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Jan 08, 2017

Endurance

Endurance

Speaker: Dennis Gallaher

Series: True Grit

Category: Sunday Morning

What is gritty faith? Do you have the type of faith that will take you through the new year? Find out what it takes to produce a faith that will give you that grit to endure and produce endurance.

Last week we talked about “Gritty Faith” in the new year.

We define “gritty” as: passion and perseverance in pursuit of long term goals.

The poor parenting practices of the 1980’s created a population of young adults that suffer with such low self esteem that they do not know how to deal with stress.

There have been dramatic increases in …
- suicide
- drug overdoses
- depression
- leave of absences from school due to depression
- chronic inability to find deep fulfillment in jobs and relationships

The common denominator is a lack of grit. Being talented is of little value unless you combine it with hard work and passion.

The church over the last decade has also suffered from a coddling from a ministry that has resulted in -
- A failure to thrive in congregations in the West
- A lack of basic commitment to church attendance and membership
- A lack of servanthood, increasingly seeing the church as a country club with expectations
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Faith was presented to me as a mysterious power that grew in some but not in others, but Jesus took the smallest seed in the garden and said that if this is all you’ve got, it’s enough! Faith is the foundation of creation. It is not something gained but something given.
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The other foundation of creation is free-will. These two gifts - faith and free-will - determine the outcomes of life more than anything else. Godly faith, Gritty faith, begins to grow when faith is joined to obedience.

- God has give you the faith.
- He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.
- He will provide a way of escape so that you will be able to stand it.
- He is a good, good Father whose rewards are abundant.
- And His goal is to put a little more grit in your soul, if you will obey Him!

 

Despite your past, you are completely responsible for what you choose to do now.

Choose God’s Way. . . He’s a good, good, Father!

Opening Scripture

Hebrews 12:1-3  Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

What is it that has pierced you again and again that you need to lay aside?
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Four times the Scripture uses the word “endure.”
- vs.1 “let us run with endurance”
- vs.2 “He endured the cross”
- vs.3 “He endured hostility”
- vs.7 “It is for discipline that you endure”

The grit is produced in your faith when you choose to do things God’s way!

How do you run with Gritty Faith?
1. Admit to what God is asking - recognize His voice, don’t turn your ear from Him
2. Commit and agree with God
3. Obey/Choose to follow

Take your free will and couple it with faith and step out of the common life into a life of gritty faith.

Hebrews 11:16  God is not ashamed to be called their God.
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