More than a SURVIVOR, Part I

Since May 31, 2000, Americans have been watching a television series called SURVIVOR. Twenty-three years and forty-three full seasons, It is the longest running reality show on TV in the United States. The show is built around various challenges and the inter-relationship of the players. Being a survivor has a nice ring to it, especially in the end winning a million dollars. Colby, one of the contestants, keeps winning many of the challenges, which gives him immunity from being voted out. Oh to survive! Oh to have immunity!

We go through life with fears and doubts.

We ask ourselves, what is the meaning of life? Why am I here? Is this all there is to life? Does God exist, and If He does, does He have a purpose for my life? We can be more than a survivor. God says in Romans 8:37 we are more than a conqueror in Christ.

Romans 8:37 NASB95

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

That’s what we are going to look at this morning, being more than a Survivor - to be a conqueror!

Our Title for today is “More than a SURVIVOR”

Our Scripture for today is taken from Romans 8:35-39

Romans 8:35–39 NASB95

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As we journey through life, we all end up somewhere. When the final chapter is written about you, what will it say? Where will you "end up?"

There is a relationship which makes life complete, a new life with Jesus Christ.

Without that relationship, there is a void, a vacuum in life. Many people, even those who are well-known, can attest to that void.

Many great scholars have asked - What is the meaning of Life?

Arthur Clark who wrote 2001 A Space Odyssey wrote, "I’m afraid I have no concrete ideas of the purpose of life."

Albert Ellis, a psychiatrist said, "As far as I can tell, life has no special meaning or purpose."

Thomas Negle said, "I’m afraid the meaning of life still eludes me."

Joseph Heller, author wrote, "I have no answers to the meaning of life and I no longer want to search for any."

H. G. Wells, famous historian and philosopher, said at age 61: "I have no peace. All life is at the end of the tether."

In today’s fast paced society many people are searching for the answers to life. Many are living in fears and doubts, a perpetual state of fear of growing old, fear of death, fear of the unknown.

We often wrestle secretly with Life’s Fears and doubts for years, many times until death itself overtakes us. We busy ourselves with "things" to help keep our mind occupied, never truly coming to grasp the purpose of life. We feel like our world is spinning out of control, we ask ourselves, is this all there is to life?

Having Life’s fears and doubts is natural, being able to conqueror them is found in knowing God’s Word.

There are four main thoughts I want you to grasp this morning.

1. UNDERSTAND who YOU really are.

2. EVALUATE MY Life’s Values.

3. BELIEVE God created ME for a Purpose!

4. COMMIT MY Life to Christ!

1. UNDERSTAND who YOU really are.

Who are you? Do even know?

Let me tell you ---

A. You are divinely crafted.

Genesis 1:27 states "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Did you catch that? “God created mankind in His own Image, in His likeness, male & female.”

Created in God’s image distinguishes us from the animal world. With a capacity to know God.

But nothing in nature, except for man, ever tries to think of the meaning of life.

Nothing climbs above its natural physical needs. No living creature, except for a man, is able to take a risk, and even the risk of death, for the sake of truth.

Then again God made you, yes you and me. We are absolutely unique, no two of us are alike. He broke the mold after He created each of us.

DNA, Retina scans, finger prints, heart rhythms, brain waves - you stand alone in a sea of 8+ billion people - you are divinely crafted by God from your personality to your looks.

A. You are divinely crafted.

B. You are incredibly complex.

Psalm 139:13-14 says:

Psalm 139:13–14 NASB95

13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

Pause for a moment and look at yourself, your fingers, speech, eyesight, hearing, mental capacity with your thoughts and memory, digestion system, your heart and lungs, skeleton structure, blood vessels, nerves - inside you are some 100,000 miles of nerve fibers along which messages zip at speeds of 300 miles per hour!

In the fraction of a second that it takes you to say one word, the marrow in your bones produces over 100,000 red blood cells. We are divinely crafted and complex!

Here are some of what your body does in 24 Hours

If you are an adult of average weight, here is what you accomplish in 24 hours: Now don’t hold me to these exact numbers because I have been unable to find the original source of these numbers.

