WEBVTT 00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:00.802 in this mic. 00:00:00.802 --> 00:00:03.748 It's very calming, very nanny-like, actually. 00:00:03.748 --> 00:00:06.514 Calm nanny voice. 00:00:08.762 --> 00:00:15.923 You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven Mississippi. 00:00:15.923 --> 00:00:22.724 Here's your hosts Mark Lewis, david Burgess, laura Ulrich and Pastor Grant Stegall. 00:00:24.426 --> 00:00:28.013 Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for September the 10th. 00:00:28.013 --> 00:00:29.803 Here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church. 00:00:29.803 --> 00:00:32.770 I'm Mark Lewis sitting with David. 00:00:32.810 --> 00:00:33.210 Burgess. 00:00:33.210 --> 00:00:37.268 We hope this program can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond. 00:00:37.268 --> 00:00:40.965 Be sure to subscribe and share our link on social media. 00:00:40.965 --> 00:00:46.939 This is season two, episode two of the Midweek Motivation Podcast. 00:00:46.939 --> 00:00:48.886 Dave's sitting here drinking a little coffee. 00:00:48.886 --> 00:00:50.213 It is earlier in the morning. 00:00:50.213 --> 00:00:52.320 First thing is your first agenda on the day. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:53.624 Amen, it is. 00:00:53.624 --> 00:01:03.423 I pulled up last year's season of Midweek Moments and plugged the episodes into AI. 00:01:03.423 --> 00:01:04.506 Now you use AI. 00:01:04.506 --> 00:01:07.031 I'm a chat GPT guy, but you use. 00:01:07.031 --> 00:01:07.653 What do you use? 00:01:08.441 --> 00:01:09.704 I use Grok mostly. 00:01:09.704 --> 00:01:10.629 Yeah, grok, it's free. 00:01:11.540 --> 00:01:15.932 Well, what's amazing about AI for our listeners who have not delved into AI yet? 00:01:15.932 --> 00:01:19.049 It's, by the way, I don't know that I could go back at this point. 00:01:19.540 --> 00:01:22.087 It's become, quickly become, a crutch Point of no return. 00:01:22.087 --> 00:01:23.090 We're there. 00:01:26.420 --> 00:01:27.384 Yes, quickly become a crutch point of no return. 00:01:27.384 --> 00:01:27.724 We're there, yes. 00:01:27.724 --> 00:01:40.203 Uh, all I did was just copy and paste the links to your episodes in and it spit out wonderful summaries of everything we talked about last season and gave me some great little ice breakers for you, thought thoughts for you piggybacking off of that. 00:01:40.203 --> 00:01:42.510 Uh, we had you on a few times last season. 00:01:42.510 --> 00:01:45.841 We talked about everything from nintendo 64 memories to. 00:01:45.921 --> 00:01:47.506 Romans 12 and anxiety. 00:01:47.506 --> 00:01:50.091 And so we're going to pick up with a couple of questions. 00:01:50.091 --> 00:01:53.325 What's the worst Christmas gift you ever received? 00:01:53.325 --> 00:01:55.971 To that legendary Nintendo 64? 00:01:55.971 --> 00:01:57.742 You said that was your best Christmas gift. 00:01:57.742 --> 00:02:01.408 Do you remember a worst gift? 00:02:02.448 --> 00:02:02.950 Certainly. 00:02:02.950 --> 00:02:11.082 I certainly remember the worst gift I woke up on Christmas morning and I had. 00:02:11.082 --> 00:02:21.906 It wasn't my only gift, but I just remember why was an orange, just a fruit, a fruit in my stocking? 00:02:21.906 --> 00:02:31.067 And I looked over in the kitchen on the countertop and there was a whole slew of oranges and I'm like what the I've got plenty of these. 00:02:31.067 --> 00:02:33.288 Why did I get one of these? 00:02:33.288 --> 00:02:35.328 It's just taking up space in my stocking. 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:37.187 Were they trying to make you feel grateful? 00:02:38.483 --> 00:02:42.188 It was probably trying to make me, you know, hold me back on my candy intake. 00:02:44.681 --> 00:02:48.307 Early decorating before Thanksgiving Another theme we talked about last season. 00:02:48.307 --> 00:02:52.905 Is that a mood booster or just a marketing hype? 00:02:55.241 --> 00:02:57.590 It's definitely both Okay. 00:02:57.590 --> 00:03:07.187 Christmas decorating before Thanksgiving, before Thanksgiving, it gets you in the mood, man, it gets you in the mood for Christmastime. 