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Amen Merry Christmas So this this evening, we're gonna take a break from the book of Judges and since it is Christmas We're going to talk a little bit about Jesus tonight. We're going to talk about Jesus and and specifically Revelation chapter 1 is maybe my favorite chapter about Jesus Describing who Jesus really is in the Bible. You just get a really clear picture I think John, you know when you think about the books that John was involved in I think John had a pretty clear idea of who Jesus Christ was from these writings here But I want to talk to you this evening about survivorship about you know survivorship in the Christian life if the sermon had a title that's what it would be survivorship in the Christian life and the first thing I want to talk about is I want to do a little bit of a Bible Study on how we can see that, you know, thank God that Jesus is a survivor Jesus is the ultimate Survivor and in Revelation chapter 1 we see that in the verse I want you to focus on is in verse number 8 there were Jesus says I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending and again in verse number 11 We see the same type of language where it says saying I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last What the what the well see us and he tells them to write it in the book But Jesus says this could turn to Revelation chapter 21. Jesus is a Survivor and I want to show you first this morning from there this morning this evening from the Bible why it's important that Jesus Is a survivor and why it's important that Jesus is the Alpha to the Omega for many different reasons I'm going to show you you know, two or three of the main Reasons and then we can apply that to us and and see how we can use that to survive this Christian life Okay, look at Revelation chapter 21. Look at verse number 6 the Bible says again and he said unto me it is done I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end and I will give unto him That is a thirst of the foundation of the water of life freely. Just turn over to Revelation chapter 22 So anything that's repeated this much must be fairly important in the Bible That's something to remember is if something's just repeated again and again here you have Jesus Just saying this these these terms again and again about himself. Look at Revelation 22 13. Jesus says again I am the I'm Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end the first and the last so he's saying I'm Alpha and Omega That means I am beginning Alpha and the end Omega and then that you know, he gets even more specific he says the first and the last so Jesus is the beginning and the end and you say you say, you know beginning beginning of what we'll turn to Revelation chapter 3 Let's look at the beginning first and we'll see What he's talking about the beginning of what so you say, okay that that sounds great But what is he talking about? Look at Revelation 3 and verse 14 The Bible says and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right? These things saith the Amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God Okay, so that's a big statement He says he's the beginning so we know he's the beginning in the end and here it says that he's the beginning of The creation of God. Okay. So what does that mean? Does that mean that he's turned to John chapter 1? Does that mean that he's the first thing that God created? Is that what that means? Let's look at John chapter 1 and see what this means. So Jesus is the beginning and the end He's the first and the last but here it's relating his beginning to the creation He said he's the beginning of the creation of God look at John chapter 1 look at verse number 1 And the Bible says in the beginning there's the beginning again in the beginning was the Word capital W And the Word was with God and the Word was God Verse 2 the same was in the beginning with God So we see that in the beginning the Word existed with God and it was God Okay Look at verse number 3 and now we see some clarity on what? Revelation chapter 3 in verse number 14 was talking about when it said the beginning of the creation of God because in John chapter 1 in Verse number 3. It says that all things were made by him by who by the Word The Word in verse number 1 and without him was not anything made that was made In him was life and the life was the light of men. So I mean that's interesting First of all, did you know that you know and we talk about the Bible so much We talk about the Word of God so much we talk about how you know You should have reverence to the Word of God You should read the Word of God You should pay attention to the Word of God when someone preaches the Word of God to you You should listen you should have ears to hear the Word of God You should follow the Word of God with your life But did you know that your life came from the Word of God your life literally came from it from the Word Of God. Well, what do you mean the Word of God the words that God spoke? that's what it means literally in Genesis chapter 1 you'll notice you know you don't have to turn there but if you notice if you're reading Genesis chapter 1 you'll notice that God how did God create the world it didn't say God went and got his hammer and and made a tree and God went and got a wrench and made you know a lion or whatever you know is that how you make a lion with a wrench I just made that up just now but the point is that God it just says and God said and God said let there be light and God said you know the firmament and God said let the waters and he said let the earth bring forth God said stuff he said words and the world was created from his words I mean so so far in John we're discussing the word revelation is talking about Jesus but go to John 1 14 so Jesus is referred to in John in Revelation chapter 3 in verse 14 is the beginning of the creation of God in a John chapter 1 it talks about how the word created God which backs up Genesis where we actually see God creating everything with his words and then John 1 chapter 14 or John chapter 1 in verse number 14 the Bible says and the word was made flesh this is the birth of Jesus this is Jesus coming into the world and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth now we have Jesus Jesus is the word is the word so to say that Jesus created the world is correct it is totally correct to say that