MID WEEK MOTIVATION - TRUST "Finding Faith in Uncertainty"

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 Wednesday, january 29th, here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis here here with Laura Ulrich, laura today.

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

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

We've got several events coming up.

We always start the podcast off with calendar information and, coming up this Sunday, february the 2nd, we have the Kids New Christian class, and you just said that this is a class that you are doing for children who have recently accepted Christ.

Right Kids who have recently accepted Christ.

They want to be baptized.

Right Kids who have recently accepted Christ they want to be baptized.

Kids who maybe have questions about what it looks like to be a Christian and maybe moms and dads aren't comfortable answering those questions or all kinds of things.

They are more than welcome to come to the class.

One thing I do like to have for the class is a parent to attend with the child.

That's very important.

Okay, and that's going to be at 4 pm this Sunday afternoon.

We've said on the podcast before, because our Sunday nights look differently from the past, it allows us the opportunity to do special events and special programming throughout the year and this is one of those items.

So this is not an every Sunday night class.

This is just this coming Sunday or the second for those items.

So this is not an every Sunday night class, this is just this coming Sunday or the second for those students.

And then right after that y'all have got a staff retreat and y'all do this.

We just wanted our listeners to know.

From time to time the staff do get away for a couple of days to plan and just to rejuvenate and y'all are going to do some team building and some stuff like that.

So the staff will be out of pocket on the third and the fourth, be back in town on the fifth.

What else we got coming?

We've got the preteen retreat, which that's going to be coming up on the 28th.

They can go ahead and start signing up for that.

That is basically the disciple now for some of our children, and what are the ages for that?

Yes, is basically the disciple now for some of our children, and what are the ages for that?

Yes, it's for fifth and sixth grade and all the events for that retreat happen at the church, all except for we go somewhere on Friday night to do something fun and exciting Details to be determined at a later date.

But yes, it is all at the church and we do not spend the night anywhere unless you choose to do so in your home.

And it's lots of fun.

It's really fun.

The kids seem to enjoy it.

We usually have somebody come in from the outside world to do speaking and then Mark Lewis and his crew do the music for that.

Yeah, it was basically the VBS band and we get cooking with that and that's normally.

We use the treehouse venue and the attic venue for that and it's a really, really special weekend.

It's brief, it is a Friday evening and then it's Saturday morning through lunch, but it is a fantastic event and so sign your kids up for that.

We'll have that information on the website.

You can, of course, see Laura on Sunday morning if you have any questions about that.

And then I skipped over it, but you've got a missions event coming up on the 22nd.

You said it's called Missions Madness and it's at FBC Batesville.

What's up with that?

Yeah, so that's a super fun event.

We went to it last year.

Last year it was at Senatobia and it's really for first through sixth graders and any parents that want to come, and we go to this location and we learn about missions.

Last year it was missions all around the world and the kids went to different rooms throughout the day to learn about different countries and cultures and kind of what they do in those countries and how the Word of God is spread throughout those countries.

And then you'd go to a different room and learn about the country there, and then a different room and then lunch is provided and there's games and it's just lots of fun.

It's very hands on and it's something different and where kids can learn about missions.

If you want any more information, we have all of the stuff that we just talked about is on our church calendar and you can pick a calendar up on Sunday mornings at the welcome desk or you can call the church office and we can get you that calendar in your hands Before we move on to today's devotion.

The college championship game was last week.

If you don't realize this, Laura is a huge Auburn fan, so I wanted to ask you the story of your passion for Auburn.

Now, was this a family?

Is this a family allegiance that's just passed down through many years?

Many, many years and I don't really know how many years, would I venture to say.

My grandparents were Auburn fans.

Probably so, my parents, okay.

So how did Laura become an Auburn fan?

Laura did not go to Auburn.

It's kind of like Mississippi when you're born, you have to choose Ole Miss or Mississippi State.

If you don't, then you're just kind of outcast for the rest of your life.

And if you're Southern Miss, nobody cares.

Forget you, they don't care.

Sorry Grant, they don't care.

So both my parents went to Auburn and got their degrees from there, and so growing up, that's just what I did.

You just cheer for Auburn and you like Auburn.

And I went to some Auburn football games and had some great lemonade at Toomer's Corner.

And for Alabama people you may not know, or Miss City people you're not going to know what that is, but it's OK, we all miss out.

So that's why I like Auburn.

We all miss out, so that's why I like Auburn.

And my brother he and I both got our undergraduate at Samford and then he went to Auburn to get his PhD, and so we're just all Auburn people.

But your brother ended up in Oxford.

Yes, he teaches at Ole Miss Right.

