Too Small to Fail
MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION:
So it’s great to see you today. Great to have you with us. If you’re new around here, let me just tell you who I am. I am Virgil Grant. I’m the senior Pastor here at Eastside. I’m one of the leaders. And we’re in a sermon series called You in five Years and didn’t Luke do a great job of just setting all of that up. Yeah, And you have all kinds of opportunities to clap to say amen, but good luck. You know? But anyway. But you’re in five years. Maybe that’s where you would be at Luke in five years, then yelling and screaming. But we’re looking at where do you want to be in 2028? What kind of person do you want to become? And according to the Chinese proverb, is that it goes like this Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with what? A single step. I don’t know about you, but that is inspiring. That’s encouraging for me because when I think about my goals, where I think about where I want to be when I think about all that’s in front of me, it all happens the exact same way. It is one step at a time. It’s one day at a time. But that should also cause you and me to pause because it’s a double-edged sword. If you were to think about it, depending on which direction you’re facing, it’s either going to be terrific or it could be a terrible thing. Because the same thing is true in reverse because I can take a step in the wrong direction. And that single step leads to a thousand miles in the opposite direction. And now I’m 2000 miles away from the goal that I had set for myself. And here’s the thing that you need to understand. The thing that we desire, where we want to be and the thing that we do not desire or the thing that we do not want to obtain is obtained in the same way. And that is to take you one single step at a time.
Now, today, we’re going to look at two different passages from the Old Testament. We’re going to look at a passage from Deuteronomy, and we’re going to look at a passage from Exodus, and they say the exact same thing. But there’s one detail in the book of Exodus that we find that is not included in the Book of Deuteronomy. And what we have is that we have God giving a pep talk to the nation of Israel. He’s given them a series of advice and command instructions before they go into the promised land. Now, let me just give you the low down. Let me give you the backdrop of everything that’s taking place. Now, remember, God comes to Abraham, and he gives Abraham this incredible promise. And remember the promise that he gives Abraham. He says, Abraham is that you’re going to have children. Your children are going to have children. Your children are going to have children. And you’re going to have so many descendants. They’re going to be as numerous as the stars in the sky. It’s going to be so numerous. It’s going to be as many grains as in the sand that’s in the ocean. You’re not going to be able to ever count all of your descendants. And the word Abraham means exalted father. And there is one slight problem with this promise coming to fruition. Abraham and Sarah were tremendously old that they were old, old, where they could not have children. But God says that it’s going to happen. And regardless of whether it’s going to happen or not, is that Abraham somehow or another believes in God. And I don’t know how he believed God. I just know that when God says, Hey, you know, Abraham, you’re going to have many, many descendants, even though you and Sarah are old. I’m sure that Abraham looked down and went, Well, that’s not going to happen. But anyway, he trusted God. He believed in God. And sure enough, God ended up honoring Abraham because of Abraham’s faith. But you have to understand that the Bible was very specific.
And the Bible says this is the way that God waited until Abraham’s body was as good as dead to fulfill his promise or to fulfill his promise to Abraham. Now, just think about this. His body was as good as dead. Now, I don’t know if you’ve caught that or not, but that’s not a compliment whatsoever. I mean, I don’t think that you’d find on a tinder profile or whatever the latest dating app is, is that, hey, you know, I’m Bob am into banking. I like to watch soccer. I occasionally like to cook. And by the way, my body is good as dead. Swap right. For a good time. Right. I mean, I just don’t think that’s what you find on the tinder profile whatsoever. But anyway, it doesn’t matter. Abraham believed God on the spot, and the Bible says that God counted it to him as righteousness, because that’s how faith works. Faith is taking God at his word. faith believes God no matter what is taking place. And so, as you know, how the story unfolds is that, sure enough, Abraham and the nation of Israel become a great nation through a series of events. They end up in captivity in Egypt, and they’re there for 400 years. And then, finally, it’s time for the nation of Israel to be led out of captivity into the promised land. And so, what does God do? God raised up a deliverer, and his name was Moses. Remember that Moses is a prototype of Jesus himself. What we see in the life of Moses and the nation of Israel is foreshadowing what Jesus was going to come to do. In fact, Moses says, there’s going to come one that is greater than I am. Who’s going to deliver you from out of your sin, out of the fear of death and hell itself? And, of course, Moses was talking about Jesus. So Moses leads the nation of Israel out of Egypt. And that picture is a picture of our faith in Christ. And then Moses leads them through the Red Sea, which could be a picture of our baptism. But because you’re led out of captivity and go through the Red Sea does not mean that you enter the promised land. Do you understand what I’m saying? Many, many people make the mistake that they have faith in Christ. And their faith in Christ is just simply fire insurance. But the end of your faith is not just that you have fire insurance.
