We have just finished a study we have been involved in since the end of school called “Faith in the Jungle”. How do we make sure our faith survives in the environments we are in? We will never answer this question if we are not living with spiritual eyes. How do we see our faith?  How do we see the environments we are in? We will never take the time to see the tools God has given us in our faith as resources if we do not believe these two things. 

1. Faith is important to us & worth protecting. 
2. The environment we are in can harmful to our faith. 

What do you miss when you look at your environment? If survival is on your mind, you probably are looking for all the things you can’t see. If survival of your faith is on your mind, you have to start seeing the unseen. What is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal. 

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 

What if I told you there was a spider on the loose in your room. Or a snake. Would that change how you behaved? Would it change how cautious you are? If you saw a roaring lion, of course we would be cautious. But since we don’t see him working through our culture, our music, our friends even, we let our guard down and our faith is devoured.

If faith is not important to us, we will not take any measures to protect it. There will be no struggle within us between the flesh and the spirit if the flesh is the only one we are listening to. But if we believe these things, then we will use the tools that God has given us to protect our faith in the environment we live in. Jesus is at the core of our faith and faith is at the core of our identity. It is a believe based on action. 

Faith is not lived in a bubble, but in a real environment. 

Once we have added Jesus to our life, why do we let so many things separate us from Him? 

The actions that move us away from sin and closer to God, because our belief that sin destroys our relationship with God. 

1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 

The actions to choose our environments, to play defense because we want to protect our relationship with God. We spent many weeks looking at each tool and direction God provides to us in the jungle.

We are not left defenseless. Our faith has a point. What is the outcome of your faith? Why do we fight to protect it? Use all the tools God has given you to protect it. We need a game plan.

1 Peter 1:3-9  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.