MID WEEK MOTIVATION - December 3, 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 Steagall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for December the 3rd here at DeSota Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis with Grant Stiegall.

And if you couldn't tell from the music, it is the Christmas season, baby.

We hope this programming can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond.

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

Grant didn't know that I had that little uh intro.

Love it.

Ready to go.

Love it.

His mouth hit the floor in here in the uh in the studio.

All right, uh, so let's quickly uh hit some of our our our I'm gonna get that one day, our uh favorite things about the holidays when it comes to decorations.

What's your favorite decoration, like your favorite staple?

You may say the Christmas tree, but I'm hoping that maybe there's something that's not as obvious.

For me, and it doesn't, I mean, we it's probably not a family, but for me, um, we have one of those Willow Tree Nativity sets.

And um we don't have the full set, but it was one of those things that that Amber and I started or like right after we got married, grew it a little bit, so we again we don't have the full set.

At one point I thought, we'll get the each, we'll eat every year, we'll grow it.

And it we haven't done that, but I love that piece.

That's that's one of my favorites.

If you get on eBay, you might find some of those pieces more inexpensive.

Now, if you got the whole stable, you remember that huge stable that I did.

I think that stable was like hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

I think that's why we quit collecting.

You know me, I like uh the little Christmas village houses.

So uh if you listened to last week's or two weeks ago episode with Laura, I talked about collecting some more of those this year.

We have everything up, uh, and we have had, I'm not ashamed to say, we have had everything up for weeks now, even before Thanksgiving.

But I told Laura a few weeks ago it's so much energy that goes into decorating for Christmas, and we love the decorations for Christmas so much that over the years we've just backed it up more and more.

And I mean, ten years ago, we would not have decorated before Thanksgiving, but it's sort of I think commercially acceptable now, sure certainly commercially.

Right.

Um but more socially acceptable now.

Yeah.

Because I remember Miss Uh Suzanne years ago saying you can't light those trees before Thanksgiving.

That's right.

So, you know, this year we even did early.

We um Amber, we got I we got a new new tree, and um it wasn't supposed to come in until a little bit later, but it came in really early.

And I want to say it was the Sunday after Halloween when we got home from church.

That thing was sitting on the stoop.

And uh I said, Amber, I'm not hauling that thing upstairs just to haul it right back down.

Let's just put it up.

And so we we put it up the Sunday after Halloween.

We had our tree up.

Now it was it was uh a little bit later before I put the lights on the outside of the tree, but I did that before Thanksgiving this year.

So I love it.

All right, uh before we get to the calendar, because we're about to get to the calendar, I wanted to ask you um, we've got some Christmas table topics.

What's the first Christmas or holiday gift you remember being really truly excited about?

I think I said last year I remember talking about the keyboard that James Lewis bought me.

He bought me a very, very expensive keyboard.

Yeah.

I think gosh, it I I have a couple that I really remember.

I really remember one um getting like a real football helmet, not one of those, you know, plastic, like a real football helmet.

I memory remember getting that one year.

And those are expensive.

Yeah.

I remember one year getting um like a a net you throw a ball into and it would throw it back to you.

Oh yeah, big time.

And then what I think one of my earliest Christmas memories, I don't know the present, but I remember the Christmas we got a VCR.

Oh my goodness.

Now, you know, I I don't know if I've ever told this story to you before, but we got a VCR and the way that we got it was it was one of those shoulder strapped with a uh video camera to it.

And so my mom really wanted a video camera, and those were you know, I mean these this was the 80s, this was still the 80s, and those were very expensive.

But uh I remember her telling me years later, well, the the way I got that was I told your dad he could watch regular movies, VHS movies out of it, you know.

Yeah.

So but I remember you had to open the cabinet door and it looked like a boom box because the tape would open like a cassette tape on a boom box, it was vertical, and you had to slip it down like a like a cassette uh recorder.

So that was the first V VCR, but yeah, you mentioned that.

That's a big deal because until that point you couldn't watch movies where you were just whatever was on TV, but it was on TV.

Yeah.

I do I don't remember how we opened it or anything like that, but I remember sitting around like Christmas morning with the VCR watching Swiss Family Robinson.

I was just about to ask one what movie was it, and dad came in while we were watching.

