Get Grit | Pastor Ethan Boggs | Vibrant Church

0:00 week. All right. Are you ready for the word? Week number one, we spoke about how bold moves require a burden. We then spoke about how bold moves require a step of faith. Week number three, bold moves require the right attitude. Then in week number four, talked about last week, how bold moves require sacrifice. And today, we're going to see in the life of Nehemiah how bold moves require grit. Grit. Everybody say grit. If you're going to make bold moves, you're going to need some perseverance. You're going to need some determination. You're going to need some old-fashioned grit. You know what I'm talking about?

0:48 Let me give you a definition. Grit is the courage and determination to keep going when the work gets hard, progress gets slow, and quitting feels easier. Because there's going to be a point in our lives or even in the life of our church where the excitement may wear out, may wane a little bit. Opposition may show up. And what God has called you to do may become more and more difficult. But how many of you know that it takes faith to start, but it's going to take grit to keep going. I came across a thought, and it's I don't think it's I don't know. It's just a good thought. It was on a podcast. I

1:33 don't know who originated this thought, and I want to share it with you. It's not real spiritual, but it sounds good. Here we go. Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times. So, I submit to you today that we are living in or heading into harder times because we are missing people with grit. With grit, with perseverance and determination and discipline. In fact, when I was putting this message together, I thought about my granny who was born in 1929. She died a handful of

2:19 years ago. And she lived her first decade of life during the Great Depression. And when she was passing away, we went to the hospital and this is a lady who lived through the World War and poverty and all the things that many of our grandparents have experienced. And I went to the hospital to see her and and they moved her into hospice which was at that time, you know, it's it's changed a little bit but hospice was pretty much end of life moment. And we go in there and it just takes a while for her to pass on. And I remember us asking the nurse, is is this normal? You know, seems like all the symptoms are there that she should pass on and and be at peace now.

3:05 You know what she told us? The hospice nurse told us that that generation because they lived through such hard times, they just don't give up easy. You know what that is? Grit. They had it in them. They're called the greatest generation for a reason. We are living in a time that we have low commitment and high entitlement. We have low commitment and high expectations. So everybody wants a job, they'll go in and they have low commitment, low work ethic, but they have high expectation for raises and the corner office. Y'all getting quiet on me now. We have low engagement with our church and then expect the church to be there for us when when we've never been in the

3:51 church. We don't know when even knows we're here and then we get offended when no one checks on us. Have high expectations but low engagement. Low commitment. I think the same is true in marriages that we have low input and and and low low uh investments to our relationship, but we have high expectations. So, if things just don't go our way, we just quit. We just walk away from the church, we walk away from the job, we walk away from the marriage. And don't misunderstand me, there's always exceptions to the things I'm implying right now, but but the truth is it can be I just to make it as true as I can as plain as I can make it if I could get through this sentence without stuttering would be great. Just to make it as plain as I could make

4:38 it, the truth is it seems like we're losing grit. People as a whole, we want the rewards of staying committed while keeping the option to quit. When Jesus said, "You put your hand to the plow, you don't look back." Words like Paul that said to Timothy, "Endure hardness as a good soldier." Peter said to stand firm in the faith. And it just to give you maybe to help you think this through, Vince Lombardi said it like this that once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit. So today in the life of Nehemiah, one thing you see, not only do you see the burden, not only do you see the step of faith, not

5:24 only do you see him gathering people with vision and and going after and sacrifice, something about Nehemiah, this brother would just not quit. So, if you have your Bibles, meet me in Nehemiah chapter number six. We're moving through his story and we'll be concluding next week. But, you know the context, I'll give it to you again. Nehemiah is working for the king. The Bible lets us know he's a cupbearer. He receives a burden from the Lord to to go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, to bring back the dignity of Jerusalem, to protect God's city. And so, what we find is that he gets permission from the king, he prays, he plans, he gathers a team, he casts vision, he and the building begins.

