MID WEEK MOTIVATION - April 16, 2025 (Marc Lewis & 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 and Pastor Grant Stegall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for April 16th here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis, I'm Grant Stegall and we hope this programming can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond.

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

It is feeling well.

Actually last week was a little chilly outside, but it was chilly this morning when I woke up, but I am warmed up.

Yes, I mean I'm encouraged that we are hopefully going in the right direction.

We have had several weeks of weather and rain, which we always expect some of that here in the Mid-South in the spring, but man, it was a lot of water.

It was a lot of water.

My kids started building an ark.

Yes, no, I'm just kidding.

So it's been crazy.

It is springtime, it's finally getting pretty outside.

I talked to Laura last week about spending more family time outdoors.

Does the Stegall family have any outdoor traditions?

I know y'all have played organized ball and stuff sometimes.

Yeah, that's probably what it's been over the past several years.

Both fall and spring, we do soccer.

Mary McKenzie's the only one doing it this year.

Everybody else bailed out, yep, but it this year.

Everybody else bailed out, yep, but it's fine.

I mean, it's just they like to do school outside.

Just the other day I came home and Amber said hey, we did math outside today, it was awesome, and so just they get out and do stuff like that.

The Stegalls have a new puppy, I heard, and so going outside with thealls have a new puppy, I heard, and so you know, going outside with the puppy is a big deal now too.

What are you looking forward to with summer coming on the horizon?

What do you like about this time of the year?

Well, with spring, I love the newness of everything.

I love seeing trees budding, grass turning green, all of those things.

It's just, it is a reminder of new life in Christ for me.

I love that aspect of spring.

You know, there's things of every season that I like.

I like seasons.

So in the spring I want it to be spring.

I would love it to be spring without pollen, but I love the spring.

In summer I want it to be hot.

I want it to be hot in the summer and I want to sweat and do all of those things, but fall.

I want it to cool off and pull out my sweater.

And then winter, I want it to be cold.

Now, I don't want those to be extended periods, but during those times I'm good with that.

So I love just being able to get outside work in the yard, do those kind of things.

We get four seasons here in North Mississippi, but it seems like the spring and the fall can sometimes fall short.

Yes, it just depends.

Which are my two favorite, the spring and fall are my two favorite, but yes, they are many times abbreviated.

Y'all got any plans this summer for a vacation of some sort?

Yes, so end of May we've got senior trip.

Oh my gosh, I keep forgetting we do something.

It started with my sister's girls.

The oldest she's actually working on she's graduating with her master's now, but for her senior trip she wanted to do something with all of her cousins and aunts and uncles.

So we did a big beach trip that summer and we've done that.

So Mandy's girls are two years apart.

So we've done that for two years and now we're coming where it's not mandy's girls.

Our girls are the oldest, but it's eli and then clay's oldest, and so we're going to the mountains okay, so the whole, the whole tribe stegall tribe.

Yep, stegall gaspards.

Wow, there's like gosh, like gosh.

I counted up 18, 19 of us, I mean in one house.

What are y'all going to do?

You going to hit Dollywood and stuff like that?

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll hit Dollywood and then just some of the other things in the mountains to do, that's some fun stuff to do, and that's a really good time of the year to water stuff, though it's going to be so, so cold.

Well, it's going to be so, so cold, but you pat those kids on the back and say y'all have fun.

There's plenty of things to do walking around the park.

Clay found a great house and it does have an indoor heated pool.

Indoor pool, oh my goodness.

All right.

I told Laura last week that we've been trying to make it a better point to gather at the table for dinner.

Y'all have done that, Y'all do that Most of the time.

I mean it gets harder, but yeah, most nights we'll gather at the table at least once a day.

My thing is let's cook one meal and that one meal we'll sit.

So Sundays it's usually Sunday lunch, right, but then you fend for yourself with leftovers for supper.

And then throughout the week it's usually fend for yourself for lunch and we'll do supper.

But you know, life happens.

Right now, soccer practice is on Monday nights, so we probably aren't going to do it on Monday nights, so we probably aren't going to do it on Monday nights.

Wednesday nights you're at church, but you know, tuesday, thursday, Friday, Saturday, Making the effort anyway.

Alright, it is dance season for all the schools Proms, middle school formals, all that stuff.

Both of our girls ended up at dances a few weeks ago.

What has happened?

We were taking pictures.

I know, we were taking pictures, I know.

We were taking pictures at Silo and something came up and Riley said yes, sarah Grace has got her dance tonight too.

And I said Sarah Grace has a dance tonight.

She's like Yep.

So Sarah Grace's was not a dance.

They call it semi-formal and, yes, they dress up.

