Steadfastness Takes GRIT! - August 31, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Well, I hate to disappoint our children. And I was trying to think of a way

that I could include them in this sermon because I usually do that.

Last time I had pool noodles. Someone even asked me, hey, do we get pool noodles

this week? And I'm like, oh, man, no, you don't get pool noodles.

I'll give you something else, but it'll be at the end of the service. So I apologize, kiddos.

My creative spirit was not flowing enough this time.

So I'll try to make it as painless as possible. But still, it'll have a benefit

to you. You know, we've been talking about having these habits of a healthy heart.

Now, not necessarily calisthenics or exercise, but spiritually speaking,

the spiritual habits that we need.

And what we've been saying through this whole time is if you want to change

your life, change your habits.

And if you want to change your habits, let God change your heart to get to the source of everything.

And, you know, during this time, we have talked about several different things.

We've talked about self-examination, looking at ourself and our life in light

of the Bible, in light of who God calls us to be.

We've talked about simplicity and really just getting down to what really matters

in life. And we discover it's not always about our stuff, but it's about the

people and the relationships that we have with people.

We've talked about slowing down and solitude.

Getting away, just us and God, and just having that time for him to speak life

into us and for us sometimes even to complain to God and say,

God, how does this get fixed and how can we just be together?

Last week, we talked about sorrow and godly sorrow and how that helps us to

grow when we recognize our sin and when we really repent of it,

how we get freed up from that and we get past it and we move on into the next

thing that God has for us.

And today I want to talk to you, it's an old word, It's maybe even a King James

word if you consider that, but one that we just don't use that more.

And that's this word, another S word called steadfastness.

Yeah, when's the last time you used that in your conversation at work or with

your buddy? Hey, how you doing on your steadfastness today?

What'd you call me? Are you saying I need to fast? What are you saying, you know?

When you think about the word steadfast, it just means someone that can always be counted on.

Someone that can always be faithful.

Maybe that's another word to use is faithfulness, is being faithful.

And so what I want you to know today, quite simply, is this.

Steadfastness takes grit. It really does.

We'll spell out what that means, but it really does. Man, I was looking,

I hate when I do this and I've admitted this to you before.

I was looking at our financial resources in the Curry family this last week,

or should I say lack of, and I'm talking long-term retirement kind of things.

And anytime I log into where I'm supposed to be financially,

it's the most discouraging thing ever because the little automatic thing pops

up says, You should have this much saved already in order to retire by the time

you're supposed to retire.

And I look at that and I almost begin to weep because I'm not anywhere near that.

And yet I've faithfully, we have faithfully given and set aside.

And then I was reminded of something very important.

And what I was reminded of was what my treasurer in McCall, church treasurer,

would say when we talked about our board meeting business, especially the finance report.

And he would say this, very appropriate for church board meetings when you're talking about money.

He would say this, stick and stay and it will pay.

I said, Roy, what are you talking about? Mike, think about it. Stick and stay.

When we're putting money away, we're just going to put it there and forget about it.

We're going to stick that money there, let it stay there, and eventually it will pay off.

And as I got to think about this, especially in regards to our church finances

and the faithfulness in that, it speaks to the power of compounding interest.

Now, I'm not giving you a financial lecture. I am no way qualified to do that today.

But I do want to share this with you because Albert Einstein called compounding

interest the eighth wonder of the world.

And if Einstein paid attention to it, man, maybe we need to as well.

And quite frankly, what it is, it's, you know, when you put money away and you

don't take it out and you just let that money grow, the interest adds to it

and then it grows and it grows and grows.

And then I learned something that I thought I would have learned when I was

way younger, especially if I learned this in high school, and I made some different

financial decisions, I think.

But it's the law of 72. And the law of 72 is how long does it take my money

at a certain interest rate to double? Oh, I like that.

I like for money to double. I like if I had $100 and it became $200,

and then the $200 became $400, and it starts to grow exponentially.

That's a good thing, man.

If I learned this much younger, like I said, when I look at my financial status,

maybe it would make me happy instead of maybe not so happy. Hey, no.

