Keion Henderson - He's a Promise Keeper

I want to talk today about a subject matter called «He’s a Promise Keeper.» Does anybody know He’s a Promise Keeper? God is a Promise Keeper. You know, one of the things I love to do is study history, and I most recently read about the life of Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison has been ascribed and attributed to being one of the world’s greatest inventors. He was the person who invented electric generation; he is the person who invented the apparatus for mass communication; he is the person who invented motion pictures. He did all of that, and most of us don’t know that because we recognize him for one thing he did: being the first person to achieve electric light through the light bulb.

You see, sometimes you can have an event in your life that people will know you for, but they won’t know all of the things that built you up to become the person you are today. There are so many failed experiences, so many challenges, trials, and mountains, as the song says. There are so many battles you had to overcome to be who you are today. There are people right now sitting next to you in this church; as we say in our church, they see your glory but don’t know your story. They see you coming to church, smiling, and worshiping God. You might be wearing nice clothes, and perhaps you drove here in a nice car, and you’ll go back to a nice home. But all of that is the result of winning your battles. All of that is the result of not quitting.

The reason we know Thomas Edison and the light bulb incident is that historical ideologies suggest he tried six thousand times before he got it right. He even took a hair from one of his employees to make a filament. After six thousand failures, Nikola Tesla actually worked for Thomas Edison for a year; he tried and failed. However, the reason we’re talking about Thomas Edison today is not because he was smarter than everyone else but because he worked harder than everyone else. Six thousand failures-he did it over and over again until he got it right.

I wanted to talk about that because sometimes what people think is genius is actually just persistence. Sometimes you’ll look at a person and say they’re a genius. What you’re looking at is someone who has enough grit not to quit. You admire that person, and you might say, «One day I’m going to have a business like theirs, and one day I’ll have a family like that.» Anyone in the room who has been married for 10, 15, or 20 years can tell you that each individual in the relationship has done enough to make the other person walk away. But marriage is not about perfect people; it’s about people who decided, «I won’t give up. I just won’t quit.»

No matter how difficult it is, no matter how many sleepless nights we have, no matter how many financial obstacles we must overcome, no matter how many times we want to take our children and give them back to God, we go through cycles. Those who are here today are here because we didn’t quit.

Now, I don’t want to step on anyone 's toes, but I believe that the greatest basketball player of all time is still Michael Jordan. I know we have some young people here who will say LeBron James, and I know Kobe Bryant is on the table. I’m older; I’ll be 40 in July. Let me have my moment of fame and glory. I’m going to stick with Mike because he played when I played. Let me tell you, Michael Jordan has this quote where he says, " I’ve missed 9,000 shots. I 've lost over 300 games. 26 times, I was trusted to make the game-winning shot, and I missed.» That is the reason why I am successful.

You are not successful because you made the shot; you are successful because you took another one after you missed. Babe Ruth said, «Every strikeout got me one step closer to a home run.» I want to let you know that when I read this text, I see a lot of people who are excited about God, who will establish a thing until the day of Jesus Christ. But in order for God to establish something in you, you have to adopt an attitude of not quitting.

To establish a thing, you must wake up every morning and decide, «This is the day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it .» Do I have anybody here who will say, «I refuse to quit»? Someone just said, «I refuse to quit.» No matter how difficult it is, no matter how troubling it is, no matter how sick I may be in my body, no matter how frustrating the situation is, I refuse to quit...