May 12, 2025 • 26 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 forwardinto this week's Bible reading
so that we can know what toexpect and watch for.
And he may have some extrabonus thoughts 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, May
the 12th.
I'm Mark.
You know what I'm holding.
I've got coffee.
I'm looking at my sermonoutline from yesterday, and I
have some notes on our Biblereading.
We're going to read a chapterthis week.
That's kind of a hidden gem.
I'm excited about that.
I'm excited to start the weekwith you.
(01:12):
Pour that cup of coffee.
Let's get ready.
Let's get set.
Let's go.
Let's go.
So yesterday was Mother's Day,and you may have thought,
probably did think you weregoing to hear a sermon for moms
or about being a mother, all thethings that go with some of
that.
Let me give you a littleinsight.
Sometimes in the podcast, I'mable to kind of pull back the
(01:33):
curtain a little bit and let youtake a look at what's going on
in the preacher's head and whatI'm thinking.
Here's why I didn't preachsomething for moms yesterday.
First, I'm very aware thatthere are some present who are
not moms and who, like Hannah inthe Bible, really want to be a
mom.
Then you come to church, andit's Mother's Day this, and moms
(01:55):
are great, and that's rough.
And I want to be sensitive tothat, and that certainly has not
always kept me from doingsomething for mothers on
Mother's Day, but I am veryaware of that, and I do think
about it.
What I think about even more,though, is the many moms who
have adult children who are outof duty.
They're not serving the Lordlike they should, and when they
say, hey, mom, what do you wantus to do for Mother's Day?
(02:17):
They have the same requestevery year.
I want you to come to churchwith me.
So on Mother's Day, we alwayshave some folks in church who
just aren't there veryregularly.
And they're there because Mamaasked them to come and they're
abiding by her wishes.
And so I'm trying to dosomething to catch those
(02:37):
people's attention.
And I really love the preachingtheme this year because you got
to vote on on what we're doing,and I think that is very
sticky.
That's the kind of thing thatpeople don't forget about.
It sticks with them.
And so I decided to bring thepreaching theme forward and say,
let's do that on Mother's Daywith the idea that there be some
(03:00):
people there who aren't whatthey ought to be, and maybe that
sermon would get theirattention.
Hey, looky here.
These people are really keyedin on the Bible.
They're focusing on Jesus.
Jesus asks questions.
That's interesting.
You know what?
I ought to go back.
I need to go back.
I need to be there more.
So that's why I was preachingout of the preaching theme
(03:20):
yesterday.
And my prayer, since we talkedabout prayer so much yesterday,
my prayer is that that sermonwill be some good seed in some
people's hearts and that it willbear fruit, which, of course,
would make not just Mama happy,but even more importantly, would
make the Lord happy.
Let's turn to Bible readingthen.
(03:41):
Got your coffee?
Let's think about, oh, are youready for this?
1 Chronicles chapter 28.
Welcome to Monday.
(04:06):
Our reading for Monday, May the12th, is 1 Chronicles chapter
28.
Like I said, this is kind of ahidden gem.
You may be familiar withSolomon's charge, or rather
David's charge to Solomon as 1Kings gets underway.
And we'll read all of that andthink through some of that.
But this is a longer account ofthat.
(04:26):
it's very, very helpful for usto see some key ideas.
Notably, once again, David isciting the promises of 2 Samuel
7.
If you're keeping track, justin Chronicles, it is the third
time these promises arementioned just in 1 Chronicles.
David is always talking aboutwhat happened in 2 Samuel 7,
verse 4.
The Lord chose me from all myfather's house to be king over
(04:49):
Israel forever.
And of all my sons, verse 5,he's chosen Solomon my son.
And so this is all about...
building the temple.
And this is David saying thatGod has blessed me because of
the desire of my heart to buildhim a house.
Note again, verse 3, I talkedabout this some when I preached
through 2 Samuel 7.
I don't think David is beingheld in some way that he's being
(05:12):
besmirched because he was a manof war.
I really think this idea hereis much more, it just wasn't the
time to build the temple.
It was time to subjugate theenemies that would have
interfered with the building ofthe temple.
David, it was not for you to dothat.
Your son is going to do that.
And so then in verse 9, Davidturns his attention to Solomon,
and he charges him to buildGod's house.
(05:33):
And then David is giving him,wow, how about some coffee to
make that work?
Verse 11, David...
gives Solomon his son the plansof the temple.
And this overlaps some withwhat I talked about on Sunday
out of 1 Kings 7.
Part of the reason that Solomonis able to construct the temple
(05:53):
in seven years, and it takeshim so much longer to build his
own house, is because he wasgiven the plans, and then he was
given the materials.
All this gold is given, and theweight of the gold, verse 14,
and the weight of the goldenlampstand, verse 15.
Some people think this is tonsand tons of gold.
It's always hard It's hard toknow weights in the Bible, but
(06:14):
this is a huge amount of gold.
So the materials are preparedfor Solomon.
He's got the blueprint.
He just needs to do this.
Go and do this.
Verse 19, all this he madeclear to me in writing for the
hand of the Lord, all the workthat is to be done according to
the plan.
I have some material that Iwant to present about
instrumental music, and I amgoing to come out of 1
(06:34):
Chronicles 28, 19 and talk aboutthat because the word plan here
is the same word that's used inExodus for the passion.
Exodus 25 9, Exodus 25 40.
It's just very important thatwe understand temple worship was
not done willy-nilly orhaphazardly or even the way
Solomon would like for it tohave been done.
It was done the way God saidfor it to be done.
