MID WEEK MOTIVATION - JOY "Joyous Discoveries" Matthew 2:9-11

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, december 18th, 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.

Christmas is a week from today, grant, and we do have.

We've had a busy holiday season here at DeSoto Hills, but we've got a few more events coming up that we want you to be aware of.

We talked about it last week, but tonight is going to be that Christmas family night here at church and we're going to build gingerbread houses.

Gingerbread houses.

It's going to be so much fun.

I'm really excited about it.

So be sure and come.

We will start serving regular supper at 4.30, 4.30 to 5.45, and then we're going to pass out gingerbread, house materials and watch the kids go ham.

Country Christmas is also this Sunday night at 5 pm in the MPC.

Tell us just a little bit about Country Christmas for people who might not know.

It's one of the funnest services of the year.

So it starts with a biscuit fellowship.

So the biscuits it's just small tea biscuits that you come and people bring their favorites jams and jellies and so you get homemade jellies, you get homemade jams, you get homemade honey.

We have a guy who has bees and so he brings honey and you get to eat biscuits and hang out and visit and then we go into the multipurpose center and have worship together and it's really we call it Country Christmas because it's very bluegrassy.

Yes, and there's actually a story to how that happened.

I don't know if you even remember this you were here when it happened but we would do bluegrass nights, right.

And it got to a point where everybody loved the bluegrass nights so much that when we got to that Christmas that last Sunday night in Christmas James Lewis would always say Mark, you got to schedule the bluegrass guys and there was a year when I couldn't get Randall the banjo player.

The banjo is a pretty important part of that bluegrass sound, so Gary at the time was not playing with us.

I mean, this is 15 years ago.

Now we have Gary and David Pierce, which are arguably the foundation of our Bluegrass Nights.

But I had heard from a musician friend in town that there's this guy and it was Gary who played a ridiculous pedal steel.

So I said, all right, I can't get Randall this year, so I'll get the pedal steel guy.

But that's going to really be like country flavors, right.

So I hired joe austin, right, who is a fiddle player, uh, in memphis, and we had a fiddle and then this pedal steel and I told james lewis I was like I I want to call it country christmas this year, because that's kind of a a cool idea.

And then I said we were three of us were talking, I think I said something about having biscuits, and I think it was you that said ooh, what if we had people bring homemade jams and jellies?

And from that point on, even though we still do more bluegrass stylings, we still keep calling it country Christmas.

So that's the story of how all that unfolded, which it is a very special moment, and we used to do it in the attic for years, until we outgrew it.

It was one year, about four years ago.

It was absolutely packed, yes, so we had to move it downstairs.

Not quite as intimate, but it's still great, though, still incredibly special Last year, man on the front row.

I sat on the front row with two of my girls and a couple of their friends.

Oh my goodness, they danced and they danced and then, when we were sitting, those legs were kicking.

It's such a fun, fun time, and then it turns into an intimate time too.

We have a reading of the Christmas story, which I love, and we partake of the Christmas story, which I love, and we partake of the Lord's Supper and have that, and so while it's lots of fun, it is a very intimate time too, and even spread out in the Multipurpose Center, it's able to be an intimate service, and so it's a great time.

It's beautiful.

And getting to take the Lord's Supper for the last time for the year.

And then, of course, for those who have been there, we do sing a carol Silent Night at the End with everybody doing candlelight.

So it is absolutely a memorable moment for you and your family.

You're not going to want to miss that.

So again, that is going to be this Sunday night 5 pm in the MPC.

Be sure and be there.

We will not have midweek activities next Wednesday because it's Christmas.

And it's actually the next two weeks.

Because of the way Christmas falls, New Year's will actually be the week after that, so we will see everybody back on.

Is it the 8th?

The 8th January, the 8th?

So if you're curious about any of our other events for the year coming up, you can pick up a church year calendar that has everything listed out through June 2025.

You can also grab one on Sunday mornings at our Welcome Center.

All right, it's travel time of the year.

Families all over DeSoto County will be spreading out and you know it seems like a lot.

It's a lot of younger families in DeSoto County and so it seems like a lot of DeSoto County disappears to everywhere else, town gets kind of quiet.

That dynamic has changed some over the years that I've been here.

There is, I think there's less travel than there was when I first moved, but you remember, than there was when I first moved.

But you remember, yeah, when I first moved, because especially in DeSoto Hills we had so many young couples who would go home for Christmas.

But now all of those couples have their own children and their own families, are making their own traditions and so they're here on Christmas Day.

So while there's travel still and they go, a lot of them are home on Christmas Day.

Now tell us about the Stegall house growing up.

And for those who don't know it, Grant's dad was a coach and he was pretty much a homebody, from what you told me.

Yes, but y'all did travel on.

Christmas.

