🎵Music🎵
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
You're there in Hebrews 11. Flip back to Hebrews chapter 5 if you would. Hebrews chapter 5.
And let me just begin by saying this, when we first got out there for our survival training,
the first thing that our survival guide taught us, and the first thing that he kind of sat down
and explained, and he started by saying these words. He said, life is sacred, which I obviously
would agree with that. He said life is sacred, and he said in order to stay alive out in the
wild, there's a sacred order of priority. And he told us, I'm going to teach you a little poem.
He said, I'm going to teach you a silly little saying that'll help you remember the order of
priority, because he said, because life is sacred, there's an order of priority. If you're going
to stay alive, there's an order of priority of things that need to happen in order to keep you
alive out in the wild. And he called it the sacred order. And he said, I'm going to teach
you a little poem, and I'm going to teach it to you, just this little saying to help you remember
the sacred order of survival. And it goes like this, shelter, water, fire, food, that's the
sacred order, dude. He was a little bit of a hippie, and so that's the way he taught it to
us. So I'm going to teach it to you that way. Shelter, water, fire, food, that's the sacred
order, dude. And hopefully you'll remember that. And the reason that he taught us that is because
what he said was that when people get lost in the wild, and you know, I want to preach this
up here because, you know, we're up here in Vancouver, Washington, and obviously the northwest,
and I don't know, some of you guys might get lost out there, going on hikes or whatever.
And what he taught us is that oftentimes, when people get lost out in nature, and they get
lost out in the wild, people will put a lot of energy and focus on the idea of getting food,
you know. And as soon as people get lost, they put a lot of energy and focus on thinking that
they have to get food and trying to get food. But a lot of times what they end up doing is
burning a lot of calories trying to get food when there are actually some things that are more
important to get in order before you can get food. He explained to us that there are some
things that are more urgent and a higher priority than getting food. So he said you need to
understand the sacred order. He says it's shelter, it's water, it's fire, and then food.
And when he was teaching that, I was thinking to myself, you know, there's also, not only
is there a sacred order for survival, but there's also a sacred order of spirituality.
Because when you think about the fact that we are a church, I know Sure Foundation is like this,
and I know Verity in Sacramento is like this, a church that is trying to reach people with the gospel,
when we get people saved, you know, we don't, our main goal is to get people saved. But that's
not our only goal. We want to see these individuals survive spiritually. We want to see
them grow in the Lord. And you know what the Bible tells us that the measurement of maturity
in the Bible, the litmus test of maturity in the Bible is whether or not someone can
feed themselves spiritually. Let me show that to you real quickly. Hebrews 513. If you're there
in Hebrews chapter five, look at verse 13. The Bible says this, for everyone that uses milk
is unskillful. And here we have the idea of a baby that's being fed milk. It says
they're unskillful, meaning they're immature, in the word of righteousness. Notice,
for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to them. Notice the wording here, that are of full
age. So when someone is of full age, when someone has grown, when someone is mature,
they eat strong meat. When someone is using milk, it is because he is a babe, even those who
by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So if you've ever
wondered, what is the litmus test for maturity? And I want to, you know, I want you to take
this test real quickly this morning and ask if you've ever wondered, am I a mature Christian?
Am I a Christian that is mature, that is growing? What, what, what, how do we quantify that?
How do we know whether someone is a mature Christian? Is it based off their attendance to
church? Is it based off, do they tithe or not? Is it, what's it based off? And obviously,
all those things can teach us about somebody's spiritual maturity. But the Bible tells us
that we know you are a full age when you are able to dissect the strong meat of the Word of God
yourself. If the only time you get fed the Word of God is when you show up to church and your
pastor opens up the Word of God and spoon feeds you the Bible, then I'm here to tell you
something. You are immature. You're a babe. You say, well, I've been saved for many years.
But if you're not reading the Bible every day and feeding yourself spiritually, you're still
a babe in Christ. You say, how do I know when I'm a full age? Hey, those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. When you can open up the Word of God
and notice, it's not just checking off some reading chart. The purpose, you say, well, what's
the purpose of reading? It's to have your senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Where you can make decisions. This is right. This is wrong. I shouldn't go there. I shouldn't
listen to that. I shouldn't be watching this. This is honoring to the Lord. This is not honoring
to the Lord. When you don't no longer need a pastor just giving you all the rules and saying,
well, no, I don't think you should be, you know, going to the casino for your anniversary.
When you can say, no, I know what God expects because I can read the Bible. I can discern
both good and evil. I have spiritually discerned by reason of use, have exercised my discernment.
Then you are a mature Christian. Now, here's the thing, though. When we go out soul winning
and we knock on the door, we're not going to get somebody saved. And then the next step
is they're going to become a Christian who reads the Bible, studies the Bible, memorizes the
Bible and has their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. There's a lot of things
that need to happen between step one and that final step of discipleship. Before we can get a
new babe in Christ to become the person who reads the Bible and understands the Bible
and has a daily Bible reading and reads it for application and is building their
lives upon the Bible. There are some things that need to happen. There is a sacred order,
just like there's a sacred order of survival physically. There is a sacred order of survival
spiritually, because here's what you need to understand. Most Christians do not survive
spiritually. Now, what I mean by that is not that they lose their salvation. Obviously,
we don't believe anybody loses their salvation. If they're saved, they're always saved, period,
end of story. But the Bible does say that faith without works is dead. That doesn't mean
that you lose your salvation, but it does mean that you die spiritually. You don't survive
in the spiritual life. There are many Christians who did not survive because they did not follow
the sacred order of spirituality. So this morning, what I want to do is I want to teach
you how to survive physically, and I want to teach you how to survive spiritually.
And it has to do with this sacred order, water or shelter, water, fire, food. That's the
sacred order, dude. And you say, you're going to keep saying that? I'm going to keep saying
that to help you remember it, all right? So let's talk about this order of priority.
What's the first step needed? Number one, and if you're taking notes this morning,
and I always encourage you to take notes, you can write this down. Number one, shelter.
The first thing that you need in a survival situation, we're talking about physically,
practically now, is shelter. People are more likely to die when you are out in the wild,
you get lost. People are more likely to die from exposure to the elements,
and they're more likely to die first from exposure to the elements than they are from
dehydration or starvation. Now oftentimes people when they realize they're lost or they
become aware that, you know, I don't know where I'm at, the first thing they start worrying
about is food and water. But what they don't realize is that they're more likely to die
overnight, you know, up in the northwest for sure, you know, in October, overnight from
exposure to the elements than they are from anything else. So your first order of priority
is shelter. A physical shelter is needed to keep you warm. Now you're there in Hebrews.
