Spiritual Survivalists!

Good afternoon, brethren. I really appreciated Mr. Sarracco’s sermonette. I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much had I stuck to the initial plan I had today, which was to speak on maintaining spiritual momentum or building spiritual momentum after the Feast. It would’ve been a very difficult last 20 minutes in the back of the hall, but thankfully I changed course early enough to speak on something else. For those local, if you are looking up, yes, I have a little bit of a different hairstyle today. It’s not your imagination.

Just experimenting with it today. And I approached Headquarters. My wife was already working in the kitchen here, so she hadn’t seen it yet. And I summoned Mr. Houk from afar, and he graciously came over and gave me the thumbs up. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Then when I finally did see my wife briefly outside, and then in the back of the hall, she extended her hand and said, “Pleased to meet you. I’m Sarah.” I thought, oh, no, it must really look different. Fun to pass along, but not our purpose here today. So, I’ll pause so that they can cut all of that out of the recording, should they choose to do so.

How many of you have been lost? A show of hands, I would imagine most of us. Being lost on the way to an appointment or a destination across town can be a nuisance. Maybe you had to be somewhere at a specific time, didn’t make it there on time. Maybe it interrupted the flow of your daily schedule. But how many have been lost, let’s say, in the woods? Okay, few hands, and you know it’s very different from being lost on the way, particularly now with GPS to a grocery store or somewhere else. I’ve been lost in the woods before. Hour or two passed, I saw coyotes flanking me.

I was down in a valley. It was not a good situation. You people who raised your hands probably similar accounts. But that’s when an inconvenience turns into a matter of survival. Very different to be lost in a situation where your survival is at stake. Even if you don’t encounter wild animals, there’s only but so much hydration in our body. There’s only but so much food. It can be very dangerous. On the way back from the Feast yesterday, I looked up from my seat and we were flying on an airplane back to Ohio, and I saw a little cabin and it said on the front of it, “Survival kit inside.”

And I began to think, well, maybe it has fishing hooks, fishing line, first aid kit, maybe some matches. If you can have those on the plane, it wouldn’t have a knife, like a usual survival kit, I wouldn’t imagine on a plane. But my mind began to roll to these stories of castaways on islands. I grew up, I read Robinson Crusoe, you know, his encounters with cannibals and building shelters, and finding food, and trying not to go insane, if I’m remembering certain elements of it correctly. We all know these stories of survival. You hear about them in the news sometimes.

And sometimes it’s not just survival when stranded, sometimes it’s survival en route to a destination. As we continue to set the table here, some have probably heard of the concept of manifest destiny, particularly if you’re in the United States. When the pioneers moved west across treacherous lands, famine they dealt with, snowstorms, disease down the Oregon Trail. They had to survive en route to their final destination. And sometimes it got very bad. You can read all about it, but the most account, I would say that typifies just how bad it could get was that of the Donner Party.

This comes from the Bill of Rights Institute. I’ll read briefly as we continue to set up this subject of survival. Another face of momentum, post-Feast. We’ll drill down specifically, but right now, the Donner Party from the Bill of Rights Institute. “In eighteen forty-six, the Donner Party, a group of immigrants from Illinois joined a wagon train and made their way westward, heading to California. There they hoped to build farms on rich, undeveloped land in a mild climate. Delayed in starting, they decided to take a shortcut that would allow them to save time and many miles by leaving the Oregon Trail at a certain point.”

I grew up in elementary schools of the United States, where we had the game, The Oregon Trail, on our computer. And you would see these pixelated wagons moving across the screen and then famine would strike, and you would die and have to go back to the previous level, or a wild animal would come get you or you’d be eaten by natives perhaps. I can’t remember all the disasters that unfolded in the game, Oregon Trail, but this is what it comes from.

“The Hastings Cutoff they followed had been described by a writer named Lansford W. Hastings, who had never traveled it himself, but wanted to encourage American settlers to move to California, a land he promoted as an idyllic paradise. Hastings hoped California would break free of Mexico and become independent before joining the United States. The Cutoff was indeed the most direct pad to California, but crossing Utah and Nevada proved much more difficult than imagined. Steep slopes and high mountains were followed by long stretches of desert.

The Donner Party had made a fateful decision to take this route. By the time the group reached the Truckee River in northwestern Nevada, they were running low on food, and the men were arguing amongst themselves. They began to encounter adversity. This really began to test their ability to survive. Tensions reached a breaking point when one man stabbed another and killed him. Other members of the party died of disease or accidents. American Indians stole or shot some of their livestock, their food supply. The expedition began to break up as smaller groups and families left the main party to try to make it on their own.

