Grit: Unshakeable Faith

What does it mean?

I remember when I was working at a camp I would work at the rock climbing wall and there was this element called the trapeze. Everyone know what a circus trapeze is right? where you jump off the platform and in your leap you grab onto the bar that is hanging there and ride it on to the other side.

However at my camp had the platform as a wooden telephone poll that was roughly 20 feet high. That poll wobbled like crazy, it would move back and forth and the fear was never climbing up the poll but rather the fear was jumping off and taking a leap towards the bar becuase of how much the wind and your own movemnet would effect the way the poll moved.

We are starting a new series which I did not fiqure out a cool but still short name for this series, so I called it Grit, Guts and Glory which is essentially what we are going to talk about this month and breaking it down more to how do I handle doubts and how do I handle the waves of life.

Stress, events, successes, detraments, even difficult questions.

These are just some of the things that can make our faith shake, and I wish with all my heart that you would live a life that you would never have doubt, but if I teach you guys how to have the Joy of Christ 24/7 then I am really not perparing you for real life. I am kinda just ignoring the problem.

My prayer over you is that when you have doubts about what you believe that you would find strength, grit, in Christ.

Listen to this passage in Luke

Luke 6:47–49 NIV

As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

If you want to know what a unshakeable faith looks like then you are really wondering what does it mean to trust in Christ.

See Christ is the foundation in the story, he is the rock on which the wise builder would build his house.

When we put our trust in Jesus, it’s not the ceasing of waves and it is not the abcense of chaos in your life. Rather it is the back brace to the home that is your life.

With Christ as your soild foundation you will be able to overcome high waves of life becuase you are firmly planted in him, his word, his death, his ressurection.

Even more is take Pauls words who gives us a differenet understanding on surviving a storm.

1 Corinthians 3:10–16 NIV

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?

Read together 1 Cor 3:10-21

Why does Paul say our bodies are a temple?

What does Paul mean when he talks about the wise and the foolish?

What are some ways for you to before like the wise man who builds a foundation that is Jesus?

Paul and Jesus both point to the same thing in two different ways.

Jesus through waves crashing agaisnt a house and Paul through a fire that passes over it.

All in all to build a life of unshakeable faith it means this:

put your trust in Jesus

Trust that him as the foundation of your life, even tho disasters might strike, that you will stand firm in him.

2. Build upon the foundation that is your faith in Christ.

As any construction worker could tell you it is this, if you do not build the house the house will not be built. It’s really easy and common thing in the trade industry, if you do not build the house the house will not be there.

Spend time with God, build into creating a life with him. If you want a life that is build on the foundation of Christ, then how you live the rest of your life should focus on that.

If I choose to have a foundation that is focused on Jesus and never live my life in ways that he calls me, then I built a straw house on a concrete foundation. The house will fall but the foundation will stand.

3. Use the proper resources to build with.

How to live life with Jesus counts and we are going to jump into that in small groups. Having a unshakeable faith comes when we put our foundation, our trust in Jesus, build the frame with him as we spend time and energy to be with him and lastly what resources we use to follow Christ do count.

What does Paul mean in verse 21?

What is the importance of learning to read the bible on your own?

What is the importance of studying/learning outside of church/youth?