Please keep your place in Hebrews. We're going to come back to Hebrews at the end of the
sermon. I'd like to be able to get there, but go with me if you want to the book of Proverbs,
Proverbs chapter 24. If you open your Bible just right in the center, you'll more than likely
fall in the book of Psalms. Right after Psalms, you have the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 24.
So when we got out there, we learned about how to build a shelter. And this is using materials
from nature. This is assuming you're not you know, you don't have a tent with you.
You're just out there and you got lost. You went on a hike and you don't know
what where you're at or how to get back. And it dawns on you
that you might be spending the night outdoors. You know, you're lost. I can't get back and I
might need to spend the night outdoors tonight. What is the first thing that I need to do?
The first thing is you want to build a small shelter to protect yourself from the elements.
Now there's lots of different shelters that you could build. And I'm not going to take
the whole sermon to explain all the different types. I'll explain to you quickly the kind of
shelter that I built or that we built, that we learned. And we were taught to build a simple
A-frame shelter, a simple A-frame shelter. So the way this works is you go out and you find
two long branches. If you've got a knife or a small hatchet or something, you cut them down.
If not, you can just try to find branches that have already fallen or something like that.
You try to find some strong, long branches and you pretty much just turn them, you know,
just cross them together. And you want to tie them up so that they'll have a cross
with a little X at the top. Now, if you're out there and you're like,
well, where am I going to get rope? You know, I'm lost. I can't go to Home Depot and get
rope. You know, we were taught how to make rope. And I'll talk about that here in a minute.
But just, you know, realize this, that if you've got shoes on, you probably have shoelaces.
And you can take the shoelaces. If you're not one of these hipsters who wears shoes without
shoelaces, you know, you can take the shoelaces off your shoes and use that to tie your little
A-frame structure there. Now, the next thing you want to do is you want to find another
branch that's maybe just about the length of your body. All right. This is where being short
comes in handy because Pastor Thompson might have to like cut down a redwood or something.
But, you know, you want to find a branch that's like the length of your body.
And then you're going to lay that branch on top of that X of that. So you're creating
like this triangular A-frame shelter. All right. So you want to get that tied together,
get that tied, make sure it's going to stay up on its own. Then what you want to do is you
want to build a little roof on that shelter. So again, you're going to have to go out, find
a bunch of small branches. You might have to cut them down. You might have to cut them into
pieces and just start laying branches across that roof. So what you're doing is you're creating
like you have an opening at the top off the ground. You want it to be about 8 to 12 inches
if you're laying in it, about 8 to 12 inches from your chest. And then it comes down and
you've got branches like a little roof laid across it. Then what you need to do is you
need to find something to be able to cover that little roof with. So cover the roof
with leaves and brush to provide insulation. Now the entire purpose of this shelter is to keep
you warm because you don't want to freeze out in the cold. And you need to be aware of a couple
of ways that you will lose heat from your body. All right. One way is called the convective
heat loss. You want to be aware of convective heat loss. Convective heat loss is where your
body loses heat to the air or to the atmosphere. Wind blows on you, air blows on you,
and your body loses heat to the elements, to the atmosphere around you. That's called
convective heat loss. What you want to be most concerned about is what's called
conductive heat loss. This is where your body loses heat to the ground. So what you need to do,
the purpose of the shelter is to insulate you from the ground and from the air that's going to
be going over you. So what you need to do is you need to get a bunch of leaves and a bunch of
brush. And again, just realize I'm talking about the Pacific Northwest. In California,
we were talking about the Sierra Nevadas. Obviously, if you get lost in Alaska,
then you're going to need another sermon for that. But you want to find leaves and brush.
And what you want to do is you want to create a mattress of leaves that you lay on top of
so that there is something between you and the ground to insulate you from the conductive heat
loss from losing heat from your body to the ground. Then you also want to lay those leaves
across and that brush across the roof of that shelter to insulate that shelter to protect you
from the wind and from the convective heat loss that your body would lose to just the wind
and the atmosphere if you did not have a roof around you. So you want to lay the leaves and
the brush between you and the ground and on top of you on this shelter. And you don't want it to
be this huge shelter because what you want to do is you want to be able to get in it.
Your body produces heat and you want your body to pretty much heat up this little shelter that
you're going to be sleeping in for the night. Now let me just say this. The first step,
the first step that you've got to take when building this shelter is you need to go out and
gather as many leaves and as brush as possible before you start building anything,
cutting down a redwood, you know building a log cabin or whatever you're going to do.
You got to find the leaves and the brush that you're going to need. That's step number one.
Now again usually when people start this process they want to start building a structure first.
Get the structure going and then go find the leaves. Here's the problem with that.
The reason that you need to find the leaves and the brush first
is because in the worst case scenario, let's say the sun goes down, it gets cold,
you lose your ability to see out there, and you've built a structure but you haven't
gathered the leaves needed yet, you're still going to die. You still need the insulation.
Now you say well what if I get out there because you need a lot of leaves to cover your entire
structure and cover yourself. You want to build like a bundle of leaves that is about the size
of your body. And again for some of you that's going to be a little more difficult
you know than others so you want to put some time and energy into getting these leaves.
Now people will ask this question they'll say well what if I go out and I get all these
leaves and then the sun goes down and I didn't build my structure. Well in the worst case
scenario you can just sleep inside of the leaves and that's actually something that's
referred to as the Sasquatch sleeping bag. Where you just lay the leaves on the ground,
you lay on top of the leaves, then you lay leaves on top of you and that in and of itself
will keep you warm and will keep you alive. So the first thing you want to do is you want
to get all the leaves, get all the brush, then you want to start building your structure
and if you run out of time the sun goes down, it gets cold, at the very least you can jump
inside the leaves, sleep in the leaves for the night and you will remain alive.
Are you there in Proverbs 24? Look at verse 27. Notice what the Bible says.
