I Can’t Get Up

“I Can’t Get Up”
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
March 7, 2010

Let’s see how many of these commercial slogans you can remember. Nike says, “Just…do it.”

Reebock, on the other foot, says, “Life is not…a spectator sport.”

Nissan says, “Life’s a journey…enjoy the ride.”

L’Oreal: “Because I’m…worth it.”

Toys R Us: “I don’t want..to grow up.”

UPS: “What can Brown…do for you?”

Smith Barney: “We make money the old fashioned way. …We earn it.”

MasterCard: “There are some things money can’t buy. …For everything else there’s MasterCard.”

Army: “Be all that you…can be.”

Hallmark: “When you care enough to…send the very best.”

McDs: “You deserve…a break today.”

Burger King: “Have it…your way.”

Wendys: “Where’… the beef.”

Sprite: “Obey…your thirst.”

And from Life Call: “I’ve fallen and…I can’t get up.”

Many times I have found the great problem of faith for Christians is that when they fall down they can’t get back up. I wonder why that is since I have never had a problem with this…well…problem. I am not saying that I do not fall or sin. Everyone does that, including your pastor. And if you say you have not sinned then the Apostle John says you are lying to yourself. (1 John 1:10) Everybody sins; even Christians. It’s like that bumper sticker theology says: “Christians aren’t perfect; they’re just forgiven.” But is that really true? Maybe some Christians never get back up again when they fall down because they do not truly comprehend their state before God.

I do not have a problem with this; I know who I am. I know how God looks at me. And so, I have always been able to get back on my spiritual feet and walk with God again. Ever since I was a boy I knew that God loved me for the sake of loving me—not because I was a good boy. I understood the reason he came and died for me was because I could not do it on my own. Mark is still a boy. He has not grown up as much as he would like to have at this point in life. I am pushing 60 now and you would think I would be more mature by now. I am not. As a result I still stumble when I would have wanted to be the man—God’s man. So I get back on my feet and journey on, confident that God still shows up for our garden walks even when I have been disobedient. He still showed up to walk with Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit. He knew they did it but he still showed up. This makes me wonder if their banishment from the garden was as much about not wanting to be with God as it was the result of disobedience. But our first parents were focused on themselves and whenever we do that, we are headed for a fall.

The great beauty of this Faith, if one takes a moment to consider, is that life is actually about God—not about self. If I act like life is about me then I am in big trouble. If it is about what I can do or cannot do, I am in a serious mess. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” I understand. I have the same problem Paul had. But Paul journeyed on. I walk on too—despite my ups and downs. What will you do?

So now that I have loosely established that we are all sinners, let me just come out and say it: We are saved by grace through faith and not by works of the flesh or the Law. It is not what you do. It is what Christ did for you that saves you from eternal death and damnation. All you have to do is accept that in faith and God’s grace has you covered. But does that mean you should just go on sinning so that grace may abound to you more and more? Paul says at the beginning of Romans 6, “Heaven forbid!”

In our text today, Paul says that the Hebrews were very much like us. They were baptized; they ate and drank spiritual food and liquid. Or perhaps it is that we are like them. If either is true then we are in some trouble whether we follow prescribed religious practices or not. The reason for this is that we are sinners just the same as the wilderness wanderers of old.

So God looked out for the Hebrews, as he does for us. He provided for them and encouraged them on their journey. But he became displeased with some of them. The result was their deaths. There are some things in life that will kill us if we persist in doing them. In fact, Moses and Paul do more than suggest that there are some things over which God will strike us down. We may think we are excluded from being concerned with our sins. We may indeed be taking God’s favor and grace too lightly, “sitting down to eat” and drink at his banquet table…but “rising up to sin.”

In the previous chapter, Paul had written about running the race in a manner that you will be able to finish. He does not say to run it in a way that you beat everyone else to the tape. But he does say to run so as to win the prize. In our case that would be eternal fellowship with God—not a gold medal. Unending friendship with Jesus is our reward if we run with God’s Spirit to the end of this life. Now you can still run to the end of the race if you fall down. In fact you can fall down many times and still finish the race. But you can’t finish if you don’t get back on your feet and run through the pain and the humiliation until the race is completed.

