MID WEEK MOTIVATION - March 19, 2025 (Marc Lewis & James Lewis)

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 from March 19th here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis here, with special guests Pastor Emeritus, james Lewis and my dad.

What's up?

Good afternoon, all right, everybody wants to know what you've been up to in retirement, so tell us some of the things you've been doing and what your day-to-day looks like.

Well, as your mother says, I'm gone on Sunday, but she has me Monday through Saturday.

I've been blessed.

I've been preaching almost entirely every Sunday.

The vast majority of that has been at a church in Shannon Mississippi, brewer Baptist Church.

Their pastor died suddenly over a year ago and so I've been going there Kind of take it month by month, go only on Sunday mornings and, as they said, come when you can.

So that's what I do.

So you're not their interim pastor, but you might as well be.

You've been the closest thing they've had to an interim Correct.

They wanted me to do interim, but I didn't want to do it and not be able to do Sunday nights for them, so they got somebody else coming in on Sunday nights.

And you have been at other churches doing a lot of speaking as well.

I would say, Brewer, you're probably there two-thirds of the time, but there's a good one-third of your time that you've spent at a lot of other churches as well.

Correct.

If a church asks me a month or two out before I've committed to Brewer, I'll take that to just supply, especially around here close to home.

I had two revivals back-to-back in Shoba County just a week ago, and so I've got two more revivals coming up in the spring and one more into the summer.

And I would say the bulk of your dates that have not been at Brewer have probably been around the Carthage Philadelphia area.

You've done quite a few churches around the farm.

Yes, morris Hill Baptist Church.

I preached there for almost eight months, off and on.

You've been at Carthage some.

I've been at First Baptist Carthage three times A great pastor there.

He's given my name to other people but I just couldn't.

Some of these guys call at the last moment because that's when they need somebody and I'm already booked.

but I've been been blessed but it has been neat how the network around the farm has kind of opened up, because as you've done more and more things, you're getting more and more calls for that area correct, which works out great because you'll just go camp out at the farm for a while mars hill is 10 minutes from the cabin.

Carthage is 20 minutes from the cabin, so that's, that's a blessing.

Plus you get to be at the farm, it's plus plus now tell us about the farm.

For people who might not know, this is the family land that we have in leek county and it's very central to the state.

Um, I'm trying to think the best way to tell people.

It's kind of it's it's south of Grenada and then actually towards Meridian somewhere in that region, but it's basically right between Kosciuszko, louisville, philadelphia and Carthage.

It's in the middle of all those towns if you look on a map.

Highway 25 runs from Starkville to Jackson and we're off of Highway 25, not too far from Blissville, between Blissville and Carthage.

It is a family farm.

How many acres do you all currently have?

We have 60 acres, but the family all in is probably 120, something like that.

Probably more like 160.

So it's a playground, a nature playground for sure, correct and, for those listening, beautiful lake.

You basically have a lodge.

It's a full-blown house, but we call it more of a lodge house, and it sits way up on a hill on top of that lake, overlooking a lot of the acreage that you have Ten-acre lake.

There's really probably 180 acres all total.

Kathy's brothers have the other acreage.

Yeah, and you're blessed with what we call a toy barn, basically, but you've got lots of riding toys.

You've got a little apartment up there for people, for guests.

It is a beautiful place.

This is a recreational farm, not a make-a-living farm.

Yes, and we have a lot of recreational things.

It is a ton of fun and certainly the kind of place you want to go hang out at for weeks at a time, which is a blessing.

A blessing A lot of work, though.

You do go down there and you cut a lot of grass and do a lot of bush hogging too I do but I love it, it's a good hobby.

Now also filling your time.

Which a lot of people probably don't realize is you are on the board of trustees at Blue Mountain and so I would say, at least twice a month you end up at Blue Mountain for meetings.

In fact, you were there last week for a meeting.

So what happens with Blue Mountain?

Tell us a little bit about what's going on with the college.

Kathy and I are both alumni of Blue Mountain.

That's where we met and I first went on the board, probably in 1988, and had been on it off and on.

