MID WEEK MOTIVATION - April 23, 2025 (Marc Lewis & Cory DuBois)

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 and Pastor Grant Stegall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for April 23rd here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis and we have a very special guest in the studio today.

Tell everybody who you are, hello my name is Corey DuBois and I am the chairman of the deacons here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

Yes, and we are stoked to have you here in the studio today.

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

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

Okay, corey, so tell us your story.

Where did you grow up?

Okay?

I grew up in East Tupelo, went and was raised in Priceville Baptist Church under the leadership of Tim McMillan and stayed pretty much in Tupelo my whole life, graduated and then from there the rest is kind of history college and then moved up into the area of Memphis.

Okay, so you were a Tupelo boy.

What year did you graduate high school?

Oh, goodness, I graduated in 2002.

That's showing my age.

Okay, that's not old.

What is it with people these days?

People calling me old all the time, Kids at school call me old.

I'm like this is not old Old.

I'm starting to feel the age.

Now, with a teenager at the house, I'm starting to feel my age.

All right.

After Tupelo High School, where did you head off?

I head off to Fulton, mississippi, on a soccer scholarship, played two years there and then from there I transferred to Ole Miss.

You're going to laugh at this.

I was actually pre-med going into dentistry at Ole Miss and I was just down in the slumps, not really doing good in grades, not really enjoying what I was doing, and I was always raised in the aviation community from my granddad, so my granddad got me into flying at a real early age.

Uh, I really enjoyed it and so did you fly with him when you were little?

I did I got my first actual log at six months old, I know right, and then they're from there.

The love grew.

So they actually have pictures and stuff of me hanging on the chain link fence, crying wanting to go flying with him when he left to go on trips and stuff.

But yeah, so did you do a lot, did you?

When did you get your actual like?

Did you have a license earlier because, as a private citizen, you didn't have a license?

yes, I did not have a license then and those hours did not accumulate to anything because you have to be 16 years old to get your private pilot license okay and I was pretty young, so I got my first takeoff at nine.

My first landing was at 11 years old and he took me on trips and stuff.

You're kind of allowed to do that, talking on the radios and doing all that kind of stuff you just couldn't be cut loose in an airplane by yourself right until you were under the supervision of an instructor.

So yeah, I kind of grew into it.

And then, of course, adolescence kind of kicks in and you know, your, your your mind goes everywhere and you do your own things right, and so I was kind of pulled away from aviation there for a while, but then uh, so at old miss, did you just have a moment where you're like I don't want to do this, I did I did I had.

I had a moment where I was like I do not want to do this at all and it it was kind of funny.

At ICC I met a good friend of mine that actually works with me now.

We live across the street with each other but his name is Charles Catledge and at ICC he was really interested into trains and I was still interested in aviation.

But we had the same like I wanted to know about trains and he wanted to know a little bit more about aviation.

So we kind of grew our friendship there.

And one day, out of the blue, at Ole Miss, he calls me up and he's like dude, I think I'm going to transfer to Delta State and do the aviation thing.

And I'm like I was thinking the same thing.

So he said do you want to room with each other?

The rest is history.

So we were with each other there graduated Delta.

State.

So what year would that have been when you ended up at Delta?

State.

I left Ole Miss in 05.

We got down to Delta State in August of 05, and me and him both graduated in May of 07.

So you did one year at Ole Miss and said this is not it.

This is not it.

It was bad.

And my parents knew too right Anything in the medical.

There's so much training and so much work wrapped up in the medical field.

If you are not feeling it, you're just it's.

It's not it's.

It's not gonna happen in any kind of course with micro in front of it.

Microbiology chemistry, that's just not for me love it.

Now I have heard for years that Delta State has just an insanely amazing aviation program.

So unpack that.

What's that program like?

Is it a couple of years?

It's however fast you would like to do it.

So the way that it was set up for me is they'll credit you your schooling with a private pilot license.

So I actually got my private pilot license before I went down there and so I was kind of credited already a year and then I already had a year at Ole Miss and then now I'm really revealing how long it took me to graduate college and I had two years at ICC.

So I ended up graduating with five years under my belt from Delta State.

But the way it works is you go in and you kind of get your instrument license after that.

That way you can fly in what we call, you know instrument meteorological conditions.

Right, we can fly in the clouds.

That's AKA flying Without being able to see Without being able to see right, which is amazing right, it's amazing.

And now I fly an airplane that can auto land in zero, zero visibility, right.

So it's kind of amazing where you know you got to remember the past and remember where you came from, uh, for where you're now.

But then you work on your commercial and then your multi-ad on you.

Just, you just go on and on and on cfi, which is certified flight instructor, and then you start teaching people, building your hours on there.

