MID WEEK MOTIVATION - March 26, 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 March 26th here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis, I'm Grant Stegall.

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

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

You never know where this podcast is going to go, and today I'm throwing a left hook right out of the.

What was I going to say?

Right out of the gate Left hook right out of the gate, right out of the.

What was I going to say?

Right out of the gate, right out of the gate.

Right out of the corner, right out of the corner, man, because you're boxing.

Right out of the gate.

I love history, and in May of 1908, at the 20th annual meeting of the Women's Missionary Union, which is the WMU as we know it, the members voted to sponsor a missions organization for boys ages 9 through 17, naming it the Order of Royal Ambassadors.

Then we just shortened it to Royal Ambassadors in the 80s, and then we just started calling it RAs, ras.

What an easy people we are I know.

Interesting history.

I had no clue until I looked it up today that the WMU were actually the ones who created that.

So interesting.

I think most churches ended up doing that on Wednesday nights.

Was that what y'all did on Wednesday nights?

Well, so at Troy Baptist Church, the only two boys were my brother and I, when we were kids especially.

It's different now, but so Clay and I were members of GAs, which are girls in action, because there were more girls than boys.

We just had one big crew.

So it was a bunch of GAs and then two lonely little RAs that were incorporated into the GAs the Royal Ambassadors RAs.

I remember growing up that we did lots of kickball.

Honestly, the poor men trying to wrangle all the RAs it was just easier to take us out and let us play in the nice weather.

But in the winter months we did do some Bible studies especially, and then we ended up building the little Pinewood Derby cars no-transcript when we moved to New Albany obviously I was in the eighth grade at the time, so I was getting older wasn't just terribly thrilled about a move.

Once kids get older, especially when they have developed friends and we had been in Meridian for a very long time it's harder to move, for sure.

So I wasn't terribly terribly thrilled.

But I do remember New Albany Middle School had the most amazing home economics and woodshop and you don't see woodshop and home economics at middle schools.

That is something you would traditionally see at a lot of high schools.

We had it at South Ponataw Now.

Granted, we were an attendance center and so you had everybody on one campus.

But I took in eighth grade it was half a semester shop class, half a semester of, not half a semester a semester, half a year of shop class, half a year year of home ec you told me before we filmed this that you didn't make a derby car I didn't make a derby car y'all had shop class and you didn't make derby cars we did dream houses.

We had to design a dream house in shop class and I built some things in shop class, just not a derby car first couple of weeks went into shop class and of course he's going through all of the safety stuff you know because it's a bunch of eighth graders honestly and there are man tools in this shop.

This is a new albany mississippi.

This is real press bands, all of it table saw so upon a talk as well south on a talk too, buddy.

Yes, sir a bunch of boys in there and some, bless his heart some fool decided to take a pair of clamps and put it in a vice against his car to see how tight he could squeeze, and busted the vice grips.

I still remember to this day.

The metal went flinging across the shop.

Our shop teacher was about 65, 70 years old, should have I mean, he was actually.

He had to have been older, he had to have been 70 plus, but he, he was in no mood to be carrying an eighth grade boy to the hospital because of broken tools that flew across shop class.

So he boy, he was hot.

But I do remember all of that to say, I do remember a couple of CO2 cartridges going off in shop for fun, which he also didn't care for.

But I remember building those Pinewood Derby cars and how much fun it was, both in RAs, royal Ambassadors and 8th grade, new Albany.

That kind of leads me to the fact that we are building derby cars.

But before I swing over to that, what's something you built in shop class?

Because everybody's going to be curious now that you've mentioned it.

So I made that year.

All my Christmas presents came from shop class.

Let's see.

You had a sister, a brother and mom and dad.

Did you make four gifts?

What about grandmas?

No, I didn't do grandmas.

Mom and dad got these because dad taught and mom had an office.

She was a school food lunch supervisor so she had an office.

So I made this really cool.

It was a tabletop bookshelf so you could put your books on your desk.

Um, my brother got a tie rack.

I guess I didn't.