You have to go off a year after you've served two four-year terms, so probably for the past 40 years I've been on it three administrations.

Dr Barbara McMillan is the president there now and doing a fantastic job, and Blue Mountain is challenged, like a lot of colleges, with finding enough students.

The pool of students is smaller than it's ever been.

So, uh, we struggle with that.

But uh got a great team, a strong, strong college and a strong reputation.

They just started a new nursing program which is going to be, I think, a real boom for the college and so, um, but I enjoy being on the board.

I'm vice chair of the uh board of trustees, so I'm on the executive team, so that's why the board I'm vice chair of the board of trustees, so I'm on the executive team, so that's why the board actually meets.

The full board actually meets four times a year, but if you're on the executive board you end up meeting once a month.

Okay, it's hilarious.

I've talked to you on the phone all the time, hours a week, and I don't think I've ever asked you and you can't obviously tell the exact business of what's going on at Blue Mountain.

But what happens in some of those meetings?

What are some of the types of things y'all end up talking about?

Well, blue Mountain's facing reaccreditation, so that's been a big, big topic and there's so much you have to get ready for that.

So you have to put the plan together because there's professors that end up having to write a lot of information out for these boards to look at Correct and SACS looks very closely at your board and how they are.

they up to date on everything, and so we get policy.

Changes have to come through the board.

We talk about finances every month, just like a church would, and I remember at one point you told me in one of those meetings y'all were literally trying to figure out ways to get more students to come to.

Blue Mountain.

I mean, it was like you were like enrollments down everywhere.

It wasn't just Blue Mountain, it's small schools all across the nation and you're coming up with strategies of what programs can we add, what things can we change to attract students correct and that's kind of an ongoing thing for any school, but especially a small school.

Blue Mountain's a rural school and that's just a fact.

That's not going to change.

The location's not going to change, so you've got to look.

But they're really on top of things and they have a great staff.

I'm so impressed with their faculty, with their recruiting team, with their recruiting team.

They're just out really doing a fantastic job and trying to get the right students that they're going to retain for four years or, if they go to community college, get them for two years to finish up.

So it's ongoing, but it's a great place and certainly meaningful to me.

Absolutely Now.

Here at DeSoto Hills you are still a member and we have people all the time on Sunday mornings asking, and you've just alluded already on the mic that you are speaking literally every Sunday morning pretty much somewhere, but people may not realize.

You are here at least two or three times a month on Wednesday nights and that's probably when people will see you in the building if they come on Wednesday nights.

Correct, that's my biggest opportunity to come.

I'm not always in town I won't be this week but when I'm in town Wednesday night, I enjoy coming.

And for our listeners.

That's where you'll see them, especially in the praise prayer proclamation.

Even if you don't make it to the meal, you typically will make it to praise prayer and proclamation and you end up helping with the prayer sheet still in that service.

So if y'all want to see Pastor Emeritus James Lewis, definitely come on a Wednesday night.

I want to quickly go over the calendar before we get to our table topics section, which I know some people will be interested to hear us talk with you about that Coming up.

We do have the Night of Worship and Business meeting.

It's this Sunday night, march 23rd, at 5 pm in the attic.

I've got an incredible worship band coming and we're going to have a great night of worship, so you're not going to want to miss that.

The Grand Prix is also coming up.

We've got the workdays for the Grand Prix.

They're coming up March 29th from 9 to 11.

That's next Saturday, and then Sunday, march 30th, at 3 pm.

So if your child wants to actually have a workday with Miss Laura for their, for their car, definitely give that a look.

A look again the 29th and the 30th.

The grand prix itself is going to be the next week, april 6th, at 4 pm in the treehouse and it's going to be a lot of fun.

We also want you to know that the easter egg hunt has been planned and that's on the calendar for palm sunday, april 13th, at 2 pm.

That's for the whole family, and grant wanted everybody to know that we do have separate sections and areas for different aged kids so you don't have to worry about your small kid getting plowed or run over by bigger kids.

And then dates we want you to mark on your calendar for sure.

Vbs is going to be June the 2nd through the 6th.

We don't want you to miss that.