72. You take 72, the number, divide it by your interest rate,

and it tells you how many years that it will take for that money to double.

So if you have an interest rate of, let's say, 10%, divide 72 by 10,

it'll take you 7.2 years to double your money. Isn't that great?

Boy, I told you I'm not giving you a financial lecture, but write that formula

down. That's a good thing.

Ultimately, we know God's in control of everything, even our finances,

and so I don't want you to fret this morning. I don't want you to worry.

But I did say all that financial stuff to say, just like there's financial rules

and laws and things that we can do to help us figure out where we're going financially,

the same thing is spiritual as well.

There are certain laws that help us to understand, especially when it comes

to faith, where we're going or where we can get to.

And so I want to say this, the spiritual law this morning is this,

being faithful in little things is a big thing and it will yield big things.

We're told in scripture that if we have the faith of a mustard seed,

just a little tiny bit of faith, that something great can happen.

Would you stand with me this morning as we read Matthew 17, verse 20,

Matthew 17:20

our scripture focus of the day.

The passage says this, I tell you the truth. If you had faith,

even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain,

move from here to there and it would move.

Nothing would be impossible.

Let's pray. Father, thank you that nothing could be impossible if we just have

the faith that you require, God, the faith that you call us to.

God, may we believe and in that believing see you do amazing things.

It's in Jesus' name we pray this this morning. Amen.

Thank you for standing and honoring the Word of God. You know,

small faithful actions equal significant changes in our life.

I want you to think about just a few of.

That can add up to be something great. I mean,

I know we won't talk about New Year's resolutions and that for several more

months, but just little changes that you make to your diet, little changes that

you make to your exercise routine, it can yield great results,

especially when you're younger, I'm finding out.

Once you get over the 50 mark, man, I'm making the changes. I'm doing the exercises.

What's going on? It's not too late. I know that. in your conversations with your friends.

One little phone call, one little text, repeated over and over again,

not the same thing, but just an interest in someone else. It helps to build up your friendships.

It helps to build your relationships.

When you do the small things, one little thing at a time, it adds up to something great.

When you're faithful in that, when you consistently, like I said,

save a dollar here, save a dollar there, put it away for a rainy day,

that's gonna grow and God's gonna use that to bless you later.

When you were in college, if you went to college, you know, it's just one class

at a time. One more class, okay.

One more class, just another one next semester. And as you take one at a time,

eventually it adds up into some kind of degree that you're earning.

Being faithful in the little things is a big thing.

It's like those little faithful decisions that we make right now in the moment

have a tremendous impact on us and all those around us.

I don't know if you've ever done this, or maybe you had children that did this.

You went to maybe one of those hotels and there's like a jacuzzi tub in the bathroom. Yes.

Those are awesome. My kids loved that. And I loved it because it meant I didn't

have to go down to the pool in public and they could just play in there.

Well, your kids ever taken like, it's a bubble bath and put in one of those.

We adults know it only takes a little bit to make a lot of bubbles.

But here are the kids, they're just dumping that in. Oh, look at this.

Look how many bubbles we can get.

And then turn on the jets and all of a sudden the bathroom is just filled with

foam, all kinds of bubbles.

You know, it only takes a little bit. Kids learn that lesson maybe the hard

way sometimes, but we know it only takes a little bit to make something great.

And I think that's what Jesus was saying in our scripture today.

Hey, it only takes a little bit of faith to see incredible things happen.

Jesus said it only takes a faith as small as a mustard seed,

really, really tiny, to say to a mountain, move from there to there, and it will happen.

And think of the mountains in our life that we need moved. Some of them seem impossible.

Some of them seem like there's no way God can do this in my life.

There's no way that's going to happen.

But if we can exercise faith, even just a little faith, and a little faith added

to a little faith tomorrow,

added to a little faith the next day, and so on, we can see God begin maybe

not to move the mountain, but maybe he moves us to a different perspective on the mountain.

Maybe he does remove the mountain, and we're just praising God because we had faith he would do that.

I want you to know that our little offerings, like money, they compound over

time. Our faith can compound and become greater.