The end of your faith is the starting point. When you receive, Christ is the starting point for the rest of your life. Because you have to understand something that God has a calling on your life, is that God realizes that there’s potential inside of you, that you are a masterpiece. There are plans that he desires for you to step into, that you have to understand that God wants to use you. He wants to use you, not your neighbor, not the person sitting in front of you. God wants to use you to shake the gates of hell and to push back the darkness in Central Kentucky. God wants to use you. God has a specific plan, but tragically, listen to me, my friends. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Now, how does that apply to you and me? Here’s the reality. There are many of you that are here today that you are saved. You have fire insurance. Is that your name written in the Book of Heaven? But you’re wasting your life. You’re wasting your life. You are saved. And you’re not going to hell. But you’re just not doing anything for the Kingdom of God or for heaven along the way. What do I mean by that? You’re not becoming more like God. You’re not accessing all that God has for you. You’re not stepping into all that God has for you. You’re not tapping into the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit in your life to give you the strength that you need. That you’re not abiding day by day in Jesus Christ. You’re not denying yourself. You’re not taking up your cross. You’re not following him. You’re not on a mission. You’re not pursuing the all in life. You are just existing. And the entire premise of the sermon series of you in five years. Five years from now, my friends, you will be a major force in the Kingdom of God. You’d be a major player in the Kingdom of God that is shaking the gates of hell and pushing back the darkness in central Kentucky, and making a difference in and for all of eternity. That is God’s plan for you and for me, and for this community of faith. And any time you say, Amen, it’s okay, but we’ll just keep going. Okay. But back to the text.
Listen to me, friends. God is calling you and me to greatness. Are we willing to step into it? But back to the text. So Israel, we’re talking about Israel entering all that God has for them. And what we’re about to read in a moment is God giving them a pep talk. God tells them that he wants them to take the promised land and that he wants them to go into the promised land, but he wants them to know that it’s not going to be easy. And what does he tell them? Because it’s not going to be easy. Life is hard. And folks, it is so much easier for you to just remain you. It’s just so much easier for you to remain with your problems, to remain with your temper, to remain with your anger, to have unhealthy habits that Luke was talking about. It’s easier for you to just stay argumentative, cantankerous, a gossiper, someone who’s critical of anything and everything. It is easy not to do anything but to have the feeling that everybody owes you everything. It’s this sense of entitlement. It’s so easy just to be lazy. Folks, listen to me. You don’t have to do anything for you to allow the music to die inside of you. You don’t have to do anything. Because you know what? If you’re going to take new ground, it’s going to be difficult. And the easy thing is for you to remain and do nothing. And that’s what so many people are doing. But let’s look at the text, Deuteronomy chapter seven, verses 17 and 18. It says this.
“If you should say, in your heart, These nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them?’ – you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 7:17-18 (NKJV)
Now notice what the Bible is saying here. The Bible says that you’re going to have some enemies. You’re going to have some people that you’re going to have to defeat. And as you look at these enemies, I don’t want you to look to your limitations. I don’t want you to look at your opposition, what the Bible is saying here. I want you to look at me. I want you to remember that I’m God. I want you to remember that I’m in control. I want you to remember. I want you to bring to your memory the things that you need and see. Folks, some of you right now are in a tough position. And you’re dealing with some difficult circumstances right now in your life, in your marriage, in your career. And what you need to do. You need to recall the faithfulness of God from previous times. This is the reason why David when was fighting Goliath; remember this? He remembered the battles that the Lord had already won for him. He talks about killing the bear and the lion with his bare hands. And he goes, When I think about God’s faithfulness, then it’s God’s going to be faithful now. And what you need to understand is that God wants you to recall his faithfulness in the past as you deal with your current circumstances because your current circumstances are not bigger than God. Just remember the faithfulness of God. And this is what He’s asking the nation of Israel to do. Remember that I brought you out of captivity. Remember that I brought you through the Red Sea. Remember what I did to the Egyptian army. Remember that I am. That I am. Remember that I’m in control. Remember that I’m bad to the bone. That’s who God is. And he’s reminding us. Let’s continue with verses 21 and 23.
“You shall not be terrified of them; for the LORD your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at
Deuteronomy 7:21-23 (NKJV)
Little by little, I guarantee this was not what the nation of Israel was looking for. They were not wanting to hear those words. Now let’s go to Exodus, and let’s pick up the other detail that is left out of the details from Deuteronomy. Now, notice this is what God says.
“I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.
