TRUE GRIT

Hello again. You know Walt Disney, probably heard of him, right? A few parks named after him. He was fired from his first job at the Kansas City Star because his cartoons weren't creative enough.

True story. Elvis Presley was kicked out of the grand old Opry and told that he should go back to driving trucks for a living.

Steven Spielberg, probably one of the most famous directors of our modern age, was turned down from the prestigious Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television, not once, not twice, but three times. He said he ended up going to Cal State Long Beach and eventually studied directing on his own.

Henry Ford declared bankruptcy five times before he finally gained success with this little thing called an assembly line, creating automobiles.

And Oprah Winfrey ran away from home, 14 years old, fleeing abusive parents, becoming pregnant, and wondering if her life would really amount to anything.

Five modern stories of perseverance and remaining steadfast, courageous, and determined, firm in their belief that their lives would amount to something and that they could contribute something.

These individuals were clear on a purpose. Even if they didn't exactly know what that was, they felt they had some sort of purpose, some sort of goal.

And even if they were dealing with issues in the short term, they were able to overcome many obstacles and achieve incredible success.

They truly changed the world, each and every one of them.

The Israelite commander Barak, not Baruch, not Barak, as in Barack Obama, but Barak, was so scared to fight for his people that he asked Deborah, the judge of Israel, to go alongside him.

And you can read that story in Judges 4. We're not going to go through that story now, but you can read that story there.

He was so scared that he asked Deborah to go alongside him, and Deborah said, fine, I'll go with you, but by the way, the credit is going to go to a woman, not to a man, for the victory, because of basically his lack of faith.

And yet Barak is mentioned in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, as an example of faith. So clearly he overcame some things in his life as well.

Jeremiah, the prophet, his career was nearly sidetracked when he ran into some problems in his hometown.

And yet nearly 600 years later, when Jesus Christ showed up on the scene, many people compared Jesus to Jeremiah. That's the kind of incredible man that Jeremiah was.

And Noah, well, one time he drank so much that he found himself asleep with all his clothes off, so much so that his children ended up having to cover him.

And yet he persevered through decades of scorn and ridicule as he built the ark to escape a great flood.

Each of these stories also describes perseverance and remaining steadfast, courageous, and also with a few setbacks.

Firm in their belief that they had a calling, that God had called them to a great purpose.

And despite making a few mistakes along the way, they achieved great things. They changed the world, too.

Look over in Hebrews 3 and verse 14.

And let's see what a lot of these people have in common out of Scripture.

Hebrews 3 and verse 14.

What's being discussed here is what it takes to be in the kingdom of God. Hebrews 3 and verse 14 says, For we have become partakers of Christ, that is, we are part of the body of Christ. If we hold, there's an if, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. Steadfastness. That's the biblical concept that we're talking about in each of these examples.

Whether you look at the examples of Scripture or from our modern day, I believe steadfastness is a key element of success. And in terms of our spiritual journey, it is a matter, as we see here, of life and death.

The term steadfast can be translated as firm, sure, certain. It implies a courage and a resolve to stick to something through thick and thin, good times and bad.

In our modern world, this concept is sometimes expressed by the term grit. Have you heard that term before? Grit.

Psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth has made grit the focus of her study. She has a very famous TED Talk on this. You might check out. It's been viewed about 13 million times. She defines grit as the ability to persevere in pursuing a future goal over a long period of time. Well, that kind of sounds reminiscent of our spiritual journey, doesn't it? A long-term goal over a... sorry, a future goal over a long period of time.

We are not going to give up. We are not going to give in to discouragement. We are not going to compromise our faith. We must be sure, firm, certain, and we must be steadfast until the end. We must have grit if we're going to be successful in this journey. Today, I want to examine a story from the early life of the prophet Jeremiah. I made reference to that in the introduction.