(06:57):
There was a plan and there wasa pattern for it.
So then verse 20, David said toSolomon his son, be strong and
courageous and do it.
There are numbers of timeswhere we see some parallel in
the life of David and the lifeof Moses and the life of Joshua
and the life of Solomon as thesuccessor to God's leaders.
And so, once again, that bestrong and courageous reminds us
(07:18):
of how Moses charges Joshua inthe same way.
1 Chronicles 28 gives us thisfuller account of the material
that we will look at as David issecuring the throne and the
things that are happening withDavid securing the throne.
A bunch of that is going totake place in 1 Kings.
Let's see here.
Is that 1 Kings 2 where SolomonYes, it's 1 Kings 2 where that
(07:43):
charge is, but this is thebigger account, and I really
love some of the things that arebeing said here.
Just notice how David talksabout the kingdom in verse 5,
for example, the kingdom of theLord.
I think a big part of David'ssuccessful reign and Yeah, I
know he had some bumps andbruises along the way, but he
was a successful king in so manyways.
(08:04):
A big part of that is Davidnever forgot that the kingdom he
was ruling was God's kingdom.
That makes David a man afterGod's own heart.
Reading for Monday then, 1Chronicles 28.
It is Tuesday, and our readingfor Tuesday is 2 Samuel 23,
verses 1-17.
This is a wonderful chapter.
(08:25):
I like everything about thischapter, except...
Yes, there's a ton of textualissues here with the Hebrew.
We'll talk about that as wework along.
But this chapter reallybalances the chapter preceding
it.
God is my rock, said David.
And the focus there was reallyon David acknowledging Jehovah
God as his ultimate sovereign.
Now there's some discussion ofthe responsibilities that David
(08:47):
has and what it's going to taketo be the kind of ruler that
God's people need.
Please notice here, these arethe last words, verse 1 of
David.
That does not mean that Hebarely managed to croak out the
first seven verses, and then hepassed away.
This is kind of like a lastwill and testament.
A last will and testament willsay, this is our last will and
(09:07):
testament.
It doesn't mean you died assoon as you signed the bottom of
the page there.
I think in many ways, thisbusiness here in 2 Samuel 22-23,
Really help us because when weget to 1 Kings, David is a very
weak king.
He is a shadow of what he usedto be.
And so reading here in 2 Samuelchapter 23 helps us see how
(09:31):
strong and powerful David reallyis.
The outline is pretty simple.
David's last song is the firstseven verses.
And then the three arediscussed in verses 8 to 17.
And then the 30 are discussedin the rest of the chapter.
We're only reading throughverses 1 to 17 today.
So let me give you a couple ofnotes here from David's last
song.
(09:51):
In verse 1, his humility isjust all over the place.
David always marveled that anobody like him could become
king.
And if you want to be a personwho seeks after God's heart, you
need to find the humility thatDavid has.
He does claim inspiration.
Verse 2, Jesus affirms that inMatthew 22 and verse 43.
And then in verse 3, you getthe qualities of an ideal king.
(10:14):
This is what someone who isleading God's people really
should be all about.
This is what that really lookslike.
And once again, verse 5, thereis the connection to the
promises of 2 Samuel 7.
We talked about that yesterday.
We're talking about it againtoday.
That is the high watermark inDavid's life.
It shapes everything about whohe is and what he's doing.
Then we're going to talk aboutDavid's mighty men.
(10:34):
And these guys are justincredible.
But what you need to be asking,what I need to be asking is,
why is this in the Bible?
What is this doing here?
And the answer is, that Davidis not the kind of ruler who
demands all the praise, all thehonor.
Everybody has to give him thecredit for every victory.
He is more than willing toshare honor and recognition with
(10:54):
people around him.
I think about the owner of theDallas Cowboys who got weary of
a coach who won a whole lotbecause the coach was getting
all the credit and Jerry was notgetting the credit.
And so they ended up partingways and the team has been no
good ever since.
Thanks a whole lot.
That's a fail.
That's a failure of humility.
That's a failure to be the kindof person that And so the
(11:15):
section here really divides intoa couple of parts.
We get the discussion of thethree, verses 8 to 17, and then
an illustration of the power ofthe three, verses 18 to 23, the
water of Bethlehem episode.
And so the three are thesemighty men who stood their
ground in single combat.
Everybody's breaking andrunning, and these guys stand,
(11:38):
and that turns a terrible lossinto a great victory.
Remember how you fight in Bibletime.
Sometimes everybody just linesup in two parallel lines and the
lines smash together.
And as soon as you can breakthrough the line and start
routing part of the line, thenpeople face the possibility that
the enemy is going to encirclethem and come around behind.
And I can't fight the guy infront of me and have an enemy
(12:00):
behind me.
So people panic and run.
And these guys don't panic andrun.
They stand and hold theirground.
Then there is, beginning verse13, the discussion of the water
of Bethlehem episode.
And the biggest question hereis, is this the three or is this
another three who are notnamed?
And I'm going with it's thethree, but it's hard to be
(12:21):
certain about all of that.
What is this episode doinghere?
Well, of course, the greatthing about this is these guys
go and they get David somewater.
Verse 15, oh, that someonewould give me water drink from
the well of Bethlehem.
And maybe you in your lifeYeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(12:49):
David pours it out.
He would not drink it, verse16.
He pours it out, verse 17, andsays this belongs to the Lord.
(13:09):
What's going on there, David?
Why are you doing that?
Because something this valuablehas to be given to God.
That's David's attitude.
And you have to think about theimpression that made upon
David's men.
David's men saw him as genuineand real.