00:03:07.187 --> 00:03:13.568 But, man, the industry knows what they're doing, right. 00:03:13.760 --> 00:03:17.610 And I don't think the industry at all wants to just give us Christmas cheer early. 00:03:17.610 --> 00:03:20.042 They want to sell that stuff as quickly as possible. 00:03:20.081 --> 00:03:21.562 Yeah, you take your kids into Target. 00:03:21.562 --> 00:03:29.088 It's like Christmastime in October and they're like, hey, the more time you have during Christmas time, the more time you have to spend. 00:03:29.688 --> 00:03:31.590 I did get a little ill when we walked into. 00:03:31.590 --> 00:03:33.070 What store was that yesterday? 00:03:33.070 --> 00:03:34.111 Tj Maxx? 00:03:34.111 --> 00:03:36.554 No, homegoods, homegoods. 00:03:36.554 --> 00:03:38.435 I get them confused all the time because they're about the same store. 00:03:38.435 --> 00:03:39.856 I do too, homegoods. 00:03:39.856 --> 00:03:44.004 Halloween everywhere, everywhere, and it's like September 1st. 00:03:44.004 --> 00:03:45.307 Oh yeah, oh yeah. 00:03:45.307 --> 00:03:46.912 Halloween everywhere. 00:03:46.912 --> 00:03:48.848 It's been like that over in. 00:03:48.848 --> 00:03:49.719 We're two months away from Halloween. 00:03:49.979 --> 00:03:54.243 Yeah, it's been like that for at least two weeks, because they have no other holiday. 00:03:54.425 --> 00:03:55.508 Yeah, summer's over. 00:03:55.508 --> 00:03:56.944 They got to get rid of all their stuff. 00:03:56.944 --> 00:04:00.368 All right, you talked about building good habits. 00:04:00.368 --> 00:04:07.108 What's? 00:04:07.127 --> 00:04:09.719 one habit you tried and failed at miserably. 00:04:09.719 --> 00:04:22.291 A habit that I tried and failed at miserably One you tried to build at some point, probably like I overestimate my goal for reading. 00:04:22.932 --> 00:04:23.112 Yes. 00:04:23.461 --> 00:04:24.471 You know, have you ever done that? 00:04:24.471 --> 00:04:25.076 Yes, you know, have you ever? 00:04:25.076 --> 00:04:25.399 Done that yes. 00:04:25.399 --> 00:04:40.149 So I'm like, oh, I'm going to read you know 30 books this year, or in two weeks I'm going to read two books and I get to the end of the two weeks and I'm like scrolling mindlessly through TikTok, I'm like, oh, what about the book? 00:04:40.149 --> 00:04:42.149 What did I do with the book? 00:04:42.149 --> 00:04:45.410 I've got five minutes left to finish the two books. 00:04:46.141 --> 00:04:47.447 You tried to learn Spanish for a while. 00:04:47.447 --> 00:04:51.791 I've tried to learn Spanish multiple times and I've failed at that one. 00:04:51.791 --> 00:04:52.601 So that's one habit. 00:04:52.601 --> 00:04:55.029 I've tried my hardest to do is learn another language. 00:04:55.029 --> 00:04:56.202 Yeah, I know about. 00:04:56.805 --> 00:05:09.634 I can get dirty with Spanish, like if I hear, if I walk in and hear TJ Maxx and they're spitting out an ad in Spanish, I know what they're saying. 00:05:09.634 --> 00:05:15.153 If I walk past some people and they're speaking Spanish, I can pick up what they're saying. 00:05:15.153 --> 00:05:20.932 I stuck with Duolingo for a while and I learned about 1,500 words. 00:05:21.552 --> 00:05:21.774 Okay. 00:05:21.774 --> 00:05:24.007 So, you've got enough of the street language. 00:05:24.007 --> 00:05:25.754 You think you can kind of know what's going on. 00:05:25.800 --> 00:05:27.608 I can know what's going on in a conversation. 00:05:28.060 --> 00:05:29.848 You just wanted to hear people talking bad about you. 00:05:29.848 --> 00:05:31.004 I understand it. 00:05:31.345 --> 00:05:33.324 I'm like, Ooh, you said something not nice. 00:05:36.581 --> 00:05:41.625 If fellowship had a flavor, what would it taste like in your home? 00:05:41.927 --> 00:05:57.120 Oh, watermelon, Absolutely Watermelon, man, it's so much food and you can eat so much and it just makes you happy and it and it's a negative like caloric intake. 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:02.963 So, it takes more energy to burn than take in, right, and you can just eat all you want and just be happy, right. 