Spiritual Survival Kit

The title of today's message is Spiritual Survival. Spiritual Survival. There is a man you might have seen on television. His name is Edward Michael Grylls. You might have heard of him by his nickname Bear Grylls. Bear Grylls is a former special forces individual from the British military. Bear Grylls was trained by the British military to be able to function and do secret and special services around the entire world in every type of environment and weather in existence on this planet. From the North Pole to the South Pole to the deserts to the jungles, Bear Grylls learned to do it all. He learned to endure it all to where when he actually retired from the military because of all these skills and because of his personality and never say died, Bear Grylls actually became a survivalist instructor and he would actually teach people how to survive in the life and death environments or situations that people might get into. He was a very good instructor. As a matter of fact, he even started a TV show. It was on for about three to four years as it starred him and various people and some celebrities and it was actually called Man vs. Wild. Some of you may have seen it. If not, you can see it on YouTube as they replay it. And at the time, Bear Grylls was 42 years old. Fearless. But he is called a survival specialist because his goal is to teach people how to survive when things come up. One of the amazing things that he goes through in his books, he's written two or three books, is it starts up here. You must teach your mind first if you are to survive when it comes down to survival time, survival place. And one of the things they ask him is, can anyone and everyone learn these survival skills? And he basically says, yes, they can learn the skills, but unless it's in there mentally, they will not survive. They will give up. They will lose hope. He says it starts with training your mind as he works with some people in different places. Even months before, they go out to test their survival skills. And one of the things that he brings is, it starts with, can you smile on a rainy day? Sounds odd, doesn't it? Smile on a rainy day. He says that because most people cannot. Most people do not, and many will not. They allow the environment to control their mindset.

And he said that we need to control our own minds. And his three words to that mental mindset is positivity, positivity, positivity. We must have it.

He actually was interviewed by GQ magazine a few years ago on his popularity of not only his TV show, but also his survival must. Now, I bring this up because here we are what? We have now entered hurricane season. I even heard that this morning on a news report. Now, all of us, we've been here, I've been here, less than many of you, almost seven years now. In Tennessee, we didn't have to worry about a hurricane. Here, hurricanes are a reality, are they not? If you were here last year, you realize they were.

And so the government here, the authorities, tell us that we all need to prepare because a hurricane can come upon us fairly quickly. And they have hurricane survival kits, as they call it. Okay? Maybe you have one. Maybe you have one prepared that is just there in case and you keep it every year. What's one of the first things they want to have on a hurricane survival kit? Anybody? Water! Water, water, water! We have all kinds of water out there, don't we? But he's not talking about that kind of water, is he?

Enough water to last you seven days, they say, at least three or four days. Flashlights! Another one with batteries. Okay? Right? Food supply! Because if you remember this past year, you couldn't find some food you may want on some of the shelves because in three or four days, all they have to put is people flooding to the source. And they also have a generator, fourth thing. If you have a generator, right?

Is there something else I'm missing? First aid kit! Very good! So these are basic survival kits for a hurricane, a disaster. When a hurricane hits, it's not an everyday thing. It's not an every year thing, but it's something when it hits.

We'd better know how to handle it. We better be prepared. Not only mentally, but have a survival kit. For many of you, maybe you have been runners. Anybody here run? Okay. I know Neil did. I know Winston did. She did. Yes. Anybody here ever run a marathon? William did. Yes. Wow! That was always on my bucket list about 15-20 years ago. I've never made it. Never made it. Okay. But I did run a 10K, and I found that after running a 10K, and I spent months training for it, that took a lot of time.

But there's a survival, survival must, or for runners. One, shoes. You've got to have good shoes if you're going to run. Otherwise, your life's going to be miserable. And you have to have good socks. You have to have hydration. And you have to have good running clothes. So it doesn't stick to you, and you start breaking out, which I did when I got up to eight or nine miles a day of training.

I started having heat rash. I had to find out I had to get better clothes and better preparation. And the fifth one that a good runner must have, one of the musts, is rest. I made the mistake of running six days a week instead of taking time off, and then my body would start hurting, and I found that you need rest.

So there are musts for even runners. Now, I bring this up because in GQ magazine, Bear Grylls gave his interesting take on musts for physical survival in different elements. The very first one that he brought out was socks. We'd think, what? He would always have an extra pair of socks, whether it was cold or whether it was hot, because he never, whatever he wore that day, he never slept in the socks because he wanted to change the socks and sleep in a certain pair of socks so that there wouldn't be sweat. If it's cold, it wouldn't freeze, because he found out that whatever affected your feet could affect the rest of your body because of circulation.