Well, he was a homebody right there in Pontotoc County.

He would have been just fine not leaving that hill in Troy ever, except for Coach's Conference.

Right, right, we go to Coach's Clinic in Jackson.

That was our summer vacation was going to Jackson, mississippi.

But mom is from South Mississippi, bay Springs, down in Jasper County.

That's a long way, so it was about a three hour drive.

But so we would wake up on Christmas morning.

So here was the tradition I'll just give you the quick rundown Christmas Eve night we would go it used to be Stegall's Fish and Steakhouse, now it's 41 Fish and Steakhouse.

My grandmother would buy our dinner on Christmas Eve, so we would go eat dinner there, come home and then go to bed, wake up.

By the time we woke up my dad had already been up and picked my grandmother who lived just I mean, a quarter of a mile away.

He would pick her up and bring her and we would open christmas presents.

I'm sure mom cooked breakfast.

I don't remember it because we were always so excited.

Oh oh, you know she cooked breakfast.

Yes, because dad always ate breakfast.

But we then we would load the car and drive three hours to Bay Springs and we would do Christmas with my mom's family that night.

So there would be a big spread meal and then we would open gifts and then have game night in Bay Springs at my Aunt Truman's house.

Oh, that's so much fun, so that's definitely a memory it was almost every Christmas that that was it.

There were a couple of times that, especially after Dad's mom passed away, we did Christmasmas eve and christmas morning at aunt truman's, but most of the time we did it right there in troy and loaded up and and so it was always fun to.

What christmas presents are you going to take?

Because you wanted to show them off to your cousins, but you couldn't take this one that's right.

We had an old Dodge Diplomat and all five of us so that car could be very loaded down.

And we're loading up, headed to Bay Springs.

Ahead of us.

I think there was some event or something that we had to do.

This would have been when we were in New Albany and we couldn't go, so we had to drive.

My mom had to take my sister and I to Tennessee.

Later I had a Game Boy and for everybody listening to this, like there was no smartphones back then, ok, so let me let me preface this story by starting with that.

I was in the back seat on my game boy and every time you go through nashville, everybody looks up, because nashville is just, you know, something to behold naturally right, you see all, the all the buildings in downtown which it wasn't there then, but even now there's the Batman building, absolutely.

So once we got through Nashville, I stuck my head back down in this brand new game I had gotten at Christmas it was probably Ninja Turtles, if I remember correctly and I look up Grant, and there's no landmarks that I recognize and my mom and sister are just bebopping down Interstate 24.

Now, for anybody listening, my family was at the time my grandmother lived in Cookville, tennessee, that is, on the way to Knoxville, and for those who understand interstates, that's Interstate 40.

And I remember saying something to my mom and she was like, yeah, we're good.

I'm like I see landmarks, I know landmarks, and these are not the exits that are on 40.

And then, finally, I pointed to a billboard to her that said Ruby Falls, 80 miles right, and uh.

So, as best I can remember it, she called, she called ahead and told my she stopped somewhere.

Yes, she got off the interstate and used a pay phone to go and called.

I think we did have cell phones, we just didn didn't have smartphones.

So, she called on a cell phone and said y'all go ahead and eat.

And then she pulled out an Atlas and she still has an Atlas, buddy and she mapped out we just got on, we just got off on literally an exit and then she just carved away north, because basically 24 and 40 are sort of parallel and we just carved away north and we got there.

But if you're thinking and I'm not saying this story to embarrass my mom but if you want to think of a moment, like a memory for Christmas, like I still remember the time that going through Nashville she took the wrong interstate and her and Jamie were having conversations and just having a great time up there and what's impressive, though, to defend your mom.

What's impressive is she pulled the atlas out and went oh, we can go right here and get right there she can still do that all day long.

It's just I don't care to go back to that time because man, I was talking to somebody about that the other day and said google, uh, map quest.

And they went what?

What is MapQuest?

This teenager, what is MapQuest?

Head over to our Facebook.

I've placed a post there asking about your favorite travel memories for Christmas.

We want to hear some of your stories because we absolutely love it.

Last week you talked about peace, focusing on week two of Advent.

Today, Grant's going to talk about joy, in the segment that we call the midweek moment.

So it's third week of Advent.

It's joy If you're lighting candles.

Some will call it the shepherd's candle, referring to the passage in Luke, chapter 2, the Christmas story in Luke, chapter 2, when the angels came and they visited the shepherds, you know the angels had this message to them Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord, and then a multitude of angels came, and glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.

Luke 2 · chapter mention Luke 2 · chapter mention

The shepherds went to see Jesus and then it says that they left, and when they went away, it says in chapter 2, verse 17,.

And they saw it and made known the saying that had been told to them concerning the child, and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds had told them.