00:06:04.286 --> 00:06:07.892 Uh, from the Anxiety episode, I love this one. 00:06:07.892 --> 00:06:13.552 If you could delete one app from every teenager's phone for a month, what would it be? 00:06:14.221 --> 00:06:16.067 Oh, one TikTok. 00:06:16.067 --> 00:06:22.064 I'm deleting TikTok over Snapchat 10 out of 10 times. 00:06:22.064 --> 00:06:23.670 Delete TikTok. 00:06:23.670 --> 00:06:26.225 The world would be a better place. 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:35.228 We took a poll at school for the yearbook, and Snapchat and TikTok were head-to-head and it was overwhelmingly TikTok. 00:06:35.228 --> 00:06:39.872 Snapchat is almost no longer a thing with this current generation. 00:06:39.872 --> 00:06:48.220 I think it's the previous generation that are in their 30s, that were the Snapchat children, and now it seems like TikTok is king. 00:06:48.220 --> 00:06:50.908 They're like late 20s, 30s, absolutely. 00:06:52.581 --> 00:06:59.086 Share a funny real-life moment that beat anything social media could offer, and I know you've got those. 00:06:59.086 --> 00:07:00.906 You've got those stories in spades. 00:07:02.401 --> 00:07:03.447 A funny hold on. 00:07:03.540 --> 00:07:18.023 Repeat the question a funny real life moment that could beat anything we would see on social media for entertainment okay, I've shared this story before with these students um fireworks. 00:07:18.223 --> 00:07:21.887 Yeah, you know, you knew we were going it's unbelievable. 00:07:21.887 --> 00:07:39.543 It's so, uh, obviously, I was probably 10, 11, 12 years old and I, uh, we, we discovered that we were throwing bottle rockets in the pond and they would stay ignited and they would shoot and blow up underwater. 00:07:39.543 --> 00:07:42.471 I was like this is awesome, this is the greatest thing ever. 00:07:42.471 --> 00:07:50.209 And then in my head, like, like, very impulsive person, the impulsive person that I was, especially when I was a kid. 00:07:50.428 --> 00:07:52.362 Poor choice maker yeah for sure. 00:07:52.423 --> 00:07:54.387 It was like act before you think you know. 00:07:54.387 --> 00:08:02.329 And so I had a slew of bottle rockets left over from 4th of July and I was like you know what? 00:08:02.329 --> 00:08:05.096 This is the greatest thing ever. 00:08:05.096 --> 00:08:07.841 We can shoot bottle rockets inside the house. 00:08:07.841 --> 00:08:26.391 And so I filled up this trash can full of water and I was in my room and I made sure, like nobody's around I mean, I had the forethought to think, all right, I'm gonna get in trouble if I get right uh, and so I had lit a bottle rocket, put it in the trash can full of water, and and it did what bottle rockets do? 00:08:26.391 --> 00:08:29.074 It stayed in the trash can and blew up. 00:08:29.074 --> 00:08:33.924 Well, exits the water, is the smoke Right. 00:08:33.924 --> 00:08:44.192 And then I hear footsteps from my mom walking down the way around towards my room and I'm like wigging out. 00:08:44.192 --> 00:08:47.913 I'm like here comes mom, she's going to go nuts. 00:08:47.913 --> 00:08:56.619 And so I run over to the window and I'm trying to throw this trash can, this five gallon water and full of water out the window. 00:08:57.039 --> 00:09:10.414 And as I'm in the process of throwing out the water, mom walks in the room and I turn and look at her and her teeth are already grit towards me and she said what are you doing? 00:09:10.414 --> 00:09:12.778 Are you kidding me? 00:09:12.778 --> 00:09:14.260 Just like that I'm like. 00:09:14.260 --> 00:09:17.229 All I could do is like I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. 00:09:17.229 --> 00:09:19.392 Mom, I don't know what I was thinking. 00:09:19.392 --> 00:09:25.488 Dumbest move ever of dumb moves, right there. 00:09:25.688 --> 00:09:32.619 And you did fireworks and you did preface that story on wednesday night with this is something I am not encouraging you exactly do, exactly. 00:09:32.619 --> 00:09:34.105 Okay, let's get that out of the way. 00:09:34.907 --> 00:09:40.278 Most adults here listen to the podcast, I'm sure, but even so, gentlemen, don't do it. 00:09:42.525 --> 00:09:48.577 All right, you are plugging along here at DeSoto Hills, you are discipleship minister. 