Let me tell you about a few of my models in this regard. One, since the big game was last night, number 42 comes to mind. Several games ago, Lance Thomas suffered a deep tissue bruise to his leg. Everyone thought it would sideline him for a few games but he played through the pain. Do you think he is happy now that he did?

The televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was busted for sexual crime many years ago. Well, he was caught anyway but he could have slunk from the cameras and never faced what he had done. Instead he kept on preaching. Now I am not a Jimmy Swaggart fan. But I applaud him standing back up when he had seriously fallen down on the job. I commend the kind of attitude that says I am a loser but I am not only forgiven, I am called and I will not stop preaching until God stops me.

Jim Bakker, another TV Christian, was busted for economic crimes and went to prison. But in prison, he did ministry and started a more low key, Bible teaching TV show after he got out of prison.

Peter is another good model. At the brazier, he repeatedly denied being a student of Jesus. He insisted that he did not even know the man. That is worse than Lance Thomas turing his back on Coach K. It is unthinkable. But Peter did it. If that were you or me would we get back on our feet and go out to tell people about the Christ we had denied? Peter did; and he became a world-changing Apostle. He did not stay down because his life was really not about Peter.

I am impressed by the tenacity and the thirst and these people who are willing to play through the pain and minister through the humiliation. We should learn from their examples and press on despite the injury of sin because it is not about our proclivity to sin. It is about God’s propensity to love us and be gracious. Should you try harder? Absolutely. Should you give up because your efforts have not yielded the kind of results you have wished? No. Absolutely not. Press on.

You should not expect that you will always stand on your own two feet though. “Take heed,” the scripture says. You just might fall. Some of us think we will never fall because we do not sin or because we are so religious. Watch out! There may be a loose rug in your future.

What is it though that the Apostle is warning us about? What is he saying could be our fall? The answer is clear. Idolatry. In verse seven he says we should not be idolaters, which in its purest sense is simply desiring evil, as it says a verse earlier. Then in verse 14, just outside the text today, he says it again: “flee from idolatry.” Sure, sexual immorality is a huge problem, especially when it becomes idolatry. Veneration of anything or anyone before God is idol worship. That is why one needs to get back on their feet when they have fallen and walk again with God. Did you put him second just now? Put him first now. But take heed: temptation will come again.

How does one escape these temptations? One cannot escape being tempted but can escape what she is tempted to do or be. Although, in order to escape, one must be on her feet because the way of escape is to “flee”! In the ensuing verses, Paul seems to suggest that fleeing does not mean white-knuckle determination to simply flee from temptation. The way of escape seems to be a fleeing to something very helpful. Paul refers us to the Lord’s Supper. I do not think he means the elements themselves (which can be another tempting trap) but instead, what the elements tell us. Why do we eat and drink to the memory of Jesus? We have sinned and therefore, the Father had to send his only begotten Son to save us from perdition and himself from an eternity separated from the ones he loves.

Yes, we we are tempted and even sin but God’s intention is that we get back up and continue walking with him. Furthermore, he has provided a way that we can get back up. How? Notice that the spiritual bread we eat is participation in the body of Christ. The spiritual cup set in front of us is a participation in the blood of Christ. In other words, our way out whether we’re up or down is always the grace of God in his Son. This is what the Supper tells us. It is not a religious act; his Supper is a reminder of our need for grace and his unremitting offer.

Do you partake? Are you drinking deeply of God’s grace? Are you getting up and journeying on after you have fallen? Or are you beat down by the sin that so easily besets us, finding in hard or even impossible to get back up again? God is faithful. Depend upon him instead of yourself. Get up. Walking with God does not mean that you never miss a walk but that when you do falter you lace up your shoes and meet God again on the sidewalk of your life. Don’t you hear him calling? “Follow me.” Get up and hit the road anew. “Follow me.”