I don't know what kind of faith you've brought today, if it's small or if it's

large, but just know that God will do something, and he can do something with that today.

Here's what Jesus said in Luke 16, verse 10. And if you are faithful in little

Luke 16:10

things, you will be faithful in large ones.

God says, hey, master the small ones. And like I said, faith compounds over time, but it takes grit.

And so what am I talking about grit? When I think about grit, I think of sandpaper.

And I think of using the appropriate grit for the appropriate project.

And I saw a video and it was a joke.

But some lady was out and she was, it wasn't sandpaper she was using,

but she was using an SOS pad, the soapy kind, to wash her car.

And she had scrubbed that car. It was so dirty, and it became shiny down to the sheet metal.

And the dad goes out, and he's like, what are you doing?

And the daughter was so pleased in her first car. Look at how beautiful this looks, how shiny it is.

He said, have you squirted your car off? What color did your car used to be?

Because there ain't no paint on it anymore. You can't tell.

It had a strong grit, and that grit just took off.

All the paint. And some of us, we need a heavy grit to get rid of some stuff in our life.

Others, we just need a little bit of polishing, and that'll be good.

But here's what I'm talking about grit this morning real quickly. Grace is G.

Resilience is R. I is integrity. And T is teachability.

Remember, being faithful in the little things is a big thing.

So let's talk about grace.

We've talked about it several. I preached a whole sermon series this summer

about grace and being people of grace, you're going to make mistakes.

You are. It just happens. Life happens and we don't always make the right decision.

We might not feel worthy because of those mistakes.

Others around you, I want to tell you, are also going to make mistakes.

Sometimes even the ones you love the most will make mistakes.

Not long ago, Melanie and I and the family, I don't remember who all was with

us, but we wanted some Taco Bell. And so we got the app out and we were over

by the Karcher Mall and, hey, there's a Taco Bell there.

And so Melanie puts the order in on her phone and orders it.

And so, man, we're hungry, almost hangry.

You ever been at that, like you're hungry and you're almost angry because you're hungry?

It was kind of one of those days for me anyway. And so we pull up to the drive-thru

and I say, hey, I got an order for Mike.

You do? We don't have an order for Mike.

Are you sure you're at the right location? I shot Melanie a look.

Are we at the right location?

Oh, no. I heard from the Caldwell one.

Hangry. So what do I say? Because there's two cars ahead of us.

And now I got to wait in the drive-thru line in order for them to go so I can

get out and go to Caldwell and get my burrito.

Well, being the not-so-nice guy I was at that time, I said, Oh,

I'm sorry, my wife made a mistake. Jake, she ordered from the wrong one.

Not very gracious. Not a proud husband moment, pastor moment,

whatever. Not good at all.

But my wife is gracious. She didn't say anything.

You didn't spit in my burrito. Probably wanted to.

So we went to Caldwell. And all the whole while, I'm like, I'm an idiot.

Why did I say that? Why did I make that mistake?

It was an honest mistake that my wife had made. And here, I showed no grace

where she, excuse me, she has shown all the grace in the world.

And so, yeah, when we got to Caldwell, she could have taken my burrito and smashed it all over my face.

Here's your food, honey. Kind of like wedding cake, you know.

People are going to make mistakes. We're going to make mistakes in response

to other people's mistakes.

And so we really need, in our grit, we really need grace extended toward one another.

Here's how important it is. The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12,

2 Corinthians 12:9

verse 9, Jesus said this to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in weakness.

God's power is made perfect in weakness.

And so I would say, just let God's power be made perfect in you, in your weaknesses.

Hey, if you make a mistake, just admit it. That's the hard part.

If you make a mistake, just say, I'm sorry. You make a mistake Or if someone makes one.

That's against you, be willing to forgive. Show the grace that God showed you when he forgave you.

Grace is so important. And I think that's the first part where we start to be

faithful is faithful and exercising grace towards somebody else.

No one's going to be perfect 100% of the time, maybe not even 10% of the time,

but we can always be gracious 100% of the time if we exercise faith in this way, in grit.

