MID WEEK MOTIVATION - December 31, 2025 (Grant Stegall)

Listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven, Mississippi.

Here's your host, Mark Lewis, David Burgess, Laura Ulrich, and Pastor Grant Steve.

Happy New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year's.

Or is it Merry New Year's Eve?

Happy New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year's Eve.

It is December the 31st.

And this is the regular Midweek Motivation Podcast, although it's really not the regular one.

This one is going to be a little bit briefer because we are here because we wanted Grant to finish up the series, the Christmas series that he has been going through through December.

And it has been a wonderful series.

We want to thank you for all the time you put into putting this together for us.

And having said that, we wanted you to get right into it today.

So what are we going to talk about today?

We're finishing up our study of what is the gospel, kind of using a book by Greg Gilbert.

Um, we've looked at so far God that He is righteous, He is the judge.

We've looked at mankind that we are unrighteous and deserve to be judged.

Yep.

Um we've looked at Christ, how Christ paid the price.

He paid the price to redeem us, and through that redemption offered to us by faith, we um God can declare us to be righteous because he is the judge.

And then we looked last week at the cross and how the cross is the foolishness of mankind because we don't understand um the depth of our sin, that sin must be worse than we can comprehend.

But it also helps us understand, when we understand that, we understand a little better the power of the love of God, um, even though it is kind of beyond our comprehension, and we see that salvation is a work of God.

And so today we want to focus on what is the response to this.

When we when this comes to our life, what is the response?

Not just for salvation, because remember in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, he says, When which you stand and in which you are being saved.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

And so it's not just for salvation, just a one-time decision that we have to make.

The gospel should affect us every day.

And so, how does it do that?

It does it through two things.

Our response is two ways.

Our response is faith and repentance.

Faith and repentance.

So what are the what are faith and repentance?

Well, let's let's look first at faith.

Faith is a reliance upon Christ alone.

In Romans chapter 4, in verse 18, or really in Romans chapter 4, Paul is writing using Abraham as an illustration of faith.

Romans 4 · chapter mention Romans 4 · chapter mention

And here's what he writes in verse 18.

In hope, he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, so shall your offspring be.

But he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

No unbelief made no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Check it.

Abraham, a hundred years old, his body is dead, is basically what Paul says.

Sarah is 90 years old, has been barren for 90 years.

All of our wisdom would say, ain't no way they're having any kids.

Correct.

But Abraham, it says his faith did not waver, believing that God could do what he said he was going to do.

Faith is a reliance upon Christ for a righteous verdict.

Back at the beginning of Romans chapter of chapter four, there in Romans, when he's talking about Abraham, it's in verse 3, well, in verse 1, it says, What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to flesh?

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does Scripture say?

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Abraham begot a was declared righteous.

He got a verdict of righteousness, not because he was the father of the Jewish nation, not because he did anything to fulfill any promises, only because what happened in verse 18, without wavering, he believed God would do what he said he would do because of that belief, because of that, here you go, faith, he was declared righteous and was brought into a loving relationship with God.

It says in verse 23, but the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.

It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, and who has delivered up our trespasses and ray was raised for our justification.

Chapter 5 says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

So faith is a reliance upon Christ alone for a righteous verdict, because Christ is the only one who could pay the redemption, who could pay that price.

So we have to rely on Him alone for a righteous verdict to be brought into a loving relationship with God.

That's faith.

That's one aspect of our response.

The second aspect of this is repentance.

Now understand, faith and repentance are like two sides of a same coin.

You you really don't have one without the other.

It it takes both.

Our response is both.

So what is repentance?

Repentance is first, it is understanding that sin is wrong.

That it is an understanding that that sin is against God.

It's more than just saying, I'm sorry, though.

I used to tell one of tell my kids, you're not, they would say, they would do something, I'm sorry, and I would say, you're not sorry.

You can't be sorry if we don't think what we've done is wrong.

You can't be sorry just because you got in trouble.

Faith is uh repentance is more than that.

It is understanding that our sin is wrong.

We talked about that.

Remember when we talked about how we don't comprehend the depth and the depravity of our sin.

We don't comprehend that, and so we think the cross is foolishness.

So if we don't if we don't think we need a savior, we're not gonna we're if you don't think you need saving, you don't need a savior.

Yeah, I think part of that issue these days is that society has become numb to sin.

Yeah.

Like very much so.

Right.

So we need we uh repent part of repentance is understanding that we've been wrong, and then it's it's understanding being sorrowful for the sins that we committed.

And second 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 9 and 10, um, Paul writes this, as it is, I rejoice not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting.

2 Corinthians 7:9

You felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas a worldly grief produces death.

So a godly grief, what he's saying for, a godly grief is a grief that one, we recognize our sin is wrong.

We recognize that in in because we have sinned against God, that we have to turn to him.

It's not a worldly grief, is just being sorry, I got in trouble, being sorry, I got caught.

A godly grief is I recognizing I have wronged God and committing, we have committed sins not against a person, not against myself, I have committed a sin against God.

And so now what happens is we renounce that sin and turn away from it.

In Luke chapter 3, verses 8 through 14, he says this, bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourself, We have Abraham as our father, or I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

Luke 3:8–14

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

And the crowds asked him, What then shall we do?

And he answered them, Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.

Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, Teacher, what shall we do?

And he said to them, Collect no more than you're authorized to do.

Soldiers also asked him, And we, what shall we do?

And he said, Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.

And so what he is saying here is true godly sorrow.

It requires a change of attitude and position.

If you could see me, it is a 180 turn.

And so our response, faith and repentance requires both of those.

Faith is turning towards God, repentance is turning away from sin.

And when we turn away from sin and turn towards God, that is our response.

And so that is it, and that is an everyday occurrence.

That can't just be a one-time decision I made when I was six years old and I got baptized and I'm okay now.

The gospel message, our response to man be or God being the righteous judge, us being an unworthy, Christ dying for us, the the power of the cross, the response to that is a daily turning from our sin and turning towards God and living our life in complete and full reliance upon Him.

Thank you, Grant, so much for that series.

That's been really amazing to go through the past five weeks.

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 or our YouTube channel at DeSota Hills Baptist Church.

For all of our church family, we love you.

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.