MID WEEK MOTIVATION - FAITH "Strengthening Connections and Embracing Grace"

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 January 15th here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

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

Many of you have mentioned that you've been enjoying the podcast and we certainly appreciate the feedback.

Hey, grant, we have a new Wednesday night lineup of classes and we certainly want you to bring your families and come fellowship with us on Wednesday nights.

Today is Wednesday, and so we will be having those classes tonight.

It is a ton of fun.

If you've never been to Soda Hills on a Wednesday night, this place is buzzing with life.

So much energy?

Yes, it's really cool and our classes give a brief outline of how the classes work.

They're more themed.

Yeah, they are Now.

Jeffrey King this year is teaching a class.

He is walking through 1 Corinthians.

He started that back in the fall but don't think it's too late for you to come in.

That's kind of a class that anybody can join at any point and just kind of pick up where he is.

So it is more just walking through a book of the Bible and that's in the DeSoto room.

That's in the DeSoto room.

That's almost like our service.

If you just wanted to show up for a Wednesday service, that's it.

Someone will read through the prayer sheet, they'll pray through that and then he'll have a Bible study there.

Right, there is a marriage class this year.

This past fall we did a parenting class by Paul David Tripp.

It was a book that Paul David Tripp wrote.

He wrote this book on the parenting and people loved it, loved the parenting class so much I thought, hey, let's try the marriage class David Rice is leading that.

It'll be good.

It's in the new building, I think 216.

It'll be good.

It's in the new building, I think 216.

It's on the end down on the south end, no, on the east end of the new building.

Okay, so that'll be a good class.

Miss Sherry Parnell and she has helpers.

Miss Sue Smith and Delaine Morris help Miss Sherry and they teach grief share.

That's a great class.

For people who have lost someone it helps a lot.

We've had a lot of people who have gone through that and a lot of people who have gone through it twice, just because that's such a mourning and grieving time.

All of those ladies have experienced that so they can bring in life experience.

In that class there is a ladies class.

This is a different kind of ladies class.

This year they're going through the Kay Arthur study.

Lord, I Want to Know you, that goes through names of God, scripturally, just goes through the names of God.

Ms Claudia Storrs is kind of doing that part, but Msb smith um has developed a study through that as well where you create a notebook that you can kind of reference back to later and things like that.

And so miss claudia and miss barb are partnering up on that and that class will have a notebook that you go.

It'll have the book.

Their k arthur book is there that you can use.

But you'll be creating a notebook as well to go through that and so that'll be good.

And then the men, zach Pleasance and Chad Pumphrey, are leading the men's study this year.

It's called Reset and I forget the secondary title of it, but it's basically how to organize your life based on grace in a burnout culture.

Like how we as men can get so bogged down in so much stuff and we just burn out, but how to reorganize our life and fill it with grace instead of all the things.

That steps on my toes right now, because my day is planned pretty much.

I mean, I wake up in the morning thinking of all I have to do and, oh, I can get home by 7 o'clock and watch 30 minutes of HGTV before I go to bed, like literally.

So that'll be a good class.

The men's class is a little bit different too.

We need help putting tables up and getting chairs out for Sunday after the Wednesday night meal.

So those men do that.

They serve in that capacity as a part of the class they put tables up, put chairs out.

But because we've expanded our time frame on Wednesday night, they still are able to go to class and have a class, and they're going to meet in the prayer tower this year, just so they can do that and go right up the steps and be right at class.

Perfect, yeah.

All right.

Well, if you're not involved in any of these classes, please, please, please, don't feel like you've missed a few weeks or something like that.

Show up, don't be embarrassed.

We will get you to one of these classes.

We will help you find the right room.

You will be blessed.

It is so much fun.

I mean, this is only the second week and I know the men's class and the marriage class.

They're getting their books this week.

The books hadn't come in last week, so they're getting their books this week.

So all they've done basically is met each other and introduced kind of the book.

The teachers have had their books but the people in the class haven't.

So you haven't missed anything.

Like I said, jeffrey's class you can come in at any point on that, and so yeah.

Yeah, and let me say this For any of y'all out there who might not even go to DeSoto Hills any church you go to, if all you ever do is show up to a service, you're never going to feel fully fed.

