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Sacramento Central SDA Church

Chris Buttery

Not So Fast

You know, you've got to find yourself just a little bit encouraged when you realize that not every successful person in history on this planet arrived at success easily, nor overnight.

For example, the billion-dollar business that is Honda began with a series of failures and some fortunate turns.

Saikyro Honda is his name, was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation after interviewing for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless for quite some time.

He started making scooters at his own home and spurred on by his neighbors, finally started his own business.

Harland David Sanders, maybe familiar with that name, better known as Colonel Sanders of KFC fame, had a hard time selling his chicken at first.

In fact, his famous chicken recipe was rejected 1, 009 times before restaurants accepted it.

Now Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Wright brothers, battled depression and family illness before starting a bicycle shop that would lead them to experimenting with flight.

Not sure how you jump from a bike to flight, but that's what happened.

After numerous attempts at attempting to fly machines, several years of hard work and tons of failed prototypes, the brothers finally created a plane that could get airborne and stay there.

Now you probably have heard of Babe Ruth because of his home run record 714 during his career but along with those home runs came a pretty hefty amount of strikeouts as well.

In fact, for decades, Babe Ruth held the record for strikeouts.

When asked about this, he simply said, every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

We may even have a picture of him up there.

He was nicknamed the gentleman of boxing.

He was the youngest man to ever win the American heavyweight boxing championship.

In a TV interview with a boxing historian, Bert Sugar, Patterson was reminded that he had been knocked down more than any other boxer in history.

This great boxer humbly replied, yes, but I got up more times than anyone.

You get knocked down more, you get up more, you see.

Honda didn't become a billionaire by not failing.

Sanders, Fowles, became the best chicken around, not because of the setbacks.

Sanders became, chicken became finger licking good because he overcame the obstacles.

This is not a commercial for KFC by the way.

The Wright brothers didn't start flying high by not crashing to the ground several times.

The Wright brothers reached the levels they did because they never gave up.

Babe Ruth didn't become a success because he didn't strike out.

Babe Ruth became a success because he hit home runs.

And Patterson didn't win the championship by not falling down, He won the championship by getting up.

The ingredient to succeeding in the Christian walk is to keep pressing on, to keep overcoming obstacles, to never give up, keep hitting home runs, and to keep getting up.

I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 16.

I want you to notice what the wisest man that ever lived next to Jesus said.

The Bible says, for a just man falleth, do you know how many times?

Notice that both the righteous, the just, and the wicked fall, but there's a significant difference between the 2.

The difference between the righteous and the wicked is not that the righteous doesn't fall or didn't fall, but that he gets up or she gets up after he or she falls.

If we took it a step further, according to this verse, who falls...

According to this verse, who falls more, the just or the wicked man?

The just, exactly, it's the righteous man.

The righteous man falls more because he keeps getting up.

Clearly, you can't fall down unless you are standing up.

According to this verse the wicked falls just once because when he falls he or she stays down.

Unlike the righteous man, doesn't get back up you see.

If we were to trace the lives of, for example, Peter and Judas, from the time of the betrayal of Jesus in Gethsemane to the end of their lives, who, over the course of their life, from Gethsemane on, fell more.

Now, Judas betrayed Jesus for the price of a slave, and then he went out and he hung himself.

He denied Jesus 3 times, repented, but then he lived many more years during which he had the opportunity to fall again.

If you go over to Galatians chapter 2, you'll understand that Peter reverted back to his bigoted ways in regard to his relationship to the Gentiles.

He overcame that, but he fell, you understand.

Peter had a lifetime to make mistakes, to sin, to fall, and to keep getting back up.

Judas fell once and he didn't come back, you see.

It was the wise man that said a righteous man falls 7 times and rises up again but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

That the righteous falls more, that's because he keeps getting up, then the wicked in no way condones or excuses falling, or sinning, you understand.

To not fall, to not fail, is better, far better.

I mean, if you think about the last time you tripped over and fell down and you broke something or you grazed something, you know that standing upright, walking upright, running upright is far better than falling down, you understand.

And what's more, in the power of God and His power alone, not falling is a very real possibility.

The Holy Bible encourages us in Jude 24 and 25, it says, "...now unto him that is able to keep you from what?

Falling, that's right, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty dominion and power both now and forever amen.

According to Jude not falling is a very real proposition, but the earlier point still stands.

If, not when, but if we were to fall, we are to do what?

While sinning is not inevitable for the Christian, committed Christian, if we do sin, getting back up must be inevitable, amen?

We can agree on that here this morning, right?

Now, we know that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone.

We are saved by grace, through faith, through Jesus.

We have a wonderful and mighty and powerful Savior, whose name is Jesus.

Paul said, For by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any 1 of us should boast.

This is wonderfully clear for you and for me.

Justification, forgiveness, is of sin is instantaneous.

The sinner accepts the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as his only hope.

When he does, he is accounted, as the Bible says, he is accounted righteous.

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Not So Fast

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