Yeah, I guess because Auburn didn't offer him a job.

I don't know.

That was a long time ago.

What did your dad think of that when he ended up at Ole Miss?

By the way, Dad, I'm going to Ole.

Miss Dad was just glad Todd was employed.

It didn't really matter where he was employed, at just that he was somewhere.

So you know, if he had ended up at Alabama we might be okay.

Actually, his wife is a huge Alabama fan.

So it's a house divided.

They are a house divided.

Can you explain to me as much as the state of Mississippi tends to get divided over?

Mississippi State and Ole Miss typically fans most fans across the aisle.

They'll just look at the other person and kind of shrug Bless them.

In Alabama it's a little bit more than that.

It's like almost a healthy hatred of people who are on the opposite side.

Yeah, it happens.

They just don't, they just don't get along, it just like not even a little bit.

No, not really Now.

Now my cousin he's a big Alabama fan and but his dad, who is my uncle, is Auburn fan because that's my, my dad's brother, so they're Auburn people and my cousin is an Alabama fan and it's okay.

Black sheep of the family, then.

Well, yeah, his mom was an Alabama fan.

That side of the family was all Alabama people.

Makes sense.

But we, you know, teach their own.

Now there are some Ole Miss people that tolerate state people.

There are some Ole Miss people that can't stand anybody who likes Mississippi State.

Oh sure I have a love for everyone.

I just like Auburn football and basketball.

By the way, we're doing really well in basketball Right.

So if you don't know about Auburn basketball, you should check it out.

Yes, I tend to watch.

I like to watch and support Ole Miss, just because I feel like they're the team closest to us aside from Memphis.

But Memphis, I can't.

It just hardly doesn't count.

Oh, I like some Memphis, but you don't want to talk about them today.

No, no, Okay.

As a Mississippi team we're closest to Ole Miss, so I enjoy supporting Ole Miss.

I don't.

It doesn't matter to me if Ole Miss wins or loses.

I wear Ole Miss ball caps.

My whole family is Mississippi State people, but I just feel like, since we live up here, I just I tend to support Ole Miss.

I like to watch Alabama football.

You know that about me.

Whoever wins or loses, it really doesn't affect my weekend.

So some people would probably say I'm not a true fan, but I enjoy college sports.

Period.

Now the NFL is getting because we've got the Super Bowl coming.

I wanted to ask you do you even have an NFL team?

Are you even an NFL girl?

I mean no.

So when I was little, I used to like the Cincinnati Bengals.

Ask me why.

Why.

Because I like their uniforms.

Oh my gosh, they look really cool.

I like the black and orange uniforms.

So I like the Bengals for a really long time and my brother, he liked the Lions.

He still is a diehard Lions fan.

But I have left the Bengals and I don't really care.

I like the Chiefs maybe just because they're good, Not because of T Swift or Travis Kelsey or any of that, Just because I don't know.

So no, I really don't have a team.

I have former students, had a former student who played on the Chiefs he is no longer playing on the Chiefs and then, of course, n'kobe Dean, who I taught, is on the Eagles, and so I enjoy watching the Eagles games as well.

It's kind of crazy because people who tend to like the Cowboys and root for the Cowboys are typically mortal enemies of the Eagles.

But I'm really kind of a Cowboys fan.

That's my team, really the Cowboys.

That's America's team, you know it is.

America's team, they're struggling.

America has struggled this year.

David's outside of our window right now making faces.

Speaking of the Cowboys, I used to live in Texas and that was a big thing.

In Texas was the Cowboys or the Texans Right, and so I did cheer for the Cowboys when I was in Texas.

We've been making lots of cowboy jokes on the television show at school.

Lately they're having a tough time.

They're for sale, yeah, or something like that.

There's some talk about selling the Cowboys.

Jerry needs to get the keys up is what needs to happen.

But I'll give you one of the Cowboys jokes right now.

How do you keep a cowboy off of your front lawn?

How you put a goalpost?

Oh, that's terrible.

Our poor cowboy fan listeners.

They're going to leave you hate messages.

I'm a cowboy's fan.

Well, and your terrible jokes?

Yes, agreed, Last week David broke down some of the passages in Genesis from our Bible readings as a church and we talked about Jacob.

This week, laura is going to bring us a word out of Exodus 16 in a segment we call the midweek moment.

So, thinking back and looking at our daily readings in Scripture, we're going to get to Exodus 16 pretty quickly and I was thinking about what to share with you all today on the devotion and I was thinking about what have we been learning in Sunday school and the kids, sunday school area and, if you don't know, both the preschool and the children we work through the Bible chronologically in a three year span.

So every three years we go from Genesis to Revelation.