I probably didn't make mandy's, I don't know what I, but later, I guess about my ninth grade, tenth gradeth grade year, mandy um got her first teaching job and she needed a podium.

She had seen a podium that had a little side thing where you could put your overhead projector.

I knew where you were going overhead slides and she could sit down and she could write on her overhead at the thing and it would go over.

So I built her a podium to which she is still in her classroom today.

She uses it still to this day.

Coach Stegall didn't tell you he needed a new paddle.

I just feel like he would have at some point said I need a new paddle.

He had the paddle man.

Look, when I was in school I mean, this is the 90s, but coaches still walked around with paddles they don't do that anymore- Dad never walked around with his one, but everybody knew it Right.

You didn't want him coming down there.

If he got called, all right, we are building derby cars here at DeSoto Hills.

But they're not Pinewood Derby this year.

Big, long story all the way to get around to the Grand Prix.

So fill us in on the Grand Prix and what we're building.

If it's not Pinewood Derby cars this year, it is.

Lego cars Really.

Yes, so it's.

I mean it's really cool.

Yes, so it's.

I mean it's really cool.

She's got the.

You will buy a packet and it gives you the base and the wheels, and the wheels have weight, are on, you can mount them.

It's weighted, and then you can also buy weighted Legos to get you to the weight that you can be.

And so it's these little kits that you will buy and start with.

Granted, you will have to provide some of your own legos, and if you don't have legos uh, laura's got a couple of work days, uh, scheduled, and so on those work days you can come, and she has other legos as well.

So you, if you don't have legos, it's not a problem, we can provide legos for you but I guess these are.

Are these designed to run on the derby tracks Same track, so they're developed to be used in this way?

Yes, interesting, yes.

Okay, I think it would be neat.

I mean, it's just something different that throws another little something interesting into the mix, right?

So for all you dads listening who have already been secretly building your derby cars thinking you've got a head start on everybody, nope, you have messed yourselves over, all right.

So the Grand Prix is going to take place on April the 6th, at 4 pm in the Treehouse.

If you're not familiar with that, the Treehouse is the third venue that we have here at DeSoto Hills.

It is on the third floor, over in the new wing up in the children's area.

We do have a work day.

That is going to be Sunday, march 30th, that's this Sunday, at 3 pm.

At 3 pm and then you said that there's also a test track day.

Yep.

On the 5th April the 5th there is a test track.

She'll open for test track.

She's still working on the time for that, I'm not sure on that.

But also you need to know the deadline to register for that is today, march 26.

So if you've not registered you need to contact Laura and if something happens and you're watching this or you're not watching, you're listening to this Wednesday night or Thursday morning, I'm sure if you contact Laura she can help you out, but deadline to register is today.

Okay, that is good information to know.

Now we are approaching the Easter season and a very exciting time of the year for all Christians, and we've got lots of great stuff coming up.

But I wanted to get with you, since we had the pastor on today's podcast.

I wanted to get with you, since we had the pastor on today's podcast.

I wanted to see a little bit, get a little insight onto what we'll see maybe on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.

What have you been working on?

Well, obviously, palm Sunday is that will be.

We'll celebrate the Lord's Supper that day.

We're going to go out of Acts.

The focus of the sermon that day is not really going to be on Palm Sunday, but we're going to talk about the Lord's Supper.

We're going to look at—we know the significance of that and why we do that on Palm Sunday because he celebrated that Passover with the disciples right before the crucifixion but the significance to the church as it's carried on and we're going to see the church at Corinth.

If there was a church in the New Testament that is similar to today's church not just DeSoto Hills but like today's church it's going to be the church of Corinth man.

There were so many crazy things going on at the church of Corinth so I think we can find so many things there and Jeffrey's been going through on Wednesday nights.

Jeffrey was here a couple weeks ago going through Corinthians on Wednesday nights with groups.

So if you're in that class, you've seen that.

But we're going to look at chapter 11 on Palm Sunday and look at the Lord's Supper and then on Easter Sunday we are going to be in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians.

We're going to take two Sundays out of Acts and look at that and just talk about the significance of it.