6:11 That's exciting. That's kind of how we want it to go, right? Like the building goes and then it's like all said and done and then boom. But over and over and over in the story of Nehemiah, there's three names that just keep coming up. In fact, if you've gone ahead and read some, you would probably be like me when you read these names, you start getting annoyed with these guys. All right, let me give you their names. Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, Tobiah, the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab. Now, when reading, we could just read quickly past those, but here's what they are. They're really uh people who represent established political power at

6:58 that time. So, they're being territorial. They're seeing the walls of Jerusalem being built and there it's a threat to their regional influence and political interests. So, these three names over and over are territorial and they're threatened by what God is doing in Jerusalem. Let me just stop and say this. If you're going to do something great for God, you better expect someone not to like it. And here's what we find. Let's just go through a few verses. Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 10. This is when we first hear these these guys. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, speaking about the wall, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare

7:43 of the Israelites. So, it just starts that they're annoyed. Let's go down to verse 19. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. So, now they've gone from you're annoying us to now they're mocking it and ridiculing the work of God. Let's go to chapter 4. When Sanballat, verse 1, heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry. And was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews. Look what he says, "Can they bring the stones back to

8:29 life from those heaps of rubble burned as they are?" Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, always together. You notice that? Birds of a feather are stupid together. "What are they building? Even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones." Are you seeing what happens here? Starts with disturbance and annoyance. Goes now into anger. Now they're ridiculing, mocking, and what we're seeing is they're discrediting the work. Discrediting. Let me just tell you something. There's going to be people in your life that will discredit what God is trying to do in your life. They'll

9:14 mock it. "You don't got to go to church that much. You don't got to go that often. You don't got to tithe. You don't got to be a part of that big old building that Yankees trying to build down there." They're going to ridicule. They're going to laugh. They're going to mock. "You don't need to raise your kids in the house of God. You shouldn't be uh Let your wife carry the devotions. And And why you got to do all that praying stuff? And why you got to bring your Bible to work? Come on, is there any real people know what I'm talking about?" We find in verse 7 of chapter 4, but when Sanballat, look at it, here he goes again. Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead, and that the gaps

10:02 were being closed, they were very angry. Look Look how how this has progressed. Look at verse 8. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. So, it just started as disturbance. And then this group of people have now gone from anger, mock, ridicule, discrediting, now they're going to fight. And all the while Nehemiah just keeps on working on a building. Keeps building the wall. Never takes his hands off the plow. With all the opposition around him. Now, this is where I really want you to go. This This is where it all comes to a

10:49 head, right here. This is like explosive. We are now face-to-face having problems with these guys and Nehemiah. Cuz at first, it's just sass. Little bit of somethings, little here and there, little post on Facebook, little text somebody, whatever. But now we're getting somewhere. Look at chapter 6, verse number 1. When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies. Now, this is Nehemiah writing. That I had rebuilt the wall. So, now we've progressed, the wall is almost done. And not a gap was left in it, though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates. What he's saying is the wall's almost done, there's a few walls I ain't got up yet.

11:34 Verse number 2. Sanballat and Geshem sent me this text message. Come, let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they were scheming to harm me. In the plain of Ono. >> [laughter] >> Isn't that interesting? If somebody texts you and wants to meet up somewhere and they don't like you, the answer is Ono. So, I sent messengers to them with this reply. Watch what Nehemiah says. I'm carrying on a great project and cannot go down. You should Well, excuse me. Why should

12:20 the work stop while I leave it and go down to you? In other words, he's saying I'm an eagle. You're a chicken. Why should I come down to your level of thinking and your attitude? He says, "What I'm doing is so important, I'm not compromising this being accomplished by coming to affirm you." Watch this. Four times they just kept texting him. And each time I gave them the same answer. Then the fifth time This is so good. Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message. And in this

13:07 hand was an unsealed letter. Literally meant to be read. It was a statement. He's trying to be sassy. Verse number six. The Bible is so good. How many of you just love the Bible? Watch this. Verse number six. This is what the letter says. It is reported among the nations. And Geshem says it's true. What 14-year-old wrote this? You see what he said? He said, "It's true and so does Sally. She said it's true." So Geshem says it's true that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports, you are about to become their king. So he's he's trying to