The way to plug in and really become part of a community is to go to Sunday school classes.

Your church may have small groups and in a sense our Wednesday nights has that small group sort of feel and you really develop strong relationships with other Christians and they become dear friends and you'll go out to eat with them and you'll do life with them.

And the thing about Wednesday night Sunday.

I love Sunday school and I tell people that is really a base for you to build community.

But what the Wednesday night class offers is because we do two services.

You can go to Sunday school, see the same people in Sunday school and in church and never run across somebody that's in the other service.

But what Wednesday night is?

You meet people who might be in the other service, who you wouldn't see any you know you would just pass on a Sunday.

But here you have an opportunity to be in a small group with them, and so it just provides a new opportunity to meet some new people that you might not meet in our church.

A thousand percent.

I love it.

We have talked about Disciple Now for the past couple of weeks, so we're not going to harp on that on this podcast.

If you have not signed up your students for that, you definitely want to do that.

If you need more information on that, please see me see David Burgess, we can certainly help you with that.

Give the church a call, the office a call.

We can help you with that.

It is our biggest conference that we put on for teenagers and young students, young adults, every year.

You don't want to miss that.

It is coming up on January the 24th and the 25th.

It is going to be hosted at Longview Heights this year, so make sure you register for that on our website at desotohillscom.

We are getting ready to take up Lottie Moon offering this Sunday, january 19th.

And for those who might not understand the significance of this, let me give you a brief history.

Charlotte Diggs Moon, who is known as Lottie Moon, was born in 1840 to Baptist parents.

She found Christ at 18, at a revival, and became a Christian, and that was a pivotal turning moment in her life.

She became a teacher, cared for her ailing mother and then she felt called to use her life for spreading the gospel.

So a pretty amazing story.

There were societal barriers at that time which restricted I used a big word there $20 word grant that restricted single women, apparently, from serving in the mission field.

But her passion for the nations led to a significant breakthrough, actually in 1873, when the Southern Baptist Convention allowed unmarried women finally the opportunity to serve in global missions, and she was sent to China.

She initially used her teaching degree as a part of the missionary schools over there, and then she eventually shifted her focus to evangelizing in rural areas.

What's amazing is that she sacrificed much of her own resources, because at the time we didn't have funding for international missions like we do today.

And so, through a whole bunch of stories and pushing on her part by writing letters and urging Christians to support her financially, in 1888, they finally established the Lottie Moon Christmas offering, which to date Grant has raised over $1.5 billion.

And what a story.

And 100% of that.

Now, if we give through Southern Baptist, we give to what is called the cooperative program, right, and our church gives 10% of our offering to the cooperative program which helps fund Southern Baptist thing.

But those monies go to help with our people in Jackson, help with people in Jackson, help with the people in Nashville with the Southern Baptist, it helps with seminaries, it helps with just All the things right, and there's all important things, absolutely, absolutely, but the Lottie Moon Christmas offering goes 100% to international missionaries.

Right, so I love it.

So, having said all of that, it's typically taken up in the month of December as a part of Christmas, but traditionally we were not able to do that for other circumstances.

We're getting ready to take that up this Sunday morning, correct?

January the 19th.

We are taking that up and it's going to be.

We're going to do it a little bit differently.

We took up a Margaret Lackey offering which is very similar to Lottie Moon but it supports Mississippi Baptists Right.

Lottie Moon does international missions.

In the spring We'll do Annie Armstrong, which does North American missions.

But for Margaret Lackey we took up an offering which we never do anymore.

We passed the plate.

But for Lottie Moon we wanted to do something a little bit different.

So during the service we are going to provide people an opportunity to bring their offering to the front and lay that out as an act of worship, as an act of worship absolutely Now.

Granted, there are some people who will be uncomfortable doing that, and that's fine.

We're not going to force you to do that.

But if you still want to give on your offering envelope, you can designate.

Hey, I want this much to go to the Lighting Moon offering.

If you don't have an offering envelope, we just have regular giving envelopes at the Welcome Center.

You can get and designate to Lighty Moon and just drop it in the box.

Just drop it in the box.

Or you can give online If you give online already, and that's just how you give and that's just how you want to do it.