and the way I always think about this you know I know that you know the Trinity can be confusing and people can can really you know get that messed up in their mind and the thing about the Trinity is you don't really have to understand it you just have to understand what the Bible says about it but the way I like to look at this is that the tool God used to create the world was Jesus was the word but look it's not when Jesus says I'm the Alpha and the Omega it's not just talking about creation did you know that there's more turn to Hebrews chapter 5 but wait there's more turn to Hebrews chapter 5 Jesus is the creator of more than just the physical world that we live in and thank God that he is look at Hebrews chapter 5 and look at verse number 9 I'm gonna ask you to put your thinking caps on a little bit tonight so wake up if you can and let's let's just think about some deep things of the Bible okay look at Hebrews chapter 5 in verse number 9 and the Bible says and being made perfect he this is talking about Jesus and being made perfect he became the author of what of eternal salvation unto all that obey him look the author is the creator look if there's a if there's a book that's written the author is he that created it so the Bible says here that he's the author of eternal salvation turned to Romans 6 23 I'm sure most of you have this memorized and it makes perfect sense because when the Bible says he's the all author of eternal salvation the Bible says in Romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord so it's like you know this is how I explain it when we're out soul winning the gift the gift it's like you know if I give you a bicycle for Christmas the gift is a bicycle but it's through it's provided by by me if I gave you the bicycle so this gift of eternal life is provided by Jesus Christ he's the author of eternal salvation so look I mean you have to believe in eternal security you must you must or you're just simply not reading the Bible I mean look I think I mean eternal security as a doctrine must not have even been a thing until the you know the devil changed the gospel because it's just so clear in the Bible because that's what the gift is that's what the gift is and he is the author he's not the author of you know of life for a while he's the author of eternal salvation he's not the author of you know maybe you'll be saved he's the author of eternal salvation it's so clear that the gift is provided by Jesus and that it would the gift is eternal life okay turn to John chapter 10 verse number 28 again John chapter 10 of verse number 28 Jesus is talking about this this backs up that he's the author of eternal salvation and he says and I give there's the gift unto them eternal life and they shall never perish you ever been out soul-winning explaining this to somebody and they're like that's the only this makes so much sense because everything that they've really been taught has just had all these logical problems with it this is the only thing that makes any sense if you're actually reading the Bible and I give unto them eternal life but I may drop you no I mean it's just it's eternal life it's forever it's eternal salvation turn to Hebrews chapter 12 there's more he's not just he's not just the author of your eternal salvation but turn to Hebrews chapter 12 he's not just the beginning of your eternal salvation he's the author look at Hebrews 12 to looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith so that's another way of saying the beginning and the end of our faith your entire faith is is created and finished by Jesus he's the author I mean he wrote the book of our faith I mean think about it with his birth that we're celebrating with his birth with his perfect life with his death with his resurrection he created and he will end our faith he's the creator and ender of our faith and he that's why it's eternal because Jesus is eternal everything about Jesus is eternal including the security that he provides for us the salvation that he provides for us and you know our faith so Jesus is the beginning and end of everything the the physical world you know your entire faith think about that and he promises he promises to keep you in eternity and here's the nice thing nothing will stop that that's what he means when he's saying I am the alpha and the Omega and then they go into all these details about what that means and how eternal that is and how eternal your salvation is and how eternal your faith is and how he begins and ends everything and he's he's eternal this way and he's eternal that way and it has to do with your salvation I mean thank God nothing will ever change that for you if you're saved but notice and thank God that's why we can look at Jesus as as the survivor the alpha and the Omega that will never end but it says nothing notice it says nothing about your Christian life here he promises to seal you your Christian life being there or not notice how it doesn't have to do with your actions you know which is interesting because you know I mean this is super interesting because your Christian life and your works as we would say you know that's left completely up to you I mean think about it you know he didn't create us as robots to be saved or to be damned I mean that was a choice God made you know this is he could have made it Calvinist or whatever I mean it wouldn't have made sense but he he could have but he didn't he didn't create us as robot he created us with with free will he didn't create us you know to be as robots to be saved or damned and it's interesting because after we get saved he still doesn't make it that way isn't that interesting because he could have right God God God is the author of your salvation you know what that means he invented it it means he wrote it he could have made it where when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ it's like I'm perfect Christian now but he didn't do that but he could have done anything he wanted but look he leaves it he leaves it completely up to us turn to John 14 turn to John chapter 14 I mean he gives us he gives us free will even after we're saved folks you have free will even after you're saved see that you know see the book of Romans that's why we're gonna be battling through this thing until we're physically dead he gives us the opportunity to live this life as we choose but he wants us to choose a certain way as a matter