13:54 He's saying some stuff right now. And have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem. There is a king in Judah. Now this report will get back to the king, the one that he left. So come, let us meet together. Let us meet together. Look what Nehemiah says. I sent him this text back. Nothing like what you are saying is happening. You were just making it up out of your head. Man, I just love the Bible. I mean, that's real talk. You can see this happening at Peppers in town. They were Here's Here's the Here's the gist of the matter, verse 9. They were

14:39 all trying to frighten us, thinking their hands would get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed. But I prayed, "Now strengthen my hands." Ooh, I love that. Now strengthen my hands. I know they're saying stuff. I know they're talking. I know they're running my their mouth, but strengthen my hands, cuz this work's too good to come down from the wall. >> [applause] >> In our final moments together, I'm going to hurry. What we find in a book by F. E. Marsh, it's called Disciples Manual, chapter 31. He talks about three enemies that we're always fighting. The first one is internal. Internal. One of the greatest battles, and I think you all know you're ever going to fight, is going to be your own pride. It's going to be your own sin. What we find in chapter number one, that

15:26 Nehemiah, before he starts building the wall, he actually confesses, he prays, he clears his heart before God, because you can't do something great for God if you're not living for God. He wants to be clean. He wants to be right. Not only internally do we deal with our sin and our pride, but we deal with our worries and our insecurities and our fears. And let me just say this, I think pride comes out in a couple different ways. I think there are people who have pride that want to be seen. And then there's this another expression is that there's another sense of pride that says, "What is everyone thinking about me?" Both different expressions, but both are pride. Cuz they're both central about yourself.

16:11 So, pride isn't always wanting to be seen. Sometimes pride is being overly self-conscious, and both of those will hinder you from doing great things for God. Your internal fight needs to be dealt with. Humility says that I'm obeying God because it's his plan and his purpose and I'm willing to be misunderstood. I'm not trying to protect my image. I'm not trying to be somebody, but I'm taking a step of faith in humility. That's dealing with your internal battle. Second thing he says is the external. This is where the fight is what we really see in the life of Nehemiah. The fight is external. They mocked the work.

16:57 They questioned the motives. They threatened the builders. I don't know about you, but if you're going to do anything great for God, you're going to be criticized. In fact, let me just say this, if you're going to follow Jesus, if you're going to be a disciple and follow If you start reordering your life around his word and his authority, you're not going to fit and people ain't going to like it. And there's going to be some external pressure. I was listening the other day to Pastor Nick Saban and he said something. The guy is a genius. He really is. I'm so glad he's not still over there, but man, he's a genius. He said this. He noticed how coaching changed when social media arrived. He said because for years and years he

17:43 coached players that could not be evaluated online. He couldn't see how many followers They couldn't see how many followers they got. They didn't have any real-time texts or tweets about them or posts about them. They just played for themselves. He says, I noticed somewhere in the mid-2000s where things begin to shift because my players stopped thinking about working hard for them and started thinking about everybody else. We are social. We are tribal. We fear being rejected by people. I understand, but if we're going to live for God, Jesus said to be the light of the world. Be salt in a dark place. Be salt in a hateful place, you're going to not fit. And the church is told by Jesus that they hated me first, and they're going to hate you next.

18:30 And I just want to help you today that if you're going to make bold steps, if you're going to really just follow Jesus, you and I have to quit trying to blend in with culture. We have to stand out. We have to be what he called us to be. We have to be different, we got to walk different, we got to talk different. We are the church of the LIVING GOD. WE'RE NOT GOING TO FIT WITH WHAT'S HAPPENING out there. We should have a different attitude. We should be different people because our life source is not news. Our life source is not a scrolling feed. Our life source is the very presence of God. We should be different. And when I I heard this quote years ago

19:15 and I'll give it to you, Leonard Ravenhill said it like this, "A man who is intimate with God is not intimidated by man." If you're intimidated by people, it will be an indicating factor that you haven't been intimate with God. If all of you feel is fear from approval of people, and you need everybody to agree with you, and you have such social anxiety that no one's going to agree with you or like you, can I tell you you have been eating from the wrong life source? He is with you, and if he is for you, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO'S AGAINST YOU. Say amen, everybody. You see, Nehemiah, the Bible says over and over that he prayed. He experiences opposition, and he prays. In other words, when the when the heat externally came on, Nehemiah, what did