It was now October, but George Donner and the other men decided to try to cross the towering Sierra Nevada. As they pushed high into the mountains, the snow began to fall. Forced to stop by snow drifts that reached ten-feet high or more, the group made a winter camp of several rough cabins and tents. Despite efforts to walk out and bring back help, and despite some rescue attempts, only forty-eight of the eighty-seven remaining members survived the winter. Some became so desperate for food that they resorted to cannibalism, eating the bodies of those who had died.

The infamous disaster underscored the dangers faced in the decision to move west.” It was an all-out fight for survival. If you wanted to go west, if you wanted those promises of riches and lands out west, some had what it took and others didn’t. As we heard in the sermonette, we’re back from the Feast, we have to maintain spiritual momentum. We have more time than we thought, and at the same time, the world is growing more dangerous than it ever has been before. Every day that passes, it becomes more perilous. King David asked a question in Psalm eleven, if you turn there.

We’re of course talking about spiritual survival, not physical survival. We don’t contend with snakes and snow, and famine, and disease, and indigenous peoples, but the parallel is very real. King David asked a question in Psalm eleven. “In the Lord put I my trust,” verse one, “how say you to the fool, flee as a bird to your mountain? For lo the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.” Surrounded by evil. “If the foundations...” this is the question, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” He asked.

“The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men.” God is ultimately in control, but if the foundations, meaning the basis that is figuratively political or moral support, if you look in the Hebrew, if the world around you is collapsing, if the order of society around us is collapsing, what can the righteous do? You know the borders are wide open. I heard a stat recently that there are thirteen thousand documented murderers who’ve come across the border. And there are all kinds of other crimes.

These people now roam the streets. We look on the television and there are certain of these individuals who are taking over apartment complexes in communities, in big cities. And I’m not fear-mongering here, but there are terrorists now, sleepers as they’re called, sleeper cells everywhere. Liberties are eroding worldwide. The political order of things, the foundations are changing. They’re being broken up. Children are being preyed upon in new and terrible ways. Things as basic as the difference between a man and woman are now no longer taken for granted.

They’re subject to discussion. Assassination attempts are seemingly run of the mill now. Regardless of what party you’re in or where you are in the world, they’re becoming increasingly common. Politicians continue to lie in more brazen ways. Our children are subject to corrupt education institutions. Spiritual survival, we could argue, is more important than ever. War is expanding. Look what happened last night. The Israelis hit Iran. We knew they were going to. We’ll see what the response is in this tit-for-tat escalation. There have been recent reports that North Korea is going to throw in with the Russians.

And I’ve even heard South Koreans are going to throw in with the Ukrainians. Everything is getting more complex and dangerous. Now, the most dangerous thing to us as Christians that we have to contend with is the fact that society’s morals are in decline. Oh, we know God will protect us from all those things. Again, I’m not trying to fearmonger, but we’re to watch and see the state of the world. What we have to be most careful of is how society is in a downward spiral. We don’t want to get dragged down with it. Quick fact from science.org based on a recent poll, I think it was a 2023 poll.

According to a recent Gallup poll, fifty-four percent of Americans say the state of moral values in the country is “poor”, a record number. Some eighty-three percent say they believe morals are in decline. Amazing. Everyone, you don’t even have to have eyes to see, so to speak. You don’t have to be in God’s Church to look around and say the foundations are being destroyed. Morals are collapsing.

Now, again, we’re back from the Feast. We have more time. How do we survive? We’re on a spiritual high. We just heard eight days of wonderful messages. We had excellent fellowship opportunities that are only available really at that time of year in that measure, of course. But now we’re back in society and we find ourselves in what we could call a spiritual survival situation. You and I, brethren, are in a spiritual survival situation. Our ability to survive is everything. James chapter one, James one. Everything turns on it. James one, eleven.

James said, “For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass and the flowers thereof fall, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes. So also shall the rich man fade in his ways. Blessed is the man that endures temptation...” Meaning putting to proof an experience of evil. “Blessed is the man that endures temptation for when he is tried,” when he endures that temptation, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love him.” We could say blessed is the man that survives. Let’s look at it in a little bit different light.