Like you can go online and where you usually select general giving.

If you hit that drop down button, it says you know Lottie Moon and you can give.

You can give that way as well.

So, anyway, you want to give.

But what we thought it would be be neat as a as an act of worship, as a part of our worship service, that you can come down and lay those offerings on the altar.

I love it service that you can come down and lay those offerings on the altar.

I love it.

And if you are listening to this and you aren't comfortable doing digital online and you're not going to be here, you can, of course, mail us whatever offering you want.

Just make sure that you drop a note in the envelope and we can certainly make sure that gets where it's supposed to be.

Finally, towards the end of the month, we wanted to mention that we have a deacon ordination service on January 26th at 5 pm in the attic.

Tell us about that.

Well, every year we elect deacons.

This year there are three guys who have been elected as deacons who have never served before, so we will ordain them.

That is Chad Pumphrey and Brad Panel and Casey Myers.

That is Chad Pumphrey and Brad Panel and Casey Myers so excited about them coming on to our deacon board and serving there.

And so they will go before the service.

They'll go before an ordination council and they'll have to answer some questions and we'll pray over them, and then, when we come to the service, I'll do a short message on what a deacon does, how a deacon serves, and then all ordained men will come and have an opportunity to pray over those three guys as part of the service, and so it's always a really sweet and intimate time for them, and so we'll do that on that Sunday with night of worship.

That is always good, and then we will, because it's just the time we do business meeting.

We will have a short business meeting, but that shouldn't take too long, not any major things that we're having to vote on right now or anything.

Our focus for that night is certainly on ordaining these men Correct, correct, and we've got a good band who's going to be there that night as well, so you're going to want to come have some fantastic worship.

All right, grant 2025.

It's going to have some major milestones for the Lewis family because my baby girl is going to be entering high school.

How time flies, technically well not your baby girl, your oldest girl is going to be entering high school as well.

What else does 2025 hold for the Stegall family?

Because you've got another milestone.

We have one who is going to college.

He's graduating and going to college.

Oh my goodness, I know.

You came here when Eli was one years old.

One year old, one year old, and yeah, it's pretty exciting it had just been Christmas and y'all had Christmas gifts all over that little rental house.

Well, we had.

We came in November.

We came the first Sunday of November.

He turned one on November the 13th and so, yeah, we were in that little rental house that first Christmas.

Right over by Tanger yeah.

Oh, my goodness.

And so he's graduating, going to college.

Have one going into high school.

So is it about 17?

In my mind I'm running the math.

You've been here about 17 years.

Yeah, that's right, and so I also have one going into youth group.

Good grief.

Well, so yeah, I have one going into seventh grade, so yeah.

I hate to say depressing, but man that's hard.

I'm getting old, I know it's a hard pill to swallow.

I had one question for you today, before we move on to the moment what's your best unrealized idea?

Oh gosh, I know.

You're giving me some warning on that one.

It's never as much fun.

I want the listeners to know that this is not scripted out and you're not given heads up on this Best unrealized idea.

Alright, I'm going to cheat a little bit, go for it.

So some people know not everyone knows that I'm working on my D-Min, yes and so, and you're getting close.

I'm working on the project.

I'm a long way from getting the project done, but but for people to understand, the project is the final.

It's the final piece of the puzzle so, um, that project is to create a class to help people read the bible better, and so it'll be.

The class is going to be about a six-week class, and so I've got to what I've got to do.

The project is to create a curriculum, teach the curriculum and then judge how that goes and have to change that as I need to, and things like that.

So I mean so maybe in the next year your unrealized idea becomes realized.

Yeah, I love it.

All right.

So it is now time for today's midweek moment, and Grant is going to be bringing us that segment.

But as an intro to that, we were going to talk briefly.

You were going to talk about the Daily Walk.

Bible which we've been going through, Right, so challenged our church to read through the Bible this year together.

We are following the plan that comes out of the Daily Walk Bible.

So if you did not get one of the Daily Walk Bibles again, there are bookmarks at the Welcome Center.

You can just get a bookmark and use your own Bible.

You can go to the website.

There's a link on the website that gives you the plan so you can again just use your own Bible for that.

I did get a Daily Walk Bible and I'm using that, and so here's one thing that I've.