Found that strange. A pair of socks. The second he put, so if you decide to have something in your car, a garbage bag. Thinking, wow, he says it's very light to carry, but it is so useful, whether it's for protection, whether it's for collection of collecting actual water, whether it is using it to put your food in so that animals could not smell your food, able to tie it to a tree. He said there are so many uses for a garbage bag that it's so necessary for survival.

The next third one on his list was a knife. It's better if you have one that's serrated on one side so you can actually cut. But it's a must for survival in almost anywhere as you prepare.

The fourth one that he picked I found to be rather strange for bear grills.

A picture. It's a picture of Mary. He said it's important on survival to mentally know that there's someone out there that you need to make it home for because we're talking life and death here. We're talking extremes. And it was so important that he made sure he had a picture of his wife. And now as kids, as he went to extremes. Because there is something beyond you. A survival must. And finally, the last one, which was even more surprising, he carries a Bible. He carries a Bible. He carries a Bible. It's a small little New Testament he carries.

And when asked why, he said, because there are so many verses in there that empower me. He said, I even think of Matthew 28, 10, or whatever it is about, and lo, I shall be with you to the end. He said, there's a higher power up there that I believe in that can help me through. And by turning to some of those pages, it helps me survive. Because he's actually been so close to death so many times that he wanted to relate these things to help others to survive. Now, I bring this up today because I want to give you five spiritual must to survive. Now, we all have in our minds the things we've always talked about. You had prayer, what? Bible study, fasting, meditation, and fellowship. That's five that we have. But those five we basically use all the time. They ground us. They're necessary, and they're very important. Prayer, Bible study, fasting, meditation, and fellowship. They help us along. But today, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about serious survival mode spiritually. Because it is very important. Because you are going to be in some very tough trials. They may be physical. They may be spiritual. They may be mental. They may be financial. You're going to need to be able to survive spiritually. Because the spiritual entity is where your power comes from. It is where, like he said, the body is weak. But the spirit can be strong. And that's what we need. And so I want to talk about that because there will be a time, or you may be going through it now, a very tough spiritual battle. Or if you're not going through it, have not been through it, I can almost guarantee you, you will go through it. And it's very important that we are able to have our minds set so that they are strong and we are spiritually ready for it. Because it's Bear Grylls, when he was the youngest Brit ever to climb Mount Everest at 19 years of age, he actually then took up skydiving. He took up about anything you could think of. And he was actually skydiving one time in his parachute at 17,000 feet, got a major rip in it. And so he spiraled down to the ground from 14,000 feet, and he survived. He broke his back, he broke legs, and he had various issues and problems and was laid up for 18 months in a hospital. And all the time, he was thinking, why in the world did I ever do this? And by the time he finished his 18 months and he had the therapy that he had to learn to walk and do all these things, he was a young man at the time in his late 20s when that happened. But as he was in bed all those days towards the end, he said, I'm alive. I'm going to enjoy life. I'm not going to sit there and be afraid. And later on, he joined the military, and that's where he came from. But he realized, as he took many people and trained in the frozen tundra of various places across this country, across this world, that he saw many people that they wanted to quit. They were cold. They were cold. They were freezing. And you know, something happens when it gets really cold.

You get to where it's easier to give up, as he said, than to get up. And he has to tell you, get up! Don't give up! Because if you do, you will die. And that is a mindset we must have so many times when it comes to this spiritual battle. Because the enemy is real, and most of you know that. The battlefield is real. And so much of your battlefield takes place in your mind. So here, today, with time I have left, I want to give you the five musts for spiritual survival. Am I talking about day-to-day life? No. You know those five. You know prayer, Bible study, fasting, meditation, and fellowship is very important. You know that. And many of you do that. But sometimes, we can get so down, we can get so discouraged, we can get so battle-worn that we don't know where to turn. And we think it will be easier just to give up. Why am I doing this? So, brethren, your five musts for spiritual survival. Number one, your Bible. Say, well, wait a minute. You talked about Bible study. Talking about those hard times. Talking about when you need it. It's not a Bible. It is your Bible. You need to have one Bible that is your Bible, your instruction manual. The thing you turn to, the thing you read every day, the thing that you may not know the verse, but you know it's in Galatians, and you just turn there, and you know it's in the top right hand of the corner. It's that Bible you go to all the time. It's the one that's worn out and tattered. It's the one with all the notes in it. It's the one that has the notes that you put in there. It's the ones that you circled because you knew. Knew this was important to you.

