MID WEEK MOTIVATION - September 2, 2026 (Grant Stegall)

You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven, Mississippi.

Here's your hosts, Mark Lewis, David Burgess, Lord Ulrich, Hunter Smith, and Pastor Grant Stiegall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for our season three opener.

This is September the 2nd here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis sitting here with the pastor.

Grant Steagall.

Hey everybody.

And we certainly hope this programming can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond.

Be sure to subscribe and share our link on social media.

What is the big thing the Stiegall family did this summer?

Now your boy came home from college.

Yeah.

The big thing is still to come.

We usually do our vacation in in September.

We're going on vacation in September.

So we really didn't, I mean, just kind of hung out this summer, not a whole lot of stuff going.

Now, are Eli and both and Sam both working?

Were they both working in the summer jobs?

Eli, yes, Sam did, but it wasn't like a typical traditional kind like we had somebody that he went and helped some, and he just picked up like kind of little odds and end jobs.

Like, well, as always, uh the Lewis family took our camper out and we headed down to Florida for like two and a half weeks, and it was lovely.

You know that I basically turned my phone off and unplugged, which is something I do not ever do.

Right.

And uh it's really nice to do that, like to unplug like that.

Uh so it was certainly incredible.

I'm hoping to do that in a couple weeks.

Like I said, we'll we'll go in September and uh yeah.

So well, there's fewer people at the beach.

I'm assuming y'all are going to the beach.

Yeah.

Y'all typically do.

We are.

And Eli's gonna be able to come.

I mean, he um he he's planning on coming.

Uh maybe not the whole time that we're there, but for several days that we're there, so it'll be good.

Have y'all ever done the Atlantic coast before, the East Coast in any way?

No.

I mean so my sister-in-law, my brother's uh wife, her family lived in Vero Beach, which is on the Atlantic side of Florida.

Okay.

And I mean, we visited them when close to Jacksonville kind of north.

It's way south.

It's south of Orlando.

Like we would fly into Orlando and then drive for like two or three more hours to get down there.

It's it's kind of south.

Trying to think, uh there's um I can't remember.

But yeah, it's kind of south on the Atlantic side.

Wow.

I'm thinking about Myrtle Beach this summer.

I'm thinking we might we might travel over to Atlanta with the camper and then over to the Myrtle Beach area because that's I mean, it's really old world.

It's not and and people complain because those beaches are not.

They're an Emerald Coast.

No, no, no, no, no, they're not.

And you have to know that going in.

Like, this is gonna be a a really tough, you know, you could ride a bicycle, they say, on those beaches.

Like they're really tough and the the tide coming off the ocean and stuff is really crazy over there.

But um, it has a boardwalk and all that kind of stuff.

I just thought it would be something different.

I remember my sister when she was in high school, some people went to Myrtle Beach.

Honestly, I remember in when I was growing up, if people talked about going to the beach, it was Myrtle Beach really that they kind of went to.

Interesting.

Um, and then you know, it it wasn't going or or Gulf Shores maybe was the furthest away.

But she went to Myrtle Beach, but I've never I've never kind of I've never been over there.

From what I understand, it's kind of Branson and um Gatlinburg kind of rolled together on the beach because it's got lots of it's got Ripley's Believe It Or Not and it's got put put places and then it's got lots of dinner shows like a pirate show and stuff.

I don't know.

We're gonna see.

Anyway, having said all that, I enjoyed our family camping vacation thoroughly.

Glamping is what my wife calls it.

We're not really camping, we are glamping.

And uh y'all have got one coming up, so we're looking forward to that.

Hey, we have a lot of stuff this fall.

We don't have a ton of stuff coming up right here in the next few weeks, but we do have a major milestone coming up in October, and we've got several podcasts, uh starting with one next week, um, special podcast kind of dedicated to our 20th anniversary.

So why don't you talk about that for a second?

So this is this is the year for 20 years for DeSoto Hills.

I believe the actual date is October the 15th.

Yep.

Is the actual anniversary, but that's a Thursday this year.

And so um we we're gonna celebrate that on October the 11th.

Um I'm excited about it, looking forward to it.

Brother James is gonna come preach.