There's an order of priority and we have to learn to follow the order. Proverbs 24 27
says, prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards
build thine house. So look the Bible says you got to get things ready first, prepare things,
prepare thy work without, make it fit for thyself in the field, right? That's you getting lost in nature
and then afterwards build thine house and then when it comes to these shelters
it's the same thing. Gather the leaves because look you know what's hard is gathering
all the leaves because it's kind of exciting to build a shelter you know but gathering the
leaves, putting in the work to gather the leaves, gather the brush, make sure it's dry,
make sure you've got enough. That's a lot of work but you've got to take that first step
because in case you run out of time you will at least have that and you will have what
you need and the Bible teaches this principle that we should prepare, prepare thy work without
and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build thine house. Now do me a favor,
keep your finger right there in Proverbs, maybe put a ribbon or a bookmark or your bulletin
that you don't have there in Proverbs and then go to 1 Timothy if you would, 1 Timothy 3.
If you kept your place in Hebrews, I'm asking you to keep your place in Proverbs and
keep your place in Hebrews. If you kept your place in Hebrews, if you go backwards
from Hebrews you've got Philemon, Titus, 2 Timothy, 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 3. Keep your place in
Proverbs, go to 1 Timothy chapter 3 and we talked about the first thing you need in a
survival situation is a shelter. Well let me just say this, the first thing that a believer
needs to survive spiritually is the shelter of the church. 1 Timothy 3 15 says,
But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the
truth. The Bible tells us that the house of God is the church of the living God and I'm
here to tell you something that you will not survive in your spiritual life if you do not
get first under the shelter of the church. A spiritual shelter is the local New Testament
church and if you think about it, what is the purpose of a shelter physically? What's the
purpose? It's to keep you from getting cold, right? Obviously if you get lost in the wild
and it's summertime and it's 90 degrees outside or whatever, I mean you could sleep
under the, you might still want a shelter to protect you from wild animals but you're not
going to die from the cold. The purpose of a shelter is to keep you from freezing but you
know what's interesting is that the purpose of a local church is to keep you from growing
spiritually cold. God wants you around other believers to keep you warm. Go to Ecclesiastes
real quickly. Ecclesiastes chapter 4. If you get to play some proverbs from proverbs, the next
verse, the next book is Ecclesiastes chapter 4. You need the shelter of the church.
How thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth. Ecclesiastes 4.9. You say why do I need a church? Here's why.
Ecclesiastes 4.9. Two are better than one. You know you say what's better than one
Christian? Two Christians. You say why? Here's why. He says two are better than one because
I like this because he's going to spend the next few verses explaining to us why it is that
two are better than one. He says because number one they have a good reward for their labor.
You know that you and I can get more done? Thank you. You know that you and I
can get more done together than we can on our own. We'll have a greater reward.
This church before this church was started there were several of you. I asked you to raise your
hand this morning. There were several of you who were already here, already saved, already
soul winning, already doing all those things. Even fellows have been together. But you know
I promise you that you've accomplished a lot more over the last six years by doing it
together as a church than you could have ever done on your own even trying to do the same
things on your own. Why? Because two are better than one. Two are better than one because they
have a good reward for their labor. Look at verse 10. Here's the second reason.
For if they fall the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone when he
falleth for he have not another to help him up. You say why are two better than one?
Because when one of you falls the other one can help you out. You say why do I need a church?
Because when you fall you need somebody else to be there to help you get up.
If you're just out there by yourself living the Christian life on your own the problem is that
when you fall the Bible says he has not another to help him up.
You don't want to find yourself in that situation. Look at verse 11. Again,
here's the third reason. If two lie together then they have heat. But how can one be warm alone?
You say why do you need a church to keep you warm? Why do you need a church? Because being
around other Christians, other believers, will keep you warm, will keep you from growing
cold spiritually. Look at verse 12. And if one prevail against him two shall withstand him.
You say look if you're out there on your own having to fight the battles of life,
having to fight the world and the flesh and the devil, doing it on your own,
hey that's going to be difficult. But two shall withstand him. If one prevail against him,
two shall withstand him. What Ecclesiastes is teaching us is that we need each other.
We were created for community. You were not created to live the Christian life alone.
The Bible says no man liveth unto himself. No man died unto himself. You were not created
to live in isolation. You were not created to be an island. You were created to be around
other believers. And I'm here to tell you something. I've been doing ministry now for
the last 12 years. My wife and I have been in ministry for 12 years and I have met many people
over the years who have had this idea who have said oh I don't need a church.
I'm you know and we've had people they'll take on some job and it's like hey pastor
you know praise the Lord. God answered my prayer. I got this new job. It's like oh great.
He's like I'm gonna work every Sunday and every Wednesday night. So I can't come to church
anymore. I'm like God did not answer that prayer. Someone else answered that prayer.
Oh no no I'm gonna be fun. I'm gonna be fun. I'm gonna still I've had so many people say this
to me. I'm gonna still read my Bible. I'm still gonna go soul waiting. I'm still gonna die.
I'm just not gonna go to church. No you're not. You're gonna grow cold. You're gonna get
backslidden. It's not gonna work. Why? Because you cannot survive spiritually without the
shelter of the house of God. And if you're here this morning you say I don't have a church
I go to. You know I appreciate those of you that have driven me from out of town to come
here and praise the Lord. But I would just tell you you need to get yourself in a local church.
And if you can you should get yourself into this local church.
This is the greatest church in this area. You need this church. Why? Because two are better
than one. And then I love how Solomon ends his little talk here because he begins by saying
in Ecclesiastes 4 9 two are better than one. He gives us all the reasons why two are better
than one. They have a good reward for their labor. If they fall the one will lift up his
fellow. Two lie together then they have heat. Two shall withstand him. And then he ends his
little talk there in verse 12 by saying this and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
I love it because he starts off by saying two are better than one and then he ends by saying
you know what's better than two? Three. And you know what's better than three? Six.
And you know what's better than six? Twelve. You know what's better than twelve? Seventy.
You know what's better than seventy? Hundred and twenty. And he says look the more people
you have around you in the Christian life the better. They'll keep you warm. They'll keep you
encouraged. They'll help you get up when you fall. They'll help you defend yourself when
you're fighting battles. They'll keep you warm. So I'm here to tell you in in the physical
realm when you find yourself out lost in the wilderness you need shelter. But you know what
spiritually you also need shelter. The shelter of the church. You need the shelter of being
around God's people. Now I want you to notice that Ecclesiastes 4 12. He says and if one
prevail against him two shall withstand him and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.