Dad went outside and he came back in with a puppy.

Oh it was a huge Christmas man.

Baby.

Oh baby.

Swiss Family Robinson.

Man, that's one of the greatest old Disney movies ever that our kid, I'm I don't know my kids have never seen that movie.

We might have seen it.

My kids might have seen it.

The older ones anyway.

I suppose the pirates probably wouldn't be culturally acceptable today.

I don't know.

You know, I I think I I want to say we had Disney Plus for a little while, and it was on Disney Plus.

So I feel like we might have watched it with Disney Plus at some point.

But I I may be wrong on that.

I may be misremembering that.

Those old uh coconut bombs, baby.

The coconut bombs.

All right, so that's the uh table topics.

And again, we we encourage you to grab some of these questions from time to time.

You can steal the ones that we use on the show and ask your family around the supper table because it's a a way fun way to have conversation and get in uh get into family meals, which is hard to do these days.

All right, our calendar, Grant.

Why don't you start hitting our calendar?

Today is the third, so our first item really coming up is this weekend.

The seventh is Carol's by candlelight.

Our choir and orchestra are going to be leading us in worship that Sunday.

Um, this Sunday.

Uh, but the times are gonna be the normal Sunday morning times, 9 and 10 30.

We will have Sunday school at 9 and 10.30.

Uh the the the um service is only supposed to, it might go a little over an hour, but it's gonna be close right there, like close enough that we can do both services at the normal times.

Um, but I say it may while it may be shorter, it's I mean, the choir to hear the choir talk about it, they are pumped.

Like it's it's gonna be good.

I'm excited about it.

It's some really good music.

Yeah.

So uh regular service.

We basically wanted you to know that that's a regular service.

It's just going to be uh special music that morning.

And then T have their dinner coming up on the ninth.

On the ninth?

Yep.

Tuesday the ninth.

Oh yeah.

I have it written down, it's the 10th, but that's the loss of a spouse.

So what day now explain the loss of a spouse.

That's on the 10th.

So we in every spring we have a grief share class.

It's a class for people who are um who have experienced a loss in their family.

Um, and we've added to that.

Uh so every fall we offer right before Thanksgiving, we've already offered it this year, uh, we um offer a class called surviving the holidays.

It's just making it through the holidays, especially, you know, after you've lost a loved one.

And then uh right after Thanksgiving, it's just another, it's a one-time class, um, just talking about the loss of a spouse, just to help those people who have uh lost lost a spouse within the past year, even two or three.

I mean, everybody processes at different rates of speed, and so um it's just a just a class to help you do a couple things.

One process what you're going through, uh, but two give you a support group to help you walk through this together.

So this is like a spin-off of grief share.

Yes.

Okay, and we have our children singing in the morning services coming up on December the 14th.

We also are gonna have our family caroling night at Golton that evening on the 14th at 5 p.m.

Now tell us just a little bit of logistics on that.

So um we will go to Golden, we'll m meet at the church and go if you need a ride, or you can meet us at Golden.

Uh so if you meet us there, you would meet us there about 5 15.

Um, we'll go uh they uh the residents at Golden will this kind of their supper time, so they'll be in the cafeteria area, the dining room area, uh eating, and we will go in.

We have somebody who's gonna play the piano for us, and we'll sing four or five Christmas carols and wish them a Merry Christmas, and then we'll we'll leave.

It's it but it's a fun time, it's a good time.

Yeah, it was it was really, really special last year.

Um it didn't take us very long.

I want to say about 35, 40 minutes.

Yeah.

Uh and you know, it's one of those deals, uh, it doesn't take long, but it does it is a big impact for them.

They're excited about us coming.

Um, I lead a Bible study there every Wednesday.

Um, Marty Hopkins usually goes with me every Wednesday, and we do a Bible study at Golden on Wednesdays at 10, and so they're excited about us coming.

The the residents that come to our Bible study are excited about it, but also the the workers, the people who work there and who we get to interact with, they're excited about us coming.

So it's really good, it's really fun.

Uh, it's it's an it was it was a neat time last year.

We used to do it differently to go to neighborhoods and things like that, but we felt like we just have a bigger impact um going to a centralized place like this.