That is one of the biggest programming events we put on every year.

So get that on your calendar so you can avoid family vacation time.

June 2nd through the 6th.

Youth camp at LaFloie Mountain Village in Gatlinburg is going to be July the 3rd through the 7th, and then the children's camp is going to be July 4th through 6th, and children's camp this year is going to be at Camp Cordova, right up the road, so it'll be close.

Registration for all of our upcoming events can always be found on our website, unless the registration has closed or hasn't opened yet.

But the website is where you're going to find any and all of our registration information.

That's desotoheelscom.

All right, now we have a segment that we call Table Topics.

All right, table topics are just fun questions that we ask.

First one what was your favorite family vacation that we ever took?

Can you think of one?

probably when we went to uh disney world, stayed at fort wilderness and bikes and that was a great vacation.

Fort Wilderness is a fantastic resort and it's even nicer today than it was back then.

The trailers back then were not very nice Way back then.

Yes, the trailers back then were not very nice, but they've definitely improved.

Y'all enjoyed the bikes as much as you enjoyed the rides, I think.

Yes, and that would be probably the case today.

Actually.

The rides, I think yes, and that would be probably the case today.

Actually, if money and time were no object, where would you go on a dream vacation today?

Hawaii, hmm, hawaii, okay, your favorite dessert?

Your mom's homemade apple pie Really.

Okay, what's the hardest thing you can think of that you've ever done?

Hmm, greek Greek.

You had to take Greek in college?

Yes, what about Hebrew?

Did y'all?

do Hebrew?

Didn't have Hebrew, not in college.

So just Greek.

Greek.

Now everybody complains about Hebrew, so I think it must be as bad, if not worse.

If you could master any skill instantly, what would it be?

Second language, a second language, spanish?

Spanish would be a great one.

I would love to know spanish myself, uh, especially working at horn lake, because we've got a lot of hispanic students.

What's a goal you have for next year?

year.

Hmm, Continue to exercise.

I'm doing that, but just continue to do that, to do it just stay healthy Right and do it weekly or daily Correct.

And that's Table Topics, fun questions that you can ask your family.

We're now going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the Midweek Moment.

Well, because I've been doing rumors for so long.

When I first went I just was doing messages, pulling stuff, but then I decided I need to do some series.

So I've preached through Philippians.

Right now I'm preaching through the Sermon on the Mount.

But my first series with them was the seven churches, the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

I was looking at that.

I rediscovered something I knew, but in each one of those letters Jesus will say the same thing at the end to him who has ears, let him hear.

To him who has ears, let him hear.

And I was reminded and I reminded them on a weekly basis that the capacity to hear and the commitment to listen are two different things.

And so I always encourage people not just to hear what the Lord is saying through His Word or through a message, but to listen to really commit to listen to what he's trying to say, really commit to listen to what he's trying to say.

A year ago I was doing a pastor's conference in northeast Arkansas.

The last session was on preaching, and at the end of that session they were asking me questions.

And one guy came up to me and he said, or, in the session, said how do you land the plane?

Well, I knew what he was talking about.

How do you kind of bring it all together and bring some conclusion to the message so that your people can respond to it?

I'm not sure what answer I gave him, but on the way home for me, a major revelation hit me about that.

It is not my responsibility to land the plane in a message.

Frankly, it's not the Lord's responsibility to land the plane from His Word.

It's the listener's responsibility.

I believe my responsibility as a proclaimer of the Word is to get you inside of the runway, and I try to do that well.

I try to do it precisely to get you inside of the runway, and I try to do that well, I try to do it precisely to get you inside of the runway.

And then you have a decision to make whether you're going to land the plane.

And so I'm going to encourage you as you read the Word, as you hear the Word.

As the book of James says, don't just be hearers of the Word but doers of the Word, and, as Jesus would say, let him who has ears hear, and so be grateful for the capacity to hear, but be committed to listening, that you can benefit from all that the Lord, and that each time he speaks to you, you can land the plane to you you can land the plane.

Thanks so much 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 Church.

For all of our church family, we love you.

We'll see you back here next Wednesday.

Have a great week.

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.