Starting Monday, my Bible study will consist of, for the next two months, besides the other stuff I have to for a few moments, is to take all the notes out of this old, worn-out Bible I've had for 30 years and put it into a new Bible. But the new Bible is the same old Bible that was bought 30 years ago but doesn't have a note in it. Because I can't get by. I've got paper clips holding the pages together. Where I've worn them out and the pages are just coming to pieces into my writings. Everything here. Because this is, you know, many times I never go on a trip and put this in anything except my carry-on. I can't. This is, you know, in many ways I'd probably rather lose one of my fingers than lose this thing because it's been my lifeline to God. Neil has a Bible I know you use, you know, and you study it. I have various Bibles, but I have this is the main one. This is mine. Brethren, for survival, you need yours. You need yours. Not your husband, not any yours so that you go to it because there's a there's a warmth that comes over you. You know, it's just like when you when you have trouble or something and sometimes it's like and you think pastors because elders don't go through this? Yeah. We go through and you're just you're upset or you're frustrated about something or you're going through things. And you're just like, I know I should study. And then you just like, I know I need to open the book. And when I go back here, it's kind of like, oh, there it is. There's exactly what I need. And I know why I turned here. And now I remember I remember when I gave that message. Oh, boy, I remember when I was studying that and I underlined those words when I needed it. Well, I needed it today. But number one, your Bible, if you don't have one, get one. Start it now. It will help you like nothing I know of because it's there and it's yours. What does it say? Psalm 119, 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to what? My path. It tells me where I need to go because if I'm talking about spiritual survival, I need his word.

Christ said, my word is spirit. It's what connects us to the Holy Spirit that's in us. It comes out of these pages and it feeds it and it empowers us. That's why he said in Romans 10-17, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. How powerful! Don't forget, your Bible, not a Bible, not the Bible. Number one, your Bible. Number two, friend, a friend. Okay? And not just any friend. If I could put it better, a confidant, a confidant, a confidant. Someone you can confide in to your sometimes deepest secrets, sometimes your issues, sometimes the things that you're going through that you can actually share with. Proverbs 18, if you'll go there with me. Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18 and verse 24. A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Brother.

I have a brother. Matter of fact, he's going to be here next Sabbath. He's just coming down for a few days. Hopefully he'll be here. And I'm close to my brother, but there are people that I am closer to that are not my brother. They're friends. Mark and I can talk, but it's like it's different. There are those that they're closer than a brother. There's a connection, and you don't know why. Don't we all? Haven't we all had friends? You don't know why there's like a group of people, and then all of a sudden you're you connect. There's this connection there. It's kinetic almost. It's just like there's something that pulls us. They think like it's like wow. And you never even have to talk about it. It's just there. When it comes to spiritual survival, you need that friend. You need that one who is closer than a brother. Someone you can just really lay things out. And they're not going to judge you. It's like, well hey, I go through things too. You can't do that with everybody. You have to know. And you're not going to have a room full of best friends, right? You know, there's just those few. And it may only be one, maybe two. And you know, the amazing part is sometimes you may not see that friend or talk to him in a year or two years or three, but you can just pick up and go. You know? But I'm hoping that you will have those who can help you spiritually. And you'll make that connection and make sure that that's one of your musts. Because actually in Proverbs 17, verse 17, it said, a friend loves at all times. The same type of friend. A friend loves at all times. They're not sitting there, well, you know, you said this about me or I heard this and well, you know, we used to be friends, but you know what I mean? I think most of us have those type of friends.

You will need them. You will need them when it comes to actually surviving. Number three. Number three. Your place. Your place. Easy to say, huh? Your place. Not a place. Not the place. Your place. Where is it? Because we all need one. We all need a place where we can go for prayer. And not just your average, everyday prayer.

For meditation. When you need to clear your head, your mind, and you don't need anybody around. You don't need a phone. You don't need anything near you. You just need to get away. Because we're talking about survival mode here. We're talking about when those times come where it's a defining moment in your life. It's a defining moment in your spiritual life.

That if you don't get this corrected, you may not make it back where you need to be. And this is real. I've experienced it. And I realize one thing, I'm going to experience it again. And I want to be more prepared. That's why I put this message together. I hope you can benefit from it. But basically, to be honest, it's for me. It's for me. Because I want to be ready the next time that I have to be in survival mode. When my attitude is not where it needs to be.