But I was able to get everything done in two years.

So I graduated may in 07 and I was really lucky to land a regional job here with a company in Memphis that I flew for let's see.

Got hired on there in 07.

So there are private companies around here that have their own pilots.

Oh yeah, Besides FedEx there's many.

You think of FedEx, and that's it, yeah many.

There are many around here, so yeah.

All right, and so that has led you to where you are now and what are you doing today?

I work for a cargo airline here in Memphis, fedex, flying the Boeing 767.

And I actually am a flight instructor too.

I spend most of my days in a simulator full motion simulator teaching students.

Really See, I didn't even know that.

Not really how to fly, but the contingencies.

So cargo fires, emergencies, loss of an engine, any kind of hydraulic issues or something like that.

And is that with FedEx that?

Is with FedEx, so they have their own facilities as well.

They do so.

You can be a fantastic pilot and say I want to come work for you guys and get hired, but they're not just going to immediately stick you on one of those planes, they're going to make you go through their own trainings a hundred percent so what it takes is, again, you have to have so many hours and kind of experience under your belt.

But if you get hired on uh with fedex, then they put you into a specified fleet.

So whether it's the 757 or the Boeing 767 or, like Mark Dubois, here flies the MD-11.

And we have some other people here that fly other different fleets of FedEx.

But it usually takes from the moment that you get hired on at FedEx and get put in a class you get hired on at FedEx and get put in a class.

It usually takes around three months of training before you ever see the actual airplane.

And you're probably not going on to actually fly the airplane.

Do they stick you with other pilots?

a few times, yeah, they stick you with what we would call an LCA, which is basically a line check airman and they kind of take you up under their wings and they watch you very closely to make sure that you're doing the right stuff.

And what fedex as what we call standard operating procedures, but yeah and that's a different animal from commercial flight, because you're you're probably having to make checks on what's in the back and to make sure things were tied down properly, because if that stuff shifts, that could be be an issue.

Yes, If cargo shifts, that is definitely an issue.

We usually trust our rampers.

We really don't know what's back there, we just know that they're loading cans into certain positions and making sure that our weight and balance accounts for that.

And they're trained to do what they're supposed to do as well.

Yes, they are very trained to do that as well.

All right.

Well, you started flying in small planes and I have done that once and, as my dad, james Lewis, would say, that is a very different feeling flying and it's way more fun.

It is, it really is Way more fun to be in a smaller plane.

So do you still do that from time to time?

Do you get the opportunity?

I don't necessarily now.

I still would love to go back and maybe one day get it back into general aviation, but, um, you know, like your dad said it, it really is different.

So you, you get a perspective when you're flying in an airline, only looking out the left or right side.

You really don't get the perspective of looking forward out of the window.

And it really is nice and it's thrilling at the same time.

So right, they say the say the second greatest thrill known to man is fun.

Do you know what?

The first thrill is Falling Landing.

So yeah, so what goes up must come down, correct.

Correct.

Well, man, that's fascinating.

What's your favorite thing about being a pilot?

Oh man, the favorite thing about being a pilot is being disconnected from the world when you're up at altitude, because nobody can text, right, nobody can call.

You are just disconnected.

You're up there and I honestly feel like every time I get the opportunity to go fly, I always think about it as it's my last flight, so I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can, because none of us are promised tomorrow, right, and it's just such a blessing to go up there and, honestly, this may sound bad, but I honestly feel like I am closer to God during that time than what people are on the ground, because usually I'm traveling around at 35,000, 40,000 feet, right.

Man, I love it.

That's incredible.

We're going to move on to our Calendar portion.

We wanted to let everybody know what's going on here at DeSoto Hills.

This Sunday morning, april 27th, will be our volunteer recognition.

We're going to have donuts as a thank you to everyone who helped make DeSoto Hills so great.

What's your favorite donut, corey?

Do you have a favorite type of donut?

Or pastry Donut, maybe cherry-filled?

Really, you like the?

filled ones.

I like apple fritters.

I don't know if you can classify that as a donut.

Well, my favorite donut is actually the glazed cinnamon twists.

That's pretty good.

Oh, because you can peel them apart and they have the cinnamon and the glaze all over them.

I didn't think about the bacon maple from Gibson's.

Have you ever had one of those?

I have not.

That may be my top.

I don't know if I can put bacon on sugar man, like that's just.

That might be a step too far.

We also want to make you aware that graduation recognition is going to be Sunday, may 4th, during both services.

We ask that, if you're a senior or you're graduating with second degrees, that you head to our website to sign up, just so that we can know that you're going to be here.

Our spring fling is also coming up on May 4th.