00:09:48.577 --> 00:09:52.916 You are still working with our youth, as we are searching for a youth pastor. 00:09:52.916 --> 00:09:58.538 Tell us some of the things, some of the themes that you plan on hitting with our students this fall. 00:09:59.304 --> 00:10:09.226 Okay, so we are in a series and it's going to take us through probably December and it's all about knowing Jesus and it's all about knowing Jesus, Knowing him. 00:10:09.226 --> 00:10:18.914 We started off in the book of John and just talking about the preexistent Christ and what that implies for our life. 00:10:18.914 --> 00:10:27.902 If Jesus was there at the beginning, he was there as playing an integral part, a main part really, of our creation. 00:10:27.902 --> 00:10:32.408 The word says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. 00:10:32.649 --> 00:10:44.399 The word was God, um, and in in in him, like everything was created that was created, and so Jesus plays a role, or was at our creation and and is the creator. 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:56.825 And so, uh, we talked about our first Wednesday how huge the implications are that Jesus is the pre-existing Christ, pre-existent Christ in our lives, like. 00:10:56.825 --> 00:11:01.236 If that is true, then like we owe everything to him. 00:11:01.236 --> 00:11:09.616 You know our whole existence should be built around who he is, what he wants for our lives and his authority in our lives. 00:11:09.616 --> 00:11:11.399 Everything is built around Jesus. 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:21.712 If he is the preexistent Christ, the creator God there in the beginning of eternity's time, like huge implications for our lives. 00:11:22.053 --> 00:11:22.455 Absolutely. 00:11:22.455 --> 00:11:30.363 If you could pick one or two things that you'd love to see happen in the life of our students this year, what are some things that you would love to see happen in the life of our students this year? 00:11:30.363 --> 00:11:32.126 What are some things that you would love to see? 00:11:34.029 --> 00:11:40.140 Just the turning on the light of repentance. 00:11:40.140 --> 00:11:49.176 Okay, and we're going to get into that here in a little bit, but to understand true repentance is not just a one-time deal, it's a lifestyle. 00:11:49.176 --> 00:12:03.393 And so you know, if we could help our kids bear fruit in keeping with repentance as they follow Jesus, know Jesus man, it would be the biggest win. 00:12:03.393 --> 00:12:17.234 And they are Like we are really in the past few weeks just in youth ministry in general, we have been hitting on this idea of repentance and it's clicking. 00:12:17.234 --> 00:12:28.924 And so if every single student could understand what repentance is man and how it should flow from their life on a daily basis, it would be a win. 00:12:29.447 --> 00:12:30.331 Yeah, I love it. 00:12:30.331 --> 00:12:35.373 I'm super excited For those of you who feel like you haven't plugged in yet. 00:12:35.373 --> 00:12:42.557 If you could find a way to plug in, we're going to talk about that this month as we're doing Impact Month here at DeSoto Hills. 00:12:42.557 --> 00:12:51.495 If you see one of those episodes and a ministry that you think you would be valued at plugging into, we certainly want to encourage you to do that. 00:12:51.495 --> 00:12:53.788 All right, hopping to your personal life. 00:12:53.788 --> 00:12:58.759 About three weeks ago, you had Leo completely severed. 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:00.129 What happened? 00:13:00.284 --> 00:13:04.196 He was on a trampoline and he pulverized his arm somehow. 00:13:04.355 --> 00:13:04.677 Yeah, yeah. 00:13:04.677 --> 00:13:10.278 So all three of us the boys me, milo and Leo we're on the trampoline just playing. 