Exodus 23:29-30 (NKJV)
Now, what is God saying here? God is saying to the nation of Israel, I have this. I’m in charge. I’m in control. I’ve got all the power in the universe. Do not be scared. But you need to understand something. Nation of Israel, I’m not going to give you all of my power at once. I’m going to give you my power. A little itty bitty at a time. I’m going to dose it out. Give you one small dosage at a time. And why would he do that? Why would he say that? Well, there are two reasons. It’s not on the screen. You said to write this down. This is just bonus material. There are only two reasons why God gave him his power a little bit at a time. Number one is because what would happen if he answered all of the prayers at once? Why would you need to pray anymore? Let me just ask you a question. If God answered all of your prayers right now, why would you pray to God any other time throughout this year? You wouldn’t do that. You wouldn’t because you’d already got all of your prayers answered. Why does God lead us one step at a time? Why does he give us one day’s worth of strength at a time? Why does he tell us sufficient for today are his troubles? Why does he say that we should pray? God give us our daily bread. Why can’t we just have him have the bread truck come from Costco with all the bread and give us all the bread that we need?
Because here is why, my friends, power is perishable. Power is not permanent. Power is something that you have to continue to obtain. You have to use it actively. You can’t rely on yesterday’s revelation from God for today. You cannot rely on today’s devotion for next month. The power of God is activated in your life on a daily basis. Is our walk with God always in the present tense? It’s never in the past tense. And there’s a second reason why God would just give you his power a little bit at a time. And it’s actually in the scripture from Exodus, he says. Because why is that I have to give it to you a little at a time. I’m not going to give it to you in a year because I don’t want you to bite off more than you can chew. Because why is that? You’re not populated. There’s not enough of you to obtain the land and take over the land. He says it’s just going to come a little bit at a time because you’re not numerous. And folks here’s the principle that you need to understand. Here’s the principle. You have to maintain whatever you obtain. Now, think about that. God, we’re going to give them the whole land because they couldn’t maintain the whole land. There wasn’t enough population. See, some of you, you’ve got a down payment for a car, and you go, Can you really afford that car? You go, Hey, Pastor, I’ve got the down payment. Now, can you really afford the car? No, no, no. I can afford the down payment. I’m not asking that. Can you afford the monthly payment? Yeah, I think I can. And even with insurance and gas and with food. Oh, Pastor, don’t worry about food. I’m good. I can skip food. Really? Can you do that? Now, folks, listen to me. God is not going to give you something unless you can maintain whatever you obtain. See some of you. You want to buy a house, and you can maybe afford the house payment. But can you afford everything else that goes with it? Maybe there are homeowners’ fees that go with it. And here’s the principle.
You have to maintain whatever you obtain.
God doesn’t want to give you to have something unless you can maintain what you have obtained. And see, folks, you and I, we should really rethink our goals for the next five years that it’s not going to happen all at once. Is it going to happen now? Little by little. So here’s the message in a sentence.
Victory is one huge thing, and then suddenly you’re undefeated. It’s a small thing continually repeated
See, folks, we think of victory as something. Wow, that’s incredible. We won. It is fantastic. We have arrived, folks. That’s not how victory happens. That’s not how the battle is won. The battle is won by doing one small thing after another small thing. When the nation of Israel went into the promised land, what did it tell us? It says that they had to take one city. And what do you do when you defeat the Hittites? Well, you go, and you defeat the Jebusites. And when you defeat them, what do you go and do? You defeat termites. And what do you do after that? You go to the city, and you go to that city. And then you go to that city. Then you go to that country and that countryside. And then, you go to the embankment that is fortified. And just little by little, you take over the ground. In fact, if you go and read the book of Joshua, who takes over as the successor of Moses. It tells us it took them seven years to overcome the promised land, little by little. And then there was the mop-up operation after that. And folks, the steps that are going to get us to where we want to be in five years from now is that we have to rethink them. And what’s applicable to the nation of Israel is applicable to your life, and it’s applicable to this church lot. I mean, what I tell people in the community, and then I go, Hey, how’re things going at the church? I go, Well, we’re getting ready to start our second campus. And they go, Wow, that’s quick. And I go, No, no, no, no. This has been five years in the making. It’s been little by little, it seems, all of a sudden to them. But it’s not for us, because while it’s little by little. And how do we get to 2028? It’s little by little. Little by little.