Paul says it's really interesting that this is not a sermon sport but he says in 1 Corinthians 13, 3, for was of first importance, what was the most important thing he delivered to them?

That Jesus died, was buried and arose.

And so we're going to look at that on Easter Sunday morning.

Well, that's exciting.

We want you to know Easter is going to be three services, just to help with the crowds.

So that's going to be 8 am, 9 am and then 10.30 am.

So we want you to be prepared for that.

We certainly invite you.

If you're up for an earlier service, we encourage you to come to the 8 am service to help with crowd.

We would especially ask that some of our folks do that, just because the 10.30 is going to be when most of our visitors will end up coming.

And also Ms Bonnie needs some help in the nursery, since we're adding that service.

So if you can help in the nursery one of those services, please see her.

Or Michelle DuBois down at the preschool desk to help.

They need some extra help that day, so if you can help and you don't have to be a professional teacher.

We just need some warm bodies to help load on some children.

That's right.

We want to mention the 13th, that's Palm Sunday.

We are going to have an Easter egg hunt for the whole family at 2 pm and Grant has mentioned it to me, so I wanted to make sure to let you guys know.

We do have separate areas lined out, so small kids will have a separate area from big kids.

We will not let your small child get trampled Right.

We will not let your small child get trampled.

Hey, another thing just in April concerning Easter is April the 6th.

We are taking up our Annie Armstrong Easter offering on April the 6th.

Our goal for this year is $10,000 for that.

Along with that, we will have a week of prayer.

Yeah, tell us about the week of prayer, because we've been working on that.

So the week of prayer is a week of prayer for North American Missions.

It's an eight-day prayer thing.

There are brochures down at the Welcome Center that you can pick up, but what we're going to do is David is going to lead us in one of those prayers on Sunday, march the 30th and then April the 6th.

He's going to do that live as part of our service in the week of prayer.

But throughout the week we're going to post a video on Facebook, youtube, one of our pages there, and it'll be a video about a North American missionary and then we are going to pray for them in that video as well and pray for those missionaries.

And it's just a great way to see people that your Annie Armstrong Easter offering are directly affecting, because that Easter offering doesn't go to any overhead or anything like that at NAMM which they have to pay.

They've got to pay bills, pay electricity, all that kind of stuff, but your Annie Armstrong Easter offering does not go to that.

It goes directly to missionaries and so the week of prayer is just a chance to see missionaries that your offering is impacting directly.

I love that and, as a side note, you will end up finding those videos both on our Facebook and YouTube platforms.

So just make a mental note of that Before we leave our calendar.

We do want to remind everybody VBS is June the 2nd through the 6th.

Youth camp is July 3rd through the 7th.

Children's camp is July 4th through the 6th.

We have not opened VBS registration yet.

That will not happen until May.

However, we do have those camp registrations open on our website.

You can find those at DeSotoHillscom.

Before we get to the midweek moment, I wanted to brag on Billy Wilson.

If y'all don't know Billy Wilson, he's a deacon here.

He's been coming to this church for years and years and years.

You've seen him on the drum set because he is an amazing musician.

He plays everything.

He plays guitar, he plays bass guitar, he plays drums.

So, bless his heart, you'll see him anytime there's a musician out.

He's like the first phone call that Miss Jennifer makes usually, so you'll see Billy.

A lot playing on the stage, tall guy, amazing.

What you didn't realize is for years he's done most of our print design and I end up handling a lot of the media here at DeSoto Heels, but I gladly passed that off years ago to Billy, because he is incredible at it and he's way better than I am.

And if you've been in our church in the past few weeks, you would have noticed a brand new worship guide show, which is stunning and the way just to give you insight on that process.

Typically, me and Grant will start shifting through like tons.

I don't remember, grant, how many did we look at?

It had to have been 100.

Yeah, it was a bunch.

We look at like several designs, a bunch of designs, and then we find something.

And it always happens this way it's like perfect, except it needs one major change, something crazy.

And so we sent Billy that image and said, look, we need this stuff completely changed around on the front, but we like the vibe of this.