Blessed is the man that survives en route to that crown of life that we’ve been promised. Here’s Paul, the Apostle Paul, First Corinthians four... thirteen, First Corinthians thirteen. James said, blessed is the man that endures, or for our purposes here survives. Who has that survival kit and uses it, who can overcome all odds and stand. First Corinthians thirteen, verse four, “Charity suffers long,” love suffers long, “and is kind. Charity envies not. Charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil.

Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Survives no matter what. Endures there means has fortitude, perseveres, basically has staying power. No matter what’s thrown its way, love can endure all things, survive all things. “Love never fails,” verse eight, “but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” Love survives all things. How important is that in the hostile environment we now find ourselves?

Far worse than any desert or island, or cross-country trek. Physical lives were on the line in those circumstances. Physical lives are on the line. We have everything. We have a crown waiting for us. We have eternal life waiting for us. It’s exciting. We heard all about it at the Feast, and we shouldn’t be discouraged or daunted by the things we have to survive. We just have to keep our eyes single, which we’ll get to in a bit here. There’s a certain way that we as Christians survive. Now there are many facets to that, but we’ll look at some today, but it’s mostly a mental game.

You ask survival experts about the nature of a situation in which people have to use their training or rely on skills they’ve adopted, and they’ll generally tell you that more important than the physical, yes, you’ve got to be able to find food, water, construct a shelter, the real dividing line between who survives and who doesn’t is mindset. It’s the mental game. A brief explanation of that from Ramstein Air Base in Germany, United States airbase. Humans are designed to survive, this military outfit explains. Yet, history has shown that when stranded in survival settings, there have been some who made it out alive and some who did not.

Perhaps while some cannot change their outcome, some can. We have absolute control over our outcome. Sergeant Lee Young is the eighty-sixth operations group survival, evasion, resistance, and escape, non-commissioned officer in charge. As a SERE, meaning Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape instructor, Lee teaches survival techniques to air crew, special operations, personnel, and other military members who are at high risk of isolation, high risk of finding themselves in a Robinson Crusoe situation or in that famous movie from the nineteen nineties, Cast Away, that Tom Hanks on a deserted island type situation.

From his experience, Lee concludes that survival is mostly in the mind. Survival is ten percent physical and ninety percent mental, Lee says. That’s what the military minds who routinely deal with survival situations will tell you. It takes someone who’s mentally strong and has the willpower to endure. These are people who make it out of a survival situation. You need food and water, but if you don’t have that mental strength and you quit within the first few days, then your life is over. Ninety percent mental is the assessment. So let’s delve into some of the qualities it takes to be a spiritual survivor, see how important it is.

We intrinsically know that. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already understand, but it helps set these survival tactics or techniques up, however you’d like to characterize them. Let’s look at some of the mental attributes, those ninety percent, if you will, that will keep us alive. And this is by no means a complete or exhaustive list, but these are elements that are required to spiritually survive in a spiritually dangerous world, and whatever little time we have left. So the first quality that we have to adopt is spiritual survivors maintain vision. Spiritual survivors maintain vision.

Picture yourself as a physical survivor. You’ve crashed in the Pacific Ocean, the rest of the crew is dead, and you wash ashore on an island. Imagine just thinking, well, I have no hope, and that’s all it is. Ah, I’ll never get back to civilization. You’d give up in a matter of hours or days. But if you had vision, you know what? If I muster all my resources, if I just remain cool, calm, press on, do my best, maybe another airplane will pass by and I’ll have a smoke signal in place, and I’ll make it out of here. It’s that kind of vision that keeps someone in a survival situation motivated.

It’s crucial, absolutely crucial. Proverbs twenty-nine, eighteen. Proverbs twenty-nine, eighteen. Our vision of the kingdom of God, our vision of the things we just learned at the Feast is what will keep us going. Ensure we are spiritual survivors. Proverbs twenty-nine, eighteen, “Where there is no vision...” Solomon explained, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Without vision, without a goal, if we can go back to the sermonette, without an overarching goal in life, the goal we’re to seek first, the kingdom of God will perish if we don’t keep that at the center of our focus.

“Where there is no vision that people perish, but he that keeps the law happy is he.” That’s the contrary side of it. That’s the opposite side of not having vision. Keeping the law suggests we understand, well, I’ve got to build character. I can’t earn eternal life, but I’m building eternal... I’m building the character necessary to be given eternal life. I want to keep God’s law. I want to learn his way so that I can help others. So that I can live forever and help others live forever too. We who keep God’s law, we who learn to fear God at the Feast, who make a life of obeying him, inherently have vision.

