Equipment to survive in a wilderness scene today

Book of Psalms please, chapter 1. I'd like to title equipment for 2025 for you and I, the people of God, to survive in a wilderness scene. Psalm 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sitters, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, the Word of God. In this law doth he meditate, study, ponder, use day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit. In his season his leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Romans chapter 12, well-known portion to probably boast in the audience today.

Sometimes something is well known, but it's only intellectually known and it's never experimentally known. Verse 1, Romans chapter 12, I beseech you, I beg of you, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The renewing of your mind is the thought of testing and discerning what would coincide with the mind and the will of God for you and I as a believer.

I heard a story one time about a family with children, quite normal, and they had a parrot. I've been in a few houses that have parrots. I really wouldn't want one myself.

If you have one, that's fine, but they kind of pretty noisy things. But this was Polly the parrot. One day, Polly the parrot got out of the cage and the kids were just brokenhearted because the door was open and they saw Polly flying out with the crows.

The family was in tears, the children were in tears, and one day Polly came back. Door was open, unique circumstances, and Polly was bandaged and stitched up and cut up, and the kids said, Polly, Polly, what happened? Bad company, bad company. Silly little story, you smiled.

When you and I get in bad company, you and I are gonna have exceedingly great problems. We know the will of God will never go against the teaching of the Word of God. I'll just go over a second family for a moment or two.

Chapter 11. You know the story well. It's about a man named David.

Chapter 11 in verse 1. And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when the kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbath. But David tarried at Jerusalem. That's a key phrase.

David was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. David wasn't with the men of the military value that he was supposed to be with, and because David tarried in the wrong spot, we find that there was a set of circumstances that caused David to have a serious fall in his life. It came to pass at evening time, David arose from his bed, and he walked on the rooftop.

And what he saw he shouldn't have seen. And what transpired from there should never have happened. And the circumstances in the setting there was David was in the wrong spot at the wrong time because he should have been with the men of valor and the men in the army there, and he was not.

And so you and I would find as we weave in the Word of God that there are piercing, pulsing challenges that cross whether we're the youngest one in the audience or the oldest one in the audience day by day. Some of the equipment for the child of God is you're going to have to know the run. Now you can tell looking at me running has never been my thing.

The longest I ever ran in life was a mile, and I'd rather swim a mile any day than even think of running a mile. But you say what are you trying to say? The Bible says to flee youthful lusts, which war against your soul. And if I am going to be equipped in 2025 in a wilderness scene, there are going to be scenes and scenarios that will cross every one of our path no matter what vintage we are, and we are going to have to know I need to run.

I need to get out of here right away. And you would remember Joseph preserved his integrity, and Joseph understood morals, and Joseph was a man that ran and irregardless of the cost of it. And so I want you to rivet in your mind, beloved ones, flee youthful lusts, which war against your soul.

It says resist the devil and he shall flee from you. Let's put on the whole armor of God. It's knowing the Word of God and girding our loins with the Word of God that we will be able to flee the fiery arrows and the darts that come from the enemy.

When we come to Micah chapter 6, we find he shows us what is good. At verse 8, he will show us what is good, he will show us the way, he will give us direction in the path. And so if I'm going to make progress for God, blessed is the man that sits not in the counsel of the ungodly, but as the light is in the law of the Lord and in death does he meditate day and night.

This book as we all know will keep us from sin, and very sadly sin will keep us from this book. And every one of us that's been on the road a few days realizes there are certain things, and they might be very clean in themselves, but they can become very contaminated in our minds and our times and hinder our growth and development from God, and that's time to put them aside. We read in the Word of God, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as know as you much your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Christianity is not a part-time thing, and as we find in the Word of God in picture form, you and I do not begin really living for God until we have died to self, and until we come to that experience in our lives, Romans 12 and 1, take me, use me, make me for thy honor and glory. Can you remember that time in your life? Not when you were saved, maybe it took place when you were saved, I couldn't say. Maybe a wee bit later on in life, and you realize this life needs to be lived for the one who died to save me, and you realized in your life I need to lay down my own wants, my own wishes, and my own desires, because there's one that has claims on my life, he loved me unto death, even the death of the cross.

I beg of you, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, be not conformed to this world. The internet, the video, I will put no unclean thing before my eyes. First Timothy chapter 5 teaches us, keep thy self pure.

A lot of contaminants in life, a lot of dangers in life as we all know, whether you be in the wilderness or whether you be in the inner city or so, there are many things we watch for and we will circumspectly if we want to call it, but looking in the spiritual sense, keep thyself pure. Very easy to be tainted, and one bad step leads to another bad step, and so the Spirit of God, James chapter 1, keep thyself unspotted from the world. When we come into Jude 21, it says keep in the love of God.

