"In A Cave Mood "

Sermon by Pastor David Layman

September 3, 2006

I Kings 19:1-10
Romans 12:1-2

Have you seen the bumper sticker which declares Instant gratification
isnt fast enough for me! We live in an age that desires instant
gratification. My parents generation grew up during the depression, and
they lived by a different principle: delayed gratification. They never
bought something before they had the money to pay for it. They didnt
even take out a loan to buy a car! They saved up ahead of time. Growing
up in the depression taught them to be very careful with money. Yet we
live in an age where many carry a significant burden of debt. Many
things are bought on credit. After all, its only X number of dollars a
month, people reason. We can handle that. But one purchase on credit is
piled on top of another, and another. People see things they want, and
get out a credit card. And all of a sudden, they have serious financial
problems. Credit cards often carry high interest rates. An unanticipated
expense arises. Creditors begin to hound the indebted at work. In
another community, I knew a woman who said her spending habits were
causing serious stress on her marriage. She always wanted to be home to
get the mail before her husband could see it, and all the bills they
owed. The results of instant gratification can lead to serious trouble.

When I was a teenager, a book was published asking the question Why
Wait Until Marriage? The desire for instant gratification isnt limited
to financial purchases! Im afraid that book wouldnt sell many copies
today, for much of society seems to have gone the instant gratification
route. But the book shared many good reasons why people should wait
until marriage. Among them: Its better to get to know a person very
well before committing oneself totally to them. Self discipline is a key
component to long term faithfulness. Those who believe in instant
gratification may apply the same set of beliefs when theyre away from
their loved one! Furthermore, delayed gratification builds character.
The best things in life cannot be achieved instantly. You cant get a
medical or law degree in an instant. You have to complete high school, 4
years of college, then rigorous post graduate studies. In the field of
athletics, again and again we find that the teams that succeed are
composed of athletes who practice delayed gratification. They learn the
fundamentals first, then teamwork. Everyone has the will to win; not
everyone has the will to prepare!

The principle of delayed gratification is foundational to the Christian
faith. Hebrews 12: 2 reminds us of Jesus, who for the sake of the joy
that was set before him endured the cross. Jesus is now seated
triumphant at the throne of God. The concept of heaven and the life to
come is based upon delayed gratification! But its difficult to proclaim
and maintain a Christian ethic when one is seemingly surrounded by
others living another way.

The Old Testament prophet Elijah lived in such a time. King Ahab
compromised for the sake of political expediency. He married Jezebel,
the daughter of the King of Tyre. Such political alliances were common
in those days. But they came with a price. Israel was to worship only
the Lord, the one true God. We read in I Kings 18:19 that Jezebel
brought with her 450 prophets of Baal, and 400 prophets of the pagan
goddess Asherah, who all ate at Jezebels table. That must have been
some table, with 850 pagan prophets eating at it! What the phrase
eating at Jezebels table meant was that Ahab, the King of Israel, and
supposed servant of the Lord, was supporting 850 fertility cult
religious leaders that his wife had brought into the kingdom. Theyd
also constructed pagan places of worship. Fertility cults practiced cult
prostitution, and were indeed a mixture of sex and religion.

Elijah didnt much like being in the minority. In I Kings 19, even
though hed won a great victory over the prophets of Baal, Elijah is
told Queen Jezebel wants to kill him. He sets off on a cross-country run
and calls out to God in exhaustion, Take away my life. God sends a
ministering angel to feed Elijah and encourage him to rest. Then Elijah
continues his flight, winding up in a cave on Horeb, the mount of God.
There are times we get tired and discouraged, and would like to leave
the troubled world behind us. Elijah was saying Im the only one left.
In reality, there were over 7,000 faithful Israelites left. But in his
discouragement, he felt like he was the last faithful man left in Israel.

Elijah had invited the prophets of Baal to a showdown on Mount Carmel.
Elijah and the competition would each place a bull upon an altar, and
the one whose bull was consumed by fire from heaven would emerge the
winner. In Pauls letter to the Romans, Paul makes a greater challenge
when he writes I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the
mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice....Do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
minds... Its a bold challenge Paul placed before his listeners. Paul
does more than challenge his listeners to practice delayed
gratification. Paul says Present your bodies as a living sacrifice!
Paul is not saying All believers will have to die at the stake.
Although some did. But Paul boldly challenges us to give all we have to God!

We live in such a self-focussed world, that we might hesitate to make
such a challenge. But we follow the One who gave his life on the cross
for each of us and the world. Why is it we are so willing to accommodate
ourselves, and the Christian faith, to the world? Thats one of the
things that troubles me about the drift in parts of the Presbyterian
church in recent years. Some at the national level have accommodated
themselves to an extremist agenda, an example of which was reported by
the press this week. Paul continues in Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that
you may discern the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Many in the old main line churches also err by asking so little of
people. We have been conditioned by our self centered culture to
moderate the challenges of the gospel. When we were down in Mexico, it
was pretty hot. We didnt have it bad, because we had an air conditioned
place to stay at night. But the three times we walked up and down the
streets distributing brochures in a poor residential area, there was no
escaping the hot sun. Yet I saw a young American in a white shirt and
tie with a young Mexican similarly attired, working the streets:
Mormons! Mormon young people are expected to devote two years of mission
service. We dont expect that much from young Presbyterians. In reality,
we expect them to drop out of church for a while, thats what we expect!
And people often live up to our expectations!

We worked with a dedicated team of Mexican Presbyterians, who had given
a week of their time, just as we had, to try to start a new church in
Mexico. One of the men was Leo, an elder who worked for an agency in
Cancun all day, got permission from his boss to take off work early, and
then came to teach Bible school. Leo was so devoted to the Lord, that he
not only brought his wife along. He brought his mother in law! Another
was Lena, a 40 something year old Mexican widow, who, along with
teaching at two schools, and working part time at her church, was taking
classes at a Presbyterian Seminary in Merida on Saturdays to become a
counselor. She was also raising two daughters. Some people dont focus
on personal gratification, be it immediate or delayed, but are intent on
giving their bodies as a living sacrifice to their Lord.

While at the Presbyterian Global Fellowship meeting in Atlanta, I had
the chance to hear and meet other dedicated believers. There were church
leaders from overseas, including Maqsood Kamil, a Pakistani Presbyterian
leader. Pakistani Christians have suffered significant persecution and
hardship. I met Andrew Adair, who served for 9 years in Kyrgyzstan, part
of the former Soviet Union, and is now working for Presbyterian Frontier
Fellowship, which focusses on people yet unreached by the gospel. I met
and heard bright people, dedicated people who could have had a far
easier life doing something else. It was an inspiration to be surrounded
by such saints!

When we get in a cave mood, when we find ourselves like Elijah,
feeling discouraged, feeling like were just about the only one left who
hasnt gone along to get along, then we know its time to turn our
hearts toward Jesus, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured
the cross. And its time to listen to Pauls challenge once again:

By the mercies of God...present your bodies as a living sacrifice...Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your minds!

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