Git Back In That Saddle!
Western Sunday 2022
Proverbs 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Intro: Let’s be honest. Even the best gets knocked out of the saddle.
- QUOTE: “There never was a horse that couldn’t be rode; never was a cowboy who couldn’t be throwed.” Cowboy saying
FALLETH: fall down, cast, cast down, fall away, to fall prostrate, overthrow
The significance of being in the saddle, as opposed to being knocked out of the saddle is simple:
- If you’re in the saddle, you’re going somewhere.
- If you’re in the saddle, you’re making progress.
- If you’re in the saddle, you’re doing a job.
- If you’re in the saddle, you’re busy.
QUOTE: “No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle.” – Winston Churchill
BUT!
- If you’ve been knocked out the saddle, you’re not going anywhere.
- If you’ve been knocked out the saddle, you’re not making your boss any money.
- If you’ve been knocked out the saddle, you’re probably bruised and sore.
- If you’ve been knocked out the saddle, you’ve got a decision to make: lay there, or get back in the saddle!
- QUOTE: “When you’re young and you fall off a horse, you may break something. When you’re my age, you splatter.” – Roy Rogers
Why people get knocked out of the saddle:
A. They’ve been Toppled Over by their Foes
ILLUSTRATION: How many times have you seen those cowboys get tackled by an Indian and knocked off their horse?
They are riding through a mountain pass and out of nowhere, a bad guy jumps off a boulder and knocks them down.
I hate to admit it, but I’ve been knocked out the saddle a few times.
I’ve been blindsided by the enemy more times than I care to admit.
I’ve had the enemy come out of nowhere and knock me down many times.
B. They’ve been Tuckered Out by their Feebleness
We’ve all seen those old cowboy movies where they literally fall out of the saddle due to exhaustion.
They didn’t fall out of the saddle because of the trail; it was because they were tired.
Too many days on the trail; too many miles without a break.
The best of men; the strongest and most experienced eventually slump over and fall out.
There have been many days when I didn’t think I could go on.
All I wanted to do was lay down and take a long nap.
C. They’ve been Turned On by their Friends
- Psalms 41:9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
Abraham watched his nephew Lot walk away and leave him for Sodom and Gomorrah.
David dodged javelins from Saul, a man he loved and fought for and ministered to.
Do you reckon Jesus Christ was thrown for a loop when Judas kissed him and then betrayed him?
Paul the Apostle took a beating when Demas forsook him and turned to the world.
QUOTE: “There is no better place to heal a broken heart than on the back of a horse.” – cowboy saying
D. They’ve been Thrown Off by their Flesh
Samson made a bunch of mistakes, but he was able to get God’s touch at the end.
David messed up with Bathsheba, but he got right with God.
Peter denied the Lord three times, but God wasn’t through with him.
Whatever your reasons for getting thrown out of the saddle, you’ve got a decision to make.
What do you do when that happens? Lay there and bleed? Or get back in that saddle??
There’s only one right decision. Git Back In That Saddle!
The first thing they would ask a cowboy that they found laying on the ground was this: “Can you ride?”
Why you should climb back in the saddle:
I. The Reasons You were Hurt Ain’t Forever
Let’s be honest. Something or somebody knocked you down.
It could have been your own fault, or somebody else’s.
Bottom line: You got hurt.
- One minute you’re serving God, the next you’re sitting on the ground.
Whatever it was that knocked you out of the saddle; whatever it was that caused you to fall doesn’t have to last the rest of your life!
Dust yourself off and get back in that saddle! Shake it off. Move on.
- Proverbs 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again:
JUST MAN: just, lawful, righteous
Rising up again is what God’s people do when they’ve been cast down; overthrown; fall down
They get up, dust themselves off and go on for God.
RISETH UP AGAIN: to rise, arise, stand, rise up, stand up; to endure; to persist
God’s word says that mine and your love for God’s Word can overcome an offence.
- Psalms 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
OFFEND: a stumbling, means or occasion of stumbling, stumbling block, stumbling, fall
God might have let you get hurt so His Word could become more important to you.
- Psalm 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
ILLUSTRATION: Elijah under the juniper tree was worn out. God sent an angel to make him some food.
He slept and rested and then God urged him to get up and get back in the saddle!
There was work to be done.
There were kings that needed to be anointed and installed.
There were young preacher boys that needed to be recruited.
People depended on him.
He couldn’t lay under that juniper tree forever! He had work to do!
II. The Roundup You were Hired for Ain’t Finished
I’m going to say this as nicely as I can, but these cows ain’t gonna drive themselves to the market.
We’re not gonna get this herd to the stockyard with you lying on the ground.
God signed us on to round up every single man, woman, boy and girl and get them to Heaven.
They are not gonna win themselves.
- Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
We don’t have the luxury when we get thrown out of the saddle to just lay there.
There’s work to be done.
We need every born-again believer to get back in the saddle and help us get these souls to God.
We need every able-bodied person to get in on this roundup and help us finish this incredible assignment.
ILLUSTRATION: The Apostle Paul was stoned and then dragged out of the city of Lystra in Acts 14.
- 19 And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.
- 20 Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
- 21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
III. The Reward You were Hankering for Ain’t Finalized
Back in the day, those cowboys would work for a dollar a day.
But the trail boss made it clear when he hired them: they didn’t get paid until the drive was over.
Sometimes they’d be tempted to leave the drive and go another direction.
They didn’t get paid unless they finished what they were hired to do.
It didn’t matter if it was 1,000 miles of dry, dusty trails, rivers, stampedes, Indian attacks, range wars.
They had an obligation to the trail boss to finish what they signed on to do.
We all want the same thing – to hear the Lord say:
- Matthew 25:23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Your rewards and your crowns is contingent upon finishing right.
You don’t get paid for how you started; you get paid for how you finish.
If you fall – get thrown off – quit and don’t get back up, you can lose your reward.
- 2 John 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
The Apostle Paul was highly motivated to finish what he had started. Paul wasn’t a quitter!
- Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
He said it again.
- 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Paul looked it like this:
- Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Hebrews 10
- 35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
- 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
- 37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.