He genuinely serves God.
He really cares about God.
(13:30):
He honors God.
He celebrates God.
He praises God.
It's not just a big put-upshow.
He does this in front of themto say, I honor you.
This is so valuable that I haveto give it to God, and I honor
God.
What a tremendous chapter ourreading today to help us think
about what it is to be likeDavid, a man after God's own
(13:53):
heart.
Our reading for two 2 Samuel 23verses 1 to 17.
And good news, Westsiders, yes,we will have the Zoom call
tonight and be able to study andtalk more about this this
evening.
We've missed two weeks, had anelders meeting last week, and
then the week before I was inBeaumont.
So really excited to get achance to reconvene Zoom and see
what you think about David'smighty men and the water episode
(14:16):
at Bethlehem and this greatsong of David in the first seven
verses.
See you tonight, Westsiders.
Everybody else, I'll see youtomorrow on the podcast.
Reading for Tuesday.
2 Samuel 23, 1-17 Welcome toHump Day.
It's Wednesday, and we'refinishing 2 Samuel, the 23rd
chapter.
We will read 2 Samuel 23,verses 18 to 39.
This is a pretty simplereading.
(14:37):
There are, however, a number oftextual issues here where it's
very difficult to translate theHebrew, and that begins in verse
20.
Benaniah, he's a doer of greatdeeds, and he struck down two
ariels of Moab, verse 20 says inthe ESV.
What is an ariel?
And no, it's not the The Hebrewword here is difficult.
(15:02):
Some translations have it asdistinguished warriors.
That's easy for you to say.
Other Bibles translate that twolions, and some even kind of
combine distinguished warriorsand two lions with two lion-like
heroes of Moab.
There's just a lot of textualvariance there.
Some are trying to follow theSeptuagint.
(15:23):
Others are going with the ideaof distinguished warriors.
It's just not clear.
It's just not clear.
But it is obvious that it is agreat and powerful victory of
some sort.
What I always remember aboutverse 20 is it is the only place
in the Bible where there isliteral snow.
Snow is used often as a figureof speech.
Your sins will be as white assnow, for example.
(15:45):
However, there is no snow snow,real snow, in the Bible except
right here.
And it just amazes me.
How good must the three havebeen that we read about
yesterday if a man who killed alion in a pit in the snow...
isn't up to their standards.
That's, I just, I don't evenknow what to say about that.
(16:06):
That's just incredible.
I cannot even imagine hereBenaniah is sliding around in
the pit and killing this lion.
Wow, that is a majoraccomplishment in my book.
Then the chapter just gives usthe rest of the men noting,
please, that Uriah the Hittiteis part of them, which makes the
events of 2 Samuel chapter 11even worse.
(16:27):
And all of that just says moreand more about David.
It's so tempting to get caughtup in all the doings of these
great men.
The important thing here, ofcourse, is that these guys were
loyal to David, which says somuch about his physical
strength, his ability as awarrior, his ability as a leader
(16:48):
of men.
These are impressive.
warriors in their own right,and they give their absolute
loyalty and allegiance to David.
So there you go.
That's our reading forWednesday.
Hope it doesn't snow today orthat you don't fall into a pit
with a lion.
If you do, don't spill yourcoffee.
Reading for Wednesday, 2 Samuelchapter 23, verses 18 to 39.
(17:09):
It is Thursday.
It is Thursday and our readingtoday is 2 Samuel chapter 24.
We will read the entire chapterverses 1 to 25.
When I preached through 2Samuel and I got to 2 Samuel 24,
that wasn't that long ago, itwas last August, I made some
remarks at the outset about howit's easy to get distracted and
miss the main thing.
(17:31):
And that's especially true in 2Samuel chapter 24 because
there's a lot of stuff here thatwe don't know and we can end up
talking about that andspeculating about that endlessly
and failed to keep the mainthing the main thing.
There are some difficultieshere.
I understand that, and youshould understand that.
You will after you read thechapter, but...
it doesn't mean that we'regoing to obsess about those
(17:53):
things endlessly.
So let me just deal with acouple of elephants that are in
the room.
First of all, why is it wrong,verse 1, for David to count the
people if God is the one whoincited, who's inciting all
these things that are going on?
And the answer to that is, wejust don't know.
We don't know.
God's people were in the wrong,and the punishment here will
(18:13):
fall upon the people of God, notjust David.
And we don't know why God wasangry, but we know that in verse
10, David recognizes what hewas doing was sinful.
We don't know everything elseabout that.
And one writer pointed out, Ithink this is very important, if
we are upset over a text thattells us Jehovah is angry but
does not tell us why, are we notsaying that we really don't
(18:36):
trust him to be just?
And we need to think aboutthat.
Just because we don't knoweverything about this text, is
there a sneaking suspicion thatsomehow God is messed up here
and he's not doing the rightthing?
Come on.
We know better than that.
Something happened here and theanger of the Lord was kindled
against Israel.
So then the next difficulty is,who moved David to sin?
Because he moved David, verse1, to go number Israel and
(18:59):
Judah.
But in Chronicles, 1 Chronicles21, 1, Satan moved David to
number Israel.
And the answer to that is thatparticularly in Israelite
thinking and Jewish thinking,there is not a whole lot about
working through secondary causesand properly attributing
everything to the exact cause.
God ultimately is responsiblefor everything in the Hebrew
(19:23):
mindset.
And so this is a case of thepermissive will of God in play.
God permitted Satan to do this.
And he allowed him to do that.
So in some sense, God isresponsible because God said,
you can do it.
God green-lighted it, kind oflike in the book of Job.