20:00 he do? He connected to his life source that just reminded him that God is with him, and God is for him, and God is going to strengthen him, and help him, and lead him. Don't be intimidated by external battles. Last one he gives, interesting word, infernal. Infernal. It literally means hell itself. Some of the battles you're facing, as the scripture says, are not flesh and blood. The things that you're battling are not people. From time to time, you may not realize, but you are fighting a real devil who absolutely wants to steal, kill, and destroy your life and your faith. The Bible lets us know

20:47 that he knows This is such an interesting verse. That he knows his time is short. The enemy feels the time and the clicking of the clock, and he's throwing all the tricks he's got to distract people to quit, to get them to throw in the towel, to get them to walk out on God, to give up on their faith, to give up on their marriage, to give up on vision and dreams. Now, think about this. I I don't have a ton of time. I wish I did. Well, you go a little further in Nehemiah. Let me show it to you. But, just a few verses later, let's look Look what Nehemiah says. One day, I went to the house of Shemaiah, who was shut in at his home. He said, "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close

21:33 the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you by night, and they're coming to kill you." That sounds pretty spiritual, doesn't it? Let's go to church. Everybody hates you, they're trying to kill you, let's go to church. Verse 12. I realized that God had not sent him. >> [sighs] >> I realized that God did not send this guy, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. Did you see that? That the enemies had gotten so sinister. They weren't just posting anymore. They weren't just talking trash anymore. They had literally hired a man to stand in a way as he's standing and speaking for God. He had a demonic prophet prophesying to

22:19 him to go to church, so that he could hide. And what we find is what what is believed is they were going to be in the temple, they were going to kill him when he got in there. But God gave Nehemiah discernment to pick up the fact that this man was used by the enemy to destroy his life, and he picked that up. Come on, you're going to need some discernment if you're going to handle stuff. You're going to live your life, you better able to hear stuff that you ain't really hearing in the natural. You got to hear some stuff in the spirit. I know that not every difficulty is a demonic attack, but we must recognize that following Jesus does require spiritual warfare. And you cannot fight a spiritual battle with determination alone, you're going to need the strength of God.

23:07 So, the enemy is real. Infernal battles. But the enemy is not greater than God. I want you to know something today that hell doesn't know what to do with someone who doesn't quit. Hell doesn't know what to do with somebody who won't JUST GIVE UP, WHO just won't throw IN THE TOWEL, who just will stay married to this person and stay at the church and keep pushing through and get offended and come back and and keep talking to your mom even though she drives you crazy. The devil doesn't know what to do with those people. Here's what's amazing about not quitting and the piano player somebody should come. Here's here's what you know. You know what's amazing about quitting? You don't have to have a degree. You don't have to know Greek and Hebrew.

23:52 You don't have to know every scripture in the Bible. You don't got to be the most talented, the best looking. You just got to have some grit. Some tenacity inside of you that says, "I'm not quitting." Think about over the years this church. The 40 plus years some of the members we just saw along the street. They could have quit. They could have thought that day in those living rooms they went to Probe's Park and started this thing. They could have said, "You know, this is foolishness. It's just a handful of us. It seems unnecessary." Why do we need to be a part of something like this? You know, we'll just go do something else. But they didn't quit. That's one of my greatest fears in pastoring in 2026, [music] where we are seeing hard times because of weak men

24:40 and women who wanting convenience and comfort and trying to build a church with people [music] whose mind is based simply on convenience, high entitlement, low commitment. It's tough. The average person comes to church once out of three to four weeks. It's tough. But we don't back up. We don't quit. We have grit. We need an [music] attitude of tenacity, an attitude that says we are not coming off the wall. >> [applause] >> I've read a lot of verses today, but let me give you this one. Nehemiah chapter 6 verse 3 one more time. I sent [music] the messengers. I sent the messengers. I'm carrying on a great project and I'm not coming down.