I want to just focus in on that three-fold cord there for a second because you know the idea
there is that we are stronger together and he's talking about a cord is a reference to a rope
and he says if you can get a rope that is a three-fold cord that'll be a strong rope
because a cord by itself may be weak but when it's braided into this three-fold cord
it's a stronger rope and and the idea is this is this that you and I are stronger together now
when we were out there uh our survival guide taught us how to make rope and we actually made
rope from grass we found dry pieces of grass and we uh uh folded them together and kind of
braided them together to create rope uh in in the in the busyness of traveling up here
I forgot uh to bring I wanted to bring a grass rope to show you uh which I don't have but I do
have this rope that my son made and this is a rope that my son made from the cheap napkins at
Taco Bell this is literally a rope made out of napkins and obviously this is made out of
paper so if I really wanted to I could rip this apart but you know the little the brown cheap
napkins that you know some of you you eat at the nice restaurants with the nice napkins but
for those of us that eat at Taco Bell not like you snobs who eat at Del Taco for those
of us that eat at Taco Bell you know you have the the cheap uh uh uh just brown napkin
I mean think about being out in the wilderness having three branches and having a cheap brown
napkin and trying to use that to tie you couldn't do it but you can take three of those napkins
I mean my 15 year old son did it you can take three of those napkins and and cord them
together fold them together braid them together and you could totally use this to tie a branch
together for a shelter obviously this is made out of paper you know so we want you want to
do it on a grass or something different but the the illustration is this that a three-fold
cord is not quickly broken and two pieces of napkin are stronger together than they are by
themselves two pieces of grass are stronger together than they are by themselves you can tell
that my sons were paying attention on the rope making class they did a good job you know
and here's the truth you and I will be stronger together than we will by ourselves
so before so before you give up on church for you know filthy lucre you ought to realize
what is more important there is nothing more important than god he should have our number one
priority he should have he should be our preeminence so you need the shelter of the
church now let me just say this real quickly while I'm on the subject of the three-fold cord
because it just reminds me of this and I want to explain this because you'll need this
information as we go further in the sermon and when it comes to survival there is what's known as
the rule of three the rule three who's ever heard of the rule of three some of you heard
of the rule three this was developed by the the u.s air force uh seer training uh which is
the air force's survival evasion resistance and escape training that they put the pilots through
in case they get shot down in the middle of a jungle or something like that they're
learning how to survive out there I was in the u.s air force for four years enlisted in the
air force and the u.s air force's seer training is pretty much like the only cool thing the air
force does uh you know but uh but the seer training is pretty cool survival evasion
resistance and escape and um and and and they came up they developed this rule of three
and it's interesting to me because the number three is an important number in the bible
you know a threefold cord is not quickly broken obviously we know the trinity is made up of of god
the father god the son god the holy spirit we believe in the trinity uh which means that god
exists in three persons and uh so the number three is an important uh a number and and you
need to understand the rule of three all right now let me just say this this is in general
there this is not a hundred percent true of of all the times but in general
when it comes to human beings human beings here's the rule of three human beings can go about
three minutes without oxygen about three hours without shelter in in in adverse weather
about three days without water about three weeks without food and about three years without human
contact so the rule of three is three minutes without oxygen three hours without shelter in
adverse weather three days without water three weeks without food and three years without human
contact if you got stranded on some island by yourself after three years you'd probably go
crazy if you didn't have uh human contact so just be aware of this rule of three as we continue
on and go with me if you would to the book of ephesians ephesians chapter five in the
new testament you have matthew mark luke john acts romans first second gradients
galatians adhesions so we're talking about spiritual uh lessons from survival training
and remember the sacred order order what is it shelter water fire food that's the sacred
order dude all right you don't want to forget that what's the first step what do you need
shelter you need shelter in a survival situation or you're probably going to die you're more
likely to die from exposure to the weather than from dehydration you'll die first i should say
from exposure to the weather than you will from dehydration or starvation and the same goes
with spiritual application the first thing you need is the shelter of the church and some of
you you might be asking yourself why is it that i'm dying spiritually i'm not as on fire
as i used to be i'm not as right with god as i used to be it probably matches your church
attendance you should look at well how faithful are you to church and how faithful are you in
other areas you'll probably see if you graft it out you see a pattern because you need the
shelter of the church you need to be under uh with god's people to stay warm but let's talk
about the second thing you need in survival training and the second thing you need in
survival training is water water now when it comes to water we're talking about physically now
when it comes to water what you need to concern yourself with is the source the source of the
water because bad water can make you sick all right now you're not going to make it very long
out in the wild without water because if you remember the rules of three you know you're
more likely to you you're likely to die within three hours in adverse weather if you don't have
shelter so we got to take that care of that first but after that if you you if you go three
days without water you can die so you want to that's your next priority you want to make
sure you have some healthy water or you're not going to make it and the main concern is that
you find a good source of water all right not all water is good water to drink not all water
is good water so let me give you some signs for a good water source okay this might save
your life all right so you know learn this and uh some uh a good a good water source
when you're out in the wild you're looking for a water source what are you looking for
you want to look for small streams of water all right you want to avoid drinking from large
bodies of water you want to look for a small stream about a foot in width so a small stream
of water you want to avoid drinking water from big bodies of water you want to look for streams
that are clear and that are clean you want to look for streams that are fast running
so they're not stagnant again avoid bodies of water that are stagnant that are sitting
uh large bodies of water if you can see beavers playing in the water okay just realize
that they're also pooping in the water they're also you know doing other things in the water
and uh you don't want to drink that water that our survival guide said you know what you'll get
it they call it beaver fever and you want to avoid that all right so you want to look for
small streams of water about a foot in width clean clear fast running and preferably cold
the colder the better because if it's cold it means that it's it's it's coming uh from
straight from you know the top of the mountain it's gonna be cleaner so that's what you want
to be looking for all right small stream of water uh avoid big bodies of water clean
clear fast running preferably cold now let me just say this okay and again i'll get back to
the spiritual application here in a minute but let me just give you the information for the
water let's say you're out in nature you you're lost and the only choice you have is to drink
from a large body of water you can't find a small stream and you just have a large body of
water here's some things that you could do one thing you just walk around that large body of
water and look for small little streams that are flowing into it because obviously large bodies