See, here’s the problem. It’s not that we don’t dream. It’s not that we don’t have big plans. It’s not that we don’t envision the future. The problem that you and I have when it comes to accomplishing your goals and their objectives is that we have steps that are too big to maintain over time. We just have too big of steps. We can’t maintain the steps over 12 months, let alone 16 months. We have to rethink the steps that we take. And that’s the reason that today’s message is called Too Small to Fail. And I got this message when I was listening to a podcast. And as I listened to the podcast, the author was talking about a book that he had read. And so what I’m going to say in the next few minutes comes from the podcast author who was speaking, and he was quoting the author, and he was quoting this book that he read called Mini Habits, Smaller Habits, Bigger Results. Now, I have not read the book. So everything I’m telling you is coming from the podcast, just so that you know. And so he’s on there, and he’s talking about that. The author of this book says that we should make our habits and our goals too small to fail. And he’s talking about the steps that it’s going to take us to get to that thousand miles has to begin with small, sustainable steps. And so the author of the book was saying that you know, he was battling himself, trying to accomplish his goals. And one of his goals was to work out. And one night, he’s on the couch, and he realizes that he’s not worked out today, and he’s trying to muster up the energy and the fortitude to do a 30-minute workout. Anybody that’s ever been there trying like it’s in the day, I’m tired. How am I going to do this 30-minute workout? And so then he realized that he didn’t have the energy. He couldn’t do it. And he goes, Well. What should I do? I mean, like, I’m not going to accomplish my health goals if I don’t go work out.
And then he just kind of had an epiphany. He goes, I should make my goals so stupidly small that I can’t fail. And so instead of doing a 30-minute workout, you know, what we decided to do is that he was going to do one pushup. He goes that was my goal for the next week, he says. When I made it my goal for the next week. It was so stupidly small that it would be like. I’d be a jerk if I didn’t do that, because, like, everybody can do one pushup. And so he got to the end of the next evening. He realized he had done one pushup. And he got down on the floor and did his first pushup. He goes, You know what? I’m down here. I’ve already accomplished my goal. You know, I could get extra credit. And he did a couple extra pushups. Now, that’s way better than saying I’m going to do 100 pushups. And so he did four or five, and then he learned what Newton Lowe said to us. Right then, the object at rest does what remains at rest, but an object in motion remains in motion. And so he just started making all of his goals so stupidly small that he could not fail in accomplishing his goals. And when you and I begin to think about what are the goals? How do we get to becoming you in the five years that you want to be? How are we going to get there? And I would suggest to you, as Luke said, it’s little by little, it’s baby steps. And even though it’s awkward and even though you stumble and even though you tumble, is that the only way that you get there over time, after you take those baby steps, then you begin to get momentum.
And so, I just want to give you four simple principles as you begin to make some headway toward reaching your goals and goal setting. And let me just say, make sure that you come back next week as we finish up this sermon series. You in five years, because next week the sermons are going to be pretty special. But four things I want you to write down as you shrink your goals. Number one.
Choose carefully.
Choose the goals that you’re going to pursue carefully. Now, why would I say that? Why would anybody say that? Because not all goals are what? Equal. Not all goals are relevant. Not all goals have the same impact. There’s this thing, Andrew, and you probably know about it way more than I do. You and Justin, there are what they call these keystone habits. It’s like a keystone in the arch. You know, if you take an arch made out of stone is that there’s one stone that is the keystone of the entire arch, and you remove that one stone, and the whole thing comes tumbling in. And the author says this in the book that I just mentioned. He says there are certain keystone habits that, when you incorporate into your life, you have to figure out what those are. But he gives us a list of those suggestions in his book. But when you figure out what those are, they actually have a cascading impact and all the other areas of your life. And the author says that, believe this or not, one of the keystone habits that you should form is to make your bed every single day. Now, I don’t know why I didn’t read the book, but that was what the author and the speaker on the podcast were saying. Another Keystone habit, as you can imagine, is doing something with exercise, with cardio and lifting weights. I think one of the keystone habits we should have as Christ followers is that we should be stepping into generosity each and every day and generosity with our finances and generosity with our time. I think that’s a keystone habit, and I would just encourage you to Google Keystone habits or keystone, the whole concept of keystone, and read about how powerful it is. But number two, I want you to.
Spell it out specifically.