We went to collierville um square, took pictures, had a um, went to a meal, uh, at a restaurant there in collierville and then they went back to somebody's house.

Well, actually they did it around collierville.

They had like a scavenger hunt and stuff and then went back to somebody's house and had a little after party.

I guess, right, that's fun man, time flies.

It's crazy, eli, and.

Sam will have prom coming up later.

They have prom coming up later in May.

So does the homeschool group put on a prom?

Yeah, where is it going?

to be at In Hernando this year.

Last year it was down in Como.

Okay, fun, yeah All right, so we're getting ready for Easter this Sunday.

Very exciting Holy Week.

What have you been up to as far as your preparations go for Easter?

I?

mean sermon prep is always big.

I mean, if you're going to have a bad Sunday, it doesn't need to be that Sunday.

Sunday.

It doesn't need to be that Sunday.

Also because of the three services, I feel like you really have to be precise in your time, especially that eight o'clock service, and I feel like I really have to be precise in my time.

So you know, making sure I'm there on that is big Did you do Goulton this morning.

What did you do with Goulton as far as their Really just kind of we've been going through Nehemiah and.

Goulton, and so just staying there with them going through that study there.

It's awesome that you do that for them every week.

It's fun.

I know they appreciate that.

It's a lot of fun.

It's awesome that you do that for them every week.

It's fun.

I know they appreciate that it's a lot of fun.

It was funny when I was there today I had to miss a couple Wednesdays ago because something came up and I couldn't go.

And so the next week when I went back I said, hey, I'm sorry I couldn't be here that last week and they said, no, listen, it worked out great because we pulled up your Sunday service that's awesome and we watched your Sunday service and it just so happened that Sunday service I mentioned them that I do this Bible study and I made a point that I made in their Bible study and they were so excited that I talked about them in the service that they watched, so that was fun.

That's awesome.

We certainly hope that any of you guys listening to the podcast.

If you don't have a church home, we'd encourage you to come to our service in person this Sunday and fellowship with the full body of Christ.

We do have an eight o'clock service that we are adding just for this week to help with crowds.

Then we will have our nine o'clock service and our regular 1030 services available to you, and if you're not involved in Sunday school, we encourage you to check out our Sunday school classes as well.

If you are completely lost as to what to do, if you come into our building, into the main grand hall, which is the large center hallway, anyone around the campus can direct you there.

That's where our welcome center is and they are awesome and will certainly help get you where you need to be.

We've got several other calendar things coming up we wanted to make you aware of.

We have Volunteer Appreciation Sunday, which is going to be next week, april 27th, and we also have the preschool and first through third grade choirs, I believe, on that morning.

That's right, so I want you to be aware of that.

We are going to have a little donut fellowship for volunteer appreciation, so you're not going to want to miss that for sure.

And then we wanted to make you aware that our final Wednesday night of this season is actually going to be April the 30th, and then we will take May the 7th off and then we're going to start up our summer schedule of Wednesday nights the following week in May and we will be letting you know about classes For that.

We are almost finalized on all of that stuff.

We just need one more week to make sure that we get all of that straight.

But you can call up here to the office if you have questions about that.

But we certainly will be getting that information out on our Facebook page.

So if you don't follow us on Facebook, be sure and check out our Facebook page.

We will list all of that information as soon as we have it.

We'll also scroll it on sunday mornings on our digital ads that that scroll across the screens on sunday morning.

So we want you to know about all of that as well.

We also wanted to make mention that graduation sunday is coming up a little bit earlier this year than normal on may 4th um grant.

It's just tough to get everything scheduled it really is.

the year is it's bad and it really is.

And May, you know, may really hits.

I mean you have that first Sunday, and then you have Mother's Day, and then, if you wait too long on Graduate Recognition Sunday, there's they're gone, people are gone, and some schools have graduation on Sunday afternoon, and so it's just really.

I mean it's, it's, there's no really great date.

So for those of us judging uh for those, for those judging us know that we ended up having to move that thing like three times because it just just trying to make all those puzzle pieces fit.

And, um, if, if that's clashed with something on your personal calendar, we certainly apologize, but we, we we're absolutely trying to do our best just to get everything in, because it's just so so much.

So, anyway, graduation is going to be that May 4th and we also have a choir that's going to be singing on May 4th 4th through 6th grade.

We'll be leading that service off that morning ahead of the graduation ceremonies.

So that's our calendar.

I think that's all of the graduation ceremonies.

So that's our calendar.

I think that's all of our calendar stuff.

We have now reached the portion that we call the midweek moment.

So what I've been doing in this moment and Laura and David have done it a lot as well is taking where you're reading in your Bible and looking at that, and I encourage you, if you've not been reading, pick it up, to go back and pick it up in January 1st, pick it up on April 16th and just start there.