Secondly, resilience. The scripture says in Galatians 6, 9, a passage I've used

in several sermons this summer, let us not become weary in doing good,

for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Resilience is great. It's the ability to bounce back. When I think of resilience,

I can't help but think of a palm tree.

You know, palm trees blown around in a hurricane.

And sometimes those palm trees seem like they're bending all the way over,

but when the storm's done, they bounce back up.

They bounce back, they bend, but they do not break.

And I think as Christians, we need to be like those palm trees.

We need to be flexible enough to bend, but not to the point of breaking.

Flexible enough when life's troubles hit, when things come against us,

when things don't go as planned or when pressures build up that we bend with

those pressures, but we don't break.

We need to bounce back from those troubled times. We just don't need to cash it all in.

Say, well, I didn't sign up for this when I wanted to follow Christ.

They didn't make my burrito right. My Christianity, it's over.

I prayed for this food. They put onions in it. I didn't want onions in my burrito.

No, we don't let little petty stuff get to us. We bounce back from that.

When the big things in life, When we suffer a tragedy, an illness,

we don't let it break us and break our faith.

We just exercise more faith, more trust in God to bounce back from that.

And there's a few people in life, one of them that comes to mind is Melanie's

Uncle Gary, who just passed away not long ago.

He was the most positive guy you could ever meet.

Always had, even in the midst of horrible stuff, always had a cheerful demeanor.

Always optimistic. Always looking for the good in all the bad that was going on.

Well, I haven't gained a wonderful guy when God calls him home.

But I think that's how I like to be.

Boy, when hard times come that I'm resilient enough to bounce back and to say,

yeah, I see the good in this.

God's going to do something great here.

How are we at bouncing back? If we don't break under life's pressures,

if we're trusting God that he's gonna come through, we're gonna see him do some

amazing and incredible things. So we need grace.

Folks, we need resilience, but we also need integrity.

Integrity, what is integrity? Integrity is doing the good and the right thing

when no one else is around.

I want you to imagine it this way.

Let's say you're cruising out on one of these roads early in the morning or

late at night or really any time.

And there's no traffic on the road and you come to a four-way stop and you're

late for getting to church or wherever you need to be.

And the temptation is you see that stop sign right there.

Temptation is there's no one around. I got to get where I'm going and just to keep going.

But a person of integrity will stop at that stop sign.

Look both ways. And when it's safe, continue.

Of course, it's going to be safe. There's no one out there, but it's this kind

of integrity to always do what is good and what is right when no one else is

around, when nobody else but God is looking.

Want to do what's right. Someone once said, if you have integrity, nothing else matters.

And if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.

Listen to scripture that we read earlier from Proverbs 11.3.

The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.

I want to show you a video that kind of illustrates something that a lot of

our students might be tempted with, at least starting out here in school,

when they don't know the answers, when they don't know the answers to the test,

they might be tempted to cash in some of their integrity. So let's watch this video together.

Integrity helps you feel your brain, so always do what's right.

A little humorous look at maybe a more serious subject, but the little choices

that we make, the little things that we do that are good and that are right will add up.

Likewise, the things that we do that aren't so good, the shortcuts that we take,

eventually they'll come to the top as well. They'll add up.

But I just got to tell you, if we are faithful, we do what's good and we do

what's right with our integrity, boy, it's going to grow and it's going to add up.

And so, I mean, that's what we teach our kids, right? We teach them to do what's

right a little step at a time, because by the time they get to be our age and

older, we want them to be people of integrity, people that can be counted on,

people that can be trusted.

Well, besides integrity, besides grace, and besides resilience,

we also need, as we grow our faith and are seeing God grow it, we need a teachability.

Scripture says in Proverbs 9.9, instruct the wise and they will be even wiser.

Teach the righteous and they will learn even more.

Why don't you consider this? I got a little bit of Plato here.

Play-Doh is awesome. By the way, I looked on here and it says,

notice, contains wheat. So this is not gluten-free.

Just so you know, this Play-Doh here.

But when we think about what teachability is, it's kind of like Play-Doh.

It's kind of like malleability, the ability to make this into something.

You can take Play-Doh and you can make all kinds of neat things.