* your heart beats 103,689 times

* your blood travels 168,000,000 miles

* you breathe 23,040 times

* you inhale 438 cubic feet of air

* you eat 3.25 pounds of food

* you drink 2.9 quarts of liquids

* you lose 7/8 pounds of waste

* you speak 4800 words, including some unnecessary ones

* you move 750 muscles

* your nails grow .000046 inch

* your hair grows .01714 inch

* you exercise 7,000,000 brain cells

And all these spontaneously and automatically!

Psalms 95:6 says

6 Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

Psalm 139:14 says

14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

"I will praise Him, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

A. You are divinely crafted.

B. You are incredibly complex.

C. You are infinitely valuable.

Genesis 2:7 lets us know “ the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

Man became a living being, a living soul.

What does this mean?

It means that God gave life to the body! An eternal being!

Man is made up of Body, Soul and Spirit.

The Body - the physical body, the house for the Soul and Spirit.

The Soul - Our conscience of natural surroundings - reason, affections, emotions, the real you. It concerns life, action, and emotion.

The Spirit - God consciousness - only mankind has this part related to worship and divine communion.

The two terms are often used interchangeably, the same functions being ascribed to each (cf. John 12:27; 1 Cor. 16:18; 2 Cor. 7:13 with Matthew 11:29; 2 Cor. 7:1 with 1 Peter 2:11; James 5:20 with 1 Cor. 5:5; 1 Peter 1:9).

In Matthew 16:26 - The Lord speaks about gaining all the wealth of the world and losing your soul - you’re valuable.

We cannot begin to imagine the value of your eternal soul. You will eternally exist forever in one of two places - heaven because of Christ or hell because of sin.

Understand who you are before God... which brings us to our second step of the day ---

1. UNDERSTAND who YOU really are.

2. EVALUATE MY Life’s Values.

Can I ask what motivates you?

Ephesians 5:15-16 warns us “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

We need to stop evaluate and analysis our lives - what makes us tick?

What drives you and I? How busy are we?

* Values are often unwritten assumptions that guide our actions.

* Values demonstrate our convictions and priorities.

* Values are confirmed by our actions, not just our words.

What is it that you feel passionate about? Where are your deep convictions? Life’s driving force. A recent survey found that the average adult spends on average 131 days per year or 3,144 hours bored!

https://nypost.com/2019/01/29/this-is-how-often-americans-spend-their-lives-being-bored/

Life’s fears and doubts can be masked over with busyness or clutter of life.

Take a few moments this week and evaluate yourself - are you living with a purpose? If not then why not?

Katherine Ann Porter in Ship of Fools once wrote in Christianity Today (Volume 31, no 2) I’m appalled at the aimlessness of most people’s lives today; 50% don’t pay any attention to where they are going; 40% are undecided and will go in any direction; only 10% know what they want, and even then all of them don’t go toward it.

Making money can be your life’s value, maybe tremendous guilt from something is the past. So, where does God fit in your value system?

A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder - to be fulfilled, have a purpose in life!

Three Oranges

On April 14, 1912, 10:00 p.m. the Titanic crashed into an iceberg in the mid-Atlantic and four hours later sank. One woman in a lifeboat asked if she could go back to her room. She was given only three minutes to do so. She hurried down the corridors, already tilting dangerously, through the gambling room piled ankle-deep in money. In her room were her treasures waiting to be taken, but instead, she snatched up three oranges and hurried back to the boat. One hour before she would have naturally chosen diamonds over oranges, but in the face of death, values are seen more clearly.

https://theupdevo.com/2020/11/19/whats-valuable-when-the-titanic-is-sinking/

At funerals, bouts of sickness or when a dreaded disease strikes we often have a value shift toward the Lord. God uses hurts and pains for a reason.

Ask yourself this question, what is propelling my life?

Really, we need to evaluate our life’s values. Ask yourself Is there enough evidence in my life to convict me in court of being a Christian?