00:13:10.278 --> 00:13:18.971 We play this little game called cat and mouse, and so I'm the cat and I'm trying to get the mouse, and so they're the mice. 00:13:18.971 --> 00:13:21.557 But we were getting ready, we were winding down. 00:13:21.557 --> 00:13:25.635 It was like a Tuesday evening, 6 pm. 00:13:25.635 --> 00:13:31.657 We have a trampoline fit with safety net so kids don't fall off. 00:13:32.037 --> 00:13:34.952 Well, yeah, they make trampolines way better these days than they used to. 00:13:35.134 --> 00:13:40.847 Yeah, but you know user error when you don't like close the opening, oh no, yeah. 00:13:40.847 --> 00:13:48.197 So Leo kind of leaned into the net, thinking the net was behind him. 00:13:48.197 --> 00:13:53.639 But as he leaned into it he was kind of partially on the opening and he rolled out. 00:13:53.705 --> 00:14:08.855 And he kind of rolled out, rolled out from his back onto his front, onto the ground, broke his radius and ulna in his right arm, right there in the middle of his forearm, just broke both bones. 00:14:08.855 --> 00:14:15.009 And so he screamed and I knew he fell off to where I couldn't see. 00:14:15.009 --> 00:14:19.965 But the way he screamed I was like, oh, he broke something, something is broken 100%. 00:14:19.965 --> 00:14:26.730 I looked down and saw his arm, just a glimpse of it, and I said that thing is broke and so I picked him up. 00:14:26.730 --> 00:14:30.855 Hannah came to the door, she looked at me and and I said he broke his arm. 00:14:30.855 --> 00:14:42.813 And so we quickly got ready and took him to Campbell Clinic and they sent us on to Le Bonheur don't you just love it when you hit one office and they say you need to go to another? 00:14:42.833 --> 00:15:00.147 yeah, and then we should have just gone straight to Le Bonheur, honestly like it was right, honor honestly like it was right that bad it was hard to tell, but when they took the x-ray at campbell clinic they turned it over and we knew it immediately, because there it was just pretty gnarly scene and no doubt you're sick at your stomach because you're like stupid. 00:15:00.248 --> 00:15:12.903 I should have zipped that thing closed, but I can totally see it in fact, yeah now that I think about it, most people who have those nets they never zip the thing because that's just extra work and it's like the chances of you hitting that part of it are pretty slim. 00:15:13.303 --> 00:15:14.687 Well, they're not zero people. 00:15:15.850 --> 00:15:18.014 It's not zero what else did y'all do this summer? 00:15:18.014 --> 00:15:22.511 Because we haven't talked to you this summer uh, really, we just went summer camp. 00:15:23.192 --> 00:15:24.196 Uh, summer camp was awesome. 00:15:24.196 --> 00:15:25.859 It was the best so far. 00:15:27.006 --> 00:15:31.135 Uh, we went and we've never, we've never been up to the mountains like that for a summer camp. 00:15:31.155 --> 00:15:33.330 Yeah, that was a new thing for us. 00:15:33.330 --> 00:15:43.533 We went up to the mountains and outside of Gatlinburg or in Gatlinburg really it was called Wayfloe Mountain Retreat and it was the best. 00:15:43.533 --> 00:15:44.336 The kids loved it. 00:15:45.024 --> 00:15:47.793 Lots of activities at that camp to do, yeah plenty. 00:15:47.833 --> 00:15:52.871 There was plenty to do, nobody was bored, we all just had the best time. 00:15:52.871 --> 00:15:54.591 I mean, the kids said it was the best camp ever. 00:15:54.591 --> 00:16:06.658 I thought it was the best camp ever, the best venue by far Service isn't great up there, so you also are just almost got a baked-in unplugged week which is also amazing. 00:16:06.918 --> 00:16:12.514 Yeah it's good Swimming pool lake, all the blob stuff on the lake. 00:16:12.735 --> 00:16:14.558 Oh, they had basketball at it, Volleyball yeah. 00:16:14.965 --> 00:16:16.389 Oh man, they do have a bunch of stuff. 00:16:16.389 --> 00:16:18.114 Then Yep Volleyball. 00:16:18.114 --> 00:16:18.754 I bet that was fun. 00:16:19.176 --> 00:16:20.910 Oh yeah, it was a lot of fun. 00:16:20.910 --> 00:16:22.996 We utilized the whole campus. 00:16:22.996 --> 00:16:26.113 They had some trails, they had a creek that ran through the middle of the property. 00:16:26.113 --> 00:16:30.927 It was ice cold. 00:16:30.927 --> 00:16:31.427 It was fun to sit in. 00:16:31.427 --> 00:16:33.133 Yeah, everybody, just I mean, it was the best place. 00:16:33.394 --> 00:16:34.115 Bluetooth speaker. 