We know where this path will ultimately take us, and it’s crucial to our survival. We can’t lose sight of the lessons that we just learned at the Feast. Luke chapter nine, Christ amplified this. Luke nine, verse fifty-seven, “And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.” He wanted the ultimate prize, if you will. “And Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And he said unto another, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.”

I want to spend out the rest of my... this wasn’t about a funeral. He wanted to go and see his father’s earthly existence to the end. He had certain cares of this life that he wanted to attend to. It’s not wrong to want to spend time with a father, but it can’t be in place of seeking first the kingdom of God. And Jesus went on to explain in verse sixty, “Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury the dead, but go you and preach the kingdom of God.

And another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go bid them farewell which are at my home, at my house. And Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” In other words, once we commit, once we adopt that vision, there were baptisms at the Feast, once we determine, this is the life that I’m going to live, I want to be in God’s family, it’s an all-out pursuit. It’s an all-out spiritual survival situation. And nothing, Christ said, can get in the way. Not our relationships, it’s not our desires, not our past life.

No. Our hand is to the plow. We’re doing the work. We have to press forward. Looking back risks pulling us off this awesome course. Looking back chronically will destroy us. Got to keep our eye focused, keep ourselves moving forward. We’ve got to be focused on the future. Hebrews chapter eleven, Hebrews eleven, verse six, “Without faith, it’s impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must believe he is,” Hebrews eleven six, “and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek it. By faith, Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear...”

Noah had the foresight to say, “What God is telling me is true, there is going to be a flood. I need to build a boat because God commanded me to, but also that’s the only way I’m going to survive.” He didn’t see it, but he moved with fear. He knew it was coming because that’s what God said. “He prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” The world thought he was a fool, they wouldn’t listen to him. They thought he was a crazy old man, six hundred years old or something like that at that point.

I forget the exact figure. He condemned the world in the sense that his actions were a testament to his faith in God. And he was mocked endlessly until that day that the ark closed, and people began to realize, “Wow, he may have been on to something.” He was on to something. “By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for a city which had foundations...”

He could envision it, he had the vision, “...whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of none and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude.” They believed that God would indeed give the son that he promised, from whom came Israel. And the sand which is by the seashore, innumerable. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off...”

They had that spiritual vision that would allow them to survive more perilous physical situations than we’ve probably ever experienced, brethren. Mean, imagine the entire world engulfed in a flood. Just Noah’s example, his vision, Abraham’s vision, all these great patriarchs’ visions, vision of the future allowed them to survive spiritually, but also physically, in their case. They believed God. Verse fourteen, “For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of the country from whence they came out,” if they looked back while their hand was to the plow, we can use Christ’s analogy, “they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly, whereof God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” That’s what they’re looking forward to, that’s what we’re looking forward to. It has a tremendous motivating value if we’re actively looking forward to it.

Verse twenty-four, “By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” There was all kinds of things around him to entice him. He lived kind of at the pinnacle of world governments, could have had anything he wanted. But he had a vision, and he wasn’t going to look left or right, or back. He was going to look straight ahead. Yes, everybody, all these servants made mistakes just as we have, just as we will. We can never let them derail us. We have to always strive to do better. Never use the fact that we could make mistakes as an excuse to make mistakes. Be another thing to consider. “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” He had that great vision. Paul said something similar in Romans eight. Romans eight, verse fourteen. Paul saw past everything that was going on around, all the trials, all the difficulty. Verse fourteen, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they’re the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you’ve received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time,” this spiritual survival situation in which we find ourselves constantly surrounded by difficulty, constantly surrounded by evil, constantly surrounded by things that can harm us or derail us, take us off course, “are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” He looked forward to that glory and endured he himself shipwrecks, wild animals.

The stuff of those stories we opened with. But what’s more, he endured spiritually. Spiritual survivors maintain good works. Second category here, second element of survival. Key to survival. Spiritual survivors maintain good works. You know, those who are stranded on an island or trekking cross-country, they do the basics. They do the fundamentals. They keep doing what needs to be done. Psalm one thirty-three, we of course, as has been mentioned, just got back from the Feast, Psalm one thirty-three, and at the Feast we not only learned things, but we had unique opportunities.

Psalm one thirty-three and verse one, “Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” Those eight days are a time like no other during the year. “It’s like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments. As the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. For there, the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.” It’s a beautiful time, incomparable time, and we probably developed some new skills or brushed off some old ones.