As a matter of fact, when I was at the store grabbing this, they had all these

little things that you could make, all these little cookie cutters for Play-Doh and all that.

And we kind of, I think, tried to skip the Play-Doh phase in our life.

I don't think it worked very good, but I hated seeing it dried onto the carpet

or dried onto the couch or something.

But I mean, I'm not very good, but you can kind of make a bowl or a cup or, you know.

Made a snake, letter U, I'm not very good.

But in the right hands, someone can take clay and they can craft it.

A craftsman that knows how to use it can take that.

And if the clay is good, if the clay is malleable, it can be spun on a wheel

and it could be made into a giant vase.

It could be made into something useful, a cup or a plate or something.

My former pastor's wife in Lemoore, California.

She did incredible things with porcelain and with pottery, and she sold some

incredible works that she did.

But she said, it all comes down to the product, comes down to what you're using.

Folks, if we're going to be teachable,

we're not going to break when God decides he's going to mold us.

When we go through life-changing situations as we're just living,

and we find ourselves in something that God's trying to teach us,

he's trying to lead us through, and he's trying to maybe take off a piece that

doesn't belong in whatever he's shaping in our life. Those times are painful.

Sometimes maybe he's adding too, and what he's trying to add to us,

we just don't understand.

Kind of like having a cup, but adding the little handle that goes on it.

God wants to shape us into the people that he's designed us to be,

that he has the blueprint for, but we've got to be teachable.

We've got to learn from the hard things in life. We've got to learn from the struggles that we have.

I want to tell you, we've even got to learn from the joys and the successes

that we have, because the danger, if we're not teachable, is that.

Purpose for living and our purpose for being, we can become prideful in that

and think that we've done everything and that it's been all about us and that

we caused these different things to happen.

1 Corinthians 10.12 says this, if you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.

The Apostle Paul, again, warning, hey, don't become prideful and think you're doing all right.

Hey, give glory to God and make sure your feet are standing on the solid rock.

Because anything less is not going to be sufficient for what God wants to do

with you. So are you teachable? Are you teachable today?

Whenever I am hiring for staff, I always want to make sure they're teachable.

You guys know this. You don't want to hire someone for your business that thinks

they already know everything.

Because day one on the job, they're going to be unbearable to deal with.

They're going to be like, oh yeah, here's what we did at our last job.

Let's try it this way. Or this is how we did this.

This is how we did that. if we're going to have grit, if we are really going

to see our faith compound and grow, then we've got to be teachable and open

to learning what God still wants us to learn.

Grit, grace, resilience, integrity, teachability.

Does faithfulness compound like interest? I want to say yes.

Yes, it does. It grows and it grows over time.

Faithfulness grows, faith grows.

I want you to imagine this. You've got a treasure chest. Oh,

what's the combination?

Got it. That would have been bad if I couldn't have opened this.

Imagine you've got a little treasure chest. This is small, I know.

Not much treasure. I already admitted that to you.

But imagine this treasure chest contains all the faithfulness,

the faithful acts that you've done, all the things that you've added to this.

I believed in God when I was going through a hard time, and I put it in here.

Oh, I trusted God when my son was sick, and God healed him, and I put this in

here for God to deal with. I just trusted him.

Oh, I trusted God when things were great.

When everyone said I had a good sermon that one Sunday about 15 years ago, I was,

Man, I put that in here, and I just had faith and trust that God was going to do that.

Oh, I had faith when we were at church camp, and I saw all these kids come down to the altar.

I just, my faith grew, and I was just faithful to God to pray for those kids.

And I was faithful to God to pray for my kids every day, to pray for their future

spouse, to pray for their day at school or their day at work.

And I just constantly committed them to the Lord. I was faithful in studying

the Bible and getting out of the Bible what I needed for that very time.

I was faithful in coming to church, faithful to go into Bible study,

faithful to show up at a workday, faithful just all this faithfulness.

Over a lifetime, it adds up.

And pretty soon, imagine you've got all these jewels. All you put in were these

rugged rocks, but God has turned them into something beautiful.

Something great, all these gems.

Kids, you can have one of these when you leave today, by the way.