How do I do that? I enjoy his word. I enjoy fellowship and communion with him, and that I might grow in him, and I might learn him, and I might be able to move in the ways of God. When I come over into the book of Joshua, it says be strong in the Lord.

You know, if you drive through a town sometimes early in the morning, it's kind of interesting, they've got these gyms and stuff because I guess people don't work too much nowadays with physical work, and so they might be running or they might be standing on weights or doing something, whatever it is, it's not that kind of strength we're looking for. It's spiritual strength and convictions that have been formed in the privacy of your little closet alone with God that will strengthen us in this ungodly world, and that our convictions will be from the Word of God. Others may, but I can't.

So I'm gonna have to know when to run. If I'm gonna make progress for God, and if I am going to be preserved, there are things that you and I have to put aside. Might be little things, but little things grow to big things, and I will not make progress like I ought to make progress.

Then we find in the Word of God that we need to follow. This is the way, walk therein. Sometimes, beloved ones, stumble and stumble and trip over and worry about it, the will of God.

I need to know the will of God. How am I gonna know the will of God? You surrender your life to the Lord Jesus, and you live for him day by day, and he will disclose the will of God to you as you travel along along the way, not to be poetic. It is not something to stress over and fret over and stress over and fret over, and what am I gonna do? Where are we gonna sit and ponder and tear and cry and everything? Not at all.

Our Heavenly Father knows. He wants the best for us, and he will open those doors, he will cause those things to develop that you and I will know clearly, the mind and will of God. I had the privilege to work with Mr. Gustafson a little bit on the West Coast, and we're at a home one time, and Brother Gustafson has his own unique ways, we all do, and he said to one of the sisters, he says, kind of a funny statement maybe, he says, you're a very pretty girl, and you know, maybe if you would travel around to a few conferences, you would find a husband.

I'm standing there, I didn't say a word. She says, Mr. Gustafson, I want you to know that if God wants me to have a husband, he will bring him right where I am, because I have a Sunday school class every Sunday and I'm not leaving that class, top of the class. You don't need a run around the globe to Timbuktu if there's such a place.

God's gonna bring it across your path. That's our Heavenly Father knows, he knows our needs, and so I don't need to fret about it. And if I'm gonna move or something, he's gonna give me direction and the door is gonna open or the door is gonna close or whatever it is, however you want to develop it.

But our God wants the best for us, and there's a tremendous investment in you and I. The Son of God loved us, gave himself for us, shed his own precious blood for us on the cross at Calvary, so certainly our Heavenly Father's gonna want to guide and certainly he's gonna bring circumstances across our path. Brethren, for years in the West said, John, why don't you go out in the work? I said, I don't need to do anything like that. I can work with the tools and I can preach by night and I'll put a tent up in the summer.

I have no interest in it. But God works circumstances alone and along and along and all of a sudden, a couple years, the brethren handed me a letter. I never asked for it or anything, but God is the one that pushes and nudges.

And if I'm pushing and nudging, I'm going against the mind of God. God opens doors graciously and kindly. We don't need to push.

We don't need to keep pushing on the door, if you want to put it that way. And so habits in the wilderness scene, number one, walk with God. Have that time in your life when you have surrendered yourself to him.

How could I know the will of God if I have my own will in my life? I'll stick my neck out. I asked one of the dear preachers one time, I says, can you explain something to me? Well, he says, what John? I says, I'm living in Arizona now, it's nine years and nobody ever comes there in the summer. And I says, in the winter, I always get the winter call.

Well, I don't know how that works out, but it's not in man's heart to direct his steps. Dear younger one, God bless you for being here. Could I, as an old man, though I hate to admit it, ask you to lay your life down on the altar? I want to live it all for the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to please the one that loved me and gave himself for me. So you're gonna have to develop habits. You're gonna have to develop discipline.

You're gonna have to learn the Word of God and meditate on the Word of God and study the Word of God that you are gonna put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand and above all to stand. Greater is he that's in you and he that's in the world. And so there is all provision all along this journey to be preserved, to be kept safely kept, all along this journey to know when to run, all along in this journey to know when to stand, all along in this journey to know when to resist if you want to develop it that way.

That we do not have an episode like David here. David tarried still at Jerusalem. David, why were you in the wrong place at the wrong time? David, why was it when you looked you didn't run? Why wasn't you pursued it? In life there can be a lot of if-onlys and we would pray in this audience there would not be if-onlys but there would be those who have laid their life on the altar for the honor of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Know when to flee, know when to cling, know when to take a stand. He's in us, he's with us, he's for us, and he does all things well. Might we trust him more for his namesake.