Spiritual survivors maintain good works. Maybe we served a little bit more. Now there’s more opportunity to serve at the Feast than at other times during the year. Maybe we looked out for somebody who maybe was feeling left out. Maybe we prepared a meal for someone or thought about shut-ins. You know, shut-ins aren’t just shut-ins at the Feast often. Maybe we became more routinized in our prayer. You know, we were studying, as it were, at fixed intervals all through the Feast when we came to services. Maybe our spiritual life became more regimented, and that’s something that we want to take back to our homes, wherever they may be.

Maintain good works in that sense. Titus chapter three, Titus three. Spiritual survivors maintain good works. It doesn’t just happen. It takes planning, it takes forethought, it takes meditation, we’ll see. Titus chapter three. Paul wrote Titus. He said, “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work.” Ready to every good work. “To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.” These are elements of good works. “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

But after that,” the kindness of God, “the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us,” excuse me, “by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” That vision of eternal life. “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that you affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto all men.”

Now, this is a fascinating word. We’re told to be careful to maintain good works. Careful there simply means exercise thought, think about it. Think about how to maintain good works. It can also mean be anxious, be concerned about it. Think about and be concerned with maintaining good works, Paul said. It doesn’t just happen. Yes, there are circumstances that come up and there’s an opportunity to do a good work, but we’re to think about it, we’re to exercise thought, we’re to plan. We’re to do our best when we’re given an opportunity.

Back to Hebrews chapter ten this time, Hebrews ten. Paul again. Verse twenty-three, “Let us hold fast,” Hebrews ten, twenty-three, “the profession of our faith without wavering, for he’s faithful that promised, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching.” I would argue that good works beget good works. It’s not that oh, I want to serve this person because they serve me, as in like we have to check this side of the ledger because the other side was checked.

But no, when brethren dwell together in unity and they’re looking out for one another’s needs, and they’re provoking one another in natural and right ways, that’s a beautiful picture. And it doesn’t just happen at the Feast. We have to maintain those good works when we come back to our congregations. And if we’re afar, then maybe we have to exercise this in creative ways, exercise our thought, be careful in different ways. Everybody’s situation is different. Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians two. God will guide us in this. He won’t leave us there to figure it out all on our own.

We have his Spirit or his Spirit is working in us. If we’re not yet baptized, God will guide us. Ephesians two, verse five, “Even when we were dead in sins, He’s quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you’re saved and has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” What a goal. “For by grace, are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it’s the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” God created us with the expectation, with the goal, with the plan that we’d carry out good works.

I mean, a good work is going up to somebody who looks left out and including them. There’s a broad spectrum, and that might seem like a small thing, but it’s not if you think about it, it’s not at all. We’re His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. He’s planned out some, maybe all, I don’t know exactly how He functions, but He’s planned these good works in the past.

So if He’s planned, if He’s foreordained these good works, of course He’s going to assist us in carrying them out. Maybe it’s as simple as, Father, you know, please show me which good works I can carry out. I don’t see many opportunities. Please show me something. Show me a way I can help, or maybe there’s someone I can talk to figure out what more I can do, whatever it might be. After all, He’s the one that ordained that we should walk in them. Philippians chapter two.

He didn’t only plan these works for us. He’ll actually, if we’re in tune with Him and relying on Him, He’ll guide us into them. He’ll guide us into the very desire to carry them out. Philippians two, twelve. “Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for its God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do all things without murmuring and disputing.”

It’s God which works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Maybe we don’t feel motivated. God says, when you do something right, I’ve actually motivated you. Maybe we’re feeling unmotivated. We can simply ask God to motivate us. It might take effort, but He’ll do it. He promises, it’s God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputing that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

To survive in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation as lights, we must spiritually press on in all these ways we’re discussing, and in many others of course. First John three. First John three. Tremendous benefits come from this. First John three and verse twenty-two. John said, “Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” We can’t earn salvation, but we can do things that are pleasing in God’s sight, and He’ll help us to accomplish that.

Next point here, spiritual survivors are strong. Spiritual survivors are strong. Proverbs chapter twenty-four. They find themselves in a tough situation. They don’t give up. They’re strong, just as a castaway has to be mentally strong. They can’t get tired of searching for food or to decide, “I’m not going to build a shelter, or I’m not going to forage for water, find fresh water.” No, they’re strong. The survivors in those situations have to be strong, so must we.

Proverbs twenty-four, ten, “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small,” blunt, blunt. The implication is we have to be strong in the day of adversity. Thankfully, we’re not relying on our own steam because we’re not the naturally strong in the world. We’re far from it in. In fact, God in part tells us, “I called you because you’re not strong.” We’re weak, base, foolish, but we’re that way because God knows we’re more inclined to rely on him.