And you get to spell it out specifically when you’ve identified where you want to be in five years and some goals that are going to go along with that. Then you have to specifically spell it out in the days to come. Make a concrete plan. Do not use any fuzzy language. Paint with broad lines, lawyers would tell you when you’re looking at a contract, look at the bright lines and make sure there’s crystal clear what the contract is obligating you to or what you’re obligating someone else to. Now, I don’t know about you, but for every contract I read, I think they want you to be confused. I mean, they put loophole after loophole after loophole. You know, you’re just wanting a Delta SkyMiles number, right? And you get a 17-page in font 3 that’s delivered to you, and you got to read it all. But, you know, here’s the thing, is that when you are writing things out specifically, make sure that you’re not using fuzzy language. And fuzzy goes, make sure that you’re painting with bright lines. Let me give you a couple examples of what a bright line may look like. How many of you know that your nemesis is chips or popcorn, in my case? I mean, like. Like, you know, Like every night, every meal. Right. You got to have more. And here’s a bright-line goal. Is that I am not going to eat Doritos in 2023. That’s coloring with bright lines there. And we know that you will have violated that if you come into church with orange hands. Right. I mean, like, we know that you value that. Now, let me give you something that’s fuzzy. Okay. Let me give you a fuzzy goal and you get to hang with me when I give this to you. The fuzzy goal is, is that I’m not going to text when I’m driving. That is fuzzy. Why is that, Fuzzy? Because you can still get your phone. And you can take a selfie. You can get your phone, and you can do an email. You can grab your phone, and you can check social media. And a clear, clearly specific goal would be that when I’m in my car, I do not touch my phone. See, the difference is between fuzzy goals and clear objectives. So, number one, choose carefully. Number two is to write it out or spell it out specifically. Number three.
Track it Diligently.
Track it diligently. Why is that? If you’re not tracking it, if you’re not keeping score, you’re not playing the game. You’re just practicing. Now, let me say that again. If you’re not keeping score, it is that you’re not playing the game; you’re just practicing. And my wife is on a health kick. I’m not. She is. And you know, what she does is she tracks everything diligently. You know how she does. It is every time that she eats something, you know what she does? She puts it into the app on her phone. Because if you’re not keeping score, you’re just practicing. The fourth thing very quickly is. You have to.
Guard it aggressively.
If you put all the first three things into place, you have to guard it aggressively. You have to make sure that you protect it. You have to make sure that you’re putting days together and that you’re linking. They stick together to get momentum. This is what they called the Seinfeld effect. Jerry Seinfeld before he was a famous comedian. Is that before he ever did his first-hour show, before he ever did his first standup comic is that he practiced days being linked together. Because when you link dates together, there’s synergy and momentum that comes from you. God bless you. Anyway, there goes the bird, too. And so, back to the sermon here that you could link the days together. So he bought this big old wall calendar, and he had 365 days on it. And Seinfeld number one job was to write one joke a day. And when he wrote that first joke, he took his Sharpie. He went up to the board on the calendar on the wall and put a big X on it. And then he got up the next day, and he wrote another joke, and he put another big X. And then he did that for seven, eight, nine, ten days. And then you know what happened? Life happened. Life is going to happen to you. You’re going to fall asleep, and you’re going to be sick. There’s going to be something that comes into play. And here’s the reality is, instead of giving up, instead of on day two, after that first day that you fell, when you get up the next day, what do you do? Don’t beat yourself up. You go, Hey, I’m going to start a new I want to start afresh, and I’m going to put some more days together and link some days together. And as you begin to link days together, then you get momentum all over again, and you’re just guarding, protecting aggressively, the momentum that you already have.
Now in closing. I’ve been using a lot of props in the sermon series, and I thought, I’ll give everybody a prop today, and I want to show you how little by little works. I want to illustrate for you again the whole concept of compound interest. Now, if you have a sheet of paper, if you’re at home, you can just take the sheet. You got an eight and a half by 11. I just had this little, little piece of paper, and here’s what I want you to do. I want you to fold the paper in half. It doesn’t matter how big your paper is or which way you fold it. That’s why you fold your paper in half. Now, you don’t have one sheet of paper. Now you have what you have two. Now, if you fold it again, this is our second fold. How many sheets do we have? We have 4 to 2 for now. We folded again, which is our third fold. We go from four to what? Eight. Now we fold it again, and we go from eight to what? 16. And then we fold it again, and we go from 16 to what? 32 now, I don’t know if you know this or not, but the record of folding these sheets of paper is 12. I think we’re at four or five, and I’m out. I can’t do another one. I don’t know about you, but here’s the thing. If you can fold it ten times, then the paper will become the width of your hand. If you can fold it 30 times, it touches the beginning of outer space. If you can fold it 41 times, I believe it is. You reach the moon. If you fold it 52 times and you keep on doubling it, right, you get to 52 times just where you’re at the sun. You folded 103 times. And guess where you end up at 93 billion light years away. You’ll be at the expansion of the known universe at this moment. And how does it happen? Little by little.
Father. May you take our dreams, our goals. And help us to choose wisely. Help us to be specific. Lord, help us to keep score. And Father, help us. Just to guard it aggressively. And Father, may we step into the destiny that you have for us? May we accept the calling that you placed on our lives? And may we not get discouraged in the battle of little by little. And all of God’s people agreed and said together, Amen.