I want to look at that story because I believe it illustrates some things about grit. It illustrates some things about steadfastness. Then we're going to look at some challenges associated with being steadfast. If it was easy, then everybody would be Oprah Winfrey, wouldn't they? Everybody would be Steven Spielberg. Everybody would be Walt Disney. That's incredible talent with incredible work, as we'll see. Let's start with Jeremiah 12 and verse 5 to start out this discussion of grit and steadfastness. Let's read verse 5 to start with. Jeremiah 12 and verse 5. Some of you have probably read this story before. It's an interesting way of putting it. God says to Jeremiah, breaking into the middle of the story, If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace in which you trusted they wearied you, then how will you do in the flooding of the Jordan? You know, this is an interesting passage because if we understand what's going on here, we'll see that Jeremiah was getting a little fatigued. He was getting a little tired. That's what it says here. He was wearied. And yet it was early on in his career. So let's get the context here to why he might be staying. Let's go back to chapter 11 and verse 18. And let's get a little bit of context to see why Jeremiah might have been wearied and why God might have been speaking to him in that way. Jeremiah 11 verse 18, Now the Lord gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it, for you showed me their doings. But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter, and I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more. Verse 20, And there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring catastrophe on the men of Anatoth, even the year of their punishment. So what was going on here was that there were men in Anatoth who were plotting against Jeremiah. And we won't turn there, but if you go back to Jeremiah 1-1, the very beginning of Jeremiah, you'll see that Anatoth is where Jeremiah was from. It was his hometown. It was where he was born.

And so Jeremiah is a young prophet. He's from this area of Anatoth, and he's obviously prophesying. He's fulfilling God's mission for him, and he's doing things that people don't like. And they don't like it so much that they're plotting to kill him. And he's worried by this. He's scared by this. He's worried.

And so he's crying out to God for help, safety, protection in the face of this imminent danger. They were offended by what he was saying.

Now, you think this might be the end of the matter because Jeremiah cried out for help, and God pronounced this prophecy here.

He said, I'm going to utterly bring catastrophe on them. I'm going to wipe them out. But then in Jeremiah 12, verse 1, we read, Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? So now it's not quite good enough for Jeremiah. God's kind of said what he's going to say, but he's like, Yeah, but I still don't get this, God. Why is it the wicked prosper? Now, that is a question that resonates through the ages, right?

Why do the wicked prosper? How do those guys get away with it? Right? I work so hard here doing what you're doing, and they just get away with this. Verse 2, So Jeremiah is sort of reflecting on this, and he's saying, God, just basically help me. Help me understand what's going on here. And in verse 4, he kind of raises a different subject here, which we can go through here. How long will the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither and so forth. But we can fill in the blanks then by the time we get to verse 5. He's pretty worn out from what he's having to go through. And so God says, Hmm, this is interesting, Jeremiah.

Maybe you don't quite have the steadfastness. Maybe you don't quite have the grit. Maybe you don't quite recognize it. You're just in the beginning here. We've got lots ahead. And so if you could be tired by this little situation over here, which to you looks like it's huge.

But for me, from my perspective, this is just a little issue. How is it that you're going to deal with some really big issues that are going to come up in your life? And then he makes an analogy here, a farming analogy, about the flooding of the Jordan.

And what he's talking about here is that this was a land of peace. And what he describes here is that when the Jordan flooded, what would happen, it was well known at the time, James Fosson of Brown. You can kind of look this up. James Fosson of Brown commentary talks about when the wooded area around the banks of the Jordan would flood, what would happen is that certain animals would end up coming into the area.

And James Fosson of Brown talks about lions in particular, and other wild beasts. And so it became a dangerous area to be in when the Jordan flooded. You wouldn't want to just be there on your own. And if you were there in groups, you had to really be on guard against basically being attacked, and potentially a lunch or a dinner for an angry lion.

So what he's saying is, wow, in this land of peace, in this time of tranquility, how can you be wearied? You know, how would it be when the difficult times come, when the Jordan floods and there's real danger about how will you handle this? And then in verse six, he says, For even your brothers in the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. And that's hard to take, isn't it? When our own family can be against us. That's kind of the most hurtful of all. It's one thing when somebody we don't know, some enemy afar, but then when it's our own family, that can be very difficult.

Yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, even though they speak smooth words to you. Don't believe them. God is making very clear here that the weariness that comes from being worried about all these things, when we don't need to worry about these things, God is going to take care of them if we ask Him. And Jeremiah asked Him and God said, I'm going to take care of it.

And that's enough. Go on and recognize that that's just really the beginning. And it's going to get harder. It's going to get harder for you, Jeremiah, but I'm going to be with you and it's time to trust. And I think that's a really important lesson for us because you know what? We don't live right now in a terrible Great Depression. We don't live in an area where we don't have access to health care.

We can go down if we need help. Even if we don't have insurance, we can walk into an emergency room and we can get some help. We don't live in a time of 12% unemployment. We live in a time of peace. And yes, there's a lot of wars and rumors of wars. They don't necessarily touch us. That can't necessarily be said for our brethren in Africa, where unemployment can be 70%, where you can literally die in front of a hospital door if you don't have cash in your pocket to be treated, where people literally will drop dead at early ages of things like malaria or other infectious diseases that have been pretty much wiped out here or we have medication for.

We in this country live incredibly prosperous lives. And yet, we get worried, don't we? Some of us suffer from anxiousness, or we are worried about losing our jobs, or we are dissatisfied on our jobs, or we might have health problems, we might have serious health problems.

Well, if we do have serious health problems, then we can experience this right here. But if we don't have one of those serious times, then maybe, just maybe, God might be saying to us, why would you be weary with the footmen? Aren't you going to be ready to run with the horses? What happens in the next recession, when a lot of us lose our jobs? What happens in the next major conflict that this country has? We were just a few months ago, we were talking about nuclear war with North Korea.

What happens when something like that actually happens? If you look back in history, that's happened way more often than many of us realize, but you see, we didn't have quite the same visibility to it as we used to have. But Truman and Eisenhower, they all discussed using tactical nuclear weapons, even in some cases in regard to Korea. We could really be dealing with some tough times ahead. So if we think about what this says here, in terms of our spiritual journey, and how we're worried right now, how will we contend with horses? That's steadfastness. That's grit. That's firmness. And learning and recognizing that now, and being prepared for it, that's what we're here for.

And that's the example I think we can learn from Jeremiah. Jeremiah eventually left his hometown in Anatoth, and he went to Jerusalem, where he spent 18 years, and he lived under the wise rule of King Josiah. We know Josiah restored many of the practices that had been lost through the ages there of Israel.

However, after Josiah died and Joahaz became king, eventually Joahaz died, and the trials which God had foreseen began to come to pass. Jeremiah had difficulties there locally, and then he had 18 years where he learned a lot, and he lived at a good time. But then the difficulties came. The priests, the prophets, and the people of the land of that time eventually brought Jeremiah before the authorities, and they demanded that he be put to death.

Later, Jeremiah's servant Baruch, which we read the story of here just recently, wrote all these things out in a prophecy, and Jeremiah and Baruch had to run for their lives. And then during the reign of Jehoiakim, he was again imprisoned for his prophecies. And again, later, under King Zedekiah, Jeremiah was thrown into a dungeon. And during the siege of the city of Nebuchadnezzar, and of course, when a city is under siege, you don't think about the prisoners in the dungeon, right?

They just end up dying down there. And very likely he would have died, except for an unlikely rescue of an Ethiopian man who came to help him. And after that, he lived 40 years in occupied Jerusalem, suffering with the rest of his people under the occupation. And finally, he was forced to flee to Egypt, where again he risked the wrath of the authorities there because he continued to predict the overthrow of the nation. And then, as I mentioned before, the Church of God has taught that from, and teaches that from that point, Jeremiah left Egypt, not left in Egypt, but he traveled through the Mediterranean to Spain, and then on to Ireland.

Jeremiah's life had just begun in Anatoth as a young man, and he was weary, and think about all that was ahead. God knows the end from the beginning, and he knows what each of us are going to face ahead, and he, I think, has a similar question for us. Are we ready to run with the horses? Jeremiah remained faithful and powerful to the end of his life. I believe he had the grit and the steadfastness to persevere to the end.

In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt was invited to give a speech at the prestigious Sarban in Paris. And during that speech, he gave a part of it, which has come to be known as the Man in the Arena. Many of you have perhaps read it.

