True Grit | Week 1 | Full Service

Pastor Bill Bush · Feb 26, 2026

Big Idea

True spiritual grit — the ability to stick with God's calling even when it gets hard — begins with a clear understanding of what God has called you to do.

God has called every believer to a mission, not just a seat in church, and He offers grace and love freely so we can walk that calling with grit rather than giving up when it gets hard. Nehemiah shows the pattern: define reality from God's perspective, dream the future God wants, and then develop the pathway by actually stepping out, even at great cost.

Key points

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1True grit means sticking to a calling even when it isn't exciting, is delayed, or gets hard.
Pastor Bill opens with the movie True Grit, noting that the character who truly has grit is not the bold marshal or the prideful ranger, but the teenage girl, Maddie, because she understood her calling most clearly. He draws the parallel that spiritual grit works the same way — it flows from clarity about what you're called to and why.
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2Nehemiah's story begins a series on how spiritual true grit starts with clarity of calling.
Pastor Bill sets up the historical background of Israel's exile and return, noting that only a portion of Jews returned to Jerusalem while Nehemiah stayed behind. When he hears the walls are destroyed and the city in disgrace, something shifts in him and he begins the journey toward true grit.
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3Grit begins with defining reality — seeing where you are in light of who God is and who He says you are.
Nehemiah realizes he has been interested in what God is doing from the sidelines rather than participating in the calling. Pastor Bill stresses that reality must be defined from God's perspective, not our own, or we'll misunderstand both God and ourselves.
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4God is not on our side to be won over — He simply is a side, and He invites us onto it out of love, not manipulation.
Using the story of Joshua meeting the angel of the Lord before Jericho, Pastor Bill points out that God's answer to 'whose side are you on' was neither — because God is a side. He applies this to the church's own building and mission efforts, insisting the appeal to give and serve is never about manipulating people but about reaching real people with real stories.
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5After defining reality, Nehemiah dreams the preferred future by confessing sin and remembering God's promises.
Nehemiah's prayer moves from acknowledging the broken walls to confessing his own and his family's sin, then recalling God's promise to restore the exiles if they return to Him. Pastor Bill notes that most churches run on an 80/20 principle, and challenges people to move from merely agreeing with a sermon to actually acting on it, since attention without action is still inaction.
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6True grit means developing the pathway — actually stepping from the comfortable path onto the costly one.
Nehemiah, the king's trusted cupbearer, risks his life to approach the king uninvited about leaving his position for the mission. Pastor Bill explains that clarity of calling produces conviction and boldness, and that what stops people isn't usually big sin but good things — even greeds mistaken for needs — being placed ahead of the God thing.
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7Grit sometimes means leaving something good to walk into something God-called, even when it's costly.
Pastor Bill shares his own story of losing his academic scholarship, being wrongly forced to withdraw from Bible college, and drifting toward giving up on ministry, until his father confronted him at the dinner table and asked why he was running. That conversation sent him to California to restart the path that eventually led to planting the church.

Application

Pastor Bill frames the charge as moving from defining reality, to dreaming the preferred future, to developing the pathway — actually stepping from the comfortable path onto the costly one.

Define your reality from God's perspective
Be honest about where you actually are versus what God has called you to, and look at yourself and your church involvement through God's eyes rather than your own excuses.
Stop being a fan and start being the church
Move past merely attending or agreeing with a sermon and actually get out of the seat to serve, give, and participate in the mission rather than just watching from the sidelines.
Confess what's keeping you stuck
Identify sin or idols — even good things placed ahead of God — that are blocking your calling, and deal with them, seeking counseling or recovery if needed.
Develop the pathway, even when it costs you
Like Nehemiah risking his position with the king, take the concrete step God is asking of you this week, trusting that God will provide, even if it means leaving something comfortable.

Take it into your week

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Day 1

Nehemiah wasn't looking for a project. He was comfortable — positioned close to power, living a life most people would have envied. But when the news came about Jerusalem's broken walls, he didn't manage the feeling. He sat down and wept. He mourned for days. He fasted and prayed. That response matters, because it tells us something about how a calling often begins: not with a vision board or a strategic plan, but with a burden you can't shake. Pastor Bill pointed out that every believer has been called to a mission — not merely to attend church. And that calling usually arrives the way it did for Nehemiah: as something that breaks your heart before it ever becomes a plan. If you've been sensing a pull toward something you can't quite name, or feeling a low-grade restlessness that regular church attendance hasn't quieted, it may be worth sitting with that rather than moving past it. Nehemiah didn't rush to fix what broke him. He let it matter. That kind of honest, unhurried response to a burden is often where calling begins — not in a moment of clarity, but in a moment of honest grief over something that shouldn't be the way it is.

For reflection

Is there a burden or a broken thing in your world that you've been trying to move past instead of sitting with? What might God be showing you through it?

Pray

Pray for the courage to let what burdens you actually land, and for ears to hear whether God might be speaking through it.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king — a prestigious, comfortable, secure position — and yet God used that exact moment of comfort to plant a calling that would cost him everything. This message asks what happens when God's call and our comfort collide.

Discussion questions

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In Nehemiah 1, Nehemiah hears a report about Jerusalem and it wrecks him — he weeps, fasts, and prays before he does anything else. What does that response tell us about how he understood his relationship to God's mission?
2
Pastor Bill made a distinction between attending church and being called to a mission. What difference does that distinction make in the way a person actually lives day to day?
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Pastor Bill described the first movement as 'defining reality from God's perspective' — including the idea that God doesn't take your side, He is a side. What do you think he meant by that, and why would that framing matter when someone is trying to discern a calling?
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Pastor Bill described the second movement as 'dreaming the preferred future' — imagining what it would actually look like to believe God and live out how He has wired and gifted you. What tends to get in the way of people even letting themselves imagine that?
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Pastor Bill pointed to Matthew 6:33 and the idea that developing the pathway sometimes means leaving something genuinely good because God is calling you to something better. Why might leaving something good actually be harder than leaving something bad?
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Pastor Bill said that clarity of calling produces conviction and boldness — that when people know they are doing what God wants, they pray and act with a different kind of confidence. How might that kind of clarity change the way a community like ours encourages and supports one another in taking hard steps?

Pray together

Ask God for the clarity, courage, and trust to move from comfortable to called — whatever that looks like for each person in your group this season.

Topics

Calling and Mission Identity in Christ Nehemiah Obedience Spiritual Perseverance

True Grit | Week 1 | Full Service

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together