But of course, Satan is alsoresponsible as well.
Maybe the question that you'rereally wondering is, why is it
(19:45):
wrong to number the people?
Especially since on Sundays,I'm teaching in the book of
Numbers, and they are countingpeople all the time.
And the answer to that is, Wedon't know.
Maybe David is trying to raisea standing army here.
Maybe this is just the issue ofpride.
How many people am I rulingover?
Look how great my kingdom is.
But interestingly, Joab knowsthis is wrong.
Verse 3, this is one of thevery few times that Joab appears
(20:07):
to care about God at all.
And a great question to askhere is, Why doesn't David ask a
prophet, hey, what does Godwant me to do here?
Why is God angry with us?
How do we handle this?
What's going on?
Instead, they count.
And that's a terrible mistake.
And something brings David tothe realization, verse 10, that
he has done wrong.
(20:27):
We don't know how David came tothat conclusion, but he
realizes that.
And now the prophet is on thescene, verse 11.
Don't forget, the punishmenthere is not just for David.
The punishment is for Israel'ssin, verse 1, even though we
don't Notice here in verse 13that, like in 2 Samuel 21, what
(20:48):
the king does affects the landand affects the people.
And then I just really loveverse 17.
This is David being theshepherd king and he acts
like...
Yeah, he acts like Jesus inJohn chapter 10.
He acts like Jesus in Johnchapter 10.
And then probably the mainthing, what this is all about,
(21:10):
is in verses 18 to 25, whereDavid purchases the threshing
floor of Arona.
A threshing floor would be on ahigh place so the wind could
blow the chaff away.
And this is the top of a hillto the north of the city of
David.
And David says, I'm buying it.
Arona says, I just give it toyou.
And David says...
I will not offer to God whatcosts me nothing.
(21:31):
What a great pairing with thewater episode that we read in 2
Samuel 23.
And this piece of property, ofcourse, becomes the piece of
property that Solomon builds thetemple on.
So Samuel closes with thekingdom at peace and a site for
the temple secured, and now weare ready to see power
transferred to the next king.
(21:53):
You're thinking about all thesedistractions.
What should I really hold onto?
I think you hold on to verse10.
David recognizes his sin.
I think you hold on to David'srepentance, verse 17.
He doesn't make excuses or tryto justify it.
That's also in verse 10.
And then you hold on to David'swillingness to offer to God
what will cost him somethinginstead of saying, oh, you're
(22:16):
going to make me a deal?
That's great, because BecauseI'm a little short today, and I
don't really want to buy yourland.
That's not who David is, andthat's not what it means to be a
person after God's own heart.
Tomorrow, we'll be in thePsalms.
See you on Friday.
The reading for Thursday, 2Samuel 24, verses 1 to 25.
Welcome to Friday.
Welcome to Friday, and we'rereading today in the Psalms, of
(22:38):
course, always the Psalms onFriday, and today is Psalm 20.
This is a royal psalm.
Remember, the first question wealways ask when studying the
Psalms is what kind of psalm itis.
This is a royal psalm.
There's not very many of those,but it is a psalm about the
king.
It's for the king, and it sayssomething about the kingdom and
what kind of king the kingshould be.
These psalms often speak aboutpower and might, and this psalm,
(23:02):
by the way, is very beautiful.
It shows very careful planningand very careful construction.
There's a repetition of keyterms.
Notice the first and last verseboth use the word answer.
There's a lot of parallelismwhere you say a line and then
the line behind it builds that.
Verse 2, you send help from thesanctuary.
May you give support from Zion.
(23:23):
The sanctuary is in Zion.
And this psalm seems to beabout a battle that's coming up
and that the king is on the eveof battle and leading the God's
people into battle because theroyal honor here is at stake.
God's honor is at stake.
So there seems to be some extrapraying, some special prayer
that goes on here to get readyfor this battle.
(23:46):
And one of the important factsabout this psalm is that the
words are addressed to the king.
Not to God.
It is a prayer for him.
We are telling the king what weare praying for.
And the you in verse 1 and allthroughout the psalm is
singular.
It is one man, one person.
We're praying for the king.
And I like verse 4, We talkedabout how If we understand
(24:08):
prayer properly, that changesthe heart's desire.
Talked about that on Sunday,and you see it here.
What does the king want?
The king wants to triumph forGod's people, for God's honor.
And then, so those first fiveverses really are the prayer,
and then verses 6, 7, 8, and 9are statements of trust.
Now I know, verse 6, that theLord will save his anointed.
(24:29):
From the perspective of thepsalmist, it's a done deal.
I have come to the conclusionthis is what will happen.
And then verse 7, it's notabout our technology.
Chariots and horses are themost powerful military weapons
in the Old Testament times.
Interestingly, Israelite kingswere...
forbidden to multiply horses,Deuteronomy 17, because the
strength of the king was in God,not in chariots.
(24:52):
So we don't trust in havingadvanced weaponry.
We trust in the name of theLord our God.
They collapse and fall.
We rise and stand upright.
And so verse 9, O Lord, savethe king.
That statement is still beingused today.
God save the king.
Save the king means givevictory.
Like I said, people are stillsaying that in various
(25:13):
monarchical governments aroundthe world today.
Psalm 20 is our reading forFriday.
What a beautiful reading thatis.
That closes the podcast in forthe week.
Hope the podcast is of help toyou.
Please tell somebody about thepodcast.
Leave a rating and review.
So until next week when we'llopen our Bibles together again,
(25:34):
I am 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 (25:48):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ podcast, Monday MorningCoffee with 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
(26:13):
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Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
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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 forwardinto this week's Bible reading
so that we can know what toexpect and watch for.