It was a speech entitled, Citizenship in a Republic, which nobody remembers. But they remember this speech. By the way, it was a 35-page speech, which is probably why nobody remembers it. It was so long. But on page seven of that speech, there was the Man in the Arena talk, which has now become one of the most famous speeches in the world. I'll just quote that section.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, but who knows where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strived valiantly, who errs, who comes again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best in the end knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

In a purely worldly wisdom sense, Teddy Roosevelt understood that the price of high achievement was effort in the face of adversity. It was steadfastness, and it was purpose. Teddy Roosevelt was famously shot while giving a speech, and he continued giving the speech because he wasn't done. And then after the speech was over, he got down and went to the doctor. He had a purpose. If he was going to finish that speech, he was going to finish the speech.

But we have a great purpose, too. Look over Colossians 1, verse 23. Colossians 1, verse 23 gives us another indication of our purpose. We read a little bit about it in Hebrews. This is a challenging scripture for mainstream Protestants because once saved, always saved is often the phraseology that people will use. So this one says something that's interesting. Colossians 1, verse 23, it says, If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard.

We broke right into the thought because I wanted to get to the word steadfast, so you can see that there. But what he's talking about here, we can see in verse 19. He says, For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, that is, in Christ, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, that is, by Christ to reconcile all things to God, by Him whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked words, yet now He has reconciled. He has reconciled. He has been reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It says in verse 22, In the body of His flesh, through death, to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable in His sight, we are going to be presented into the presence of God the Father through the reconciliation of Jesus Christ and His blood.

That is an incredible thing. That's bigger than Walt Disney. That's bigger than Oprah Winfrey. That is an incredible promise. If, verse 23, indeed you continue in the faith. See, we have to continue in the faith. There's an if there. That's a big, big if. That doesn't mean we have to be fearful. That doesn't mean God is a boogeyman who wants to get us. Oh, we're going to see how we can trip Him up today. No, God wants us to be successful.

But there's an if. If you continue in the faith. Grounded and steadfast. Grounded and steadfast. Now, this word, steadfast, here, comes from a word which describes sitting. The idea is that you're sitting. You're not moving. You're stable. You're not bouncing around. You're firm. That's where this word, steadfast, comes from. It comes from the concept of just, you're there. No one's going to push you over. No one's going to make you get up and get out of the way. You are there. That's what's steadfast. And that's why it's interesting that He continues to hit it.

Grounded. He's trying to get this like, you are grounded. You are not going anywhere. This is your profession. This is your purpose. This is why God has called you to be part of His family, as we heard in the sermonette.

This is what we're doing here. And nothing's going to deter us from that. Nothing's going to move us from that. And that means even if we have to run with some horses, we're going to run with those horses, because we know what our purpose is. We will remain steadfast, despite the challenges that come our way. Let's look over in Hebrews 10, verse 23. And let's talk about how we do that. What does that mean? What does that actually mean, to remain steadfast? All of us might say, yeah, sure, I get this. Yep. Firm in the faith. Well, Hebrews 10, verse 23, in this section of Scripture, begins to get behind what that means to be steadfast. It says here, Hebrews 10, verse 23, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. This is the same concept of being steadfast, being firm, being sure. We're not wavering. We know. We're holding it fast. For he who promised is faithful. We know we are going to be presented into God's very presence as spirit beings. And now he's going to describe a little bit about how we do that.

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. OK, that's part of being firm. We're encouraging and we're being encouraged. We're in a company of believers. Verse 25, Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. That's the first thing it goes to. If we're going to remain immovable, steadfast, if we're going to have grit, it's not going to come from us sort of, I'm going to have grit today. No, it's going to come from being encouraged, being encouraged and encouraging one another. And now in verse 26, Paul is going to continue to expand and he says, For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. This is often we will go right to this verse and talk about the unpardonable sin.

