip off the old block.
Our reading for Thursday, 2Kings chapter 6.
(15:20):
It is Friday, it is Friday, andas much interest as we have in
what's going on with that siegein Samaria, today we are in the
Psalms, always in the Psalms onFriday.
Psalm 54 is the reading fortoday.
This is a lament, a cry forhelp, and it is a very short
Psalm, so I would encourage youto go read 1 Samuel 23, verses
13 to 29.
(15:40):
That, according to the headinghere, is the background to the
Psalm.
That that reading will tell youthat the Ziphites betrayed David
to King Saul.
Even after he had helped them,they ratted him out.
So thanks a lot, Ziphites.
What a bunch of losers you are.
And the focus here, notice verse3, is the evil men.
(16:01):
Evil men have sold David out toKing Saul.
And he asked God, verse 1, tosave me by your name.
The name of God here means thecharacter of God, the power of
God, all that God is.
And this is the place to saysomething about calling upon
God's name.
That isn't about getting hisname spelled correctly.
Is it spelled with a Y?
Is it spelled with a J?
Did you shout it out loud?
(16:22):
No.
It's about knowing God'scharacter.
that God can deliver and save.
Then in verses 4 and 5, there isa shift here to confident trust.
And then I love verses 6 and 7.
This is praise.
And you'll see verse 7, he hasdelivered me from every trouble.
God has done this in the past.
I was praying for deliverance.
(16:43):
Apparently, either I have beendelivered or I trust that I will
be delivered.
And here's just a note,something to think on, I believe
that will help us as we end theweek in our Bible reading here.
I like how David faces needsrealistically I'm not sure where
we ever got the idea that strongfaith denies the seriousness of
a situation.
If my company exports all thejobs that we have overseas and
(17:05):
now I'm without severance, I'mnot going to act like anything
is wrong.
I'm just going to smile, youknow, because I trust God.
That's nonsense.
David trusts God.
He trusts God all the time.
Being a man after God's ownheart is about trusting in God.
But in times of real trouble, intimes of real trouble, David
says, I'm in real trouble.
This is a serious situation.
I need your help here.
(17:26):
And that's one of the thingsthat I love about the Psalms,
and it's one of the things thatI love about David.
David trusts in God, but thatnever keeps him from saying, I'm
confused.
I feel alone.
God, it's like you're not evenlistening to me.
David can do that in a reverentway without being blasphemous or
without accusing God in a rashway.
But David has no place forpretend piety that some people
(17:46):
seem to think that Christiansare supposed to exhibit today.
A reading for Friday, Psalm 54.
Thank you for listening, then.
That's the podcast for the week.
If the podcast is helping you,of course, tell somebody else
about it and leave us a ratingor review so that more people
will find it.
Until next week, then, whenwe'll open our Bibles together
again, I'm Mark Roberts.
(18:08):
I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come, too.
Can't wait to see you on Mondaywith a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (18:20):
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
(18:45):
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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