We'll gather out of the pavilion to kick off summer that evening at 5 pm.

We'll have some special guests out there as well, and then, finally, our Wednesday night summer season will kick off on May 14th.

We will be serving meals this summer, so you're going to want to be a part of that.

If you've got a kid going to kids camp, your deposit deadline has been extended to April 30th, so you have a few more days for that.

All right, we've now reached the moment that we call it's our devotion moment of the podcast that we call the midweek moment, and today our special guest, corey, is going to bring us a devotion.

Take it away, man.

All right.

So I got to start off by a little funny.

So, coming off a post-issue, I thought, man, it'd be a really good time to talk about the reality of the resurrection.

Right, get into the Word.

Get into 1 Corinthians.

I actually thought about 1 Corinthians, 15, 3 and 4.

Into the word, get into 1 Corinthians.

I actually thought about 1 Corinthians, 15, 3 and 4, but something was just kind of telling me I don't know if you really want to go that direction.

I'm not sure what it was.

We can call it, maybe the Holy Spirit talking to me or nudging at me.

So last night I text Grant and I'm like, hey, this is what I'm thinking about doing.

And he was like that's my sermon, like I guess you can do it, but I don't know what to do and I'm like, oh, so I had to change courses, all right.

So that's the little funny, back behind the grant thing.

So, everything shifted here.

It did.

Everything shifted right.

I will always kind of consider myself being active.

Like back in 2019, I was running with your sister and Matt Hood training for the St Jude Marathon, and I actually ended up tearing my upper gastrocnemus I think I'm saying that right which is the upper calf muscle, the meaty one that wraps around the knee, ouch, and I had to go through physical therapy and do all that.

But I ended up getting away from running, kind of was non-active there for a while, and earlier this year I won't never remember it and I'm not going to name names, right but I was up in the choir area and I was putting on my robe and this gentleman walks in and says hey, good morning, how are y'all doing?

And this other gentleman said well, if I knew that I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.

And it really hit me and I don't know why it really hit me.

So, if you don't know my wife, she's been heavily involved in the gym for probably about two years now.

It's this mix of of CrossFit, high rocks kind of thing and she's been bugging me to go and I thought you know what.

I'm going to give it a try.

So this gym's out in the Lewisburg area and it's called 4-8 Thrive or 4-8 Fit.

I've seen it I just don't know anything about it.

Yeah, and it's a gentleman named Landon Anderson and his wife running it really down to earth.

He was into ministry before, wasn't now.

But one day I got to start talking to him about stuff and I said, hey, what is the 4-8?

I got to know what the 4-8 is right and he said, well, it's 1 Timothy 4-8.

And I'm like, oh okay, so this it just kind of just when I began to kind of pray last night and ask God to lead me in a different direction, he just kept pointing me to 1 Timothy 4.8.

I love it.

I'll open it up with the reading.

So 1 Timothy 4.8, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

So to kind of unpack the verse here and look at the context here, in 1 Timothy, the apostle Paul is writing to his young protege or mentee, Timothy, who's pastoring a church in Ephesus.

Paul is given practical advice for leading God's people.

He warns about false teachings and urges Timothy to stay grounded in the truth, so to stay grounded in the faith.

In chapter four, Paul contrasts the temporary benefits of physical discipline with the eternal value of spiritual growth.

So verse eight is like a precious diamond, right, it's like a gem.

So it reminds us to prioritize what matters the most.

So when we break it down further, Paul says bodily training is of some value.

Now he's not saying dismiss exercise, right.

Nor is he saying that it's worthless.

So we both know taking care of our bodies is a good thing.

It helps us serve God and others with energy and with strength.

Whether you're hitting a gym, going for a walk or eating well, those habits have benefits.

But Paul's point here is physical training only gets us so far right.

Something's going to get us, Whether it's physical training, whether it's something else, eventually something's going to get us right.

Too many donuts, yes, Could be too many bacon, maple donuts from Gibson's I didn't think about that.

But it does strengthen us for this life.

But it doesn't touch eternity in some way, right?

So after that Paul shifts into godliness is a value in every way.

So godliness to us as fellow believers, I think, is living a life that reflects God's character.

It's pursuing holiness, love and obedience.

It has infinite worth.

You might be asking yourself why this is Well, godliness shapes who we are now and prepares us for the life to come.

Training in godliness means spending time in prayer, studying scripture, loving others and aligning our hearts with God's will.

It's the spiritual workout that builds endurance for eternity, and I don't want you to miss that right, Because the physical workout builds strength for today.

But the difference is what I'm trying to point out here.

Not only should we have strength for today, we should have endurance for eternity.