of water become large bodies of water because water is being fed into that body of water
so if you can kind of hike around that large body of water and find smaller streams that are
feeding into it then you can go upstream a little bit and then drink water from there
that'll be safer than drinking water from the large body of water also let's say you can't
find any streams something you could do is you get off the shore of that water so let's say you
have a big body of water if you can if you can go preferably like 10 maybe 12 feet away from
the shore of that water and then if you can dig a hole that goes about a foot deep
and and the reason you know the the thing about a foot deep is because without any tools
using your hands only you're probably only going to be able to dig about a foot um effectively
but the goal is this if you can dig a hole that goes below the level of the water
water will flow into that hole from the big body of water but the thing is that if you do it 10
to 12 feet away and you dig a hole about a foot deep that goes below the level of that water
water will seep into that hole but it'll seep into that hole going through all the dirt and
the rock in order to get there which will help filter that water so you could drink water from
that hole now let's say the body of water you have is is really steep then and then you
know you can't go 10 feet because going one foot deep isn't going to be uh deep enough to
get you below the body of water you could do it closer but you need to at least be one foot away
so be one foot away from the water at the very least 10 to 12 feet would be better dig a hole
with your hands about a foot deep hopefully that it will be below the body of water
water will seep into that hole it'll be filtered through the dirt filtered through
the rocks and it'll be cleaner water uh for you to be able to drink if you cannot find
a small stream of water that's clean and clear and fast running and preferably uh cold now let
me just say this and again this is like survival training and also uh you know spiritual survival
training which you know i probably should have saved this sermon for the next time i preached
at a camping trip or something but anyway you guys are all pretty rugged so i figured
this will help you when when let's say all you all you have is a bad source of water
and you're like i know this water is gonna make me sick okay just just to give you a couple
of thoughts in north america people get lost every day in north america i mean there's
literally rescue search and rescue going out all over this country every day i mean i think
like in yosemite they're rescuing somebody every day of the year you know that they're open
out there so in north america people get lost in general and we have a pretty good
uh system in this country for uh search and rescue so in the united states of america if you
get lost out in the wild the likelihood is that you will be found within three to 72 hours
of when somebody realizes your loss so when somebody realizes like oh my husband hasn't
came back which if you don't have a good marriage that might take a while you know but or or my son
has not came back from his hike or whatever when somebody realizes like their loss and they
report you as being lost generally speaking you're going to be found within three to 72 hours
of being reported loss someone's going to find you now when it comes to drinking bad water
in general and again i can't tell you a hundred percent but in general if you drink bad water
you're not you're not likely to feel the effects of that water for several days up to maybe two
weeks so you could drink bad water and actually not get sick to maybe two weeks later and it's
not going to be immediate it'll be several days so in a worst case scenario where you're
just like i haven't drank water in three days and the only source of water is bad water
let me just tell you just drink the water because you'll die without water in three days
and let's say it's bad water it makes you sick the likelihood is that you'll have been found
and you'll probably be in the hospital already by the time you start having the effects of the
bad water but by the time the the beaver fever you know catches upon you so in a worst
case scenario just drink the water you know don't die from dehydration because you're avoiding
bad water but generally speaking you don't want to do that you want to try to do everything
your power to drink clean water and you want to concern yourself with the source of the water
now when it comes to surviving spiritually you're are you there in ephesians 5 the second
thing a believer needs to survive spiritually is the washing of the water by the word
ephesians 5 25 notice what the bible says husbands love your wives even as christ also
loved the church and gave himself for it that he referring to jesus that he
might sanctify and cleanse it notice what the bible says with the washing of the water
by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or
wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish you know you say
what what what's gonna happen when i get myself into the shelter of the church of god well
what's gonna happen is this when you come to the shelter of the church of god you're gonna surround
yourself with all these leaves of believers we're gonna keep you warm they're gonna encourage
you they're gonna help you but then your pastor pastor thompson's is gonna stand up
with the word of god and he's gonna wash you with the word of god and you're gonna be
washed and cleansed through the washing of the word and if you come to one of our churches
you know we're we're heavy with bible reading we're heavy with bible preaching when you come
to your foundation it's like a pressure washer you know it's just like every every sunday you're
just getting pressure washed and you know oftentimes when new believers come to churches
like ours though they start coming to to a church like this and they're new and you know
i've had people say this to me over the years they'll say stuff like man every time i come
to church i feel so dirty and i uh sometimes i respond this a lot of times i don't but if i if
i have a good relationship with the person i like to tell them the reason you feel like
that is because you are dirty and and what we're doing is we're washing you with the word
we're getting the world off you the sin off you the filth of you you're being washed with
the water of the word and look i'm just here to tell you something no one's going to become
a soul-winning bible reading zealous soul winner uh uh just overnight first she said what's the
first step get them in church what's the second step let the preaching of the word of god wash
them they need the water the second thing a believer needs to survive spiritually is the
washing of the water of the word they need the the word of god to cleanse them they need
the word of god to to help them to grow spiritually to get the sin out of their lives
to get their lives right to start acting right and doing right and behaving right now let me
just say this when it comes to water just like physical water you need to concern yourself
with the source when it comes to the spiritual water of the word of god you must concern
yourself with the source it's important that you get the right source you say why because there's
many different sources of water and i'm talking about the king james version versus the modern
bible versions they do not come from the same greek source pastor thompson uh told me that
he's planning on uh lord willing having a king james uh conference up here uh maybe next year
i don't know if i maybe i shouldn't have announced it i don't know uh but you know i was
like i'm excited for that you say why because it's important you say why because look drinking
out of the stream of the nib will make you spiritually sick drinking out of the stream of
the new king james can make you sick it's not the same source there's a difference between
the bible that says that salvation is not of works and you don't have to earn it and the
other one that says it's difficult there's a difference between the bible that says that
jesus is the son of god the virgin born deity and the one that says no that's lucifer
or that it's not believe on jesus or that attacks salvation attacks the deity of christ
it's two different sources like the water source you must concern yourself with the source
of the bible and you're not going to make it look i'm just going to tell you something you
are not going to make it in your spiritual life it's amazing to me you can take the same
the same individual the same individual and put them into a church where they preacher that
preaches the word of god and their lives will be transformed you take the same individual