25:29 The question was why should the work stop? Why should the work cease? I'm not coming down. Listen to me, parent. You keep raising that kid in the way they should go. That why should the work cease? They may not like it, but why should the work cease? Listen to me, family. If if God's called us to build this building, I would I would strongly urge you to have a heart inside of you that says why should the work cease? I'm not coming down. We're not giving [music] up. Not backing up. We see this with Jesus on Calvary that he could have called legions of angels to save him and to protect him from all of the things, the crowd yelling at him. Hell itself was wrapping around him. The

26:15 work was to be done by Christ and he said, "I'm not coming down." I'm not coming down. Because I got Dan Harris to save. That's why I'm not coming down. I got Richard Gill to save. THAT'S WHY I'M I'M DOWN. I GOT LIVES AND HEARTS TO BE TRANSFORMED AND IF I COME DOWN, hell wins. But the WORK IS TOO IMPORTANT. THE NAILS MAY HURT, BUT I'M NOT COMING DOWN. >> [applause and music] >> THE BIBLE SAYS HE joyfully endured the cross that WAS BEFORE HIM. THAT HE SET HIS FACE LIKE A FLINT. IN OTHER WORDS, HE was so determined AND SO MUCH GRIT. I'M not coming [music] down. They literally said, "Save yourself."

27:01 I'm coming down. Three days later, he comes out of the tomb and I'm so grateful he did not come off that cross. I don't know who I'm preaching to today, but is there anybody on a Sunday morning that's grateful that your Jesus did not come down off the cross, BUT HE CAME UP OUT OF THE TOMB so that you have life and life more abundantly. Come on, let's give Jesus a praise. >> [music and applause] >> I'm so grateful Jesus had grit. Jesus didn't quit. He could have given up on the cross. You know what that says to me and you? That he won't give up on us even when we want to give up on him. He will never quit on us. He'll never get Listen to me. You may be in this

27:47 room today a drug addict. You may be a drug addict in this room right now and you just feel like I cannot get my life right. Listen to me, God's never quit on you. He never given up on you. You may want to give up on him. You may be wrapped up in pornography this morning. You may You may ABSOLUTELY FEEL SO MUCH SHAME AND GUILT AND YOU WANT TO QUIT, BUT I'VE COME TO TELL YOU, HE DIDN'T QUIT AND HE'S NOT DONE WITH YOU. >> [music] >> Some of your faith is so heavy and you think I don't want to keep serving God. [music] How can good things happen to bad people? What's going on in my life? I don't know where God is. It may be easy to want to quit, but the

28:33 Bible says in Galatians 6:9, "Don't be weary in doing well. You shall reap if you just don't quit." We need grit. >> [music] >> I'm done. I'm done. John Quincy Adams, sixth president. Love presidential [music] history. I'm a nerd, super bad nerd. John Quincy Adams President, [music] sixth president of the United States, son of John Adams, second president of the United States. John Quincy Adams, brilliant. He traveled, young man, he knew French, knew all this stuff. I've read books on him. He's a fascinating guy. But I read something [music] the other day. He was the one of the few presidents that after he was president, he went into Congress, okay? He goes and serves in Congress.

29:19 And while he's in there he's a he's the Adams [music] family, not the not those ones. What's the John Adams was the only founding father, interesting for you to know, [music] the only only founding father that did not have slaves as [music] an act of principle. He could afford them. He just did He did not believe in it. Him and his wife were very religious, did not believe [music] in it. One of the few. Well, John Adams had that same attitude about it. So, when he goes into Congress, he begins to push forth all of this effort to abolish slavery very early, before uh >> [music] >> Abraham Lincoln and all that. He just keeps pushing for it. And he keeps [music] getting struck down. It's a different time. And over and over

30:05 these folks just kept shutting it down. No, we need slaves. No, we And here's what's interesting. A young [music] a young senator went to John Quincy Adams and said, "Are you ever going to quit this? I mean, this is ridiculous. You just keep getting shut down. They're America's not ready for it." He says to him, "Effort No, duty is our part. Results are God's part." "Just duty, I'm going to do my part," he said. In other words, "I'm not quitting. I'm not coming down off the wall. Say what you want, do what [music] you want. This is too important, John Quincy Adams said. I'm not coming down. Can I tell you what we do in this room every 7 days and throughout the week with school of discipleship and students and kids? It

30:51 is too important. We are not coming off this wall. There are too many people that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're not coming down. [music and applause]