MID WEEK MOTIVATION - PEACE "Embodying the Spirit of Christmas" Micah 5:1-5; Matthew 2:6

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 December 11th here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

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

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

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

That'll help us out with our outreach.

We have lots of events coming up on our holiday calendar this week.

Grant Caroling is Sunday night.

We also have some stuff Sunday morning.

What we we got Sunday morning?

The children's choir, yes, Sunday morning.

December the 15th, all the children's choirs will be singing in the worship service, so expect a big crowd.

That's always a lot of fun.

I love that service.

Yeah, because you never know what's going to happen.

You never know what's going to happen, and it's a lot of fun though.

Yes, and then caroling we're shifting just slightly what we're doing with the caroling this year Slightly, yeah, over the past several years, the places we've tried to go just haven't worked out real great, Just seeing people and things like that.

So this year we are going to Goldton Assisted Living, which is just down the street here on Star Landing Road.

They eat their meal at 5 o'clock and so we are going to meet here at the church right at 5 and leave as soon after 5 as we can.

We want to be getting there 10 after something like that, and we are going to sing Christmas carols at Golton while they're eating their supper.

We have about six songs.

Someone's going to come and play the piano for us and we're going to sing and it should be great.

So we're going to be the entertainment.

Yes, and piano, by the way, will help, because in the past we've just done that, a cappella, and it is sometimes painful as we try to get started.

Right, so that's going to be exciting.

With that, we would love for you guys to come out and be a part of the caroling Absolutely.

Because the more the merrier.

Yes, the more, the better it sounds and the more good voices we have, the easier to cover up me and bad voices like me.

So, yeah, come on, and even if you don't have a great voice I don't have a great voice, but I'm going to sing.

It's a lot of fun and those folks will really enjoy it.

I lead a Bible study down there on Wednesday mornings and it's a great, great, great group of folks and they will be very excited that we're going to be there.

Absolutely.

If you're making plans, it should not take more than 45 minutes of your time.

So please come on out.

That would be fantastic and a great outreach for us here at DeSoto Hills.

Now, on the 18th that's next Wednesday it is going to be Christmas family night.

This is a very different departure from what we've done, from our normal programming in the past, so I wanted to ask you a little bit about that.

Yeah, so this is new.

We thought about doing it last year but we were kind of late to the game planning it.

So we marked it for this year to say, hey, we're doing this next year.

So it's really the last Wednesday night of the year.

There's no more Wednesday nights after that Wednesday, and in the past we've done choir parties for children and things like that.

But what we want to do this year is have an opportunity for you as a family to have some time together.

So Wednesday night, the whole Wednesday night, will look a little bit different, except for meal.

We will have a meal that night, so you can come and you can eat, and then we're going to have gingerbread houses for you and your family that you can decorate after you eat your meal.

So after you eat your meal, you can have your gingerbread house there and as a family, y'all can decorate your gingerbread house here at the church.

That's going to be so much fun.

I can't wait.

So again, that's going to be next Wednesday night, december.

The 18th Mealtime will be normal.

Yes meal will be normal 4.30 to 5.45.

And that'll give us time to get the meal up and the gingerbread houses out and things.

We'll see how much sugar the children ingest while they're trying to make those gingerbread houses.

They'll be bouncing around the MPC and should have Christmas music playing while we're decorating and things, and so while, yes, you can be with your family, it can be a family time, but you can also have your friends right there too.

It's not just your family, but our church family doing this together.

It's making memories, man, and that's just going to be so awesome.

If you're curious about all of our upcoming holiday calendar events, you can swing by the church to pick up a complete year calendar.

It'll list most everything through the month of June 2025.

You can also grab one on Sunday mornings at our welcome desk down in the Grand Hall.

All right, most houses are decorated at this point for Christmas.

We went to Dad's cabin a few weeks ago for Thanksgiving.

He already had all of his halls decked out.

Buddy, for years I would say this for years he would string yards and yards of popcorn and cranberries, and I'm talking that stuff would be strewn out through the house and it would be 40 feet of it and it would take him forever.

He would polyurethane them.

You know James Lewis, he's a details person.

He would polyurethane it.

He would sit there and watch Scrooge and all these Christmas movies for a week, prepping all of this to then put it on the tree to have that country look and then throw it all away at the end of the season so I did laugh.

Uh, when we got to the farm and I looked up the stairwell, the grant, his big, huge stairwell at the farm, which is beautiful, and he had yards and yards of yards of this uh stuff that he had bought now at a crafting store and it's a very country.

Look it, it has the red balls and then what looks kind of like the popcorn colored stuff.

But it's all purchased now and he has definitely given up that tradition of doing that.

But for him yes, absolutely.

But it was absolutely beautiful and in the show notes I'll list.

You'll see a link in the show notes.

You can click that and you can actually see what his staircase looks like at the farm.

But meticulous, and James Lewis always was meticulous and still is meticulous.

Now tell us about the decor at the Stegall house.

Like are y'all country themed or old world or modern what's?

Amber's, I'm probably not the best person to ask this question because I get the tree out of the attic and put it up, make sure the lights are up.

But you look at the tree, you know what it looks like.

Right, I know.

But I would just say probably more classic, traditional.

We a lot of the ornaments are ornaments that the kids have made over the years.

Amber, there is some modern stuff to it, for sure she's.

She's great about ribbon, she loves ribbon of the tree and and things like that.

So, yeah, it probably is more of a.

I don't know if there's a modern.

Traditional would be kind of where we fall Classic.

I like the word classic, I think it's more classic.