Uh, Manning is going to lead in the choir and orchestra.

Uh so it's gonna be a fun Sunday that day.

Then we're gonna do I here's the here's the feel I'm going for, Mark.

I'm going for an old-fashioned homecoming.

Yes, you are.

That's that's that's the feel.

Small town Mississippi Church.

That's the feeling.

And we're gonna bring it to the city, baby.

That's right, that's right.

Um, and so and well, you know, and that's kind of who we are.

I've always said we are a traditional church that does things in contemporary ways.

We're a traditional contemporary church.

Uh and so we're not, it's I I want it to kind of have that feel, but we're not doing exactly that same way.

Um we will have the two services.

We are gonna do a dinner on the grounds afterwards.

Um, Miss Jean and David have gone around to Sunday school classes already.

She Miss Jean has done a great job of organizing.

Like, we need these classes to bring this, these classes to bring this, these classes to bring that.

And so they've already gone around to Sunday school classes to tell you that, to tell them that.

They'll continue to do that.

People can sign up to bring food just to make sure we have plenty.

And also to make sure we don't have like a hundred people bringing mashed potatoes.

Mashed potatoes and nobody bringing green bean casserole, you know.

And so, so there she's she's working on that and doing that and even has a way, and we'll we'll organize it.

If you're not in a Sunday school class, why not?

But uh if you're not in a Sunday school class, then you can bring a vegetable or a casserole too.

You can sign up for that at the at the multi-purpose center, not at the church information center.

And uh yeah, so um it I I'm excited about it.

It should be a lot of fun and good.

And so um, yeah, we got some videos coming up of people talking about that that we're gonna show on so show on Sunday mornings.

We got podcasts where people have talked about it or and are going to talk about it.

And um, yeah, it should just be a a good time to see uh what God has done here over the past 20 years and look ahead to to what he's going to do over the next next 20.

Yeah.

So it's crazy that it's been 20 years.

No.

It is crazy.

How many years have you been here?

Is it eighteen?

November is 19.

So you've been here most of the almost the whole time.

Yeah.

They I mean, I r I remember that y'all d had the one year anniversary and fall fest in the time of like I had come in view of a call.

Right.

And then y'all had your anniversary and fall fest, and then I came in November.

And so that happened in between those times.

So I knew that was about well, I knew it was close because I remember me, I still remember me and Jennifer going over to y'all's rental house when Eli was roll on the floor looking at his Christmas presents.

He was he his birthday is November 13th, and we came the first Sunday in November.

So he was two weeks away from being a a year old when we moved, and he he turns 20 this year.

Oh my goodness.

That hurts.

That's all this white hair on my head and then my beard.

So, but yeah, back to the 20th anniversary.

Um, yeah, I'm I'm excited about it.

I think it's gonna be a lot of fun.

I think these videos, after we kind of show them, we're gonna post them on Facebook and and uh just encourage people to to comment on those, tell your stories, and it it'll be a lot of fun.

So really excited about that.

And then two weeks after that, the reason we chose the Sunday before the actual anniversary instead of the Sunday after is because the week after that on the 25th is fall fest.

And so instead of doing two weeks in a row, we gave ourselves a little break.

But this is 20 years of fall fest too, man.

Right, and what's crazy to think about on that, so fall fest, just just so I say the date, it's October 25th, 3 to 5 30.

Um, and the thing that's crazy about that, I was talking to the kids about it.

They were saying something about Fall Fest the other day, and I said, you know, the first Fall Fest I came to, everything was in the Grand Hall.

There was nothing outside.

I remember that.

That's when we built the it was just maze and the grand hall.

Yes, you built the maze in the preschool.

That's right.

That's right.

Because before we had security in the preschool and stuff.

Yep.

And so, yeah, it was it's crazy how much that has grown.

Um, how many people we have the opportunity to make connections with through that, and so that'll be the two weeks after um the anniversary and 20 years of Fall Fest, too.

So it's gonna be very, very exciting.

And uh, we're not gonna get too far ahead of ourselves.

We obviously have some special things for the holidays that will be coming up in November and December.

But that is what we're looking at right now.

