BECOME A MASTER OF SURVIVAL

BECOME A MASTER OF SURVIVAL

Scripture: Philippians 4:12

Topic: Become A Master of Survival

"I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: EVERY WHERE AND IN ALL THINGS I AM INSTRUCTED BOTH TO BE FULL AND TO BE HUNGRY, both to abound and to suffer need."

  Philippians 4:12

To survive means to endure and to remain in existence in spite of all circumstances.  It also means to get along and remain healthy, happy and unaffected in spite of the circumstances.  Most of us are quenched by unhappy events and circumstances but a survivor continues to exist after adversity or hardship.   

SERPENTS ARE WISE BECAUSE THEY CAN SURVIVE ANYWHERE. Snakes are by far the most successful survivors in the world.  They have survived in all kinds of environments.  Compare this with other animals.  For instance, there are no more lions in Ghana and in many other countries.  Snakes on the other hand abound in Ghana. 

 Most of us can only live in one kind of environment.  The gospel is not being spread today because even Africans who grew up in villages claim they can only live in America and therefore cannot be sent into the world.   The polar bear is different from a snake because it can only live in a very cold environment. On the other hand, there are 2,700 species of snake in the world of all colours and sizes that can live virtually anywhere. 

Serpents are so wise that they can live at ground level or in trees.  Serpents can live underground or even in the sea.  There are snakes that live 16,000 feet up in the Himalayas. Some live in the scorching waterless deserts. Some live as far north as the Arctic Circle and many inhabit tropical forests. There are only a few places that do not have snakes.

These survivors come in all sizes; very small and very large.  That is one of the secrets of surviving: you must come in all sizes.  We must have both big and small churches if the ministry is to persist through the changing scenes of life.  The smallest snake lives in buildings - in any town or city and anywhere.  It can be transported in the soil of plants to garden centres all over the world.  At the other end of the scale, the world’s largest snake and the heaviest snake is the anaconda.  It can reach nearly 9 metres in length.  It has a bodily girth of a pig and weighs about 200 kilograms. 

 When you are as wise as a serpent, there is nowhere God cannot send you.  Ministers of the gospel are no longer as wise as serpents. Perhaps we can say that they are as wise as a polar bear that means they can only stay in one environment.

A Christian must not flourish only in ‘good’ circumstances.  He must do well whatever the circumstances.  Joseph did well as a slave and in the slave environment.  

“Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there.   The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge.” 

Genesis 39:1-4

He did well as a prisoner and in the prison cell environment.  In both situations he excelled so much that he was put in charge.  Joseph was a survivor. 

“So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail. But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it.  The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made to prosper.” 

Genesis 39:20-23

One day, I was discussing my troubles with a fellow minister of the gospel. He was a senior minister and a father of many ministers.  I told him how I had been harassed by the government.  I explained how a government agency had summoned me for investigations and interrogation and had made me fill so many forms about my personal life. 

To my amazement, he laughed and congratulated me.  ‘Congratulations for what” I thought. ‘My troubles?’

He explained, ‘Ministry is not about how big your church is or what car you drive.

He continued, ‘It is about “what have you survived’! ‘What have you been through?’ 

He said, ‘Ministry is about ‘What have you suffered?’

Then he told me, ‘I have been harassed by these same people five times. I have filled those same forms that you filled five times.

I was stunned.  I never imagined that he had been through all that. 

A true Christian is a survivor.  In spite of the circumstances and environment, he survives and prevails.  Paul was a survivor.  He described the circumstances he had encountered.  Just like this senior minister I spoke to, the apostle Paul seemed almost nostalgic about the troubles he had survived. 

"Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."

2 Corinthians 11:23-27

Can You Survive what Paul Survived? Stop giving excuses and become a survivor of different circumstances!