I don't want to take them home, but just, they're not worth anything.

Told you about my financial situation. So these are fake.

No, I'm joking. They are fake, but I'm joking about financial thing.

God takes good care of us.

But think about, you know, this was just something that started out small,

a little faithful act that God said, I want you to trust me in this. And you did.

And God added this and it compounded into something greater.

See, here's how it goes. Parents, you're faithful in following God You got married.

Trusted God with your marriage, and every day and every Sunday,

you met with God's people every day, you shared the word with your kids,

and they grow up, and that one little act of faith,

boy, it compounds into the life of your children, and then it keeps going from there.

That one word that you shared with someone in Albertsons the other day,

they just needed a little bit of encouragement.

You exercised faith that God would want you to talk to this person,

and you chose to talk to them, and you just encouraged them,

and you said, I'm going to be praying for you, and then you did pray for them.

We don't know what the result of that is, but I know that one little act of

faith, boy, it grows even in that person's life, just knowing.

It compounds, and maybe it affects their faith, and they begin to believe,

and then they say, I'm going to pray for someone else, and then it just keeps

going and going and going.

Faith grows, and your faithfulness can grow.

I'm more faithful now than when I first accepted Jesus Christ.

I at some point, I had to take my parents' faith and make it my own and trust in Jesus for myself.

And that's what everyone has to do. We have to see our faith grow like that

and to grow over time. But I want to tell you, it takes grit.

All these jewels representing the acts of accumulated acts,

accumulated acts of faith throughout your lifetime, it takes grit to see those

little rocks that we put in get changed into something that's valuable,

changed into a valuable faith.

Grit. It takes God's grace. Don't forget that.

It takes the resilience of spirit. It takes your unwavering integrity,

and it takes this heart of teachability.

You want some grit this morning?

We need grit in our faithfulness to see what God is going to do.

In God's kingdom, our faithfulness in everyday matters leads us to a heavenly

reward. Here's what Jesus said.

That day when you stand before God, when you've lived your life,

when everything is done, and you come before the throne of grace or even the

gates of heaven, don't you want to hear this?

Matthew 25, 21, well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Enter into your reward. Don't you want to hear that?

Are you trusting God for that today? Are you trusting God that even in those

little things that you're really struggling to believe, that God's going to help you?

Even those little things you're struggling to do time after time,

are you trusting God that He's going to help you in that?

Hey, faith is a struggle. It's just not all easy. I'll tell you,

the Christian life is not all easy.

There's things that we go through. There's things that we grow through in order

to achieve who God wants us to be.

But if we'll stay faithful, if we'll keep going through, even when it's hard,

God's going to turn that situation.

God's going to turn that relationship into something that is beautiful,

into something, boy, that's just going to bless other people.

And that's what God wants us to do.

Folks, as my friend Matthew says, how's your heart today?

Are you practicing these things? Self-examination, simplicity.

Are you practicing a steadfastness today?

Remember what my old friend Roy says. Stick and stay and it will pay.

Those faithful things that you do for the Lord. Keep on doing them,

and they are going to pay incredible, and I will say eternal, dividends in your life.

Let's be some people of grit as we leave here in just a little bit. Let me pray for us.

Father, thank you for today. God, I thank you so much for the opportunity to

share this sermon series that we've been on the last month or so,

and God, I really appreciate the opportunity today to talk about grit.

Lord, may we have this kind of grit in our life.

Lord, the kind of grit that polishes us, that finishes us.

Lord, the kind of grits where we take a step of faith and you're there,

where we take another step of faith and you're still there.

God, you've shown us what it means to be steadfast in your love toward us.

And so, Lord, help us to have grace toward others.

Lord, help us to have resilience in the midst of life's adversities.

God, may we have integrity in all things that we do, to always do what is right,

to always do what is good.

And Lord, may we learn, may we be teachable in those things.

Father, everything that we go through, from the highs to the lows.

God, we love you this morning. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. God, give us grit.

In Jesus' name we ask. Amen. I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast.

You can find a copy of today's sermon, as well as other sermons,

and the sermon outlined from today on our church's website, www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.