Survival Tools Series

I don’t know if you’ve been following the survivor series or not, but let me tell you, I’m not happy with the way it’s going right now.

They voted off Roger. Now Roger was the oldest one of the group, but he was one of the hardest workers, he really seemed to care about others, and was just an all around nice guy. The one they should have voted off was Keith. Keith is trying to make people think he’s needed because he can cook, but it seems like he’s cooking more of the rice than he should, which means they could run out of food again before the end of their stay.

But no, they voted off Roger.

I’m not too happy about that but it’s good to see that you survived another week. Isn’t God good!

I hope you’ve made you’re mind to be a survivor, even more than that an overcomer. In this series I’ve asked the question “are you a survivor?”

The fact I asked the question means there’s something out there that’s trying to keep you from making it.

Have you ever felt like there’s something that’s constantly working against you? The truth is, there is, if you’re a child of God this morning, and it’s not God.

I was thinking about a couple of people in the bible who had to take on an enemy that tried to keep them from surviving.

I thought of Samson who fought the Philistines, they wanted to destroy him, and he killed 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey.

I thought about David who faced many enemies. While he was tending sheep he had to face and overcome a bear and a lion, but it didn’t stop there. David said I killed a bear and a lion and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them because he’s defied they armies of the Lord.

It would be great if we could always see what we’re fighting. But our real enemy is not seen in the natural, though we feel the effects of his attacks in the natural.

But the Word declares in Ephesians 6:12

Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

How can you fight against an enemy that you can’t see? You’ve got to have the right tools and that’s what I want to share with you this morning, tools for survival.

No matter what you’re doing, you need to have the right tools to be successful. If you’re planting a garden, you’ve got to have the right tools.

If you’re playing baseball, you’ve got to have the right tools; and if we’re going to survive the attacks of the enemy, and even put him on the defensive, we must understand what the tools are that we need.

First of all, our weapons are not weak

2 Corinthians 10:4 “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)”

Let me share with you this morning, the enemy is never intimidated with puny methods to stop him.

I remember when Cindy and I were evangelizing we were in the mountains of North Carolina, next door to the house that we were staying in was a little farm that had a rooster.

Now that pastor and his wife slept on the other side of the parsonage so this rooster never bothered them, but Cindy and I were right next to this crazy chicken.

I got to the point where I was tired of hearing him crow every morning so one morning I got out of bed, went out on the porch and I was determined I was going to intimidate that rooster, so I said “shew, shew”. That rooster didn’t care how much I shewed him away, he wasn’t going. Cindy was in bed laughing at me, the rooster was moving, and I didn’t intimidate any one.

Some of you are trying to fight the devil with your own fleshly methods. He’s not intimidated by natural means, he doesn’t care how loud you yell, and how often.

So many times we’re trying to use our carnal weapons to stop the enemy.

We try to use human reasoning, human desire, manipulation, we even try to use deception on the great deceiver, then we try to use natural control.

It takes more than our trying to intimidate the enemy on our own to keep us from becoming a victim, it’s going to take God’s weapons.

Let’s look at the Believer’s Arsenal of Spiritual Weapons

God’s given of weapons of warfare to use against the enemy. He has an arsenal of things that the enemy can’t stand against, because God’s weapons are mighty, they never fail, they bring about the destruction of Satan’s strongholds.