It's fine If some of you are OCD about it.

Yes, you can Start on and just pick it up and start reading If you've gotten behind.

That's fine, and where can they get the information if they don't have the Daily Walk Bible?

If you don't have the Daily Walk Bible, there are bookmarks at the Welcome Center that you can get a bookmark and then also just go online.

There's a site on our.

If you go, when you open up our website, one of the first banners you're going to see is Read Through the Bible and you click on that link.

Click on that banner and then the outline for reading will come up.

So just join in where you are and that'll be great.

But today, with it being Easter week and the Wednesday before Easter, I kind of wanted to delve out a little bit and I was thinking through.

As I was thinking through getting ready for this moment, a verse hit me.

It was not the verse we're looking at today, it was a verse out of Philippians Philippians, chapter 3, where Paul says that I may know Christ, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering or share in his suffering, and those hit me especially during Easter week.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

But as I was kind of studying and reading through that, I was drawn then to Romans, romans 6.

And that's where I want us to look today is back in Romans 6.

Let's start reading in verse 1.

And Paul says this what shall we say then?

Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound?

By no means.

How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life, in newness of life, and so, as we talked about in Philippians, where it says, share in his sufferings and know the power of his resurrection, paul also talks about that, probably a little bit more into detail, in Romans 6.

And he talks about here how baptism that we do.

When I baptize people, we say, when I take people under the water, I say you're buried with him in baptism, and then you bring them up and say and raised to walk in newness of life.

And baptism for us is a picture of what has happened.

Baptism for us is a picture of what has happened and it's a picture of how we share in his sufferings and experience the power of his resurrection.

So we die to our old life.

The old part of us is dead, and we don't have to experience that any longer, to experience that any longer.

Mounts, who wrote a commentary on Romans, on this passage when you talk about how we die, we have to be careful there.

And he says this.

He says we are crucified in order that our sinful nature might be stripped of its power.

He also says in another place he says Death to sins removes the believer from the control of sin.

The text does not say that sin dies to the believer.

It is the believer who has died to sin.

Sin dies to the believer.

It is the believer who has died to sin.

And so what he's saying there is we still struggle with sin, we're still tempted by it.

We saw a few weeks ago in Acts, chapter 5, when Ananias brought his gift before Peter and Peter said why have you allowed Satan to fill your heart?

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Ananias gave in to the temptation of sin.

We still deal with it.

It does not mean that sin has died to the believer, but what it means is the believer has died to sin.

Sin should no longer.

Sin does no longer have control on us.

We give in to it sometimes, but not because we can't, we're unable to say no to it, it's just because we don't.

We have the power because we have died to sin.

Sin fulfilled that requirement for us, and so we see that he's saying we have died with Christ.

But what that does is we have been raised, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, that we too may walk in newness of life.

It gives us new life that we may walk into.

He goes on to say in verse 5, for we have been united with him in death, like he is.

We shall certainly be united with him in resurrection, like he is.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

We're not enslaved to it.

We can say no, we don't.

But we can.

But that's not because of us, it's not because of who we are, it's because of what Christ has done for us.

Mounts has another great quote where he says sanctification, which is he's talking about in sanctification?

The process of us becoming holy?

He says sanctification separated from justification.

Justification is that God has declared us holy.

So justification is God has declared us holy.

Sanctification is now us becoming holy.

So if we are trying to become holy without being declared holy, it encourages legalism.

We're trying to be good enough, right.

But he says sanctification fused with justification assumes that God will do it all.

So what sanctification becomes is us becoming who we are.

We are holy Not because of us, but because we have shared in Christ's suffering.

We have been crucified with him and now we can, because we have shared, we have been crucified with him we can unite in the power of his resurrection, the power to overcome sin, the power to overcome the grave, and then it'll be the power to one day be raised to live and have new bodies with Christ in heaven.

And so, as we celebrate Easter and we celebrate that Jesus died for us and that he arose for us, when we celebrate that on Sunday, let's celebrate knowing that that happened and we can share in that.

We can share in his suffering because we have been crucified with him, when we trust in him and we have been raised and we can celebrate that power.

And then, hopefully, what that message does for us is it makes every Sunday Easter Sunday we celebrate the resurrection.

Honestly, we celebrate the resurrection every day that we get up, because we have the opportunity to walk in the newness of life that God has given us every Sunday, by the power of his resurrection.

Thanks so much, grant.

It's a powerful message and a great reminder.

We certainly want to see all of you here on Sunday morning.

Thanks for listening.

If you don't have a church, we'd love to see you this Sunday morning or any Sunday morning.

You can catch our services online at desotahillscom, 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 am.