of fact John 14 look at verse 15 very simple if he loved me keep my commandments so we have free will we have this choice on whether or not we can live this Christian life did you know that did you know that nobody's forcing you to live this Christian life even I mean you're gonna be chastised by your Heavenly Father for sure but you have the choice to do what you want in this Christian life nothing's gonna stop the the eternity of your salvation so look we know that Jesus survives we know he's the alpha and the Omega but you know will your will your Christian life be alpha to Omega is the question will your Christian life survive I looked up the top three reasons and I mean there's so many different looks at this but these are the there's there's three main top reasons that people say that people quit the Christian life and I want to just just read that to you now but I want to read you the top three reasons that people leave this Christian life and I mean they're they're pretty pretty easily categorized no matter what study you read into these top three the first one is this shocker sin enough said here right fall into sin and you'll no longer like the spiritual things and you can drop out of the Christian life another one is burnout you know I talk about this one a lot burnout you know legalism you know people thinking you you must do these things and they they're there this is your bottle rocket Christian you know they go hard on the Christian life and they're like pop and they're done maybe they're done in two months maybe they're done in one year maybe they're done in two years but they burn out on the Christian life the third one is this life change life change and this look change wrecks people change ruins people I look I don't even fully understand why but it's so true that's why years like this when people are things are so much as changing people are just stressed and they won't even know why but it's because there's change happening around them change ruins people so we see these three things we see sin we see these are the things that will not make you survive the Christian life we see sin we see burnout we see life change so you say all right you say all right here we're here's what we're gonna do I'm gonna watch these three areas of my life I'm just gonna guard look I I don't want Jesus to be my alpha and Omega and you know then only have an alpha in my Christian life so I'm gonna watch and guard these three areas see I mean seems like a pretty good idea right so I'm gonna guard myself against sin that's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna watch for sin everywhere and I'm gonna guard myself okay then the second one is burnout I'm gonna pace myself in the Christian life well I don't know I think we got a methodology problem on this one I mean maybe I'll come to church twice a week instead of three times a week maybe I'll not you know do is read my Bibles but well we have a problem on this one okay so we'll revisit this one but third one I'm gonna keep as regular as possible in my life look I preach on this I preach on being stable and having a stable life but look there's possible problems with this approach is what I'm getting at okay guarding yourself against sin look let's start with sin guarding yourself against sin can be easy or hard depending on the state of your heart you'll notice you'll notice that some people I mean you have you ever met somebody that really struggles with a sin where you're just like what in the world how do they even struggle with that some people struggle with sin and it just has to do with the state of their heart so I mean there's there's a there's a other problem that's related there how about pacing yourself I mean I don't even know what that even means to stop burning out we're not you know this seems flawed we'll have to find something different on this one but keeping stable hey I'm all for keeping stable I've even preached sermons on it remember I kicked the elephant through the window last year it was on stability it was on not being unstable but look here's the thing some change is always going to be out of your control some things are always going to change so you need to be prepared for change even though there's some change that you can control and some things you can control but look this plan look this plan I'm just focusing on these three things or focusing broader just focusing on things that knock people out of church this plan is flawed so this is where I'm going to ask you to think a little bit tonight look it's better than no plan okay don't get me wrong it's better than not having any plan but look the survey results are true these are the three main things that knock people out of church and it's better than having no plan at all but look let's talk about survivorship of the Christian life and I want to give you an analogy this evening and I want to show you how focusing on the failures of others may not be the correct approach to surviving the Christian life all right so I have a I have an object lesson here can everybody see that so I'm gonna give you an analogy and I remember this from like statistics but this is an analogy that that's used commonly in statistical analysis of things and it fits perfectly into looking at what we need to look at and not look at in the Christian life so in World War two they had a problem with planes getting shot down okay so they started doing surveys and I'm going to ask the the men maybe to chime in here a little bit but basically they took planes that made it back from battle and they analyzed these planes in World War two now here's the problem with planes okay you can't just add an inch of steel across the entire airplane or it won't fly so you want to have armor on the airplane to the point where it can still fly you can still make long-range bombing runs the heavier you make the airplane the worse you know the more fuel it's going to take to get to and from the battlefield so what they did was they took the planes that made it back and they analyzed where the planes were getting shot and this is what they came up with this is real this is a real analysis that was done in World War two by the American military so they came up with this situation and they're looking at this and they're deciding where to put more armor on the plane so looking at this you can see these are the areas that sustained bullet