It’s when we think we’re strong that we’re in trouble. When we think we’re humanly strong and rely on that strength, I would add that we are in trouble. Joshua chapter one, Joshua chapter one, being strong is not optional. It’s not a choice that we’re allowed to make as Christians. God actually commands us to be strong. And of course, He commands us to be strong because He’s the source of our strength.

It’s not as though we can’t be strong, yet we’re told we must be strong. No, we’re commanded to be strong and given the tools necessary. Joshua chapter one, “Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people under the land I do give them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that have I given unto you as I said unto Moses, from the wilderness in this Lebanon, even to the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and under the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before you all the days of your life as I was with Moses.”

The reason nobody can stand before you is because as I was with Moses, so will I be with you? And so is He with each of us brethren, “I will not fail you nor forsake you. Be strong and of a good courage,” God said. We could say God commanded. We’ll see later He explicitly commanded it, “Be strong and of a good courage for unto this people shall you divide for an inheritance the land which I swore unto their fathers to give them.”

We’re pursuing the ultimate promised land, the spiritual promised land in the Kingdom of God, not just a physical land. How much more applicable is this to us? “Only be you strong and very courageous that you may observe to do all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand nor the left that you may prosper whithersoever you go.”

All these points of spiritual survival are interconnected. Remember those who exercise vision, obey God. They do the law of the Lord. Well, here we see that those who are strong do the will of God. Obey God’s word. Obey the law, all integrated elements of survival. “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then you shall make your way prosperous and then you shall have good success. Have I not commanded you?” God says.

It wasn’t just a suggestion, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid.” This should be the most encouraging thing we could hear, one of the most encouraging things we could hear. God isn’t going to tell us to do something and not give us the capability to carry it out. He’s saying, “I’m commanding you to be strong and courageous.” Therefore, I’m going to give you the skill set necessary. I’m going to give you the help necessary to be strong and courageous no matter the spiritual survival situation as it were that we may find ourselves in.

“Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid. Neither be you dismayed for the Lord your God is with you, whithersoever you go.” Anywhere, in any circumstance. First Corinthians sixteen, First Corinthians sixteen Paul said this.

Verse thirteen. First Corinthians sixteen, thirteen, “Watch you, stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men, be strong.” Quit you like men means act manly. Be strong, be empowered. Increase in vigor. Now, it doesn’t matter if we’re male or female, the intent here is, be strong. And again, we are not the strongest people naturally, but God says He’s going to help us through this. Second Timothy One. We have the ultimate help. We have God in our corner.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” It says in one place, but right now, Second Timothy one and verse three, Paul again, “I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day greatly desiring to see you being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois and in your mother Eunice. And I am persuaded that in you also wherefore I put you in remembrance, that you stir up the gift of God, which is in you by the putting on of my hands for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

We have that residing in us or working with us, and God elsewhere tells us that just as a hungry son asks his father for bread, he’s just as willing, in fact, more willing to give us more of this Spirit that will give us strength in any situation, wherever we need it. No matter the nature of the trial, no matter the nature of the difficulty, God will give us what we require. Philippians four, last scripture here in this section.

Philippians four. Sometimes things just don’t go our way. We’re thrown a curve ball. We have to adjust. We have to grow from it. Well, we can’t just crumple up and die. No, we’re given strength by God. It’s part of the good works. Overcoming is part of a good work, changing course where necessary is part of maintaining good works. It’s all-encompassing. All these points tie together.

This spiritual survival situation is just an analogy or an anchor. God speaks with a unified voice no matter the subject we’re looking at. This is just a lens through which to consider these verses. Philippians four, eleven, “Not that I speak in respect of want for, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and how to abound.” This is very hard. He came to this conclusion and this place after a long and difficult life.

It takes a lifetime to master, but he reached a point where he could. say in good conscience, “I’ve learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.” It has to be a goal we have. I know both how to be abased and how to abound everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.” Not through my own strength, but through Christ who gives me help in any situation, who ensures that I can succeed in any situation.

Next, survival tactic, survival technique here. Spiritual survivors respect their enemies. Spiritual survivors respect their enemies. You know, if you’re on a deserted island and you just washed ashore or fell out of the sky, and you see a snake and, “Look at this snake. I don’t care. It’s coming up to me,” and then it bites you on the leg. You’re not going to survive long on.

If you have respect for the circumstances around you, “Okay, that that snake is poisonous. Even if it’s not, I don’t want it to bite me.” Or, “I don’t exactly know what that vegetation is, maybe I should systematically introduce it to my diet to ensure I don’t die or become severely ill my second day as a castaway here,” or whatever the situation may be. Oh, I don’t need to get out of the sun even though I don’t know if there’s any potable water nearby. I’m just going to sit out here and hope someone come.

No, physical survivors have to have respect for the circumstances and enemies, as it were, that they face, the things that could jeopardize their ability to survive. Jude verse five, Jude five, a cavalier attitude for us brethren. Whoa. For a physical survivor, a cavalier attitude can mean death. It can mean death for us too if we’re not careful. Jude five, “I will therefore put you in remembrance. Though you once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of that great day.”

We know them as demons. “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and as the cities about them in like manner are giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh. Some of the things that can pull us away, pulled people away, anciently rather, are set forth an example. Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise, also, these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael, the arc angel when contending with the devil...” this super powerful angel... “when contending with the devil, he disputed with the body of Moses.” They were arguing about Moses’ bones or something like that, where it was, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuke you.”

And he was respectful of the power of the third most powerful being in the universe. And while we don’t fear the devil, we fear God. We don’t fear the devil. We can’t just say, “Oh, I’m impervious.” I’m not saying any of us does. “I’m immune to the devil’s airways. I have God’s spirit now. I’m in God’s Church. He can’t affect me.” No, he has wiles, he has subtlety, he has craft, he has devices. I think it puts it in one place.

I went through here and just got some of the different names of the devil throughout the Bible, because sometimes a name says a lot. He’s called Satan, which means an opponent, the arch enemy of good. He’s called the devil, which means the traducer, someone who lies and speaks badly about others. If you look it up in a modern dictionary, a modern Oxford Dictionary says to traduce is to speak badly of or tell lies about someone so as to damage their reputation. He’s called the tempter. We know how that is. Every one of us has endured his temptations. He’s called the prince or the chief of devils, the ruler of a demonic kingdom. He’s called Beelzebub, which actually means the dung god. He’s the god of all filth, the kinds of things that can take us off the path we’re on.

He’s called the wicked one, meaning hurtful, evil, calamitous, ill, diseased, but especially morally culpable, that is derelict, vicious, facinorous. Facinorous means, look it up in the dictionary, extremely wicked. The list could go on. He’s the father of murder and lies, and he wants to murder us. We have to be respectful of that and rely on those other tools we’ve looked at to resist the assault. The moment we think we have everything worked out, and we’re immune to it all, is we’re on very dangerous ground.

We found ourselves walking on quicksand on this island that we may have landed on. Then there’s society. Paul called it “this present evil world.” We went through some of the things going on in society at the start of this. We were just talking about the three Ss here, Satan, society, and self. Very basic, but all things that can end our existence if we’re not respectful of our enemies. Christ knew what was in the world, John two, John chapter two.

He had an understanding of that society that he came to, of the society in which we find ourselves, which very much dovetails with human nature, self, John chapter two. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the Feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did, but Jesus did not commit himself under them because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what was in man. He understood the nature of society.

He understood the nature of human beings cut off from God. Verse twenty-five, “He knew,” John two, twenty-five, “what was in man,” which is why we also have to be respectful of our own human nature. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been in the church. Jeremiah seventeen, nine, still comes into play. We don’t need to turn there, but we have deceitful hearts, desperately wicked hearts. We understand our own capability to deceive ourselves, our own capability to end our pursuit of eternal life.

And if we don’t have a healthy respect for that enemy, it would be good to meditate on it because it’s a dangerous, dangerous world, but, of course, there’s a path out, Romans seven verse twenty-one. These enemies are not to scare us. They’re to sober us. Just like Paul said of the devil, “He walks around as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,” we’re to be vigilant and sober as it puts it there, not lawsy fair, carefree, vigilant and sober, knowing he’s roaming around. Vigilant and sober, knowing what our antennas are receptive too.

Vigilant and sober, knowing the kind of world in which we find ourselves. Romans seven, twenty-one, “I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me.” Here’s an apostle who’d been at it a long time, who’d seen a lot, and he concluded that when he wanted to do good, he’d see evil in himself. “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members, oh, wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

He knew God would ultimately deliver him from any foe, including himself, but he had a healthy respect for his enemies because spiritual survivors respect their enemies. It dovetails with the next tactic. Maybe you want to study it on your own. We’ll skip this one. But spiritual survivors have to remain humble. They have to remain humble. If they think they’ve got it all figured out, or they think they’re going to do it on their own, or they think, you know what? I don’t need as much help as some others.

