 Amen. Merry Christmas. So this evening we're going to 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 specifically, Revelation chapter one 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 one, we see that. And the verse I want you to focus on is in verse number eight, where 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 CSNA tells them to write it in the book. But Jesus says this, turn to Revelation chapter 21. Jesus is a survivor. I want to show you first 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 want to show you two or three of the main reasons and then we can apply that to us and see how we can use that to survive this Christian life. Okay, look at Revelation chapter 21, look at verse number six. 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. Something's just repeated again and again. Here you have Jesus just saying these terms again and again about himself. Look at Revelation 22, 13. Jesus says again, I am Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. The first and the last. So he's saying I am Alpha and Omega. That means I am beginning Alpha and the end Omega. And then he gets even more specific. He says the first and the last. So Jesus is the beginning and the end. And you say beginning of what? We'll turn to Revelation chapter three. 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 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, these things sayeth the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. So that's a big statement. He says he's the beginning. So we know he's the beginning and the end. And here it says that he's the beginning of the creation of God. So what does that mean? Does that mean that he's turned to John chapter one? Does that mean that he's the first thing that God created? Is that what that means? Let's look at John chapter one 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 one. Look at verse number one. 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 two, the same was in the beginning with God. So we see that in the beginning, the word existed with God and it was God. Look at verse number three. And now we see some clarity on what Revelation chapter three and verse number 14 was talking about when it said the beginning of the creation of God. Because in John chapter one, in verse number three, it says that all things were made by him. By who? By the word. The word in verse number one. 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, we talk about the Bible so much, we talk about the word of God so much, 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 somebody 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. What do you mean the word of God? The words that God spoke. That's what it means, literally. In Genesis chapter one, you'll notice, you know, you don't have to turn there, but if you notice, if you're reading Genesis chapter one, you'll notice that God, how did God create the world? It didn't say God went and God has hammer 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. 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 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 three and verse 14, is the beginning of the creation of God. And in John chapter one, 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 one 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. 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, I know that the Trinity can be confusing and people can really 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. The way I like to look at this is that the tool God used to create the world was Jesus. What's 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 five. But wait, there's more. Turn to Hebrews chapter five. 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 five and look at verse number nine. I'm going to ask you to put your thinking caps on a little bit tonight. So wake up if you can and let's just think about some deep things of the Bible. Okay, look at Hebrews chapter five and verse number nine. And the Bible says, in being made perfect, he, this is talking about Jesus, in 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 book that's written, the author is he that created it. So the Bible says here that he's the author of eternal salvation. Turn 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 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 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. 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 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 the gift is eternal life. Okay, turn to John chapter 10, verse number 28. Again, John chapter 10 to 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 in 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 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 too. 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 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 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 physical world, your entire faith, think about that. 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 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 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. Which is interesting because this is super interesting because your Christian life and your works, as we would say, that's left completely up to you. Think about it. He didn't create us as robots to be saved or to be damned. That was a choice God made. He could have made it Calvinist or whatever. I mean, it wouldn't have made sense but he could have but he didn't. He created us with free will. He didn't create us 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 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 a perfect Christian now but he didn't do that. But he could have done anything he wanted. But look, he leaves it completely up to us. Turn to John 14. Turn to John 14. I mean, he gives us free will. Even after we're saved, folks. You have free will even after you're saved. See the book of Romans. That's why we're going to 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? I mean, you're going to be chastised by your Heavenly Father for sure. But you have the choice to do what you want in this Christian life. Nothing's going to stop 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 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 three main top reasons that people say that people quit the Christian life. And I want to 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 pretty easily categorized no matter what study you read into these top three. The first one is this. Shocker, sin. Nuff 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. People thinking you must do these things and this is your bottle rocket Christian. You know, they go hard on the Christian life and they're like, shh, 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. Look, I don't even fully understand why but it's so true. That's why years like this, when 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. 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's what we're going to do. I'm going to watch these three areas of my life. I'm just going to guard. Look, I don't want Jesus to be my alpha and omega and then only have an alpha in my Christian life. So I'm going to watch and guard these three areas. It seems like a pretty good idea, right? So I'm going to guard myself against sin. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to watch for sin everywhere. And I'm going to guard myself. Then the second one is burnout. I'm going to pace myself in the Christian life. Well, I don't know. I've 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 read my Bible as much. Well, we have a problem on this one. So we'll revisit this one. But the third one, I'm going to 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. 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 that some people, I mean, have you ever met somebody that really struggles with 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 another 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, it 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 on 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. So I have an object lesson here. Can everybody see that? So I'm going to give you an analogy. And I remember this from statistics. But this is an analogy 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 II, they had a problem with planes getting shot down. So they started doing surveys. And I'm going to ask 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 II. Now here's the problem with planes. 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 II 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? Is 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, were 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? 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 is the average Christian life four years? Or why can't we get somebody to stay in the Christian life that X 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 at the wrong planes. They were looking at the wrong planes. 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. I'll just give you a few examples. There's a lot of things, like staying in your Bible. Turn to Hebrews chapter 5 and 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 you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again and be the first principles of the oracles, which be the first principles of the oracles of God and become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. So Paul here is pointing out this very thing. He's 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 look, 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 separate. Look, you must absolutely, you must get rid of bad influences in your life. People have two reactions to bad influences. They either join them all too often, that's what they do. Or, you know, 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 who 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 that most of the time it turns out that that bad influence just, they become it. They become that bad influence. So 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, can you imagine if you didn't have a church? Can you imagine if you didn't go to church this year? Can you imagine if just everything was shut off and everything? I mean, one of you was telling me that, you know, you went and you talked to some guy and he just, like, just blew up and he just, like, he hadn't talked to anybody. Well, I mean, you'd just be pent up with all this stuff. We blow up on each other, like, every three days about what's going on. But look, 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 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 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. Where you'll just have that fear of the Lord and you'll just recognize sin just like that. And here's another one. I mean, this is just, I'm just giving you some examples. I'm just randomly shooting here. Turn to Philippians chapter two. Here's another one. Philippians chapter two, look at verse number three. Philippians chapter two and look at verse number three. The Bible says, Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness 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 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 at this from the inverse, from a survivorship lens. Maybe we're looking at the wrong airplanes. 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 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... 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? Man. 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 just like, 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 going to go help something and you just feel better. On 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 look, there's a tremendous amount of joy in dedicating yourself to something or someone else other than yourself. Focusing on the needs of others as which was also in Christ Jesus. Kind of like Jesus did. Kind of like how Jesus never did anything for himself. That was the whole problem. 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 there's this holy child bloodline or some stupid thing. It's just this wicked, you know, heretical book. 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 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 what it is, right? It's just this is too hard I just feel like I just can't come to a church four times a week or whatever and it's 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, 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, the armor needed to go in the areas with no dots. Start looking at the right group of planes. These are just a few examples. I mean, look at somebody, look at somebody who has been successful in the Christian life for a long time and take your cues from that. That's what you need to do. Start looking at the right group of planes. And these are just a few examples. It's 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 a survivor. 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 look at, you know, the Alpha of Jesus' 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 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 just look at the right set of airplanes. We need to focus on why, because look, you're ultimately going to 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 going to try as hard as I can to just come to church as much as I can. These are all good things. And try as hard as I can to just not do these things that are going to make me fail when I need to start looking at the things, I need to start looking at the things that are going to make me succeed. And look, folks, the Christian life, if done right and done right meaning, according to what the Bible says will 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 and 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. And 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 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 the brakes are smoking everywhere and you're going to break the car is what's going to happen. Start doing it right. Look at the success stories, not the failures. 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.