And he may have some extrabonus thoughts 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, May
the 12th.
I'm Mark.
You know what I'm holding.
I've got coffee.
I'm looking at my sermonoutline from yesterday, and I
have some notes on our Biblereading.
We're going to read a chapterthis week.
That's kind of a hidden gem.
I'm excited about that.
I'm excited to start the weekwith you.
(01:12):
Pour that cup of coffee.
Let's get ready.
Let's get set.
Let's go.
Let's go.
So yesterday was Mother's Day,and you may have thought,
probably did think you weregoing to hear a sermon for moms
or about being a mother, all thethings that go with some of
that.
Let me give you a littleinsight.
Sometimes in the podcast, I'mable to kind of pull back the
(01:33):
curtain a little bit and let youtake a look at what's going on
in the preacher's head and whatI'm thinking.
Here's why I didn't preachsomething for moms yesterday.
First, I'm very aware thatthere are some present who are
not moms and who, like Hannah inthe Bible, really want to be a
mom.
Then you come to church, andit's Mother's Day this, and moms
(01:55):
are great, and that's rough.
And I want to be sensitive tothat, and that certainly has not
always kept me from doingsomething for mothers on
Mother's Day, but I am veryaware of that, and I do think
about it.
What I think about even more,though, is the many moms who
have adult children who are outof duty.
They're not serving the Lordlike they should, and when they
say, hey, mom, what do you wantus to do for Mother's Day?
(02:17):
They have the same requestevery year.
I want you to come to churchwith me.
So on Mother's Day, we alwayshave some folks in church who
just aren't there veryregularly.
And they're there because Mamaasked them to come and they're
abiding by her wishes.
And so I'm trying to dosomething to catch those
(02:37):
people's attention.
And I really love the preachingtheme this year because you got
to vote on on what we're doing,and I think that is very
sticky.
That's the kind of thing thatpeople don't forget about.
It sticks with them.
And so I decided to bring thepreaching theme forward and say,
let's do that on Mother's Daywith the idea that there be some
(03:00):
people there who aren't whatthey ought to be, and maybe that
sermon would get theirattention.
Hey, looky here.
These people are really keyedin on the Bible.
They're focusing on Jesus.
Jesus asks questions.
That's interesting.
You know what?
I ought to go back.
I need to go back.
I need to be there more.
So that's why I was preachingout of the preaching theme
(03:20):
yesterday.
And my prayer, since we talkedabout prayer so much yesterday,
my prayer is that that sermonwill be some good seed in some
people's hearts and that it willbear fruit, which, of course,
would make not just Mama happy,but even more importantly, would
make the Lord happy.
Let's turn to Bible readingthen.
(03:41):
Got your coffee?
Let's think about, oh, are youready for this?
1 Chronicles chapter 28.
Welcome to Monday.
(04:06):
Our reading for Monday, May the12th, is 1 Chronicles chapter
28.
Like I said, this is kind of ahidden gem.
You may be familiar withSolomon's charge, or rather
David's charge to Solomon as 1Kings gets underway.
And we'll read all of that andthink through some of that.
But this is a longer account ofthat.
(04:26):
it's very, very helpful for usto see some key ideas.
Notably, once again, David isciting the promises of 2 Samuel
7.
If you're keeping track, justin Chronicles, it is the third
time these promises arementioned just in 1 Chronicles.
David is always talking aboutwhat happened in 2 Samuel 7,
verse 4.
The Lord chose me from all myfather's house to be king over
(04:49):
Israel forever.
And of all my sons, verse 5,he's chosen Solomon my son.
And so this is all about...
building the temple.
And this is David saying thatGod has blessed me because of
the desire of my heart to buildhim a house.
Note again, verse 3, I talkedabout this some when I preached
through 2 Samuel 7.
I don't think David is beingheld in some way that he's being
(05:12):
besmirched because he was a manof war.
I really think this idea hereis much more, it just wasn't the
time to build the temple.
It was time to subjugate theenemies that would have
interfered with the building ofthe temple.
David, it was not for you to dothat.
Your son is going to do that.
And so then in verse 9, Davidturns his attention to Solomon,
and he charges him to buildGod's house.
(05:33):
And then David is giving him,wow, how about some coffee to
make that work?
Verse 11, David...
gives Solomon his son the plansof the temple.
And this overlaps some withwhat I talked about on Sunday
out of 1 Kings 7.
Part of the reason that Solomonis able to construct the temple
(05:53):
in seven years, and it takeshim so much longer to build his
own house, is because he wasgiven the plans, and then he was
given the materials.
All this gold is given, and theweight of the gold, verse 14,
and the weight of the goldenlampstand, verse 15.
Some people think this is tonsand tons of gold.
It's always hard It's hard toknow weights in the Bible, but
(06:14):
this is a huge amount of gold.
So the materials are preparedfor Solomon.
He's got the blueprint.
He just needs to do this.
Go and do this.
Verse 19, all this he madeclear to me in writing for the
hand of the Lord, all the workthat is to be done according to
the plan.
I have some material that Iwant to present about
instrumental music, and I amgoing to come out of 1
(06:34):
Chronicles 28, 19 and talk aboutthat because the word plan here
is the same word that's used inExodus for the passion.
Exodus 25 9, Exodus 25 40.
It's just very important thatwe understand temple worship was
not done willy-nilly orhaphazardly or even the way
Solomon would like for it tohave been done.
It was done the way God saidfor it to be done.
(06:57):
There was a plan and there wasa pattern for it.
So then verse 20, David said toSolomon his son, be strong and
courageous and do it.
There are numbers of timeswhere we see some parallel in
the life of David and the lifeof Moses and the life of Joshua
and the life of Solomon as thesuccessor to God's leaders.
And so, once again, that bestrong and courageous reminds us
(07:18):
of how Moses charges Joshua inthe same way.
1 Chronicles 28 gives us thisfuller account of the material
that we will look at as David issecuring the throne and the
things that are happening withDavid securing the throne.
A bunch of that is going totake place in 1 Kings.
Let's see here.
Is that 1 Kings 2 where SolomonYes, it's 1 Kings 2 where that
(07:43):
charge is, but this is thebigger account, and I really
love some of the things that arebeing said here.
Just notice how David talksabout the kingdom in verse 5,
for example, the kingdom of theLord.
I think a big part of David'ssuccessful reign and Yeah, I
know he had some bumps andbruises along the way, but he
was a successful king in so manyways.
(08:04):
A big part of that is Davidnever forgot that the kingdom he
was ruling was God's kingdom.
That makes David a man afterGod's own heart.
Reading for Monday then, 1Chronicles 28.
It is Tuesday, and our readingfor Tuesday is 2 Samuel 23,
verses 1-17.
This is a wonderful chapter.
(08:25):
I like everything about thischapter, except...
Yes, there's a ton of textualissues here with the Hebrew.
We'll talk about that as wework along.
But this chapter reallybalances the chapter preceding
it.
God is my rock, said David.
And the focus there was reallyon David acknowledging Jehovah
God as his ultimate sovereign.
Now there's some discussion ofthe responsibilities that David
(08:47):
has and what it's going to taketo be the kind of ruler that
God's people need.
Please notice here, these arethe last words, verse 1 of
David.
That does not mean that Hebarely managed to croak out the
first seven verses, and then hepassed away.
This is kind of like a lastwill and testament.
A last will and testament willsay, this is our last will and
(09:07):
testament.
It doesn't mean you died assoon as you signed the bottom of
the page there.
I think in many ways, thisbusiness here in 2 Samuel 22-23,
Really help us because when weget to 1 Kings, David is a very
weak king.
He is a shadow of what he usedto be.
And so reading here in 2 Samuelchapter 23 helps us see how
(09:31):
strong and powerful David reallyis.
The outline is pretty simple.
David's last song is the firstseven verses.
And then the three arediscussed in verses 8 to 17.
And then the 30 are discussedin the rest of the chapter.
We're only reading throughverses 1 to 17 today.
So let me give you a couple ofnotes here from David's last
song.
(09:51):
In verse 1, his humility isjust all over the place.
David always marveled that anobody like him could become
king.
And if you want to be a personwho seeks after God's heart, you
need to find the humility thatDavid has.
He does claim inspiration.
Verse 2, Jesus affirms that inMatthew 22 and verse 43.
And then in verse 3, you getthe qualities of an ideal king.
(10:14):
This is what someone who isleading God's people really
should be all about.
This is what that really lookslike.
And once again, verse 5, thereis the connection to the
promises of 2 Samuel 7.
We talked about that yesterday.
We're talking about it againtoday.
That is the high watermark inDavid's life.
It shapes everything about whohe is and what he's doing.
Then we're going to talk aboutDavid's mighty men.
(10:34):
And these guys are justincredible.
But what you need to be asking,what I need to be asking is,
why is this in the Bible?
What is this doing here?
And the answer is, that Davidis not the kind of ruler who
demands all the praise, all thehonor.
Everybody has to give him thecredit for every victory.
He is more than willing toshare honor and recognition with
(10:54):
people around him.
I think about the owner of theDallas Cowboys who got weary of
a coach who won a whole lotbecause the coach was getting
all the credit and Jerry was notgetting the credit.
And so they ended up partingways and the team has been no
good ever since.
Thanks a whole lot.
That's a fail.
That's a failure of humility.
That's a failure to be the kindof person that And so the
(11:15):
section here really divides intoa couple of parts.
We get the discussion of thethree, verses 8 to 17, and then
an illustration of the power ofthe three, verses 18 to 23, the
water of Bethlehem episode.
And so the three are thesemighty men who stood their
ground in single combat.
Everybody's breaking andrunning, and these guys stand,
(11:38):
and that turns a terrible lossinto a great victory.
Remember how you fight in Bibletime.
Sometimes everybody just linesup in two parallel lines and the
lines smash together.
And as soon as you can breakthrough the line and start
routing part of the line, thenpeople face the possibility that
the enemy is going to encirclethem and come around behind.
And I can't fight the guy infront of me and have an enemy
(12:00):
behind me.
So people panic and run.
And these guys don't panic andrun.
They stand and hold theirground.
Then there is, beginning verse13, the discussion of the water
of Bethlehem episode.
And the biggest question hereis, is this the three or is this
another three who are notnamed?
And I'm going with it's thethree, but it's hard to be
(12:21):
certain about all of that.
What is this episode doinghere?
Well, of course, the greatthing about this is these guys
go and they get David somewater.
Verse 15, oh, that someonewould give me water drink from
the well of Bethlehem.
And maybe you in your lifeYeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(12:49):
David pours it out.
He would not drink it, verse16.
He pours it out, verse 17, andsays this belongs to the Lord.
(13:09):
What's going on there, David?
Why are you doing that?
Because something this valuablehas to be given to God.
That's David's attitude.
And you have to think about theimpression that made upon
David's men.
David's men saw him as genuineand real.
He genuinely serves God.