So right now we are looking at the Israelites and their wilderness wanderings for 40 years and that's kind of where we are right now we spend several weeks talking about Moses and how he led the Israelites to the promised land, but one thing that God kept bringing back to my mind in relation to the Israelites wandering in the wilderness was the fact that the Israelites had to rely on God each day for what they needed.

So if you don't know the story, I'm going to catch you up real fast.

The Israelites are out of Egypt, they are wandering in the wilderness.

Some say desert.

I did a little research on this and back then and long ago, the wilderness was actually kind of like a desert just because of the lack of trees and such, but I'm just going to refer to it as a wilderness.

So the Israelites were wondering in the wilderness.

Moses was their leader and they, at this point in our story in Exodus, chapter 16, they begin to complain because they feel like God has just left them to starve and left them to die, and so they go to Moses.

Exodus 16 · chapter mention

Feel like God has just left them to starve and left them to die, and so they go to Moses.

They're like Moses.

We would much rather be back in Egypt, where we were slaves, than be here in the wilderness, and I thought it interesting how quickly they've forgotten what their life was like as slaves.

I'm sure you all can imagine how terrible that was and it seems they just had forgotten and they would just rather go back to that than continue to trust God.

So God comes in, he speaks to Moses and he tells him hey, I'm going to provide for the Israelites, tell them that they are going to get manna from heaven, which is kind of like I tell the kids, kind of like a cracker, that comes from heaven each day, but only am I going to give them exactly what they need for that day.

So Moses went back.

He told the Israelites what God had said.

God, of course, held true to his word and provided the Israelites with manna for that day.

It fell from heaven.

He provided quail as well, but the manna came from heaven and the Israelites would go out each morning and they would gather it up.

And some of them, I think, were kind of like us and they thought I'm just not so sure that this is going to last, that this is going to be enough for me, or I'm not quite so sure that God's really going to come through with what he says he's going to do.

So forget about all the stuff that God had already done for them.

They just kind of decided I'm just going to take care of it myself.

So these folks, these Israelites, they gathered double portion of manna for the day, which would be good.

They could have seconds and third helpings of manna if they so desired.

But the problem was that when there was leftover manna it would spoil before the next day.

So all their work in gathering all this extra manna was for nothing, because it just went bad every day.

And so I took this story and I kind of thought about what about us?

What does this have to do with our lives as Christ followers, as believers?

How does this story relate to our daily walk?

Just to give you some encouragement throughout the day, and sometimes, thinking about it, I find myself some encouragement throughout the day and sometimes, thinking about it, I find myself to be like the Israelites.

And I bet if you were honest you would kind of think maybe sometimes you're like them too, because we say we trust God in everything.

We really try to trust God in everything, but when the rubber meets the road, as they say, we have to actually put our faith, our trust, into action.

We just aren't quite sure that God's going to come through.

Yes, he came through for us long ago in the past, and that's great and wonderful.

But in the here and now Is God going to come through for us each and every day?

And sometimes we question that.

And I think because we question that, I question that sometimes I think I just need to do a little bit to help God.

I just need to do a little bit to take care of myself, just in case, just have a little insurance in case God doesn't quite work this out like the way I think he ought to, or just in case, you know, things don't happen the way that I want them to.

So we try to kind of help God, just a little kind of like the Israelites did when they collected double portion of the manna.

But you know, god doesn't really need our help.

He's God.

We're not.

And throughout Scripture he promises us over and over again to be with us and direct our paths if we just trust Him.

That's all we have to do is just completely trust Him each and every day, and he promises that he's going to be with us and he's going to provide for us, just like he did every day for those Israelites and for myself.

Sometimes that's tough to do because I like to be in control.

Sometimes you can ask my husband, and I like to be in control of what happens during my day.

So how about you?

Is it hard to trust God in the unknown and chaotic moments of your day?

Sometimes I bet it is.

It is for me.

So, in wrapping this up, I want to experience the blessings of God every day in my life and I want to celebrate what he's doing every day and trust him for that day, for what I need for that day, and then we go to the next day.

God, I trust you for this day, for what's going to happen in my day today.

You know, I don't want to only trust God when things are easy or when things make sense, because God is calling me and you to trust him every minute of every day and to trust him even when we aren't sure where he's going to take us.

The Israelites.

They didn't know where they were going to end up.

They didn't know it was going to take them At this point.

They didn't know it was going to take them 40 years to get to the promised land.

But they had to trust God each day, and that's what we have to do, and God promises over and over in Scripture he's going to provide for us with what we need for each day.

Our job is to trust Him and just be thankful for all the things that he provides.

Thank you 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 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 1030 am.