‘Survivor’ pastor shares experience at Valleydale Baptist

Yes, you can design your destiny, former “Survivor: Thailand” contestant John Raymond recently told Sunday worship service audiences at Valleydale Baptist Church, Birmingham.
   
Even though he was the first contestant voted off the popular CBS series that began airing in September, Raymond has used his experience to expand his Christian witness.
   
“Survivor was a big dream for me” said Raymond, executive pastor of the 2,700-member Harvest Church in Slidell, La.
   
“But I know that there’s a lot of people that don’t have their dreams come true. I want to let you know whatever situation you find yourself in today, you can do something about it. Whatever dream you have in your heart today, you can make it come true through the power of God.”
   
From a stage fashioned to resemble the set of “Survivor: Thailand,” Raymond, a former financial planner for 12 years, asked his audience to repeat the phrase ‘I am ready to change. I am able to change. I am willing to change.’
   
He then explained six principles based on the Word of God that he learned and used throughout his experience.
   
Raymond says he believes these principles will help believers design their destiny and glorify God with their lives.
   
1. Think the right thoughts.
   
“What if the world that you live in right now has been created by your own thinking?” he asked. “There’s an old saying that says, ‘sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.’
   
If you want to live the life that few people dare to imagine, it begins in your mind.”
   
2. Say the right words. Raymond added that “anything you say with your mouth is registered in your conscious mind and your subconscious mind picks up on it” and goes about trying to fulfill it.
   
“If you say it long enough, it will happen,” he said. “You say it with enough passion, it will come true. You keep speaking it, you’re going to create it.”
   
3. “Understand that God wants to bless you.”
   
While applying for ‘Survivor’, Raymond at first thought that it would be impossible to be selected from the 60,000 applicants to fill one of the 16 contestant positions. Then he remembered Psalm 35:27 which says that God takes pleasure in prospering His servants.
   
4. Give your past to God.
   
Raymond told the audience that he had two choices after being voted off “Survivor.” He could let his past pull him down or use it to glorify God.
   
Later, he realized that maybe God had removed him so that the negative aspects of the show would not affect his Christian witness.
   
5. Believe that all things are possible.
   
“Whatever your mountain is, Christian, you can move it,” Raymond said. “Whatever your dream is, you can live it. You have a big God, dream big. Dream a dream that is worthy of the God you serve.”
   
6. Take full responsibility for your future.
   
Through the acrostic Destiny, Raymond noted seven simple action steps to use in designing their future through prayer, faith in God and following biblical principles.
   
–Decide exactly “what it is you want to achieve.”
   
–Expect to achieve it.
   
–Set up a detailed plan.
   
–Take immediate action. “It’s never later and we don’t live in later,” he said. 
   
–Improvise.
   
–Never give up on your dream.
   
–Yield to God.
   
Raymond’s sermon wrapped up Valleydale’s nine-sermon study called “Beyond Survivor in Your Relationships,” which mimicked the television show’s objectives to outwit, outplay and outlast by teaching believers to outcare, outlove and outserve.
   
Other topics dealt with communication, jealousy, competition and relationships.