When I have doubts, have prayers that God says, not yet. Or when he says, no. I need to make sure I don't cop an attitude with the supreme ruler. Yes. Part of my place now is, my place is on Deerfield Beach. Now, I go there. I try to go. We try to go once a week, do a prayer down there. But when I need it, when I really need prayer, or when I just need to get away, and I think I head to the beach. I usually go early in the morning. No, the sun's not even up. I'll watch the sun come up. It's beautiful. But there's a peace there. And I look out at that water, the ocean, and I realize just how of a little man I am, and how big he is when you look up at the stars.

And I need my place, because when I'm walking on the beach that morning, there's nobody there. And that's great, because it's just me and him. And I need that. At those special times, boy, do I need that. And Mary even knows, I won't even ask her, you want to go. I just go. I just got to go. Go with me to Matthew 14. Matthew 14. Matthew 14, verse 23. Talking about Christ here. Matthew 14, verse 23. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up on a...what?

What else? By himself. He went up on a mountain by himself. He needed that time. Now, you think you have battles? He had the universe in the balance. He had all of the world in the balance of succeeding or failing. And he had to succeed, to become the savior of the entire world. So when I sometimes think of that and bring that out to God, I'm kind of like, Christ, I'm sorry. That's no big deal. My problem is no big deal.

Let's go over to Luke. Luke 6, if you will. Luke 6. Luke 6, verse 12. Now, it came to pass in those days that he went out to the...what? Mountain to pray. He went to the mountain to pray. You think this was the only time? His disciples saw him pray. Matter of fact, they knew he was praying because they said, what? Lord, teach us to pray. But there's a time when you need to get away. There's a time when you need to get yourself right. And it may be a survival mode, or it may be a little bit of survival before the survival mode gets there. There's one...one of my bosses actually says, he prays that this is a trial, not that this is the trial, not the preparation for the trial. We may need it. You may need to, you know, get away and just have your special time. You can go to this place because there's something about this place. Lived in Tennessee, she knew where my place was. My place was my main cave. I went up there, and that's where I, you know, I built many sermons, and I had my books, and I...when I fasted, I pray, I fasted up there, I prayed up there. I just...it was...I knew when I needed to get right with God that I went to my place. And you know what? It felt so right. It felt at home because when I was up there, and I prayed up there, I went up there and studied something, but when I went to pray, I knew, and God knew it was something serious. We need, you need your place, whether it's in the mountains as it was for Christ, whether it's by the sea, or whether it's just in a room, or whether it's somewhere in a park. Maybe it's a closet. Yes. They had prayer closets, right? Isn't that what He said in Matthew 6-6? You know, Christ said, oh, don't just stand on the side and make these big prayer...no. He said, we'll do what? Go to your home. We'll go in a room, go in a closet, close the door, because it needs to be a place that's just you and Him.

That you don't want anybody is hearing, because it might be embarrassing to you into them, because you might just have to raise your voice to God. And you may have to cry, and you may have to say, I'm sorry for losing it, God, but He's your dad. He's your father.

He wants to hear you.

It's important that you have some alone time. So brethren, remember your place. Number four. Number four, a mentor. Number four, have a mentor. If you don't have one, find one.

I have my sister on the front here that I know, her mentors, because she quotes them quite often. They're ministers that made an impact. You don't have to be a minister. You need a spiritual guide. You need someone you look up to. Someone, I have them. Mary knows when they call, I take their call, even no matter how busy I am, and so forth like that, because, hey, I get so much from them.

We need it. One of my mentors called me this week.

Two of them. Two of them called me this week to see how I was doing physically. It's so great, because there is a teacher-student relationship, even though we may not talk to each other, see each other in a while. But they have taught me things that are in my head, and when I have, I don't call them just to be, hey, how's it going there? They usually know that if I call them, I've got a real spiritual problem. I've got a real biblical issue I'm going through. I have a dilemma, and they know I need them. I can turn to them. Now, the Holy Spirit helps guide us. It's one of its names. It is a guide. It is a teacher. But we need some guides. We need somebody that helps us that doesn't always look at things like, I mean, yes, I am your pastor. And yes, I do study the Word, and I do. That's my job. And I hope I have the right answers and the ones that I can explain from the Word, that's part of my job, not to give you my answers, but what the Word says, or the principles are where you can go. But I need those. I need someone. When I get into something that I have a connection with, someone that knows that I need their help. I have certain people that know different books of the Bible so much more than I do. And it's one of those mentors, one of those friends that I have to go to, that taught me more about the book of Revelation than I ever would have learned anywhere else.

And so when I actually come across something that I don't know, Revelation, I will go back to him and say, well, I've got this question here, because he's an authority on it. He's not an authority on everything, but boy does he know this, and I need it. Don't we all have friends or somebody that we can turn to or need to know like that? I think we do.