I mean we're only 15 days into it, right, and but I there's a part of it that I found that I liked every seventh day.

So I mean it doesn't fall on a on a Sunday for us, but kind of every Sabbath, seventh, seventh day, right.

There's not a reading, it's just a devotion that you read and in the devotion they talk about what you've read last week, help you look forward to what you're going to be reading and just kind of help us put those together and digest it together.

But it's also because there's no Scripture reading that day.

It helps you catch up.

So if you've gotten behind, if you missed a day or anything, you don't have to panic and say, oh, I've got to read three days in a row.

No, there's some days worked in to the plan to help you catch up, and so I've really enjoyed that for it, and so right now I'm still on plan.

But I mean, I'm sure days will come that you just miss and things happen.

So what I want to do as part of this midweek moment is kind of help us talk about okay, here's what we've read, and help us again to digest that, as you said, and do that.

So today it's January the 15th, yesterday.

You would have been on the 14th.

If you're with the plan and if you don't have the Bible, that's fine.

I'm going to tell you a little bit about it.

If you do, you read this.

But here's some things it said about, and so here's what you read from January the 8th through the 14th, we were in Genesis 18 through 40.

We talked about Abraham, we read about Abraham, we read about Abraham, we read about Isaac, we read about Jacob and we began the story of Joseph.

And so here's what the Daily Walk Bible, the devotion, says.

It says the courageous faith of Abraham, who clung to the promises of God against all odds.

The quiet faith of Isaac, who built altars, dug wells and proclaimed the name of the Lord wherever he went.

The struggling faith of Jacob, who wasn't content until he experienced God's blessing firsthand.

And the patient faith of Joseph, whose confidence in God carried him literally from the pit to the palace.

Four different men, four different sets of circumstances, but one thing in common a faith in God that grew with the years.

And so we're looking at this point as to the faithfulness of God.

And so here's what I wanted to do for the devotion and to help you, help us to understand how the Old Testament still has relevance and still has good things to say from us, even on the New Testament side.

And so what I want to do today is in Hebrews.

When I read this devotion on January 14th, it reminded me of Scripture in Hebrews.

In Hebrews, chapter 11, many of you will recognize immediately.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

That's called the Faith Hall of Fame, and it describes people who had faith right and so.

But it begins by saying this in verse 1, now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of the things not seen.

So let's begin with a definition of faith.

What is faith?

And you hear all kinds of definitions for it.

Even in the devotion this week, on January 14th, it gave some definitions of faith.

But what does the Scripture say?

What does Hebrews 1 say about it?

Well, the word for faith is mentioned 39 times in the book of Hebrews, 26 times just in chapter 11, 26 times.

And so it tells us this.

It says now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.

That word for assurance, what does that mean?

Well, he says it.

He uses that word two other times in the letter.

In verse 3 of chapter 1, he says this he, that's Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature.

So that word for assurance is the same word that in verse three of chapter one.

He says the exact imprint.

So it's the same word, it's the same idea there.

So we're talking about the essential or basic structure of an entity.

Jesus is the.

Jesus is the exact imprint of God because he is God.

So faith is the exact imprint, it's the assurance of, it's the exact imprint of what we hope for.

The other time that he uses, that is in chapter three, verse 14.

And he says this for we come to share Jesus if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

So original confidence is again the same word that is used for assurance there.

And so it's the trust, the confident assurance.

And so it's the confident assurance and it's the exact number.

This is what we hope for, that's what faith is.

But then it's the substance of things not seen.

When he says substance there, what he's talking about is a couple things.

One, it's the act of presenting evidence for the truth of something.

It's the proof, it's the proving.

So faith is the exact imprints, it's the confident assurance of what we hope for, it is the proof, it is what we prove for the things, how we prove the things not seen.

Someone said of this faith is the objective grounds on which subjective confidence may be based, again, the objective grounds on which subjective confidence may be based, on which subjective confidence may be faced based.

And so it is.

It is, it is faith, is living like every promise of God that has not already been, has not already come true, is absolutely going to come true.

And so and so, if that's faith, how did Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Sarah and Joseph use that?