The unpardonable sin is to forsake willfully our calling. And so Paul is saying, you've got to remain steadfast because the choice is pretty grim. The choice is pretty grim because if we sin willfully after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for us. But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and firing indignation, which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. In verse 28 it says, in verse 29, How much worse punishment, do you suppose, will be thought worthy, who has trampled the Son of God under foot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Oh, okay, yeah, this is kind of serious what he's talking about. You know, this is not like, oh yeah, you know, you walk away from the sermon like, yeah, Mr. February, I got that. That's right. I got it. I'm steadfast. No, no, it's serious stuff. This is what Paul's saying. Be firm because the alternative is bleak. God has called you for a purpose and he's not just going to say, oh yeah, that's fine. You can go away.

Yeah. We'll see you in the second resurrection. No, it doesn't work that way. If we've been called, we've been called for a purpose. And if we have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our lives, and if we have repented and then later we turn, he says it's nothing what you saw in the law of Moses. This is much more frightful than that.

Verse 30, for we know him who said, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge his people. Sometimes we quote that verse about other people, but this is talking about us. Vengeance is mine. We often say, oh, you know, he's talking about the people of God. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

And now Paul is going to change gears a little bit in verse 32, and he's going to say, but. But recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, that is, after you realize the truth, we often say, how long have you known the truth? After you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. Don't forget what you've been through. You've been through a lot already. You know how to do this. You know how to persevere. You persevered before, and you will persevere in the future, and you will be successful.

Verse 33, partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. You were part of a company of believers, and you suffered while in that company, while at the same time you were ridiculed and mocked in public.

Verse 34, for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. You suffered this because you had a vision of what this all meant, and you were able to take it. And you didn't mind if your goods were plundered.

You didn't mind if you lost all this, because you realized that's not where your heart was. That's not where your treasure was. So let me remind you where your treasure is. Your treasure is in heaven. Your enduring possession is in heaven. Verse 35, Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. Don't cast this away. You've done it before. You'll do it again. You know what this looks like.

You've got the ability to be successful in this way of life, despite all the sufferings and all the difficulties that are going to come your way. That's what Paul is saying. In verse 36, For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

You see, we need endurance. We need that. And so we should be praying, God, give me the endurance that I need to stay true to your word. Give me the endurance, because I need it. Because that's what I read in Scripture. It says that I need endurance, so that after I have endured, I will receive this great reward and this great promise. Verse 37, For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. If anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe in the saving of the soul. We are not people who are in retreat. We are people who are advancing. We are people who know our purpose and are making progress and are growing and developing and are becoming more and more like Jesus Christ every day. That's what he's saying. That's how we remain steadfast by advancing, by asking God for endurance, by recalling the difficulties of our early conversion and what we went through and going back to the difficulties that we faced and recognizing that God got us through those difficulties and he's going to get us through the difficulties that are ahead of us.

In a society with shorter and shorter attention spans, where we see in the media people who have great wealth and great success in their art, we often don't realize what it took for those people to get to where they were.

A great pianist doesn't become that way overnight. It's been often said that somebody approached a great pianist. I can't remember if it was Oritz or Rubenstein, and he said, you know, I'd give my left arm to play like you. And the pianist said, are you kidding? I've given my entire life to play like this. Left arm? What's that? That's nothing. I've given my whole life to play like this.

Eight hours a day. We don't realize what it takes. We look at it and say, wow, I like that. Yeah, well, it took a lot. It took decades and decades to get to that point. Malcolm Gladwell in his 2007 book Outliers examined the critical components required for success. He looked at people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and other great names like that. People of incredible talent, and said, why is it that some people with incredible talent end up being like a Steve Jobs, and other people with incredible talent do not end up being like a Steve Jobs? What is it? Interestingly, he found a lot of it was luck.

But he also found something that's been greatly contested at this point, but I'll bring it up, because he still posits that it's the case. And that is that success requires practice. It requires a lot of practice. And in fact, he even identified the number. You might have heard this number before. 10,000 hours. He actually put it out there. He said, yeah, 20 hours a week for 10 years. That's the kind of practice it takes to get good at something. 10,000 hours. Now, there's been a lot of studies around that in the last 10 years. I can't remember what university it's at. No, it's not true, and you can't correlate that, and so forth.