And not just any person. Let's go to 2 Timothy 1 as we begin to wrap this up today.

2 Timothy 1, verse 3. Paul is writing to Timothy, and he says, I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers day and night, day and night. Both of my mentors, they called me this week. One of them is 86 years old. I called, see, I was doing, and said, I pray for you, Chuck, every day. I learned at this guy's feet, and he's thinking about me. That's a unique relationship.

And they were both so glad to hear me say, I never felt better in the last year. I mean, I felt this morning I woke up, I was, I could have jumped over a car. I haven't felt that way in a long time on a Sabbath, but I did. And I do, but don't expect me to go do that after services. But in verse 6, he said, Therefore, I remind you, Timothy, to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. There's a relationship. Now, we don't read it from Timothy's point of view, but we also get it we get it from Paul's. But you can imagine what Timothy thought of him. You think Timothy had any question about who to go to when he needed something or if he was in survival mode? This is the guy. This is the guy. Because go down two more verses, 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2, verse 1. You therefore my son. You therefore my son. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Kind of what Mr. Jean was talking about here. I mean, you just don't learn for yourself. You learn so you can help other people. I have a guy that I talked to this week that called me and said, you're my mentor. You're the one I've learned more from than anyone else. And he doesn't even live here. And that's an honor and privilege because he's gone through a lot of stuff. But we've gotten him. You know, now he's strong. He's a strong guy. Yes, and I don't know. I don't consider his mentor. I consider I can call him. And of course, he's always got biblical questions for me. But look, look for that, look for that mentor and appreciate them. And don't be afraid to say, you know, I sure appreciate you helping me. And I may need to ask you in the future. I may need to get in there. I may have biblical questions you can't answer, but I know. I need that. Of course, we have the Spirit that guides us, Jesus Christ, who is the shepherd. We're just all under shepherds under him. We're just there to manage his sheep.

But there are those special people that every one of you know that you need for spiritual survival. Number five. Number five, and it may seem strange to you, number five, just like some of us seem strange that Bear Grylls gave us in that. The fifth one, work. Work.

It's a must for spiritual survival. Work.

Go with me to Philippians, and I think this will set the tone. So I finished this last point. Philippians 2 and verse 4. I'll read from the New King James version. Philippians 2 and verse 4. Spiritual mode. When you're in survival mode spiritually, this is something that has helped so many people, and it'll help you too. Philippians 2 and verse 4. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. Take the focus when you're wondering, what am I doing here? God, why aren't you blessing me? Why am I having these trials? Why am I going through this trial? What is this going on? I don't understand. I'm there. My Bible says, my prayers, I'm like this. Remember one thing. Go serve. Go serve. Go help someone. They can't help themselves. The focus, and it happens to a lot of older people that I know, they get and they start dwelling on the health issues, and hey, they're there. They're real. But it can become so myopic in their own way that they just view the whole world. Everything about it is revolving with them being sick. Right? William knows. And that messes with you. Dealing with this cancer thing. Physically, it was, I can handle that, but mentally, sometimes I'd be going, man, this is the end. This is, well, and I had to get focused off of me and think about other people. Then pretty soon, it didn't seem such a big deal. And now it's no big deal to me. But it can mess with you mentally. Right? We've been there with you. Yes. Been there with some of you before. By helping others, brethren, you help yourself. It's a must. That's why it sounds strange to see it on the list, but it is. Because you can't get so bogged down in yourself. You forget others. How many of you have been to a hospital, visited somebody, and you come away and you feel more empowered than, you know, you went there to cheer someone up or to say a good word or to have this, and you left, and you're like, I never left a hospital. That I went to visit someone. That I either didn't feel empowered because God did it or because those people just somehow, they gave me what I needed. And I came there to cheer them up. It's that human spirit. It's the Holy Spirit. It's all both your spirits kind of, you know what they need sometimes. And helping others, really, you help yourself.

It is. It is. And it's a must.

So life, brethren, can be a desert. Just like Bear Grylls trained in the desert. But as Randy Newman wrote in a song for Monk, it's a jungle out there sometimes. Right? It's a jungle out there. Sometimes it's a frozen tundra in the spiritual land. And sometimes you are hunted prey. And that is when you need spiritual survival skills. You need to make sure you know where to go to when it comes those times. And they may pop up more often. But the more you're prepared, the less they pop up. Because why? You're prepared. So, brethren, are you a spiritual survivalist?

We all need to be. God wants us to be.

So let us leave here empowered on those incredible skills. The incredible must that we must have for when the tough times come so that we, we are the ones who will be the last survivor.