And then Billy takes that and makes a masterpiece out of it.

So if you see Billy at church, give him a high five for us and tell him how much you enjoy the worship guide, because he's selfless about all of that and does just an incredible job.

Now we've reached the moment that we call it's our devotion portion of the podcast, and we call it the midweek moment.

So this week I want us to look at not what we have read, what we've been reading in our year through the Bible, but what you're about to read.

This upcoming week, starting tomorrow, the 27th, you're going to start reading 2 Samuel, 11.

And if you go through April 2, that next Wednesday, you're going to start 1 Kings, and then the first few chapters of 1 Kings, 2 Samuel really deals with the reign of David and 1 Kings really deals with the reign of Solomon.

But as you get to chapter 11, where you're going to start tomorrow, you start really seeing the decline of David's reign.

Because in chapter 11 is when David sees Bathsheba and then he's going to commit adultery with Bathsheba.

And you know the story.

Probably David, who is known as the greatest king really of Israel, he was on his rooftop.

He gazes over, sees Bathsheba bathing, doesn't leave, stays sin, really just kind of crouches at his door, Sin, really just kind of crouches at his door.

He winds up committing adultery with Bathsheba and then, to hide that adultery, he brings her husband home.

The husband doesn't actually go home because her husband, Uriah, is fighting in battle and he doesn't want to go home to his wife when his fellow soldiers can't go home, and so he doesn't.

And so then, because Uriah doesn't go home, David still has to hide his sins.

So he has Uriah sent to the front lines where he is killed.

So basically, David commits adultery and then he commits murder to try to hide his adultery, and then what's going to happen is God's going to send the prophet Nathan, and he's going to come to David and tell this awesome parable about a guy who stole a goat and when he had a whole flock of sheep, he stole his neighbor's only sheep.

And David gets so mad and he says we need to have that man put to death, all this kind of stuff.

And Nathan looks at him and says we need to have that man put to death, all this kind of stuff.

And Nathan looks at him and says David, you're the man To which David is going to repent, but his reign and his kingdom, as a consequence to that sin, really is going to start going down.

From that point You're going to see his son Absalom rebel against him and all of these things that happen.

But what I want us to look at just real briefly, today we won't spend a lot of time here, but in Psalm, chapter 51, if you read the beginning of that Psalm.

Psalms 51 · chapter mention

It says to the choir master, a Psalm of David, when Nathan.

Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.

So after Nathan the prophet comes to David and says David, you're the man you have committed this sin.

David writes this psalm.

And just a few things to point out.

But let's read, and we'll talk about it on the way, Psalm 51, verse 1.

Psalms 51:1

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, Blot out my transgressions, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

So quick pause, right there.

Notice what he says in verse four against you and you only have I sinned.

Well, if we take that literally, no, David, that's not true, because you've sinned against Bathsheba, You've sinned against Uriah and all of their families.

But the point is not that other people aren't hurt.

The point is sin, Even when we think our sin is little.

And even when we think our sin because you hear it say well, my sin is not affecting anybody, it doesn't hurt anybody else.

Well, that's very rarely the case that your sin doesn't hurt somebody else.

But I'll give it to you.

What if that is the only person?

Here's the problem.

You have still sinned against God and any sin.

He uses the word.

The ESV says transgressions, but the word is rebellion.

You have rebelled against God and any sin.

Even if you don't hurt another person, you have rebelled against your maker.

And that is a big deal.

And we take our sins so often, we take it so lightly, and I don't think that's what David's doing.

But he recognizes that he has sinned against God and while, yes, Uriah and their family has been hurt and Bathsheba has been hurt, even in the midst of this, God is hurt and he is repentant of that and he is coming before that and he says you're justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

So basically, he says, God, whatever you choose to do to me, you have every right to do it.

But he cries out to God for mercy and his steadfast love.

He goes on and says behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin, and my mother can see me.

Behold, you delight in truth, in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart, David recognizes.

Not only has he committed this sin, but he was brought into this world as a sinner.

