Grace Not Grit: Working Harder Won't Fix The Problem
Message Description
You weren't made to earn your way to God--you were made to live from His grace. Yet how often do we attempt to work our way into better relationship with God? All this does is leave you soul-level exhausted. As much as grit is needed in this life, what you need most with God isn't grit--it's grace. In this message, discover how God has wonderfully turned life upside down through his grace and offers us a way to build a life that lasts.
Message Summary
For over 4,500 years, the Great Pyramids of Egypt have stood through storms, empires, and earthquakes. Crafted from over two million stones, some weighing more than a school bus, they were precisely aligned and masterfully engineered. They weren’t thrown together by accident. They were intentionally built to last.
But today, we spend more energy planning kids’ sports, vacations, or gym gear than we do planning how to build our lives. We chase success, money, and relationships, while ignoring the foundational things that actually make life strong—things like integrity, wisdom, consistency, and our relationship with God. And when those things are missing, our lives crack under pressure.
Ecclesiastes 10:15 says: “The toil of fools wearies them; they do not know the way to town.”
It’s not a work problem. It’s a wisdom problem.
Imagine someone with the perfect home, a booming side hustle, and a packed schedule—yet they’re worn out in their soul. Or someone reading every leadership book but still feels empty. Or someone surrounded by travel and friends, yet still feeling aimless. Why? Because they’re ignoring what matters most.
In ancient Israel, “the town” wasn’t optional—it was the center of trade, justice, worship, community, and guidance. If you didn’t know how to get there, you were cut off from provision, protection, and purpose.
That’s still true today. And spiritually, many of us are lost on our way to town.
What’s the most overlooked and hardest-to-live-out aspect of the gospel?
Grace.
We say we believe it, but we often live like it’s not true. Instead of resting in God’s mercy, we try to earn our way into His favor.
But Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith… not by works, so that no one can boast.”
The Protestant Reformation in the 1500s centered on this very truth—that salvation cannot be earned. Martin Luther proclaimed we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, based on Scripture alone. Wars were fought over this conviction. Because how you understand grace shapes how you relate to God, yourself, and others.
Grace misunderstood leads to either performance or paralysis.
Grace received leads to freedom and is how we build a life that lasts.
This is how you get to town. This is how you build a life that lasts.