So yeah, when we split up, the groups were really, really small, and uh I don't think it was probably quite as effective.

So uh I like this.

Now I told Laura last week this is my favorite thing we've been doing the last few years.

It is the family gingerbread house decorating party, and that is gonna be on the 17th of December, and we have mitigated the issues we had in the past with children fighting over who's gonna decorate the house a certain way because this year families can reserve how many houses they need.

Now we just need to go ahead and do that.

I think it's today.

She's I we are literally recording this, and Laura has got the little three dots right now.

Let's see.

I'll just read the text over here.

I said, deadline for the gingerbread house.

She said, I see it.

I'm looking.

It should be on the registration on the website.

I was fluffing a Christmas tree.

Hang on just a minute.

So uh as we continue to record this, surely she will look that up and and find out.

It's I feel like it's coming up the seventh.

It seems like the seventh.

It's either the third or the seventh.

Yes.

So having said all of that, you should get on there right now and go ahead and register because if you know you're coming, we want to know.

And that's just because we want to make sure we have enough gingerbread houses.

We certainly don't want to order too many, and we do not want to order not enough.

Right.

And man, I'm so excited.

I had to step out of that.

I got caught out last week.

And so our last year.

But leading up to that thing, the excitement and energy in that room was palpable, man.

I was ready to be so.

I was in there, and it is so, so much fun.

Just to paint the picture for our listeners, if you didn't go last year, we eat our regular uh Wednesday night meal, the tables and everything's cleared, families gather around their tables, uh, you're you're visiting with all the families around you.

It's a ton of fun.

Uh we play Christmas music over the NPC sound system, and then we pass out gingerbread houses to all the families, and then we have just everything you can imagine to put on a gingerbread house.

It is available for people at the tables.

Uh, so your kids will be popping lots of candy.

It is gonna be a lot of fun.

Here it is.

She just she just texts us.

The deadline is December the 7th.

So make sure you get uh your reservations in.

It is going to be fun.

You're not gonna want to miss that particular event.

If you've never done that one, definitely come check it out.

It's gonna be awesome.

All right, and then uh our Lottie Moon Sunday is coming up on December the 21st.

Tell us about that.

So um we take up the Lottie Moon Christmas offering.

You can give that throughout the month, you don't have to wait to that.

All uh those Lottie Moon offering envelopes are available at the uh welcome desk, so you can grab one of those then uh anytime.

You can also give online at any point.

Uh but on the 21st, we are going to have a march to the manger time in the service.

Uh just talked to Sid about that the other day.

We're gonna put a manger down at the front of the auditorium, so it will be a separate time from our normal, normal offering.

Um, it will probably come like right at family reunion time and things like that, and you can bring your Lighty Moon offering and place it in the manger.

And that's the classic way to do that.

I remember growing up, that's exactly how we did that.

And so uh, but that the focus Sunday on that'll be the 21st, but you can give that at any point.

Okay.

Just make sure you uh make a note notation that that's correct.

Your offering is going towards correct.

Uh and also on the 21st, that's a busy day, by the way, we have our country Christmas, and it is going uh the prelude to that is the biscuit fellowship, which is everybody loves the biscuit.

Always popular, boy.

Uh so that's at 4 30 p.m.

Bringing your own.

Like everybody loves to eat a biscuit, but the exciting thing about it is is when people bring their homemade jellies or whatever.

They're proud of it.

You're proud of it and you show it.

Man, if I if I made some homemade jammer jelly, I would be proud of that thing too.

Somebody even brought, I think it was Mr.

Amy Morris brought like honey that he had harvested uh last year.

It's uh it's uh yeah, and there's times when I've seen people walk in with the chocolate gravy, like that's a that's an East Tennessee, that's an East Tennessee thing.

Uh so I've seen that before too.

Okay, and then uh the 24th, obviously through the first, the offices are going to be closed.

So um Christmas Eve through the first is going to be office closures.

So obviously, having said that, on the 24th, there's no Wednesday night activities.

We want you to spend that with your family.

Uh on the 25th, Merry Christmas.

And then our regular uh Sunday schedule will resume on the 28th.

Correct.

So uh, and that's gonna be a really special morning.

I'll be leading worship that morning, and we have Ellen Rotten coming in, and everybody loves Ellen.

