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University SDA Church- East Lansing

Jermaine Gayle

Life Between the Call and Crown

The title of my message, Life Between the Call and the Crown.

Father, once more we dedicate our hearts, our minds, our lives to you.

The preacher needs this perhaps more than everyone here.

I reflect the sentiments of the Apostle Paul who says, Christ came in the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

Nestled in 1 of the mountains of southern Italy is a church that is very hard to get to.

There are no roads to accommodate our common mode of transport, no parking lots to pull into.

Maybe it's like the university church because parking in this community is at a premium.

It's difficult, especially on those game days.

You wonder whether you have to walk 2 blocks or 3 blocks to come to church you know what I mean but this church is in the Italian Alps 1 writer says if 1 does not know just where this church is, you will find it very hard or almost impossible to get there.

When you finally get there, they say, the entrance to this church is so long and narrow that if a worshiper is serious about getting in, he or she must enter on their hands and knees and then must twist their bodies and turn in various ways in order to squeeze in through the entrance in order to get into the space of worship.

I read that the church could accommodate somewhere around 200 people.

Its ceiling has a hole large enough to illuminate the pulpit from which the preacher preaches with its natural light.

If you were to imagine this preacher, it would be a man with a white beard, an older gentleman who is maybe shuffling around his papers, his Bible tattered and worn, as he gets ready to preach his sermon.

He has done it many times, but this time, he has to preach with a hush because he knows that if this church is discovered by the wrong people their lives are in danger when the church members sang the hymns they too had to sing in muted tones because they didn't want to be discovered by the soldiers who are on their heels looking for them because they know that if they were found they would be killed so they sang 1 of the Waldensian hymns it goes like this for the strength of the hills we bless thee our God our Father's God thou has made thy children mighty by the touch of the mountain sod thou has fixed our arc of refuge where the spoilers foot near trod for the strength of the hills we bless thee our God our Father's God can you imagine this hymn rising from the depths of a cave as the Waldensians sang it.

Can you imagine hearing their prayers as they lift up their hearts and their souls in deep anguish to God?

Imagine that rising from the depths of a cave in Italy.

When the person on guard, and there had to be someone on guard watching the entrance of this cave to see if they would be discovered.

If he sees a soldier in the distance, and Right away, no matter where they are in the service, everyone had to be quiet.

If you ever get the chance to go on 1 of these historic tours, you'll get the opportunity if you go to Italy to get to see 1 of these churches made out of solid granite in the rocks Charles Beard in his book the Reformation of the 16th century writes this about the type of believers who worshiped in this church.

He says, the Waldensees, whatever their origin, were the first biblical Christians, were from the first, rather, from the first biblical Christians.

They translated the scriptures into their own tongue and expounded them in their natural sense only.

Another author writes about the church itself when she's when the author stated the supreme architect formed it meaning God Did you know God can make churches out of caves?

The supreme architect formed it, sinking its foundation deep in the earth and rearing high its bulwark.

He stored in it food, places witnesses in it, and bade them keep their mountain citadel undamaged and their lamp of truth unquenched.

Kathleen Dembski talked about this church after she went to visit it and she had this to say, God split the mountain with a great earthquake to provide his people a haven of worship.

1 can picture worshippers kneeling on the damp cavern floor to pray and encourage 1 another with passages of memorized scripture.

Isaiah 33 verse 15 and 16 and I don't have anything on the screen this this morning so just follow me in your Bibles.

Isaiah 33 and verse 15 and 16 God makes a promise that His people needs to keep in mind.

He says, He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing a hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from seeing evil He will dwell on high his place of defense will be the fortress of what's the next word everyone?

Rocks his bread will be given him his water will be sure friends.

There is a cave Reserved for people who want to follow God there is a cave reserved for people who want to follow God.

There is a cave reserved for people who want to do right in this world.

The Waldensians confirms it and this text illustrates it.

There is a cave waiting for us and I know some of you specialize in plants.

I'm gonna come find you so that we don't pick the wrong mushroom.

These cave dwellers who dine on bread and water are doing so because they decide early on that they would be faithful to God regardless of the consequences.

These cave dwellers are there because they have decided in their heart that no matter what the result they will speak the truth no matter what.

These cave dwellers refuse to oppress their brothers and sisters.

They don't live in mansions but mountains because they refuse to take bribes.

They abide in the clefts of the rocks because they refuse to shed blood.

And they turn their eyes away from watching evil things.

There is a cave waiting for everyone who wants to live for God.

Some of you are probably in your caves right now.

Maybe it's not the solid granite, but maybe it's made out of circumstances.

The rigid rocks of disappointment or the harsh, sharp rocks of hurt and pain and anger, maybe.

Dwelling in your cave, this silent, lonely, dark, damp place where the light of the sun cannot seem to penetrate.

And mind you, while I'm on this subject, I almost feel that there are some days, even when the sun shines in Michigan, It's like watching a fireplace on YouTube.

You get the sense that it's warm, but it's not really.

These caves are places where you feel buried by your fears, overwhelmed by your hurts, and you can't seem to smile because the darkness seems so dense that it could stab you in the heart every time you analyze and notice it.

The unfair treatment of others who don't know you, The gossip, the losses, the disappointments brought you to your knees.

The cave where the grocery list stands as a constant reminder of your poverty.

The cave, that place where your family members left you and you're by yourself, jobless, hopeless and almost lost.

Clinging, clinging to that 1 ounce of faith that you have left, asking God, when will you take me out of this cave?

Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 22.

Come with me to 1 such cave in the Old Testament.

There the Bible tells us in verse 1, David therefore departed from there and escaped to the whatever 1 cave of Abaddillah.

So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.

Now, you might not realize reading this text just on a surface level, that this cave is actually not very far from David's home.

This cave is located about 30 miles southwest from Bethlehem where David grew up.

This cave is located about 2 miles from where David defeated Goliath.

Which means that as David is in the cave of Adullam, he could look on the horizon and see the very spot he had defeated Goliath.

And could think of the victories he gained with God.

But the question is, as he contemplates the fact that he was anointed to be king, why is it that this king is in a cave?

So David, I imagine, here, realizing, I don't always live in a cave.

It might have been simple, but it was comfortable enough.

He was a little shepherd, unbothered with his boyish courage and his innocence.

His life was simple, his dreams weren't really big.

He loved being a shepherd, and we know this because David told Saul On 1 occasion, if you turn there with me to, in the Bible, it's the first Samuel chapter 17, in verse 34 and 35, when the battle was set against this great grand Goliath who wanted to fight the children of Israel, David told Saul in this moment, "'Your servant used to keep his father's sheep and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock he says I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth and when he rose against me I caught it by its beard and struck and killed it.

When I was younger, I remember we had a, the school that I attended, the primary school and there was a place on our walk home where this this the high cliff that that we would challenge each other as students to see who would jump and be able to manage getting down to this this ground level and being able to jump without falling.

Friends, this place that we would jump off of was literally a cliff beside a main road.

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Life Between the Call and Crown

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