00:16:34.115 --> 00:16:35.730 I'm sure you were bumping some music the whole time. 00:16:35.730 --> 00:16:36.553 Oh, yeah, the whole time. 00:16:36.553 --> 00:16:42.905 All right, we're going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the midweek moment. 00:16:52.270 --> 00:16:52.591 All right. 00:16:52.591 --> 00:16:57.533 So I mentioned earlier this theme of repentance that we're going through. 00:16:57.533 --> 00:17:07.258 You know that keeps recurring in our student ministry and in my own personal life this theme of repentance keeps coming up, and so I want to keep with that. 00:17:07.258 --> 00:17:27.438 This morning we're going to be in Luke, chapter 5, starting in verse 27, and it's how Jesus calls Levi, and Levi was a tax collector, and so we're going to read that this morning and then we're going to kind of unpack a little bit of what it means. 00:17:27.438 --> 00:17:28.805 So in verse 27, chapter 5 of the Gospel of Luke. 00:17:28.805 --> 00:17:30.365 So verse 27, chapter 5 of the Gospel of Luke. 00:17:30.385 --> 00:17:36.991 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth and he said to him follow me. 00:17:36.991 --> 00:17:54.199 And, leaving everything, he rose and followed him and Levi made him a great feast in his house and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with him, and the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples saying why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? 00:17:54.199 --> 00:18:07.532 And Jesus answered them those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance, all right. 00:18:07.532 --> 00:18:11.719 So Jesus is calling sinners to repentance. 00:18:11.719 --> 00:18:13.181 Let's keep that in mind. 00:18:13.765 --> 00:18:15.449 So Levi was a tax collector. 00:18:15.449 --> 00:18:18.335 He was a Jew by birth. 00:18:18.335 --> 00:18:25.368 He was collecting tax from his own people for a government occupying the Hebrew land. 00:18:25.368 --> 00:18:32.397 Okay, so he was seen as this sort of traitor to his own people. 00:18:32.397 --> 00:18:37.952 He was taking money from his people, giving it to the Roman government, all right. 00:18:37.952 --> 00:18:39.657 So that's you know issue one. 00:18:39.657 --> 00:18:45.576 Issue two is tax collectors characteristically like, took extra money. 00:18:45.576 --> 00:18:48.608 They took extra and padded their own pockets. 00:18:48.608 --> 00:18:50.756 Well, they were real popular among the popular my people? 00:18:50.776 --> 00:18:53.061 yeah, they were loved to universally loved. 00:18:53.061 --> 00:18:53.964 Yeah, that's a joke. 00:18:53.964 --> 00:18:56.795 They were hated, so they they were. 00:18:56.795 --> 00:19:06.214 He was a traitor, he was seen as a just the worst type of person, and so they got a bad rap, and rightfully so. 00:19:06.214 --> 00:19:10.964 They took bribes. 00:19:10.964 --> 00:19:16.237 Think about being in that position and say hey, I can fudge these numbers for you. 00:19:16.237 --> 00:19:19.464 If you give me a little extra, we'll call it good. 00:19:19.464 --> 00:19:39.228 And so they took bribes, and you could tell by their lavish lifestyle they were getting money from somewhere, and so the tax collectors were wealthy and what was important to them was money over, you know, allegiance to their nation allegiance to their people. 00:19:39.268 --> 00:19:46.769 Yeah, money was the most important, and so they were just generally seen and were corrupt people. 00:19:46.769 --> 00:19:54.519 But we see Jesus come on the scene and Jesus, as you know and as our listeners know, jesus changes everything. 00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:58.550 So Jesus, he calls Levi and says follow me. 00:19:58.550 --> 00:20:00.756 And it doesn't say anything else. 00:20:00.756 --> 00:20:07.565 All it simply says is Levi rose and followed Jesus, so he left everything. 00:20:07.565 --> 00:20:10.368 Levi left everything and followed him. 00:20:20.315 --> 00:20:22.503 And so when we see this moment of repentance in Levi's life, we have this definition of repentance. 00:20:22.503 --> 00:20:27.240 Is that you just like, oh yeah, just stop sinning, right, just stop sinning, repent, stop sinning. 