And then we have nativity sets.

We have a lot of nativity sets that we just have around at different places in the house and like that.

All right.

Well, our tree at the Lewis household it is a more country themed lots of snowmen and Santas.

Jen has told me that she wants a complete refresh, so I'm not exactly sure what I'm in store for in the future.

For that I do love Christmas village houses.

I think most people probably close to me end up knowing that.

Y'all have seen me post some of that stuff in the past.

But we started.

I started purchasing those because they're expensive.

I started purchasing one a year when me and Jen were actually dating.

So we've now built up quite a collection of those and, uh, the hard thing about that is a place to put them right.

I'm not setting up a massive 12 foot table with a train set on it, so from year to year I have to switch some of those out.

But I will say, like I said, we'll post pictures.

We'll post pictures of Grant's tree and my tree and houses and then James Lewis's stuff for you all to check out in the show notes.

Head over to our Facebook.

I've placed a post there asking about your favorite Christmas decorations.

We certainly want to hear from you on social media.

All right, Grant.

Last week we talked about hope, focusing on week one of Advent.

Today, Grant's going to talk about peace in a segment we call the Midweek Moment.

So last week we were talking about Advent and how Advent was the arriving, the coming, and we celebrate the first Advent, looking forward to the second Advent, and we talked in Matthew 2 about a lot of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled just in Matthew 2.

The second week of Advent, the focus is peace.

It's also known as the Bethlehem.

If you're lighting the Advent candles, it's the Bethlehem candle.

So the reason for that is the focus is more on Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem.

And so what I want to do for our passage that we just look at quickly today is go back to Matthew 2 and look at one of those prophecies a little bit more in depth.

In Matthew 2, verse 5, matthew writes and they told him the wise men had come to Herod and said where is the king of the Jews?

Matthew 2:5

He went to the scribes and the scholars and asked them where is the Christ of the Jews?

He went to the scribes and the scholars and asked them where is the Christ to be born?

That's where we pick up in verse 5.

And they told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, and you, o Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people, israel.

And so that prophecy that they are quoting, it's a prophecy from Micah 5, verse 2.

Micah 5:2

So what I want us to do real quick is go back to Micah 5, verses 1 through 5.

Micah 5:1–5

Really, yeah, 1 through 5.

Verses 1 through 5, really, yeah, 1 through 5, and look at why this would be a prophecy of peace, because it doesn't really sound necessarily about peace.

But what's happening in Micah is Israel.

They are under siege, and so while they are under siege here, the prophet is prophesying to them.

Let's just read what he says In Micah, chapter 5, verse 1,.

Micah 5:1

He says Now muster your troops, o daughter of troops.

Siege is laid against us With a rod, they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek, and so the Jerusalem is the daughter here that is under attack and she is not able to muster troops.

She can't get troops, enough troops out to go, and so they're under siege.

The argument there is a little argument, not much about who is applying the siege.

Some would say it's Assyria, but most think it's probably Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon in around 588, 588 BC, so you're 500 years before Christ here, and so they are persecuting.

And it says that they strike the judge of Israel on their cheek, which he's saying you're going to fall.

The king now is going to fall.

But then he comes back to verse 2.

He says but you, o Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth, from me, one who is to be the ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

And so Bethlehem it's a small town, but it is really a significant town, not in size, though.

The significance is, this is where David is from, and so the greatest king that Israel has known, he is from Bethlehem.

That's why, in the New Testament, mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem because they are descendants of David.

And so, while it's why, in the New Testament, mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem because they are descendants of David.

And so, while it's insignificant in its size, it is small, and the implication here is one who is coming from Israel again, who is going to reign, and he is going to come forth from of old, from ancient days, and he is pointing to the Messiah who is going to come at one point, who is going to set all this right.

And so you go to verse 3,.

Therefore, he shall give them up to the time when she who is in labor has been given birth.

Then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.

And so Israel is going to come back.

While they're taken into captivity, they're going to come back.

Verse 4, he says and he shall stand, and here's where you get the peace.

And so what Micah is prophesying is what this Messiah, this is what his reign, this is what his rule, this is what it's going to look like.

He says this and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord.

So he is going to shepherd and be a shepherd of the people in the majesty of the name of God, and they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth and he shall be their peace.

And so the Messiah who is going to come, he is going to shepherd the people of Israel and he is going to secure them and bring them peace.

And so now, as you go back to Matthew and read this prophecy oh yeah, from the time Micah made it in chapter 5, 500 years before Christ is born, over 500, almost 600 years before Christ is born.

Do we believe most of the families probably knew about this.

Yeah, especially the scribes and the Pharisees, the scribes and the priests, because when the wise men came and said where's the Christ going to be born, they quoted Micah.

They quoted Micah 5.2.

And they're the ones talking, they're the ones teaching the people hey, the Christ is going to come, Messiah is going to come, he is going to be born in Bethlehem.

And they've taught it so much that when they hear this, when Micah 5.2 is quoted in Matthew, they don't just hear oh, bethlehem is insignificant and Messiah is coming.

They hear Messiah is coming from Bethlehem and this is what he's going to do he's going to shepherd us, he's going to secure us and he is going to bring us peace.

I love it.

And so that's where you get this peace and the Bethlehem and the focus on Bethlehem.

While the focus is called the Bethlehem candle, the focus is not on that.

The focus is on the peace that Christ brings as he shepherds his people.

That's awesome, and just knowing all the historical pieces of that puzzle makes it so much more special to see that candle number two be lit every year.

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 or 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, 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.