For those of you who are just listening and have not been around the church in the past few months, we have completely redone the Grand Hall.

It's looking amazing, fantastic.

We also have a new staff member.

That's right.

I was thinking about since we met last time, what has happened?

The grandfall has totally changed, Hunter is here.

We talked about Hunter and his coming, but he wasn't actually here the last time we correct.

Uh, end of April was our our final show for the season, season two.

So uh we have a lot of really cool things coming up.

Obviously, you heard on the little intro Hunter's name, so he is going to be on the podcast.

He's a very gifted speaker, if if you haven't gotten to hear him, um, he's very, very good at that.

So we're excited about all of that too.

All right, we're now going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the Midweek Moment.

All right, you said you're going to be in the book of Matthew.

Yeah, so in light of our 20-year anniversary and celebrating that, um, what I would like to do in our times of devotion this fall, look, I I'm terrible at coming at like topical things, like, hey, I could talk about this.

So I kind of have to have a plan, a strategy.

So I know that I won't be doing these every week, but when I'm I'm doing the devotions this fall, I want us to focus on the church.

We're celebrating a 20-year anniversary of the church, so I want us to talk about what it is and what the church is, what the church does, what it's supposed to look like, some things like that.

And so Well, let me ask you the question right off.

Okay.

Why the book of Matthew then?

Well, Matthew is the first place in the New Testament that the word is used.

Um actually the the word for church, the Greek word is ecclesia, and it is only used twice in the Gospels.

Just twice.

Both of those are in Matthew.

Interesting.

Um now, granted, it's used tons in Acts and beyond in Paul's writings and things like that, but in the gospel, it's it's really only used twice.

Um, there is references in the Old Testament.

Now, remember, Old Testament is Hebrew, not Greek.

Right.

Um, and there's not a a perfect translation, but there's two words used for meetings of God's people in the Old Testament.

One of those when the when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, we call that the Septuagint.

One of those was you ecclesia was the word used for that.

And so um, so that's it, there is some mentions of church quotations around it in the Old Testament as well.

So that's interesting.

But first time in the New Testament, one of only two times in the Gospels that um that the word is used.

And so I just thought, well, hey, this is a great place to start there.

Um also because of what Christ says about the church.

So it's Matthew chapter 16, it's where we're going to be looking in verses 13 down through verse 20.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

And uh here's what it says.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

They said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

He said to them, But who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

I and I tell you you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he is the Christ.

And so what I what we see here is is Peter has God reveals to Peter that that who Christ is.

I mean, because they're saying, Who who Jesus comes and says, Who do people say that I am?

And you're John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.

Well, who do you say that I am?

And and Peter says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And and here and here's what Jesus says, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

So God has revealed to Simon, hey, this guy right here, Jesus, he is the Christ.

He is the Messiah, he is the one coming.

And and honestly, if we are going to recognize God for who he is and Jesus for who he is, it's gotta be a revelation from God.

He's got to open our eyes and he's got to open our hearts to that.

But with that confession comes responsibility.

There are some there are some implications that come with the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

So, so real quickly, just three things that I think we can see.

Um, the first implication that comes with that confession is we imply that we have a relationship with God.

Peter could say this because he knew Jesus.

He had walked with Jesus, he had been with Jesus, he had seen Jesus, he had seen miracles by Jesus, he had seen what Jesus had done.

And so God opened his eyes and he said, Hey, you are the Christ, you are the living God.

And that came through a relationship, but also brought a closer relationship.

Because now he says, Hey, hey, you're not Peter, and you're not Simon any longer.

You are Peter.

You're you're Peter, and on this rock I'm gonna build my church.

And don't miss, don't, don't misconstrue that because there are people who say, well, it's Peter that Jesus it's not Peter that Jesus says he's gonna build the church on.

It's the confession that Jesus is the Christ.

It's the truth that that the church is being built on.

So he makes that confession, and then there are there are implications that, hey, Peter has this relationship with God.

It also implies that Peter is part of the church.

Uh up on this rock, up on this truth that you are confessing, I was confessing, I will build my church.

So the church in our Western society, Mark, we we are so self-focused and self, you know, I and I've had people tell me, I just need Jesus in me.