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:37.980 That is great if it is like, possible, right, if okay, like if I were to tell people you just got to stop sinning and then you're good. 00:20:37.980 --> 00:20:42.875 Well, stopping sinning is like a form of works. 00:20:42.875 --> 00:20:45.279 If we leave it there, all right. 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:57.763 If we abstain from sinning, thinking that's what God wants, then it's going to leave you empty-handed and not known by Jesus, all right. 00:20:57.763 --> 00:21:04.058 And so what Jesus is doing is he's yes, he's calling Levi away from his old life. 00:21:04.058 --> 00:21:07.204 He's like calling him away from his corruptness, his sin. 00:21:07.204 --> 00:21:12.365 Say let go of that, let go of the world, let go of what entices you, Turn away from that. 00:21:12.365 --> 00:21:14.176 But he calls him to himself. 00:21:14.176 --> 00:21:15.940 All right. 00:21:15.940 --> 00:21:25.968 So if Jesus calls us to anything, you know, we kind of live in this culture where we mystify the calling of Jesus. 00:21:25.968 --> 00:21:31.296 Jesus, throughout his ministry he called people just to himself. 00:21:31.296 --> 00:21:35.397 And so that's what Jesus called Levi to. 00:21:35.397 --> 00:21:37.839 He said call, come and follow me. 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:40.760 And Levi left everything in his repentance. 00:21:40.760 --> 00:21:44.262 We see that he left everything and followed Jesus. 00:21:44.262 --> 00:21:56.368 And then the next couple of lines said that Levi made him a great feast in his house and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with him. 00:21:56.429 --> 00:22:02.632 So we see not just Levi, the act of repentance, but we see the fruit of repentance. 00:22:02.632 --> 00:22:10.381 Like Jesus comes into his circle, jesus comes into his house. 00:22:10.381 --> 00:22:12.346 He invites Jesus into his most sacred space. 00:22:12.346 --> 00:22:12.988 It's his house. 00:22:12.988 --> 00:22:14.901 He invites Jesus in. 00:22:14.901 --> 00:22:18.241 And not only does he invite Jesus in, he invites everybody. 00:22:18.241 --> 00:22:19.926 He knows all the tax collectors. 00:22:19.926 --> 00:22:22.564 He's like man, I'm going to get all these people following Jesus. 00:22:22.564 --> 00:22:28.275 And so he invites his most corrupt acquaintances, his most corrupt connections. 00:22:28.275 --> 00:22:36.845 He invites the darkest sinners to come into his house to surround Jesus, in hopes that they are changed as well, that they can find new life. 00:22:36.845 --> 00:22:40.403 They don't have to be, you know, the armpit of society anymore. 00:22:40.403 --> 00:22:47.041 You know, they are the stink of society because of how they live their life and chose what to do. 00:22:47.041 --> 00:22:54.178 And Levi, who aka is Matthew, he's like come on, guys, we don't have to live like this anymore. 00:22:54.178 --> 00:22:59.237 I found Jesus and he changes everything, and so there's fruit in his repentance. 00:22:59.237 --> 00:23:11.368 It's not just this act I'm going to stop sinning, it's I'm letting, I'm turning away from my sin, I'm turning to Jesus, and the fruit of it is like I'm bringing people into the kingdom with me. 00:23:11.368 --> 00:23:16.606 And so we see the fruit of repentance in Levi's life. 00:23:17.755 --> 00:23:23.305 And so my question is what is true repentance? 00:23:23.305 --> 00:23:25.915 What is it Like? 00:23:25.915 --> 00:23:27.201 Is it just stopping sin? 00:23:27.201 --> 00:23:34.125 No, I think what true repentance is is an acknowledgement. 00:23:34.125 --> 00:23:35.829 It's an ownership. 00:23:35.829 --> 00:23:44.641 It's taking ownership of what you are Like I'm a sinner and there's nothing I can do in and of myself to change that about me. 00:23:44.641 --> 00:23:46.743 And so I'm going. 