It's not my point to defend Gladwell's ideas, but all the studies do confirm that actually practice did help. Maybe it wasn't as important as Gladwell was saying, but it was important. It takes a lot of practice. A lot of practice. Look over in 1 Corinthians 9, and let's see what Paul might say about this. If Paul was here, what would he say? I think we might see that in 1 Corinthians 9 and in verse 24. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?

That's how it works. One is going to receive the prize. Run in such a way that you may obtain it. So you've got to run in such a way that you're going to win. How are you going to win? Well, you're going to be out on the track. You're going to have a good coach. You're going to take care of your health. You're going to get your sleep. You're going to read a lot about it.

To be a great track star is not just like, I think I was born to run. Yeah, some people are. Some people are fast. But that doesn't mean they're going to be the greatest. They have to actually work at it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Temperate. They actually have to exercise self-control. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.

So Paul is actually using this analogy. He's saying, look at these people here in the Olympics. Look at these people who are running for a great prize. And look at the incredible work and practice that they have to go through to be successful. Just like I said, look at Walt Disney.

Look at Henry Ford. Look at what these people did. It was an incredible amount of perseverance and grit to be successful. And they did it for money. They did it for prestige. They did it for a perishable crown. But Paul says, we run for an imperishable crown.

Verse 26, Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one who beats the air. That is, I'm not just randomly out there. I am focused on what I should do. But I discipline my body, and I bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

I realize I myself have to do this. I have to do this. Me personally. Paul says he had to do this because he was setting an example. Otherwise, he could become disqualified just like anyone else. He had to discipline himself. He had to run the race in a way that he would win it. Just as he looked at those runners out there, all the things they had to do, he was going to do that from a spiritual standpoint.

He was going to do what it takes to be successful. If that means 10,000 hours, how many hours of prayer is it going to take on something? How many times asking God, show me your will. Show me what it is that I'm supposed to be learning from this lesson. How am I supposed to change? What should I be doing differently?

Let's go back to Hebrews and see how this is actually described. Hebrews 5 and verse 12. Paul kind of zeroes in on something.

As I've been in the church over the years, my wife and I have talked about this. What tends to happen in sermons is we tend to hear things that we want to hear. We tend to hear, like, oh yeah, steadfastness. I got this. We tend to hear what we want to hear. We're trying to be difficult. We're trying to have an open mind.

We're trying to be willing and non-resistant. But we come in and we have all these different things in our minds. So we hear what we want to hear. I think Paul's letter here to the Hebrews is getting right to this point. We can't just hear what we want to hear. We've got to hear what God wants us to hear. Paul says in Hebrews 5 verse 12, Although by this time you want to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, that you have come to need milk and not solid food. That's a pretty big indictment. If I said, all of you, you've been in the church so long, you've actually gotten yourself away from solid meat, and now you're on the milk of the word like a babe. Well, okay, that's practice. But if you're not practicing in the right way, you can injure yourself. If you're not practicing with the right advice and the right support, you're just going to be doing things over and over and over again. And if you've ever been in sports, you've tried that. If everybody's run a race, you get out there, you're going to run the 400, you're going to run the 800, you're going to run a mile. I used to run the mile when I was in Youth Opportunities United, the church program, years ago. And I'd run the mile, and I'd run it. And you know, my time did not vary that much. And I tried all these types of things, but then you get a coach, and he starts working with you. Whoa! I started running faster. So it's not just a matter of like, I got this. You actually have to go get input to make a change. Otherwise, we could actually regress. We could actually start running more slowly. And then he says, in verse 13, For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. We could be babes. We could be in church for years and years and years, and not really be making the progress that we need to make. Verse 14, But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. By reason of use, it's work, it's activity, it's actively seeking where we need to be changing and growing. And in chapter 6, verse 1, Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. And in my margin, it uses the word maturity. Let us go on to maturity. And in the context, that really fits, because what he's talking about is people who really were either immature or became immature, and they need to become mature. It's about growth. The niece of Teddy Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, once said, You should do something scary every single day. Now, don't be silly, right? I mean, don't take that in the wrong way. But the point is, if we are actually pushing ourselves to do something that we would not otherwise do because it's kind of scary to us, we might be exercising ourselves and discerning things that we wouldn't discern otherwise, because we're really saying, God, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to run a little bit faster. I'm going to do a little bit more than what I did before because I want to trust you. And I trust that you're going to guide me in what I should be doing. It's a mindset of growth. It's a mindset of growth.