and you pluck them out you say well how do you know because we've seen it happen
people say oh i got a transfer to this i got this great job it's like well what church
you going to well there's no good church in the area and you watch the same individual
who was sunday morning sunday night wednesday night reading their bible praying faithful to god
faithful to their family uh uh uh just had a zeal for the lord and they grow cold they
grow backslidden you say why because they're not under the washing of the word of god
you need the washing you need to be under the word of god and look you say what kind of
church should i be looking for one that preaches the king james because you should concern
yourself with the source you should concern yourself the other source will make you sick
you need the clean and clear and pure word of god the king james bible so i said number one
when it comes to survival training um and i i make this joke every time i come up here
but if it's okay i'm going to preach a little longer which to you guys means nothing
pastor pastor thompson i always make fun of pastor thompson's long sermons
and he and then he makes fun of all my long series
i've been in like the book of luke for like the last 12 years
and uh that's okay so the spirit of pastor thompson is coming upon me this morning
we're gonna preach the round table shows up
no go go to go to uh john if you would john chapter five matthew mark luke john
the sacred order what is it shelter water fire food that's the sacred order dude
what do you need shelter the first thing you need in a survival situation is shelter
the first thing a new believer needs to survive spiritually is a shelter of the church what's the
second thing you need water the second thing you need in a survival situation is water what's
the second thing a believer needs to survive spiritually is the washing of the water by the
word the third thing that you should concern yourself in a survival situation is fire
now let me just say things a few things about fire to make fire in the wild requires a lot of
training and experience okay i'm not gonna lie to you it's not as simple as taking a stick and
going like this it requires a lot of training a lot of experience and let me just say this is
what our survival guide taught taught us even with lots of training and experience it is still
very unlikely that you will create fire in an actual emergency i'm not talking about you're
out camping with your buddies and you got a lighter sitting right there and you're like
well let me try this bow drill i'm talking about an actual emergency where you're actually lost
with the stress of being lost and the chaos of being lost even for highly trained and
experienced individuals oftentimes it's very common that people who have made fires and
created fires using materials from nature in an actual emergency are unable to create fire
so just realize that even with lots of training and experience it is very unlikely
that you'll create fire in an actual emergency and i only say that to say this don't let that
discourage you now here's the thing about fire though if you get it if you get it it changes
everything i mean it'll keep you warm it'll allow you to cook food it'll provide protection
wild animals won't want to attack you if you have a fire so it's hard to do but if you can
get it done it will change everything now what we learned in our survival training was what's called
the bow drill method and i'm not going to take the time to even explain to you the bow drill
method because it's highly complicated it's highly you know it's just a very difficult
thing to do and for me to explain it to you if you don't if you're not familiar with it
already it's not going to make any sense i would encourage you to google it or youtube it or
whatever uh but i'm not going to take the time to go through all that uh but i'm just going
to say this you can create fire and something we're thinking about when we started
learning how to make fire using the bow drill method our our guy told us he says look i don't
want you guys to be discouraged sometimes when i do this class half the class makes fire half
the class doesn't he said sometimes everyone in the class makes fire he said sometimes
nobody in the class makes fire so he said you know we're just gonna try it and then i i i got
up and i told my staff if you don't make fire you're fired so but uh i'm just kidding but
but i will say this everyone in our group made fire so praise the lord for that every single
person some of them were under a lot of stress um but everybody eventually made fire so we're
happy about that um and it was it was cool it was fun uh but it was very difficult so the
third thing that you need a survival situation is fire and again you just you have to be trained
and know what you're doing to be able to do that and just realize that it's going to be very
difficult in an actual emergency situation but let me just say this the third thing that
a believer needs to survive spiritually is to get on fire for god in john 535 i want you to
notice what the bible says about john the baptist john 535 he was a burning and a shining light
this is how jesus described john the baptist he was a burning and a shining light you and i
would describe it this way today he's on fire he's on fire for god he is a burning and he's
shining light and you are willing for a season to rejoice in his light and throughout the bible
you'll find that fire is often used as an illustration of being on fire for the lord
go to acts chapter two acts of you there in john just flip over to acts two
because remember what is the purpose what is the purpose of shelter
to keep you warm but listen to me in the christian life there is a difference between
christians that are warm and christians that are on fire there's a difference
between christians that are are staying warm and and and not dying so you say what's the
difference between fire and an emergency situation here's the difference you go from survival you go
from surviving to thriving with fire you can thrive out in the wild and in the christian life
you can go to church you can have a pastor preach the word of god and cleanse you and
you'll stay warm you'll stay alive it'll be fine but let me tell you something the christian
that gets on fire for god he goes from surviving to thriving acts 2 1 and when the day of pentecost
was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were
sitting and there appeared unto them notice the words cloven tongues like as a fire
when god wanted to illustrate the filling of the holy spirit he did it by putting cloven
tongues like as a fire upon their heads and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled
with the holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance
these people were filled with the spirit and god illustrated it by putting cloven tongues
like as a fire upon their heads the bible says that our god is a consuming fire
the bible warns us to quench not the spirit what does the word quench mean it means to
extinguish it means to put out because when you get right with god and get on fire for god
and get filled with the spirit of god hey that's a different type of christian
and i wish i could explain to you i don't feel like i have the eloquence to be able to explain
to you i can just tell you if you've never experienced if you've ever experienced you know
what i'm talking about and if you've never experienced it then you just don't know what
i'm talking about because there is a difference between a christian who just shows up to church
because it's what we're supposed to do on a sunday morning and a christian that's on fire
for god they just love the lord they're sealed they don't go soul winning because they have to
now i'm all for with do about you know if you say i'm cold and i'm about to die then
you just do it out of duty but you know what's better than doing it on our duty is doing it out of love
you read your bible because you love god you show up to church because you love god's people
you love god you go soul winning because you love the lost souls
let me just say this when it comes to fire i'm talking about spiritual file just like
physical fire requires a lot of training and experience to get a christian to be on fire for god
requires a lot of training and patience and let me just say this and i don't mean to discourage you
i only told you that it's difficult to get fire out in the wild because i don't want you
to be discouraged and i want to say this to sure foundation baptist church for those of you
that are on fire so that you do not get discouraged even with lots of training even with
lots of patience even with a great pastor a great pastor's wife great preaching from the word of
god a great church even with all of that unfortunately it is often unlikely that most