He really cares about God.
(13:30):
He honors God.
He celebrates God.
He praises God.
It's not just a big put-upshow.
He does this in front of themto say, I honor you.
This is so valuable that I haveto give it to God, and I honor
God.
What a tremendous chapter ourreading today to help us think
about what it is to be likeDavid, a man after God's own
(13:53):
heart.
Our reading for two 2 Samuel 23verses 1 to 17.
And good news, Westsiders, yes,we will have the Zoom call
tonight and be able to study andtalk more about this this
evening.
We've missed two weeks, had anelders meeting last week, and
then the week before I was inBeaumont.
So really excited to get achance to reconvene Zoom and see
what you think about David'smighty men and the water episode
(14:16):
at Bethlehem and this greatsong of David in the first seven
verses.
See you tonight, Westsiders.
Everybody else, I'll see youtomorrow on the podcast.
Reading for Tuesday.
2 Samuel 23, 1-17 Welcome toHump Day.
It's Wednesday, and we'refinishing 2 Samuel, the 23rd
chapter.
We will read 2 Samuel 23,verses 18 to 39.
This is a pretty simplereading.
(14:37):
There are, however, a number oftextual issues here where it's
very difficult to translate theHebrew, and that begins in verse
20.
Benaniah, he's a doer of greatdeeds, and he struck down two
ariels of Moab, verse 20 says inthe ESV.
What is an ariel?
And no, it's not the The Hebrewword here is difficult.
(15:02):
Some translations have it asdistinguished warriors.
That's easy for you to say.
Other Bibles translate that twolions, and some even kind of
combine distinguished warriorsand two lions with two lion-like
heroes of Moab.
There's just a lot of textualvariance there.
Some are trying to follow theSeptuagint.
(15:23):
Others are going with the ideaof distinguished warriors.
It's just not clear.
It's just not clear.
But it is obvious that it is agreat and powerful victory of
some sort.
What I always remember aboutverse 20 is it is the only place
in the Bible where there isliteral snow.
Snow is used often as a figureof speech.
Your sins will be as white assnow, for example.
(15:45):
However, there is no snow snow,real snow, in the Bible except
right here.
And it just amazes me.
How good must the three havebeen that we read about
yesterday if a man who killed alion in a pit in the snow...
isn't up to their standards.
That's, I just, I don't evenknow what to say about that.
(16:06):
That's just incredible.
I cannot even imagine hereBenaniah is sliding around in
the pit and killing this lion.
Wow, that is a majoraccomplishment in my book.
Then the chapter just gives usthe rest of the men noting,
please, that Uriah the Hittiteis part of them, which makes the
events of 2 Samuel chapter 11even worse.
(16:27):
And all of that just says moreand more about David.
It's so tempting to get caughtup in all the doings of these
great men.
The important thing here, ofcourse, is that these guys were
loyal to David, which says somuch about his physical
strength, his ability as awarrior, his ability as a leader
(16:48):
of men.
These are impressive.
warriors in their own right,and they give their absolute
loyalty and allegiance to David.
So there you go.
That's our reading forWednesday.
Hope it doesn't snow today orthat you don't fall into a pit
with a lion.
If you do, don't spill yourcoffee.
Reading for Wednesday, 2 Samuelchapter 23, verses 18 to 39.
(17:09):
It is Thursday.
It is Thursday and our readingtoday is 2 Samuel chapter 24.
We will read the entire chapterverses 1 to 25.
When I preached through 2Samuel and I got to 2 Samuel 24,
that wasn't that long ago, itwas last August, I made some
remarks at the outset about howit's easy to get distracted and
miss the main thing.
(17:31):
And that's especially true in 2Samuel chapter 24 because
there's a lot of stuff here thatwe don't know and we can end up
talking about that andspeculating about that endlessly
and failed to keep the mainthing the main thing.
There are some difficultieshere.
I understand that, and youshould understand that.
You will after you read thechapter, but...
it doesn't mean that we'regoing to obsess about those
(17:53):
things endlessly.
So let me just deal with acouple of elephants that are in
the room.
First of all, why is it wrong,verse 1, for David to count the
people if God is the one whoincited, who's inciting all
these things that are going on?
And the answer to that is, wejust don't know.
We don't know.
God's people were in the wrong,and the punishment here will
(18:13):
fall upon the people of God, notjust David.
And we don't know why God wasangry, but we know that in verse
10, David recognizes what hewas doing was sinful.
We don't know everything elseabout that.
And one writer pointed out, Ithink this is very important, if
we are upset over a text thattells us Jehovah is angry but
does not tell us why, are we notsaying that we really don't
(18:36):
trust him to be just?
And we need to think aboutthat.
Just because we don't knoweverything about this text, is
there a sneaking suspicion thatsomehow God is messed up here
and he's not doing the rightthing?
Come on.
We know better than that.
Something happened here and theanger of the Lord was kindled
against Israel.
So then the next difficulty is,who moved David to sin?
Because he moved David, verse1, to go number Israel and
(18:59):
Judah.
But in Chronicles, 1 Chronicles21, 1, Satan moved David to
number Israel.
And the answer to that is thatparticularly in Israelite
thinking and Jewish thinking,there is not a whole lot about
working through secondary causesand properly attributing
everything to the exact cause.
God ultimately is responsiblefor everything in the Hebrew
(19:23):
mindset.
And so this is a case of thepermissive will of God in play.
God permitted Satan to do this.
And he allowed him to do that.
So in some sense, God isresponsible because God said,
you can do it.
God green-lighted it, kind oflike in the book of Job.