holes on the planes that they looked at so where do you think in this case that these planes need more armor brother George what do you think so like would you say here here and here and then maybe there but here's the problem okay they took you look at this diagram and you're saying is no one shooting at the engines of the airplane what's wrong with these Germans there's no one shooting at the pilot on the airplanes it doesn't look like it right the problem is this the only planes that they analyzed were the planes that made it home where the planes that made it back so the problem was the model the group of planes that they used the armor actually needs to go everywhere that there isn't a red dot because what the red dots actually signify is where the plane can get shot and still make it home so you say what is in the world does that have to do with the Christian life and surviving the Christian life the point I'm trying to make is this instead of focusing on not doing what those that failed did maybe we need to focus on doing what those who have not failed do you see what I'm saying maybe when there's all these analysis and all these people trying to figure out why people drop out of the Christian life and why why is the average Christian life four years or why can't we get somebody to stay in the Christian life you know that X and percent of people drop out after four years why is that what happens to those people maybe we should look at the people that don't drop out and maybe we should look at what they're doing and not what's taking out those that fell apart just like they were looking I mean they were looking at the wrong place you're looking at the wrong planes so I mean look I mean the armor look the armor should be in the place where there's no dots because those are the planes that didn't come back the sample was wrong so let's look at the right sample so what are some things that people that stay in church do is the question we need to ask we're asking the wrong questions we're looking at the wrong groups of people well I mean I'll just give you a few examples there's a lot of things but I mean these are things like staying in your Bible turn to Hebrews chapter 5 in verse number 12 turn to Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 12 I mean Paul knew this Paul knew this in Hebrews 5 12 the Bible says for when the time he ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again and be the first principles of the or which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat for everyone that use of milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe so Paul here is pointing out this very thing like you need to be reading the Bible he's like you need to be reading the oracles of God he's like you're not learning anything and I like how he compares it to food because look you need to eat every day some of us multiple times a day but what the Bible here is it the Bible here is telling us that we need to feed ourselves with the Word of God and that's what people do that stay in the Christian life here's another one remain separated from the world come out from among you and be be separate look you must absolutely you must get rid of bad influences in your life it people have two reactions to bad influences they either they either join them all too often that's what they do or you know they they just despise them you need to get rid of I mean you ever met the kid who you ever met the kid I remember this kid when I was growing up you ever met the kid whose dad was a drunk would never touch alcohol because of that I mean praise God for that reaction you know I mean just over the top against that sin because he saw but most of the time it turns out that that bad influence just they become it they become that bad influence you must remain separate being joined with Christian brothers and sisters in worship and fellowship will keep you in the Christian life I was just talking about this with one of you today just I mean how important has that been this year I mean we're looking around at groups of people and I'm just like man it will can you imagine if you didn't have a church do you imagine if you didn't go to church this year can you imagine if just everything was shut off and everything and you I mean I mean when he was telling me that you know you went and you talked to some guy and he just like he just like just blew up and he just like you like you hadn't talked to anybody well I mean you just be pent up with all this stuff what we we blow up on each other like every three days about what's going on but look that's that's why you need Christian fellowship in this life and so much the more and look another thing it will point out sin to you being in the in the Word of God and being separated from the world will point out sin to you it will make it exceedingly sinful to you it will take care of that sin problem that's knocking people out of church it will make it exceedingly sinful look it'll keep you in a steady healthy fear of the Lord I mean you will you will get to the point if you're in your Bible and you're separated from the world you will get to the point where you will cringe at sin real just you'll just have that fear of the Lord and you'll just recognize sin just like that and here's another one here I mean this is just a I'm just giving you some examples I'm just randomly shooting here turn to Philippians chapter 2 here's another one Philippians chapter 2 look at verse number 3 Philippians chapter 2 and look at verse number 3 the Bible says let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in loneliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus look get focus off of yourself focus on others focus on others look there's a trend in churches and pastors with experience will tell you this they'll tell you that people that require the most effort I mean they'll tell you this in frustration they'll say the people that require the most effort and the the most help the people you put the most time into are the ones that don't last anyway I mean that's kind of depressing when you think about that I mean but look look at this from the inverse from a survivorship lens maybe we're looking at the wrong airplanes maybe well I mean when you think about it that way maybe we're looking at the wrong set of airplanes maybe it's not that the ones that require help are the ones that drop out maybe