And so they call it joy and the shepherd's candle because of the joy that they spread.

But I want us to go back.

I seem to be stuck in the Matthew story of Christmas this year, but I want us to go back and look at that story and see something that is interesting to me.

So again in Matthew 2, that's the focus In Luke.

It's the focus on the shepherds and the angels and things.

The Matthew story focuses more on the wise men coming.

We've talked about them.

They came to Herod, where is the Christ to be born?

We looked at that last week in Micah 2.

But here's what happened Herod came back and told the wise men that he's going to be in Bethlehem to go.

It says in Matthew 2.8,.

And he sent them to Bethlehem saying Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

And they heard the king and it went on their way.

And then it says in verse 9, and behold the star that they had seen when it rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

And then in verse 10, it's really interesting it says and when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

And so you think about it.

Just think about those words exceedingly with great joy for just a moment.

If you say I'm joyous, I'm thinking somebody out dancing, right, joyous.

I'm thinking of my youngest daughter, who is everything's okay, sure, you know, and it's just happy-go-lucky.

That's joy, okay.

So he didn't just say joy, though he says great joy.

So now you're thinking it's party, a great joy there.

You're thinking hooping, hollering, you know, and if you imagine the wise men seeing the star hey, look the stars here.

Oh look, that's awesome, that's, and that's great joy.

But it's not just great joy that he says they see the star and it is exceedingly great joy.

Exclamation, exclamation, exclamation, exclamation.

So if, if, if joy is, you know, dancing in the streets, and a great joy is yelling and dancing in the streets.

Just imagine exceedingly great joy.

So here's these wise men who have traveled from a long way away for you know, some would say months possibly to get to find Jesus.

They see him, or they see before they even see him.

They see this star come back and it's moving and it they're not just happy about it, they have exceedingly great joy now.

So, right, surround that with this joy.

It doesn't do away with what they've experienced.

I mean, they've traveled a long way.

I'm sure they're tired, I'm sure they're ready to get a bath.

They're ready.

None of that has gone away.

But because of this star, in the midst of hardship, there is exceedingly great joy.

And then it leads them to.

I love where it leads them in verse 11.

It says going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.

I picture that as so, that I mean this exceedingly great joy and they go into the house and they see this child could be baby Some argue at this point Jesus is probably older, could be toddler either way.

Right, they see this child and they are so overwhelmed I think with exceedingly great joy, but it has reached fever moment right here that they are so overwhelmed that the only thing that they could do is fall down and worship him.

And then they presented their gifts to him and they gave those things to him, those things to him.

And my prayer for us as a church and as individuals during this Christmas time is you know, christmas.

We have great memories of Christmas.

Right, we just talked about some Memories that make us laugh, memories that make us, but there's also some sad memories at Christmas too, and Christmas can invoke tons of different emotions and feelings and things from us.

What I hope that Christmas can be and what we can see in this message of Jesus that he came and remember.

Jesus was not born into the easiest of situations.

There was no room for them in the inn.

He was born in a stable, he was wrapped in cloth and laid in a feeding trough for animals.

Here's the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the God of the universe, who has stepped from heaven and put on human flesh and not just human flesh of this great king right, human flesh of a baby, of a toddler.

And here he is, not in the greatest of circumstances, but bringing joy and the joy that surrounds that Christmas story.

And so my prayer for us is that in the midst of this Christmas season, when things are happy and good, we find joy, but in those moments that overwhelm us sometimes with sadness, we find joy.

And my prayer is, hopefully, this Christmas season for you.

You are so overwhelmed by the presence of the Messiah in your life that you can do nothing but, with exceedingly great joy, worship him.

Incredible.

I wanted to ask a historical question.

So we assume that the star was probably out for for months, possibly weeks days?

It's not this whole thing that we grew up in sunday school listening where it was like all in one night, and I've heard before that that was not the case there's argument.

There's arguments for you know that that the that the star came and they traveled and it came in enough time in advance that they were able to be there at the manger.

There are other arguments that it was months, maybe even years.

Some of the argument for that is, after the wise men left, herod said come back and see me.

They didn't go back and see him, they went home another way because an angel appeared to them.

But what did Herod do right after that?

He had all the children two years old and under, murdered Right.

And so some would argue there's a possibility that If it's two years and under, that that could have meant why would he go two years and under?

And so there's arguments both ways and it's fun to look at that and it's fun to discuss that.

I don't even want to say debate it, it's fun to discuss that.

Either way.

It doesn't really affect the Christmas story in the fact that these guys saw this prophecy and they came to see the king of the Jews.

Just fascinating.

And Herod this week and Nebuchadnezzar last week.

Man, some hateful guys in the Bible for sure.

Thanks for listening.

If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here on Sunday mornings.

You can also 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 on Sunday and next Wednesday here online.

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.