So Paul's word challenges us to check our priorities.

How much effort do we put into our physical appearance or fitness compared to our spiritual growth?

Are we just as intentional about prayer and Bible study as we are about our gym routines?

It's easy for us today to get caught up of what's temporary our looks, our bodies, our achievements but Paul reminds us to invest in what lasts.

So let's get down to the application.

Part of this I love it.

You may be saying to yourself okay, all this is great, but how do I train for godliness, which is a great question.

Here are a few steps that I think that we can take during our daily walk or weekly walk with God is one set of spiritual goal, and I love this idea right.

So it's just like you're aiming to bench press 225 or squatting 350 pounds or running a 5K or a 10K or a marathon, you need to commit yourself to reading a chapter of a Bible daily or pray just five minutes each morning.

So an example to that is like what y'all have been talking about on the podcast with the Daily Walk Bible.

This is a great thing, right, and if you don't have access to the Bible, you have access to the bookmark thing that we have either online or it's down at the Welcome Center, Darrell.

Bock, that's absolutely right.

There's really no excuses right, darrell Bock, not?

at all.

Darrell Bock, and you can find it Even if you don't have a paperback Bible.

We all have smartphones, so you can get the Bible app and you can read it.

So that's one way.

Right, find accountability, and this is huge to me.

Right and I've heard Y'all talk about this on the podcast as well is just finding someone that can hold you accountable for doing the things that you need to be doing Thousand percent.

Yeah, you need to share your faith journey with a friend or join a small group, and me and Jenny lead a small group, so we welcome anybody to come.

We call it a young married couples class, but we've been doing it for three years now, so I don't know if they're that young.

We're still young man.

I'm telling you we're still young.

By the way, while we're on here, tell everybody what hour you meet and what classroom it is.

Oh.

I knew you were going to ask me that classroom.

I'm not sure what classroom, what hour, but we meet at the nine o'clock hour and I can describe where we're at.

Are you in the new part of the building?

Yes, we're in the new part of the building.

So if you come up to South stairwell, second floor, when you turn right past the coffee bar, we're the second door on the left.

So I don't really know the number, but I don't know the number either.

It's called Young Married Couples, but we do have a variety of age in there, so we welcome people to come to that.

And I also heard not only about the small group.

So the small group setting in itself is really intimate and we have great couples and families in there.

Man, it's just, it's nice and encouraging to know that during the week when you prepare a lesson or a quick devotional, that these couples, these individuals, are there, willing and wanting to hear the word, they're wanting to be fed by the word.

So it holds me accountable of doing the right thing for them.

That way they get to hear the word.

But I heard this quote in a while back and it says your good friends know your stories, but your best friends, the true friends, help you write them.

And, man, that's what you find here at desoto hills and I love it right and I always tell my kids this the people that you meet in school yes, they there are your friends, right, and I would say that they're probably good friends, but the friends that you meet in church are friends that are going to last a lifetime.

That's right.

It becomes family.

They're going to be there 24-7, no matter what.

And Jenny, myself and our family we got Maddie, we got Maverick and we got Maxon.

We're so blessed to have true friends here at DeSoto Hills and these true friends are considered exactly what you just said family.

And thirdly, I think that we need to rest in grace.

So training for godliness isn't about God's love, right, and we just heard Sunday about God's love.

So God sent his son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God, he has always loved us.

Okay, he sent his son to be born of a virgin, to walk this earth, to die, be crucified and raised again on the third day.

That is love, okay.

So I want people to hear that training for godliness isn't about earning God's love.

It's about growing closer to him.

When you stumble and notice, when I said when you stumble- because we all stumble right.

I stumbled daily, bro.

Yes, stumbled daily.

All right, I just want you to remember that his grace is enough.

Okay, he is there to dust the shoulders off, to pick you back up and say you know what?

You're fine, you're going to be okay, keep moving.

All right.

To everyone out there listening today think about your day today or your daily walk with the Lord.

Where can you carve out time to pursue godliness?

Or your daily walk with the Lord?

Where can you carve out time to pursue godliness?

Maybe it's swapping 10 minutes of scrolling and posting on social media for 10 minutes in the Word.

Small steps add up and they carry eternal rewards.

Here's their courage, in part, over everything.

Godliness isn't just about the future.

Paul says it holds promise for the present life too.

When we seek God, we find peace, purpose and joy right now, even in life's chaos.

That's a promise we can hold on to today, and I want everybody to remember.

God is not looking for perfection.

He is not looking for perfect people.

He's looking for willing hearts, the desire to follow him.

You can catch our services online at desotohillscom our YouTube channel at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church For all of our church family.

We love you guys.

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 1030 am.