You know, I’m naturally strong or I’m naturally savvy. Oh, they’re on very, very dangerous ground. Now, this isn’t to say we shouldn’t have a right kind of confidence. Again, we are relying on God. We know it’s all going to work out. We know how it ends. So despite being in the presence of these enemies, maintaining humility, we can still be confident in our ability to move forward. We know that we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us as we saw, as that final scripture in the point about remaining spiritually strong.

Now, last point we’ll cover here today, spiritual survivors... and this is at the core of all those other points, spiritual survivors rely on God. Spiritual survivors rely on God. There’s no physical parallel here. It’s kind of like the seven laws to success. Now, we heard about one of them earlier today. Set the right goal. There are six others, but the final one is not understood by the world. The first six laws, you know, getting right education, setting the right goal, stick-to-itiveness, on and on.

All those are things that people in the world understand. But it’s that seventh law, the way Mr. Pack puts it in his booklet, that seventh law, contact with guidance from and continuous help of God. It’s that seventh law that everyone ignores, that no one understands unless they’re being worked with by God. First Corinthians one, not a lot needs to be said here. It’s essentially the confluence of all these spiritual survival tactics.

But First Corinthians one verse four, “I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God, which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful...” God will confirm us to the end. He will make sure we make it.

“God is faithful by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Nothing will allow us to perish in this spiritual survival situation. John ten. Nothing can harm us ultimately. I mean, things will harm us, but we’ll recover. What does it say? A just man falls seven times but rises up again, it says. Yes, we’ll be beat up and bruised at times, but we’ll never give up. Nothing can ultimately take us out of this.

Well, there’s one thing. John ten verse twenty-two. “And it was at Jerusalem, the Feast of dedication, and it was winter, and Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. Then came the Jews round about him and said to Him, How long do you make us to doubt? If you be Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered and said, I told you, and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.” He did good works, he maintained good works. “But you believe not because you are not of my sheep.”

As I said unto you, they’re markedly different from us who’ve been called into a very special way of life, who understand things that the masses would love to understand. They just want it without strings attached. And they will understand one day. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life. And they shall never perish, no matter what. Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. We’re pictured as being in both Christ’s and the Father’s hands.

There’s no one, no enemy, no situation, no circumstance that’s powerful enough to pull us out of those two great beings’ hands. “I and My Father are one.” Verse thirty. The only thing that can end our spiritual existence, the only thing that will make us fail in this spiritual survival situation is if we abort, if we jump out of those hands. And we, of course, won’t do that. We, brethren, are not just people who survive. We are the people who thrive.

Romans eight. As we draw to a close here, Romans, chapter eight. It doesn’t matter what we are up against. It doesn’t matter if we are confronted with snakes and other venomous beasts, quicksand, dehydration, famine. However you want to characterize the analogy of being in a survival situation, it doesn’t matter what we’re up against. Romans eight and verse thirty-one. “What shall we say then to these things?” To anything. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

If He’s in our corner, if He’s fighting on our behalf, if He’s the One who’s empowering and strengthening us, we don’t have anything to fear. “If God is for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own son.” This is how much he cared about us. This is how much he wants us to make it. “But delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with whom we not with Him also freely give us all things?”

He was willing to do that for us. He’s willing to do anything for us. He’ll ensure we make it. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It’s Christ that died. Yes, rather, that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword.

No matter the spiritual survival situation we find ourselves in. As it’s written, we are killed for your sake, we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all these things, we survive. No, it does not say we just survive in all these things. No, in all these things. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. This is far more than being about survival. This is ultimately about thriving, ultimately about reaching the ultimate pinnacle of human existence. Entering the God family.

“For I am persuaded,” verse thirty-eight, “that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” When we survive, brethren, going back to our analogy, it’s not just to return to civilization, receive medical attention, be reunited with our families, enjoy this life for the remainder of our years. Deeply grateful, of course, in the case of those survivors, emaciated, maybe permanently damaged.

It’s not just to return to civilization. It’s to enter that kingdom of God that we envision. Brethren, in the short time we have, let’s come to grips with the fact that we must be spiritual survivalists. We are going to escape death itself. We’re in a dark and dangerous place, and yes, we have a little more time, but we have every tool, God has given us every tool we need in this spiritual survival situation to not only survive but to thrive.