But of course, Satan is alsoresponsible as well.
Maybe the question that you'rereally wondering is, why is it
(19:45):
wrong to number the people?
Especially since on Sundays,I'm teaching in the book of
Numbers, and they are countingpeople all the time.
And the answer to that is, Wedon't know.
Maybe David is trying to raisea standing army here.
Maybe this is just the issue ofpride.
How many people am I rulingover?
Look how great my kingdom is.
But interestingly, Joab knowsthis is wrong.
Verse 3, this is one of thevery few times that Joab appears
(20:07):
to care about God at all.
And a great question to askhere is, Why doesn't David ask a
prophet, hey, what does Godwant me to do here?
Why is God angry with us?
How do we handle this?
What's going on?
Instead, they count.
And that's a terrible mistake.
And something brings David tothe realization, verse 10, that
he has done wrong.
(20:27):
We don't know how David came tothat conclusion, but he
realizes that.
And now the prophet is on thescene, verse 11.
Don't forget, the punishmenthere is not just for David.
The punishment is for Israel'ssin, verse 1, even though we
don't Notice here in verse 13that, like in 2 Samuel 21, what
(20:48):
the king does affects the landand affects the people.
And then I just really loveverse 17.
This is David being theshepherd king and he acts
like...
Yeah, he acts like Jesus inJohn chapter 10.
He acts like Jesus in Johnchapter 10.
And then probably the mainthing, what this is all about,
(21:10):
is in verses 18 to 25, whereDavid purchases the threshing
floor of Arona.
A threshing floor would be on ahigh place so the wind could
blow the chaff away.
And this is the top of a hillto the north of the city of
David.
And David says, I'm buying it.
Arona says, I just give it toyou.
And David says...
I will not offer to God whatcosts me nothing.
(21:31):
What a great pairing with thewater episode that we read in 2
Samuel 23.
And this piece of property, ofcourse, becomes the piece of
property that Solomon builds thetemple on.
So Samuel closes with thekingdom at peace and a site for
the temple secured, and now weare ready to see power
transferred to the next king.
(21:53):
You're thinking about all thesedistractions.
What should I really hold onto?
I think you hold on to verse10.
David recognizes his sin.
I think you hold on to David'srepentance, verse 17.
He doesn't make excuses or tryto justify it.
That's also in verse 10.
And then you hold on to David'swillingness to offer to God
what will cost him somethinginstead of saying, oh, you're
(22:16):
going to make me a deal?
That's great, because BecauseI'm a little short today, and I
don't really want to buy yourland.
That's not who David is, andthat's not what it means to be a
person after God's own heart.
Tomorrow, we'll be in thePsalms.
See you on Friday.
The reading for Thursday, 2Samuel 24, verses 1 to 25.
Welcome to Friday.
Welcome to Friday, and we'rereading today in the Psalms, of
(22:38):
course, always the Psalms onFriday, and today is Psalm 20.
This is a royal psalm.
Remember, the first question wealways ask when studying the
Psalms is what kind of psalm itis.
This is a royal psalm.
There's not very many of those,but it is a psalm about the
king.
It's for the king, and it sayssomething about the kingdom and
what kind of king the kingshould be.
These psalms often speak aboutpower and might, and this psalm,
(23:02):
by the way, is very beautiful.
It shows very careful planningand very careful construction.
There's a repetition of keyterms.
Notice the first and last verseboth use the word answer.
There's a lot of parallelismwhere you say a line and then
the line behind it builds that.
Verse 2, you send help from thesanctuary.
May you give support from Zion.
(23:23):
The sanctuary is in Zion.
And this psalm seems to beabout a battle that's coming up
and that the king is on the eveof battle and leading the God's
people into battle because theroyal honor here is at stake.
God's honor is at stake.
So there seems to be some extrapraying, some special prayer
that goes on here to get readyfor this battle.
(23:46):
And one of the important factsabout this psalm is that the
words are addressed to the king.
Not to God.
It is a prayer for him.
We are telling the king what weare praying for.
And the you in verse 1 and allthroughout the psalm is
singular.
It is one man, one person.
We're praying for the king.
And I like verse 4, We talkedabout how If we understand
(24:08):
prayer properly, that changesthe heart's desire.
Talked about that on Sunday,and you see it here.
What does the king want?
The king wants to triumph forGod's people, for God's honor.
And then, so those first fiveverses really are the prayer,
and then verses 6, 7, 8, and 9are statements of trust.
Now I know, verse 6, that theLord will save his anointed.
(24:29):
From the perspective of thepsalmist, it's a done deal.
I have come to the conclusionthis is what will happen.
And then verse 7, it's notabout our technology.
Chariots and horses are themost powerful military weapons
in the Old Testament times.
Interestingly, Israelite kingswere...
forbidden to multiply horses,Deuteronomy 17, because the
strength of the king was in God,not in chariots.
(24:52):
So we don't trust in havingadvanced weaponry.
We trust in the name of theLord our God.
They collapse and fall.
We rise and stand upright.
And so verse 9, O Lord, savethe king.
That statement is still beingused today.
God save the king.
Save the king means givevictory.
Like I said, people are stillsaying that in various
(25:13):
monarchical governments aroundthe world today.
Psalm 20 is our reading forFriday.
What a beautiful reading thatis.
That closes the podcast in forthe week.
Hope the podcast is of help toyou.
Please tell somebody about thepodcast.
Leave a rating and review.
So until next week when we'llopen our Bibles together again,
(25:34):
I am 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 (25:48):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ podcast, Monday MorningCoffee with 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
(26:13):
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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