Well, he goes down and says in verse 8, by faith, abraham obeyed when he was called to go to a place that he was to receive an inheritance, he went out not knowing where he was going.

We know that story.

God came to Abram at that time and said hey, I want you to go to this land where I'm not going to tell you where it is, Just when you get there I'll tell you to stop.

And he did it.

I mean, he loaded his wife up they didn't have kids at the time he loaded his nephew up, loaded all of his possessions, all his belongings, and took out and just went and got there.

Then he says this in verse 9, by faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac, isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

So he went and lived with his family there.

Verse 10, though, is interesting.

He says he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God.

So he just said he went.

He was living in tents, just sojourning along.

But he went knowing because God promised him he's going to give him descendants, he's going to give him land and he was going to be a blessing to the nations.

God promised him that.

So he went and he was looking for that city, he was looking for that foundation that only God could build, and so that's how Abraham lived his life.

But here's what we know.

It wasn't always perfect.

I mean, I read in our readings here comes Ishmael.

I mean, abraham and Sarah didn't have kids.

Abraham's 85.

Sarah is 10 years younger than him, so she's 75.

No kids.

They're so worried about it and she says hey, abraham, why don't you go to my servant and have a kid with her?

Because it doesn't look like and I was reading a commentary on that just the other day.

And here's what it said.

That is the and people may get mad when they hear this, but that is the quintessential.

What happens with the saying God helps those who help themselves.

They were trying to help themselves, and that was not God's plan.

What they needed to do was trust and have confident assurance that what God had promised, that he was going to work out those details.

They didn't have to take it into their own hands.

And so it wasn't always perfect with Abraham.

We know that.

And so it wasn't always perfect with Abraham.

We know that.

But what Hebrews is telling us is, even when Abraham was, in those moments where he was unfaithful, because we're all going to have those moments.

God remains faithful and continues to carry out those promises in us.

So what we need to do is, even when we fail, is, like Abraham, stop repent and then start trusting again, start believing again.

He goes on in verse 11 and says by faith, sarah herself received power to conceive when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised.

So the story of Sarah.

We know that three visitors come to Abraham and say hey, in a year you're going to have a son.

He's 99 at this point, sarah's 90.

You're going to have a son within a year.

Sarah's in the tent and laughs.

And the guy says why did she laugh?

And she lied and said I didn't laugh.

And he said, yeah, you did.

You laughed Because here's the thing At that moment she doubted Her faith was not.

She didn't have that confidence, assurance.

But what happened?

Is it turned around?

She wasn't judged in that one moment of disbelief.

She was judged by the faithfulness of God and how she continued, even after moments of failure.

She continued to turn back to those.

And you can go on in Hebrews and it talks more about Abraham and how he offered Isaac.

Here's the son of promise in Genesis 22.

Here's the son of promise, isaac, the only son Abraham has.

And God says hey, go offer him, go sacrifice him, and he's God, what you promised me.

I would be the father, and I don't.

This is him.

This is the son of promise.

But okay, god, what you say, I would be the father and I don't.

This is him.

This is the son of promise and you're.

But OK, god, what you say I'm going to do.

And I love how it says in in In Hebrews, it said in verse 17, by faith, abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac up when he had received the promises, was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it is said through Isaac shall your offering be named.

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

So Abraham went to offer Isaac and, even believing you know what God said this is the son of promise, this is the one he's going to take care of it.

I've just got to be faithful here, and so the the call for us and the challenge for us is is like these, these old Testament people, and we know the story of Jacob.

I know we're running short on time.

I know the story of Jacob.

You know the story of Jacob.

You know how he was a deceiver and all those things.

He lived a very sketchy life, but God was faithful and Jacob came around.

And faith is not just that we never fail.

I mean, faithful to God is not that we never fail, but it's when we do we turn back to God.

And so let that be a challenge to us.

As we read about these Old Testament people, I mean we hold them up in such a high regard and I'm not saying we shouldn't but at the same time, we know that they're not perfect.

The issue is they turned back to God, and when we fall and fail, being faithful means hey, let's turn back to God.

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 desotohillscom, our YouTube channel, which is at Desoto Hills Baptist Church.

For all of our church family, we love you.

We'll see you back here next Wednesday morning.

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.