Well, that's really not true.

Like our confession in Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, it unites us with something bigger because it's on the truth that you are the Christ, the living God, that the church is built on.

I'm building my church up on this truth so we are united to something bigger.

I mean, just to say, I mm-mmm.

It's not about you.

It's not that so it well it is and it's not about you.

Christ is the head of the church.

Peter tells us that in front in in in in first in 1 Peter chapter 2, he says, You Christ is the head of the church.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

So the the church revolves around Christ, who he is.

The church is not about me, it's not about what I can do, it's not about preferences, what I want or anything like that.

It's Christ.

What does Christ want as the head of the church?

We should be serving him.

How do you think we mess that up the most as not just a soda heels?

As the church in general.

As a church general in today's society.

I really think because uh we we again are are so self-focused.

And it becomes on what we want church to be when we get there.

Yeah.

And I don't think that's always intentional.

That we intentionally go into it, you know, but but we go there and and you know, well and it's easy to do uh easier today to do than it was in the first century, and it's easier today to do than it was 200 years ago.

Because now, well, if if uh DeSota Hills does something you don't like, well, there's another church just down the road.

Right.

There's another church like we shot.

Right.

And so but the church is not it it unites us.

And I look look, I'm not saying like I believe God has created churches with personalities, and that comes from the people that that he's put to lead the church, is put that it comes from the people that he's placed in that church to serve and to minister, not just uh not just the the staff or the ministers, but the lay people as well.

Like who is a part of that church makes up that personality.

I tell people all the time, you've got to find a church where the personalities mesh so you can serve.

Not so you can be satisfied so you can serve.

We get in the South we get that really backward stuff.

Yeah.

And it's and it's an easy thing to do.

And again, I I don't think I don't think people intentionally do that all the time.

I just think it's human nature.

Yeah, human nature, what we are, and all of this.

And so where because though, when we imp imply Christ, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and upon this rock, he's gonna God's gonna build his church, like Christ is ahead.

So what we have to do is place our faith in him.

So implication one is that there's a relationship with God.

The church, people in the church have a relationship with God.

Two, is we're part of something bigger than us.

We are part of this our uh we are part of the church.

Third, though, because of that too, is there are responsibilities that we have to keep.

When Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, it was not something he just said, it is something he lived.

And if we're gonna live it, there is a responsibility for us as members of the church.

There are responsibilities.

When he says, Um, I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

I mean, that is that is a call.

What he's saying is the keys of the kingdom of heaven is is a means that we know the way for people to get to heaven.

I know the key for you to have a relationship with God.

I know the key for you to be a part of the church, I know uh the key for you to be a part of the kingdom of heaven.

We have those keys, we know that that's Christ, okay?

So when we introduce Christ, when we tell people about Christ, we are loosening them.

Because right now we are bound.

Before Christ, we are bound.

When we give people the keys and and introduce Christ, Christ unlocks them and looses them.

Loosens them.

But when we don't share, we're we're binding people.

We are binding people when we have the keys and don't share that with them.

We are stepping on some toes, man.

We are binding.

I think about it all the time.

Like I probably should have shared just then with that person.

Yeah.

And there's many times I don't.

Yeah.

So we have to be more concerned about finding ways to talk to people about Christ than we have to we are concerned about talking about people in the church.

We we've got to share Christ.

We are as as I say here, I'm I've try to say it all the time now, we are called to be witnesses to the kingdom of God.

We have the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and it's Jesus.

And so we have got to be sharing Christ with people to loose them, not bind them.

That is, I mean, right here, the initial introduction of the church on the pages of the New Testament in the gospel to Peter and to the 12 apostles is this.

Jesus is the Christ.

He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

Upon that truth is is the church has been built.

We have the keys to that as part of the church.

We have a responsibility as part of the church to share and be witnesses to the kingdom of God.

Thanks so much for listening.

If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here on Sunday morning.

You can catch our services online at Desotahills.com, our YouTube channel at DeSota Hills Baptist Church for all of our church family.

We love you so much.

We'll see you back here next Wednesday morning, bright and early.

God bless.

This has been your midweek motivation.

We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings.

Our services are at 9 and 10 30 a.m.