christians will ever get on fire for god and i only say that for you to be aware and not be
discouraged and not wonder why is it that these other christians they're so stale they're
so apathetic they're so cold i don't understand it just realize it's very difficult to get people
on fire for god but i will say this that if you can get a christian on fire for god
it'll change everything it'll be an experience that you you never experience when someone is
actually full of the holy ghost when someone is actually right with god and walking with god
when they walk in the spirit and don't fulfill the lust of the flesh
it's hard and here's the thing here's the thing about fire here's what i learned about
creating fire in the wild here's what i learned getting it all together is really difficult
i'm not even going to explain to you because you you require all of these parts that you
have to make if you're out in the wild you have to make them first then you get all
these different parts you put them all together and you start your bow drill it's called a bow
drill because you're using a bow and a string on a bow to to get the friction between the woods
to get the fire going and smoke going here's what i learned though and the reason that
everybody in our group was able to get fire is because what i learned is this if you can get
all the parts together get them all situated properly and get a good steady rhythm going if you
can do that and you stay at it and you don't quit and you just keep that steady rhythm going
i believe that everyone can make fire if you don't quit if you keep a steady rhythm if you
have it all situated and you have it the way it's supposed to be you can get it and let me
tell you something i believe in christianity if you can get christians into a church and you get
a good steady rhythm of church attendance preaching thought winning being around god's people
if you don't quit at it if you stay with it if you stick with it you will get on fire
it can happen i've seen it happen and those of you that were on fire once and you've
cooled down you can get on fire again the third thing you need in a survival situation
is fire and the third thing that a believer needs to survive spiritually
is to get on fire for god go to job if you want job 23 job 23 if you kept your place in
proverbs and you go backwards from proverbs you have psalms and then the book of job
job 23 let me give you the fourth thing
remember the sacred order shelter water fire food that's the sacred order dude
you need shelter you need water you need fire here's the here's the fourth
here's the fourth thing you need food the fourth thing you need in a survival situation
is food now let me just say this since most people who get lost in north america
are found between three hours and 72 hours the likelihood of you hunting fishing setting up
traps you know to survive in the wild is not high all right just eat the cheetos in your backpack
and wait for someone to find you all right but if you end up being lost for a long time
or some of you and i'm not one of you but if some of you who who think you're going to go
out and live in the wilderness during the tribulation period or whatever instead of doing
which is supposed to do which is be a soul winner you know you're probably going to go
out there and get killed by a mountain lion while while the rest of us have the the cloak
of zeal upon us and god helps us through the tribulation um you know but if you do end
up being in the wild for a long time then obviously you know you can survive up to three
weeks without food but you know let's say you're you're the swiss family robinson and you're just
going to be out there for months or years or whatever then you're going to have to
be able to survive you need to be able to get food but before you can get there you need
shelter before you can get there you need water before you can get there you need fire
now when it comes to uh to to food you know obviously you can make a net how do i make a net
you make rope make a net uh you know to catch fish you can make traps you know all those
things i'll just explain to you one one thing that we were taught in regards to to hunting out
there and it's that you can take a branch and if you have a a knife then you can kind of whittle
it down um or you can use fire if you have fire you can actually use fire put wood in fire
to shape the wood and you can create what uh our survival guide called a throwing stick
but um in hunting and over the years it's been known you probably would know it better as a
boomerang and you know a boomerang it's not one of these things where you throw it and it
hits something you know hits a kangaroo and it comes back to you okay that only happens on
the cartoons okay but it is a stick that it's it's create it's shaped in such a way that and
it's smoothed out in such a way that it's easy to throw and what you use with the stick
is that you're if you're out there in the wild and you see a squirrel or a rabbit or something
like that and let's say it's about 10 feet from you or 12 feet from you then you can throw
this stick and the goal if they hit the animal hopefully you kill it or at the very least
you disoriented long enough to go grab it and you know put it in a choke hold or whatever you
gotta do to to kill you know kill that animal i would not recommend throwing a stick at a mountain
lion or a bear um just saying if i were you i'd stick to smaller animals but that is something
that you could do in in in the wild uh to find animals and let me just say this to feed
yourself and let me just say this spiritually the fourth thing that i believe it needs to
survive spiritually is to learn to feed themselves to learn to feed themselves spiritually now here's
the thing here's the thing about the difference between surviving in the wild and spiritual
survival is that in the wild you're not trying to stay out there for a long time you're trying
to get found but spiritually we want to do this for decades we want to be able to end our
lives like the apostle the apostle paul and say i've finished my course i have kept the faith
you want to get to the end of this thing and say i've ran my race i got to the end i didn't i
didn't i didn't just do this for a little while let me tell you something the christian
life is not measured in years it's measured in decades i want to get to the end of my life
and say i finished the course and i've accomplished what god called me to do and i did it with joy
and the only way to do that is to learn to feed yourself spiritually now you can come here
and have pastor tomson feed you spiritually a gourmet meal sunday mornings tuesday night
thursday night but you got to learn to feed yourself too job 23 are you there look at verse
12 notice what job said job 23 12 he says neither have i gone back from the commandment of his
lips notice what he says he says i have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food
he said the word of god is more important i steam it higher than my necessary food
yet how often so many christians will feed themselves physically
and go days and weeks without feeding themselves spiritually go to jeremiah 15 jeremiah 15 look
at verse 16 you have joe psalms proverbs ecclesiastes song of solomon isaiah jeremiah
jeremiah 15 and verse 16 here's what the prophet said he says thy words were found and i did eat
them look you gotta feed yourself you gotta open up the bible every day and and and and
open it up and read it and consume it and and and learn it and study it and and
internalize it and apply it jesus said man shall not live by bread alone but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of god the only way you're going to stay in this thing for
a long time the only way you're going to survive is if you learn to feed yourself
but let me just explain something to you you're not going to be the christian that's just
reading the bible every day if you're not under the preaching of the word of god
so before before the the well let me put it this way you're not even going to be the
christian that goes home and read the bible unless you're on fire for them
you're like i want to go on fire for good do you read the bible no then the answer is no
shelter water fire food you're not if you don't have the fire you're not getting the food
so how do i get the fire get under the preaching of the word of god
i'm the man of god how do i do that get in the shelter spiritual survival you need it
or you won't survive go back to hebrews hebrews chapter 12
please don't throw a stick at the pizza this afternoon
it's already been caught for you hebrews 12
and look this is good training for us you know in california
up in in oregon and washington just with all the homeless people
you know you can start you tell the people like hey that shelter that's not good man