My pastor growing up used to say You're a born sinner, and it took me forever to realize what he's saying.

What he means is we are born with a tendency to rebel against God, and we are.

We are sinners basically as soon as we come out of the womb, because we, we are in rebellion against God.

Then he says something interesting in verse seven Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

The hyssop right there is a branch that almost looks like a brush and if you go back to the day of Passover, it was a hyssop branch that he told them to dip in the blood and put the blood on their doorposts so the Passover lamb would pass over them.

So what he is calling for is he is saying sacrifice is required, Blood is required to wash him and make him whiter than snow.

He says let me hear joy and gladness, Let the bones that you have broken rejoice, Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities.

Then verse 10,.

You've sung this song, Mark.

I've sung this song.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew.

Sung this song, Mark.

I've sung this song.

David is just.

He's falling down at the feet of God and saying, God, I don't deserve it.

I have sinned dramatically against you.

Please be merciful.

And he's not just asking God to overlook his sin.

He's asking him to give him a new heart, to create in him a new heart and renew a right spirit within him.

Give him what he had before the sin and restore him to that place.

Then he says in verse 13, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness, O Lord.

Open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise, For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it.

You would not be pleased with burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise Again.

What he's saying is David could very easily go to the altar and offer a sacrifice and ask God for forgiveness.

But just to go through the motions of offering forgiveness is not what God desires.

What he desires is to honestly and humbly come before him confessing our sin.

We think so often well, I've committed this sin, whatever it is.

I need to get back in church or I need to get back to reading my Bible.

And while those things are good, those things aren't going to get forgiveness of sins Now.

They may help us once we've received forgiveness.

They may help us not to fall back into it, but forgiveness comes from God's mercy and grace and him giving us what we don't deserve instead of what we do deserve.

And that happens when we humbly and honestly come and confess our sins before him.

He finishes the Psalm do good to Zion and your good pleasure, build up the walls of Jerusalem, Then you will delight in right sacrifices and burn offerings, and whole burn offerings.

Then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Again, what he says is once these things have been restored, then we can offer our sacrifices and offer those things, because those things are to help us remember so we don't fall back into our sin.

And so, just as you read through Samuel, remember this Psalm 51, that David comes after he commits this great sin and it's his confession there.

And hopefully that will encourage you, Hopefully that will let you know a couple things.

One if you have sinned, there is forgiveness.

God gives us grace and mercy.

God gives us grace and mercy, but we must come before God honestly and say God, look, I know I've messed up, I know I've sinned.

We've got to come before him honestly and humbly, knowing that he's giving us and we're asking him to give us what we don't deserve.

Growing up, I've heard many, many scholars and pastors talk about how David was a man after God's own heart, and I always wondered, hearing this story growing up, how a guy after God's own heart could do the things that David ended up doing.

And it's just a reminder how amazing God's grace really is.

I think the big.

I've asked myself that same question and the only thing I've, the only place I've been able to come to, is the only way that I think we could say that about David is because when David messed up, every time he messed up because it was more than once, every time he messed up, he ran straight back to God.

He ran right back to God.

And where you see other people not running back to God, they try to do this and they try to do this and they try to do this, and then they come back to God.

They try to do this and they try to do this and they try to do this, and then they come back to God, or God has to really break them down.

I mean, as soon as Nathan comes and says you're the man, we get Psalm 51.

I mean he immediately runs back to God.

Historically.

Why did Nathan not become king?

How come he chose Solomon?

Well, nathan was a prophet, he wasn't.

You mean Absalom?

Yes, that's what I meant, well, absalom.

Well, it was one of those things kind of like why was Jacob chosen over Esau?

I mean, jacob was the secondborn, esau should have been the descendant, and it's because God's choosing.

God chose Solomon over all of the other sons and, if memory serves me, correctly?

didn't Bathsheba have a role in getting Solomon to be king?

Amazing.

So many fascinating stories in the Bible.

Well, thanks 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 desotohillscom, our YouTube channel at Desoto Hills Baptist for all of our church family.

We love you guys so much.

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

Have a wonderful day.

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.