Uh, she's the uh amazing cellist, so that's gonna be really, really good.

Uh, and then on the 7th Wednesday nights will resume on January the 7th, I should say.

Yep.

All right, uh we are now going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the midweek moment.

So as I was preparing and thinking through, I wanted to do something holiday um, you know, on Sundays in December.

Actually, we started this past Sunday because Advent started in November this year.

Um, we started with a series called Oh Come, let us adore him.

Um, as I was preparing for Christmas messages, Oh come all you faithful came up in that line in that chorus.

Oh come, let us adore him.

Oh come, let us adore him.

Oh come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

And so on Sundays in December, now it's it's it's gonna be different.

Like this past Sunday, we looked at Psalm 95.

Um, the Sunday that you were talking about, we we were looking into um we're looking at in Revelation.

So um it's it's gonna be good, that's gonna be good, but just constantly coming up with new Christmas series can be can be challenging.

So um I'm gonna do something a little bit different.

Um what Christmas does for us, and let's focus on what Christmas does for us.

What Christmas does for us is it brings Christ, it brings the incarnation, and the reason, the purpose for the incarnation was the gospel message.

Several years ago I did a Bible study.

We looked at a book called What is the Gospel by Greg Gilbert, and he just kind of breaks down the gospel.

So, what I want us to do on this podcast for the month of December is just kind of look at what is the gospel.

And Gilbert, he um he uses First Corinthians chapter 15 verses one through four as kind of the uh a scripture summary of the gospel.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

He says it says this Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of the first importance what all what I also received.

Here's the here's the gospel broken down.

That Christ died for our sins in accordance with scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

And so, what is the gospel?

If we look at it, you know, you ask somebody what the gospel is, you're gonna get a hundred different answers.

I mean, the basic definition of the gospel is it's good news.

But but but a question here is the gospel more than just good news, and uh the the another question is is while we know we need the gospel for salvation, listen to what he says which I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.

Not that you were saved, that you are being saved.

So the gospel should affect our lives day by day.

So the question is, how does it affect our lives day by day?

So we're just gonna kind of break down this gospel message each week and look at that.

So the first place we have to start with the gospel message is is a looking at God and understanding who God is.

In Revelation chapter 1, verses 16 and 7, not Revelation, in Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

Revelation 1:16 Romans 1:16

So one thing we see about God here, it is is God's power is able to give us salvation.

It is from faith for faith.

So we he it is from faith that he has given us, that he is powering in us for faith.

So some things we understand about God.

One, we understand that God is one.

Deuteronomy chapter six, uh, verse four says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, he is one God.

And so we we know that he is one, but we also in that it means this that God is unimageable.

Not unimaginable, unimageable.

What a word.

Yeah, right?

It's made up.

But but the the idea is this in the in the Ten Commandments, when it says, You shall make no other no images of me, why?

Why is that so important?

Because God is spirit and he is unimageable.

We can't, if if we try to put an image on God, we are lessening him.

So so he is unimageable and he's also unlookable on.

We we can't see him.

Remember when Moses said, God, just let me see you.

And God said in Exodus 33, Moses said, God, just let me see you.

And God said, You can't, you can't.

But I tell you what I'll do.

You stand in the cleft of this rock, I'm gonna put my hand over you and pass by and I'll let you see the veil.

Like, which again, God is spirit.

So what Moses was actually seeing, we don't know, but we know that he couldn't actually see God because it would kill him.

We can't look upon him because God is holy, he is righteous, he is good, and so um we must depend upon him.

Another thing we learn about God is he is our creator, he made us.

Um we know that from scripture.

So God's righteousness has to be revealed from us and revealed to us.

Um, and we see that again in in Romans 1 here, for in the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.

So we understand this about God: God's righteousness.

It is an attribute of God, He is righteous, it is also the activity of God, He does righteous.

So, so so when we say God is righteous, it's describing an attribute, but also His activity.

So, what we understand about God here is this He is one, unimageable, unlookable look ownable.

Um He is the creator, and because He is righteous, that allows Him, gives Him the right, gives Him the authority to be the final judge.

So that is who God is.

So if we're gonna understand this gospel message, we need to know who God is.

That's who He is.

Next week we're gonna look at man and who mankind is 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.