00:23:47.305 --> 00:23:54.298 True repentance is more so, not just a stopping of sin, but it's an acknowledgement and understanding of what I am. 00:23:54.298 --> 00:24:15.029 I'm a sinner, I'm a slave to sin, I'm powerless to save myself, and so repentance is, yes, realizing is acknowledging that, acknowledging what God already knows about you and turning to Him, turning to Jesus as central focal point in my life from here on out. 00:24:15.029 --> 00:24:23.387 Yes, I'm going to fall, yes, I'm going to stumble, but Jesus is the prize. 00:24:23.387 --> 00:24:29.167 And if we turn away from our sin, we have to turn towards something, and that something is Jesus. 00:24:29.167 --> 00:24:32.785 So Jesus is our focal point from here on out. 00:24:32.785 --> 00:24:40.175 So, with that said, if Jesus is the object of our repentance, we turn away from our sin, turn to Jesus. 00:24:43.041 --> 00:24:46.469 It's not just, we take repentance as just this one-time thing. 00:24:47.154 --> 00:24:49.180 Right, it's this one-time thing in our life. 00:24:49.279 --> 00:25:04.065 No, in Matthew 3, 8, john the Baptist, when he came baptizing people, he warned the Pharisees and the religious leaders, called them a brood of vipers and he said bear fruit in keeping with repentance, all right. 00:25:04.105 --> 00:25:19.044 So in my personal life and this is where we'll finish, and this is the challenge that I'm going to issue our listeners this morning is, in our life, true repentance is not a one-time thing, it is a daily thing. 00:25:19.044 --> 00:25:24.180 It is, you know, jesus tells us to take up our cross daily and follow him. 00:25:24.180 --> 00:25:33.748 And then in John the Baptist, he says he warns the Pharisees, he says you brood of vipers, and he warned them bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 00:25:33.748 --> 00:26:02.901 So in my life, when I'm living in the mountaintop or when I'm down in the valley, like the thing that brings me to reality of who I am, where I am, whose I am, is preaching the gospel to myself daily, reminding myself that Jesus, the Son of God, loved me, he lived the perfect life, he died a sinner's death, he was nailed to a cross, was in the ground for three days and rose from the dead. 00:26:02.901 --> 00:26:06.645 And that brings me back to reality. 00:26:06.645 --> 00:26:10.566 It's knowing Jesus, being known by Him. 00:26:10.566 --> 00:26:15.105 Preach the gospel to myself daily, follow Jesus. 00:26:24.215 --> 00:26:33.689 You know, we often listen to these stories in the Bible and sometimes I catch myself thinking of some of these stories as fiction. 00:26:33.689 --> 00:26:37.680 And you have to remind yourself these are things that really happened. 00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:50.125 Imagine a guy, a prophet, the son of man coming into your house and saying drop everything you're doing right now and just leave and come with me. 00:26:50.125 --> 00:26:55.733 How many of us would have the discipline to actually do that? 00:26:56.315 --> 00:26:56.454 Right. 00:26:56.474 --> 00:26:59.304 Because I can honestly say I don't know that I would. 00:26:59.684 --> 00:27:09.683 Yeah, and that's the kind of thing is like God activate whatever faith in my heart and mind, activate whatever faith it takes to do that, because man. 00:27:09.683 --> 00:27:10.807 I can't do it myself. 00:27:11.035 --> 00:27:11.615 Right. 00:27:11.615 --> 00:27:24.768 I mean, these are very serious, thought-provoking situations in the Bible that if you really, if you were honest with yourself, if you put yourself into Levi's shoes, what would you do? 00:27:24.768 --> 00:27:27.800 I mean something else. 00:27:27.800 --> 00:27:29.346 Thanks for listening. 00:27:29.346 --> 00:27:33.105 If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here Sunday morning. 00:27:33.105 --> 00:27:40.424 You can catch our services online at desotahillscom, our YouTube channel at Desoto Hills Baptist Church. 00:27:40.424 --> 00:27:42.061 For all of our church family, we love you. 00:27:42.061 --> 00:27:44.042 We'll see you back here next week. 00:27:44.042 --> 00:27:46.904 Have a fantastic day, God bless. 00:27:47.816 --> 00:27:49.923 This has been your midweek motivation. 00:27:49.923 --> 00:27:53.285 We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings. 00:27:53.285 --> 00:27:56.306 Our services are at 9 and 10 30 AM.