you know hebrews chapter 12 let me let me just let me just end with this
when it comes to being lost out in nature you you want to be careful the the moment you
realize i'm lost one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they keep walking and you
probably want what you want to do is stop and ask yourselves yourself am i going to be
spending the night out here i probably needed some shelter and you know you want to get
yourself in a situation where somebody can find you that's looking for you you're not going off
some some path or going some weird way but if you realize okay no one's coming you know it
becomes very apparent to you that your wife doesn't care that you haven't been home in three days
and you're like i'm gonna i'm gonna have to bear grills this thing myself and get myself home okay
you need to be aware of something don't just start walking because human beings
we human beings have this tendency to walk in circles and it's actually this well-known thing
if you read about survive people that have been in the wild you'll find that sometimes people
they'll go crazy because they'll be in some jungle or some forest and they'll mark where
they've been and then they'll go walking around hiking and then they'll come back to
the same location they've already been and it's like this well-known thing human beings
tend to go in circles and there's actually a scientific reason for this and the reason is
because when we walk we have two different strides you take a you when you when you take
a step with your right foot and you take a step with your left foot the strides of
your feet are not equal we tend to have one stride that is longer than another strike
and because of that because we as human beings tend to have one stride that's longer than
another stride it causes us to walk in circles human beings are not good at walking in straight
lines when you walk in no with no direction you will likely just end up going in big circles
and it has to do with the strides that we take we tend to have one stride that is longer
than another stride a stride that is shorter than the other stride and as a result that stride
keeps us not from walking straight but walking in circles and going in circles it's just a thing
that we as human beings are not very good at walking in straight lines so if you're out in
the wild and you realize like i gotta get back i know there's civilization west or i know there's
civilization east or whatever uh south or no north you know and you gotta walk in a certain
direction the best thing you can do is to find a fixed object in in in in front of you
and walk towards that walk towards that uh that object so whether it's a mountain range or
some something that's fixed you know and walk in that direction and that'll help you stay
on track and not walk around in circles well here's what's interesting about that
is that in the christian life without direction we tend to walk around in circles
isn't that true i mean the the entire nation of israel wandered in the wilderness
for 40 years walking in circles because they have no direction it when when i when our
survival guide was explaining this it made me think of that song prone to wander lord i peel it
prone to leave the god i love you know we just have this tendency both physically and
spiritually to be crooked we have this tendency to not walk down that's why proverbs and psalms
keep telling us don't go to the right don't go to the left what's it saying walk straight
walk down the straight path go down the straight path but i'm here to tell you something you're
not going to be able to do that unless you get a fixed point of reference and walk in that
direction now for some of you when you get lost in the wild you know you might not make it past
the parking lot so you can look at the exit sign and walk in that direction but but if you're
in the actual wild you know a mountain range some sort of natural thing you can look at to
keep you straight to keep you going well you know what the christian life is the same way
go to hebrews 12 look at verse 1 hebrews 12 verse 1 we'll finish up right here
look at verse 2 here's your fixed point your your fixed direction your your your fixed object
looking unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of god
you say how do i survive in the christian life you get that fixed view on the lord
jesus christ looking unto jesus what's the point of the christian life you know what
the point of the christian life is that we would be conformed to the image of his son
the goal is for you and i to be more and more like christ every day more and more like christ
every day you say well i ever get there you'll you'll never get there in this life but you'll
keep walking in that direction one day you'll get raptured and you'll be transformed to the
image of our son our goal is to be more like jesus every day so we need to be looking unto
jesus the author and finisher of our faith and i'm here to tell you something the christians
that get a fixed goal of the lord jesus christ and just walk in that direction
they make it in the christian life they don't waste time they don't walk around in circles
they become conformed to the image of the lord jesus christ i often tell our church family
in sacramento the goal is god say what's the goal in the christian life it's god
that in all things he may have the preeminence seek ye first the kingdom of god and his
righteousness you get a fixed view of the lord jesus christ high holy and lifted up like isaiah
says you walk in that direction you hike in that direction and you like the apostle paul will
be able to say i fought the good fight i finished my course i've kept the faith
henceforth there's laid out for me a crown of righteousness henceforth i'm gonna get found
he's gonna find me one day i'm gonna get rescued one day it's called the rapture
and that they're not gonna give you gatorade and put you on iv he's gonna give you a crown
we're gonna reward you because you survived in the christian life so how are you doing
in your survival shelter you have it god has provided a great shelter for you
are you faithful to it water the preaching of the word of god are you under it
fire are you on fire forgotten food are you feeding yourself spiritually shelter water fire
food that's the sacred order dude smile your heads and have a word of prayer family father
lord we thank you thank you for this church i thank you for pastor thompson miss sherry
the entire sure foundation family the great work they're doing here
lord i pray that you would help us to survive spiritually
but i pray that you'd help us to be christians who would make a decision that we're going to stick
at this thing not for weeks and not for months and not for years but for decades
now we're going to survive in this wilderness called the world
and we're going to keep our eyes fixed on the lord jesus christ we love you
the matchless name of christ we pray amen
all right our last song is song number 16 your blue hymn books heaven came down and
glory filled my soul song number 16 in your blue hymn books heaven came down and glory filled
my soul song 16 let's sing it out together on the first oh what a wonderful wonderful day
day i will never forget after i'd wandered in darkness away jesus my savior i met
oh what a tender compassionate friend he met the need of my heart shadows dispelling with joy
and telling he made all the darkness depart heaven came down and glory filled my soul
when at the cross the savior made me
my sins were washed away and my night was turned today heaven came down and glory filled
my soul
now you guys already know what i'm gonna say i'm gonna need you guys you guys are in the
shelter right now but you gotta get some of that fire especially on the filled my soul part
it sounds a little awkward you know what i'm saying let's uh let's uh try it out a little
bit better on the second born of the spirit with life from above into god's family divine
justified fully through calvary's love oh what a standing is mine
and the transaction so quickly was made when as a sinner i came
took the offer of grace he did offer he saved me oh praise his dear name
dear name heaven came down and glory filled my soul
hey then when at the cross the savior made me
my sins were washed away and my night was turned today
now i have a hope that will surely endure after the passing of time
i have a future in heaven for sure there in those mansions of life
is
rich is eternal and blessings from his precious and i receive heaven came down and glory filled
my soul
my sins were washed away and my night was turned today heaven came down and glory filled
my soul i'm not gonna make that quote i'm telling my voice right now so we're
gonna end in order prayer brother bill you want to close this
you