Let's go over to 2 Peter 3, verse 14, and we'll see here that as we're doing this, we can make mistakes. We can fall. And that's a risk. But Peter is encouraging the people of his time to look to Jesus Christ, both for forgiveness and for guidance. 2 Peter 3, verse 14, he says, Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, that is to the future return of Jesus Christ, and when this whole earth will be purged and cleansed, he says, Be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless. I think that's interesting. If you think about it, here, Peter, he would have been with Jesus Christ for three and a half years. He had preached. He had been thrown in prison. He had suffered so much of all the men you would think he truly could speak to diligence and steadfastness.

And he says, Be found intellectually correct. Be found being the smartest person in the room. Be found the smartest person when it comes to doctrines. He says, No, be found by him, by Jesus Christ, in peace, without spot and blameless. That is, focused on how we individually overcome and grow. An account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation. God's patience is for our salvation, and he is patient. We will make mistakes. I really think that Noah is going to be incredibly embarrassed by that story. I mean, a man like him. And yet, on the other hand, maybe not. Maybe he fully made his peace with God over that mistake that he made. I'm sure Jeremiah will be like, wow, I'm glad somebody got something out of my weariness and tiredness with the men of Anatoth. Because he obviously would look back and then go, wow, I had so much to learn. And of course, Barak and that story is a very interesting story in Judges. If you have a chance to look at it, it's a very short story. But essentially, he had 10,000 men against 900 chariots. And he wasn't going to take those odds. That's why he wanted Deborah to come with him. But as it turned out, God likely sent a reign. We see an indication of that in Judges 5. And it caused all those chariots to get bogged down, such that they couldn't be effective. And now it was 10,000 to 1,000, basically, people. And they actually had a chance, and he was victorious. And so he would probably look back and go, wow, I really did have a lot to grow in. And so God is patient with us. As also, it says, our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you. As also, in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things. So Paul wrote about what it meant to understand God's patience in our salvation. And he wrote about being steadfast, and he wrote about being disciplined. He says, of which things are hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. So there are people who will twist those things. But he says in verse 17, Since you know these things beforehand, since you know what's going to come, since you know that people are going to twist these things, beware! Lest you also fall from your own steadfastness. There's that same word, grit. Steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. We, too, can fall.

We can be steadfast and we can fall. We can be turned away. We can be susceptible to these things. But he says in verse 18, and this is the context. We go to verse 18 all the time, but this is the context. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. That's where we look to. It's not our own sort of working it up, but it's through growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. It's looking into that mirror, that perfect law of liberty, and asking Jesus Christ to guide us, to help us to see how we should be growing, that we might remain steadfast and not just have ten thousand hours of the same practice over and over again, but that we can really make our prayers, our time in Sabbath services, the Holy Day season that we go through year to year valuable. And we can look back and see a difference in our lives. That's what we should be seeing. If we look over to Luke 21, verse 19, Jesus' own words confirm this.

It says in Luke 21, verse 19, it's just kind of a short little ending to this discussion. He says, In your patience, possess your souls. In your patience, possess your souls. One translation of that verse says, By your endurance, you will gain your lives. That's what patience is, right? It has this element of endurance. And possessing your soul, well, that's to save your life, right? Get your life together. Save your life. By your endurance, you will gain your lives. And this is what it's going to take. It's going to take grit. It's going to take this endurance, this ability to just remain focused year after year.

We're not here necessarily to be the richest woman in the world, like Oprah Winfrey, or the greatest director, like Steven Spielberg, or the greatest industrialist, like Henry Ford. But we're called to rule the heavens alongside the creator of all that exists. That's an incredible promise. That's a promise that each of us has. Let's run the race. Let's fight the fight. Let's remain steadfast in our determination to be in God's kingdom.