it's the ones think think about this pay attention maybe it's not the ones that require help that drop out maybe it's the ones who are helping others that don't you see maybe it's not that they require help that's getting them to drop out maybe it's because they're not helping others you say why well I'll tell you why I mean who wants raise your hand if you want a joyless Christian life who wants to live a life of no joy Josiah do you have your hand up what in the world who wants to have joy in their Christian life who thinks that there could possibly be joy in the Christian life this Christian life is full of joy if you're not living a joyful Christian life you're doing it wrong something's wrong with you I'm telling you right now if you have a Christian life and you're just grinding this thing out and you're saying I'm getting burnt out you're doing it wrong something's wrong you're driving backwards or something something's wrong because guess what you know what helping others I mean that gives you joy I mean it's not because they don't require help it's because they're doing things for others I've done that before on purpose it's having like a horrible time with stuff and I've gone to just like I'm just gonna go help somebody do something and you just feel better I'm just a small like daily basis it works imagine your entire life imagine if you like dedicate I mean just the thought imagine if you dedicate your life to something other than yourself I mean whoa that's mind-blowing that's mind-blowing but that look there's a tremendous amount of joy had in dedicating yourself to something or someone else other than yourself focusing on the needs of others as you know which was also in Christ Jesus kind of like Jesus did you know kind of like how Jesus never did anything for himself that was the whole problem you know I was in some stupid Lutheran liberal church when the da Vinci Code came out you guys remember this dumb book the da Vinci Code where Jesus had a child and and there's this holy child bloodline or some stupid thing is just this wicked you know heretical book and you know you had people in some stupid liberal churches saying things like wow what does it really matter if Jesus got married does it really matter it could be true yeah it matters because Jesus wasn't here to do anything for himself Jesus was here to serve us like I don't know like the whole world because he created our faith and to give us eternal salvation that's what he was here for he wasn't here to get married that's what he that's what we're allowed to do so look maybe I mean maybe you should focus on you know becoming someone that gives support to others and you'll get some joy in your Christian life I mean there's your answer to burnout right there there's your answer to Christian burnout right there because I mean that's that's what it is right it's no it's just this is too hard and I just feel like I just can't come to church four times a week or whatever and it just look if you're thinking that way you're not going to make it because there's no joy in that I mean we don't believe in legalism here what are you doing if you're thinking that way so get out of the care the point is get out of the category of groups that inevitably fail this is what I'm trying to get you to understand try stop trying to not do the things that the failures do and start trying to do the things that the successful the survivors do you know it's the armor needed to go in the areas with no dots start looking at the right group of planes these are I mean these are just a few examples I mean look at somebody look at somebody who who has been successful in the Christian life for for a long time and take your take your cues from that that's what you need to do start looking at the right group of planes and these are just few examples an interesting way to get you to think about succeeding in the Christian life you know Bible reading separation being a blessing to others but the point is the point is that Jesus promises to finish your faith Jesus started it and he promises to finish it he promises to finish your eternity I mean it's a promise the thing is you know he's he's a survivor he serves he serves you from alpha to omega so I mean it's the least you can do to at least attempt to serve him you know with your life as we as we look at you know the alpha of Jesus's birth you know we know that wasn't his beginning but as we look at the birth of Jesus think about that think about everything that Jesus provided the world from the world itself to everything that we have and in our entire eternity I mean it is the least that we can do and what I'm trying to get you to focus on this evening is is just look at the right set of airplanes we need to focus on why because look you're all you're ultimately you're ultimately gonna fail in the Christian life if you're just trying to just as hard as you can to just not sin and I'm just gonna try as hard as I can to just come to church as just much as I can these are all good things and try as hard as I can to just not do these things that are gonna make me fail when I need to start looking at the things I need to start looking at the things that are gonna make me succeed and look folks the Christian life if done right and done right meaning according to what the Bible says we'll just bring you tremendous amounts of joy I mean do you think that the God who sent Jesus to save you when you deserve nothing you deserve nothing but damnation do you think that the God that would do that for you wants you to live a miserable life no no yes you may have persecution from people in the world you may have persecution from people you know you may have persecution from this wicked place here but God wants you to have a successful joyful Christian life if you're not having that if you're not having that you're doing it wrong you're driving the car like you know you're you're putting it in reverse when you're going 60 miles an hour down the road and you're driving it wrong and you're driving with the parking brake on and and the brakes are smoking everywhere and you're gonna break the car is what's gonna happen start doing it right start doing it right look at the success stories not the failures it's so and look it's the least we can do to give this life that we have to Jesus who gave us everything let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer